Pressure switch

[DerekBrad]

Just returned from France and our third partly spoiled holiday in our two and a half year old van. The first two were caused by well documented Nordelec failures and this time the pressure switch failed on the water pump ! This meant that my wife who has a "blue badge" had to make her way to the site showers etc.Rather annoying when we were on a fully serviced pitch. However Broad Lane as ever responded in good form by posting a new switch to the site which arrived in three days. I must say that there are better ways to spend a holiday than being suspended upside down in a bed locker with a screwdriver in your hand! I realise that we must make the most of a bad job but one begins to lose faith with what is really a very nice caravan.(Also we had one rain free day in the sixteen days that we were there !) C'est la vie, or as they say in France, c'est la vie.

Regards to all !

 

[forestgump]

what van is it by your avitar its a swift.

 

[Surfer]

what van is it by your avitar its a swift.

His signature states it is an Abbey Vogue 495.

 

[xtrailman]

Just returned from France and our third partly spoiled holiday in our two and a half year old van. The first two were caused by well documented Nordelec failures and this time the pressure switch failed on the water pump ! This meant that my wife who has a "blue badge" had to make her way to the site showers etc.Rather annoying when we were on a fully serviced pitch. However Broad Lane as ever responded in good form by posting a new switch to the site which arrived in three days. I must say that there are better ways to spend a holiday than being suspended upside down in a bed locker with a screwdriver in your hand! I realise that we must make the most of a bad job but one begins to lose faith with what is really a very nice caravan.(Also we had one rain free day in the sixteen days that we were there !) C'est la vie, or as they say in France, c'est la vie.

Regards to all !

Problem is most things in caravans only break when you're using them.
Although the Valencia is far from fault free, so far none of the equipment has failed, which is a first for me.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Ray,

Isn't that always the case! Some manufactures seem to forget that holidays are generally infrequent, and thus very important to most people, so anything that stops or delays the enjoyment of a holiday becomes a big issue for the holiday maker, though in the grand scheme of things for the manuafcture or dealer it may seem a triffle and doesn't need imediate attention.

Its manufactures like Powertouch, and some caravan dealers that really try to go the extra mile with their after sales service to quickly overcome equipment problems to minimise there impact on a holiday.

 

[ValA.]

When we used our caravan in France this year - the first time it had been used after the winter - we found water leaking into the shower compartment and the vanity unit next door on the other side of the shower cubicle wall. OH traced the leak, and we found it was the shower valve itself. We'd drained the water out of the whole system before last winter, but apparently the innards of the shower are a '***' point where the water doesn't drain even though the valve and all the taps were left open. During the heavy frosts this winter the small amount of water remaining in the shower valve obviously expanded and cracked the plastic where the two water supply pipes join on. We had to repair or replace as we couldn't run the water system because of the leaks. The only way was to block the two plastic pipes which went to the valve, isolating the valve, but allowing the remaining taps to work. We couldn't find anything in the caravan of the correct diameter, but fortunately the campsite shop sold airbed bungs - and two of those, plus some tiny jubilee clips, did the job.
It was very awkward to do as the pipes run through a very small space where they needed bunging, so we were both needed - my much smaller fingers to hold the pipes and keep the bungs in place, and OH to tighten the jubilee clips! Goodness knows what anyone looking in would have thought if they'd seen OH lying on the floor and me straddled over the top of him!
A replacement shower valve is £92.00 from our local dealer, so sadly our caravan is now showerless. We've never used it in eleven years, so won't replace it until/if we decide to sell it.
I'm glad to hear that you got good service from your dealer - but we've generally found that caravan accessory shops, such as Narbonne Accessories which have lots of branches, are competively priced and carry the same range of spares and 'bits and bobs' as dealers do here.
We also did rather better than you with weather - we were away between the 20th May and the 13th June, and had a couple of half days of rain, a couple of dull days, but probably 18 days of sunshine! We never book sites and always follow the weather - and usually find the sun in the Languedoc area somewhere.

 

[susanswift]

Val - that happened to our tap in the motorhome too. It cost £145 to replace which we did as we sold it the weekafter. We were in the lake district at the time and both DIY illiterate so we came home...was worried where the water was dripping too.

Is there anyway to stop this happenning again does anyone know as I `m getting my new van in september..(waiting car, caravan bought in dealers at mo, Having terrible trouble getting car...) and dont want the same thing happenning again x

 

[ValA.]

You have to completely drain the water system in cold weather - but quite how you get a small amount of water out of the inside of a valve or a tap I'm not sure. Someone did suggest taking off the shower head and blowing down the hose - which might possibly get rid of the water in the shower valve - but I don't know. And I've no idea about the water inside the tap mechanism - which even if the taps are left open after the water has been drained, appears to cause problems in freezing weather. Perhaps someone with better knowledge might be able to help out.

 

[ProfJohnL]

This type of problem becomes more prevalent with longer and colder sub zero spells of weather. This winter was unusually severe so it will seek out those pockets of water that might be unaffected in less severe weather.

Certainly blowing turning off or removing teh pump, and opening the taps and blowing back through a system may remover more water pockets, but there are usually non return valves at various places in the water system that may defeat the purpose of blowing back.

 

[bopeep]

We live in Spain, we had planned a trip from home on the costa blanca to Barcelona then a ferry to Rome ( 20 hours ) then a week or two in Italy and meander up to the UK for a wedding 30 July.
First day camp directions were wrong, arrived at site and it was crowded with a fiesta for the Spanish weekend, Trying to negotiate round all the cars on narrow tracks a tree branch ripped my arial off after setting up, the toilet broke, then the pump packed in so we had no water or toilet and it is weekend. It is also 36c with no shade, we then cooked a dodgy burger on the BBQ and my wife was ill all night. The toilet block was at least 1/2 mile away.
Our ferry was Monday night and Monday morning we tried to get the parts but it was impossible in that short a time. We then abandoned our 600 euro ferry ticket and drove home dumped the caravan in storage and we will not look at it again for a long while.
I found out that in high temperatures it is impossible to sit in our caravan, and impossible to sit outside because of the midges, not a good experience, I could have gone on but there was no saying it would be cooler in Italy or I could have gotten the parts I needed.
All this was last weekend on the 25th June, I have now sent for the parts it is so easy in the UK. I did manage to get one part for the toilet priced at 15e found it on the net in the UK and it was 5.99
PS the trip was delayed for 1 day as cleaning the car I broke off the rear window washer and it took all day to get and have fixed a new part. Caravanning I am not sure but maybe I am just too old for this lark.