Crystal 2 leaking - replacement

[Gozza2]

Morning all

Yes, I am the caravanner previously known as Gozza - I forgot the password for that account and no longer have access to the email address to change it. Anyway...

My caravan (2004 Elldis Odyssey 505) has the Crystal 2 water inlet system. For years I've put up with the fact that the pump connection to the inlet isn't a good fit, and sprays water all over the outside whenever the pump is running. I've replaced the locking flags on the housing, the O-rings on the pipe connection, and the pipe connection itself (by which I mean the plastic bit on the end of the pump pipe, that plugs into the caravan).

Each of these measures has provided at best a temporary partial respite.

I've seen that there's a conversion kit to the Ultraflow system available, but before I spend north of sixty quid on one of these I have a couple of questions for the assembled expertise of the group:

1) Has anyone done this replacement, and is it an easy task, or am I going to spend an unsatisfactory day at the storage site swearing at it?

2) Has anyone faced this problem (someone MUST have done!) and come up with a different solution that didn't involve replacement, and worked?

Thanks in advance...

Paul (Gozza2, previously known as Gozza)

 

[Damian]

I have replaced quite a lot of Crystal inlets with Ultraflow units for the same reason you are thinking about it.
There are two versions of the inlet, the filter unit and the compact unit.

The filter unit is a direct replacement for the Crystal, the compact needs a blanking plate to cover the opening as it is much smaller, having no filter as part of it.

It is a simple enough job just a bit time consuming cleaning up the van side before applying new sealer.

If you use the filter housing, just leave the filter in the box !!!

 

[Gozza2]

Thanks Damian, that's helpful - for sealant would you use non-setting mastic or something else?

 

[Damian]

Personally I use Soudall Fixall as it is very good and does not deteriorate over time.

I know it is a setting bonding mastic which makes any future removal more difficult but it is worth it to ensure a watertight , lasting seal.

 

[Gozza2]

Adding to this thread following a rather unsatisfactory morning at the caravan storage site...

Firstly, I went to change the gas struts on the Heki rooflight...got the old ones off to discover that the replacements were the wrong size. New parts on order.

Secondly, and the reason I've attached to this thread...I then decided to change the Crystal 2 as above, for the Ultraflow Compact I'd bought...to discover that the adaptor plate I'd got was for an Ultraflow with filter going into a Crystal 1 hole, so it wouldn't fit either the hole in the caravan, or the Compact housing. Needless to say I only discovered this once I'd got the Crystal 2 fitting off, leaving a nice rainwater entry into the caravan.

So my questions are - firstly, is there an adaptor to put the Ultraflow Compact into the Crystal 2 hole, and if so please does anyone know the Truma part number (I'm asking here because from Damian's comments above he seems quite experienced in this job)?

Second...Damian says above that "The filter unit is a direct replacement for the Crystal"...I know I'm being ultra-cautious in asking this (or Ultraflow cautious, heh heh), but if I send back the compact and order a filter unit, will that directly fit the Crystal 2 hole?

 

[Gozza2]

To close out this thread - and hoping the mistakes I made will provide useful information to anyone else thinking of doing the same job - I finished it.

My old inlet was a Carver Crystal 2, and I now have a Ultraflow Compact. As in my post above, the Compact is much smaller than the hole the Crystal 2 came out of, and the blanking plate I bought was wrong on two counts:
1) It was designed to fill the hole left by a Crystal 1, which is bigger than a Crystal 2.
2) It was designed for the Ultraflow Filter unit, not the Ultraflow compact, so the hole in the blanking plate was too big for what I was putting into it.

I couldn't find a blanking plate for Ultraflow compact - Crystal 2 anywhere, so I just put the Crystal 2 back in the hole it came from and made a new hole for the Ultraflow alongside! Needless to say I made sure I cleaned off all the old sealant, and that I used plenty of fresh new sealant on everything.

Before making the new hole for the Compact, I had a good dig around to make sure I wasn't about to compromise any structural woodwork - because at that point I hadn't yet put the Crystal 2 back in its hole, I was able to check this by sliding a long needle into the insulation, sideways from the existing hole. It didn't meet with any resistance so I knew that area was free of anything other than insulation.

I made some 12v cable up to the connectors on the new inlet point at home, with a choc-block connector on the end - this was partly to save crimping spade terminals while grovelling on the floor at the storage site, and partly because even if the Ultraflow had fitted into the old hole, it would still have been tight to make the old wires reach all the way to the new connection point and I don't like putting wires under strain.

Total cost of the job
£45 for the Ultraflow, which included the connector to go on the end of the pump hose.
£31 for an adaptor plate which I ended up not using, which if I can't return it will end up on an online auction site
£10 for a 60mm hole saw which I'll probably never need for any other task so I've included it in the cost of this project (may also end up on an online auction site!)
£10 (approx) for pushfit plumbing parts and some pipe, to make the existing caravan plumbing match up with the new connector

I already had enough non-setting mastic to do the job, and the other tools I needed, so I've counted that as a zero-cost item.

If I was going to do it again, I'd get the Ultraflow unit with the filter, as it seems that it would fit the hole left by the Crystal 2 without messing about with adaptors (assuming the appropriate adaptor is available, which wasn't my experience). Other than that, as Damian says in an earlier post in this thread, it's a task that's well within the competence of an average diy-er.

Hope this post helps someone at some point in the future!