Truma Water Heater

[Daniel_374232344]

Hope someone can help - our Truma waterheater stopped working on electric. Had filled it and heated up Friday night; wife and daughter had shower Saturday morning and wont reheat now. Have found it will work on gas though. The electric switch is on with current (light's on). I'm assuming the element must have failed. Anyone know a bit more about thee things? Incidently the van is an Abbey Spectrum 620 year 2006.

Dan

 

[GingerPete]

hi daniel , call truma 01283586099 , hope this helps .....pete

 

[Damian]

Daniel, with power switched off to the van for safety, trace the wire from the heater back to its plug, then with a multimeter check the resistance between the pos and neg to the heater, should get about 400ohms or thereabouts,

If you get a reading of 1 or very low reading,the element has gone and needs replacing.

Just because the light is on when power is on does not mean the element is working, just that power is available.

 

[gary]

400 ohms? not thinking fridge elements perchance Damian?

I think todays Truma elements are 850w giving circa 62ohms resistance, earlier elements I think were 350w giving a reading very close to 150ohms

 

[Rubix]

Could it not have tripped ?

If so find the little red button and reset, jobs a-good-un.

If there is a real fault, it will trip again and you may have to replace the element.

 

[RichardJ]

Hi Mate

Switch the heater off, leave for approx 2 hours, mayb'e a little longer, ensure its full and switch back on.

If the thermal overload has cut in, it needs to be switched off before it will work.

 

[Dave_374330759]

The problem with the water heater sounds as though its either burnt out and short circuited to earth or water has got into the element and shorted it to earth - usually caused by turning it on without water in the tank.

Its relatively easy to check if you've got a test meater with a resistance (ohms) setting. Make sure the van is not connected to the mains before doing any work on the electrical system.

Check the resistance across the two element wires which should be somewhere between 60 and 120 ohms. No reading means an open circuited element. Then check the resistance between the element wires and the element body (earth) you shouldn't get a reading or it shoud be very high (megohms). A low reading indicates a short circuit to earth which will trip the circuit breaker

Sometimes though you can get a high resistance between the elemet and earth if the heater hasn't beeen used for a while and it has dried out - the breaker then trips after some time as water percolates into the element.

Its easy to change the element, they are expensive though at

 

[Daniel_374232344]

Hi Everyone - thanks for your thoughts. Had a chat with my dealer today - he thought it sounded like the element had failed and should be replaced under warranty. So I've booked it in. He said if it had heated up dry its likely to be a blue colour when they remove it. I will carry out the tests suggested as it all adds up to a little bit more experience.

Dan

 

[Damian]

400 ohms? not thinking fridge elements perchance Damian?

I think todays Truma elements are 850w giving circa 62ohms resistance, earlier elements I think were 350w giving a reading very close to 150ohms

Gary, yes, you are right,nut I had a long testing day with one thing and another.