Truma room heater keeps tripping out

[Sandra_374373165]

Hi, we have just bought a compass Connoisseur 556 year 2007 and with the colder weather we have been linking it to the mains at the house and putting the truma heater on. We came back out to the van later on expecting to find a nice warm van only to find that the heater was off. We checked the fuse and it was fine. Then checked the circuit breaker thing in the cupboard only to find that the trip was thrown for the fire.

Could anyone offer me some advice as to why this might be happening?

thanks

sandra

 

[xtrailman]

Have you tried resetting the RCD, i assume the fuse you refer to is a CB (circuit breaker)

 

[Sandra_374373165]

Have you tried resetting the RCD, i assume the fuse you refer to is a CB (circuit breaker)

Hi i havent tried doing that. I am somewhat of a novice in all this. Is the rcd the main fuse box which is under my front seat with all the various fuses in it for aux and sockets and all that? The one that is throwing the trip is the one in the cupboard which has only i think 3 switches on it and its the one for the fire that is tripping off. I will go out to the van and have a better look and keep you posted

thanks

sandra

 

[xtrailman]

I think you are saying the CB has tripped. Try resetting the breaker, but put the fire on 500w setting, try to establish if the CB is tripping on all three fire settings or just the 2kw setting, the breaker may be "tired".

 

[Sandra_374373165]

Hi ray,

I tried what you suggested and the van didnt trip on the 500 or the 1000 setting but after moving it up to the 2000 setting after some time it did trip again.

I am wondering does this mean that even if we were to leave the heater at the 1000 setting and run say the water heater and usual stuff like tv and kettle wud our van trip or is the problem with just the heater i wonder?

thanks

sandra

 

[gary]

I'm going to start with a question for perhaps G Stockton Esq about this problem

I've got an Ultraheat in with this same problem and the elements themselves check out cold 100%, going to run it up today and see if things change when the elements get hot.

My question then, is an element libel to trip a duel pole MCB? this one has actually wrecked two MCB's on the neutral side, ie the neutral will no longer reset!

Time taken to trip in this case is circa 20 minutes regardless of wattage setting?

Of course I'm on single pole so it's doubtful I'll have a problem if I'm right?

 

[xtrailman]

Sandra

A healthy CB should carry its full rated current, so for example a 10amp CB will carry 10 amps constantly, but as a CB has a mechanical content overtime the performance can drop, the cb tripping may also shorten its life.

If the heater works ok on the 1kw setting constantly with the stat on max to ensure the fire is constantly on, then theirs a good chance that replacing the CB will sort your problem. I assume that nothing else is switched on that the CB feeds.

If you have a competent person available, i would suggest checking the output current from the cb using a multimeter on the 10a or higher range.

A 1kw element takes about 4 amps, so the fire set to full should be around 8 amps.

Usually a cb trips due to a fault current which may be very high, or a constant overload, or because the Cb is faulty.

 

[Sandra_374373165]

Hi all, the van is away back to the dealer so i shall keep you posted! The dealer said that some of them heaters have a safety cut out if the heater heats up to much but i find that hard to believe! Is that not what a thermostat is all about!!!

 

[SBS]

The Truma Ultraheat has two overheat thermostats, a 125 degree and a 175 degree. The latter is 'self-hold' and will remain open until the power is turned off for 5-10 minutes. It could be that one of these is faulty. Try putting the fan on max on 'Auto' and see if this cures it or at least delays it.

Mike