How does my heater and hot water work.

[spider1]

Help needed, new to caravaning and not sure how the hot water / heating works.
Have hock up to gas and main and the water got hot after what seemed like a while.
Heater will light on gas but takes so pressing of the button, fan seem to blow but very little air comes out the vent at the other end of the van and it is not hot. Does the heater run off 240 as well as read some where on the net that i must not have 240 and gas to it at the same time is this right?



Control panel not sure what this does.


Fan unit

close up of fan


Do i have to press this switch?


This seems to be my boiler/water water unit.



Thanks for the help again.

 

[Gagakev]

Help needed, new to caravaning and not sure how the hot water / heating works.
Have hock up to gas and main and the water got hot after what seemed like a while.
Heater will light on gas but takes so pressing of the button, fan seem to blow but very little air comes out the vent at the other end of the van and it is not hot. Does the heater run off 240 as well as read some where on the net that i must not have 240 and gas to it at the same time is this right?

Spider1 first concern is have you had the gas/van serviced by gas safe engineer? IF not then turn the heater OFF, or it may have been serviced by previous owner , please enlighten us.
On the fan we assume you are talking about the blown air, this can be very hit and miss, and can depend on outside temperatures as most vans of that age had the vent pipes outside under the floor, you can try and improve by insulating the pipe work .

 

[spider1]

Was told that it was all working, but did not ask how everything worked and for got how the other half did work.
Yes the blown heating. It does blow the air about but not very hot when it gets to the other end of the van.

 

[Damian]

The fire is gas only, it does not have the electric Ultraheat unit as well.
The water heater is gas only, it does not have the electric heater built in.
The control switches are;
The Cascade switch is for the water heater, it is either Off or On. The 3 lights are there to show any fault with the unit.
The Orange light (left one) indicates low battery or lack of 12v supply.
The Red one(middle one) indicates no flame, either due to no gas or a fault with the burner.
The Green light (Right one) indicates all is working.

The Truma Vent switch in the same picture has a 3 position switch and a fan speed control dial.
The switch in the top position makes the fan run at a constant speed all the time at the speed selected on the control dial.
Centre position is OFF.
Lower position is Automatic fan control , which means the fan changes speed depending on the heat in the van and the fan runs up to a maximum of the selected speed on the control dial.
The other Truma Vent switch should be ON to supply the fan with 12v.
It takes quite a while for the whole fabric of the van to heat up and you feel any benefit from the furthest outlets,and with the fan on it should not be set too high to start with, 2 or 3 max.

As a footnote, everyone selling a caravan says "everything is working" but sadly quite often it is NOT, and unless you have a recent service record for the van I strongly advise you to have the van serviced BEFORE using it to ensure your safety and that of your family.

 

[paws]

Hi Spider1
You have received some really good information and advice on this topic (and others you have raised on the forums). But I do recommend, most strongly, that you ask a qualified mobile caravan technician to carry out a full service on your caravan... if you ask him (or her) nicely, they may allow you to watch and if you are really lucky they may be willing to explain to you exactly how things work on your particular van and the operation of all the controls.

This will mean you will be in an excellent position to benefit from the technician's knowledge and experience, and will allow you to enjoy your caravan to the full.
All the best and Happy Caravanning
paws

 

[spider1]

Thanks for the help great write up on the heating side, thanks Damian.
.
Will get the gas side serviced (but i am am LPG qualified car system fitter) also vehicle tec for the last 27 year and would not dream of putting any one at risk.

But their is an old saying if you want something done right do it yourself, so on this note i will be servicing the van myself (but not the gas side) as for a living i look after peoples Land Rover at my own business.

 

[gary]

The Fire is an early 80's Carver SPL3002, for which you can find a very useful manual on my website, this also covers the fan and there's a cascade manual also on there.

(The fires manual is an A5 booklet so you need to print odd pages first, then evens on the back of the odds to form the booklet)

 

[spider1]

Thanks will print out and have a read.