Truma Combi boiler/heater fault

Always carry a 1-2kw fan heater just in case. 

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37 years caravanning - spent with cold water only, Carver and then Whale, I am now the owner of a C'van with the mysterious Truma Combi Boiler..... and, although in 10 months of use it has never let me down, all those years of caravanning tell me that (like all things in a Caravan) it probably - no, almost certainly, will - and I shall be eternally grateful for this and many other resurrected threads. Thanking you in anticipation....

A Grateful Caravanner 

I think that the principle is similar to an umbrella (I never use one). If you take an umbrella just in case then it won't rain. The day that you don't is the day that it will rain

Our first 2 week holiday in our first caravan the heating failed on day one. Fortunately we were able to purchase a 2kw fan heater in Hawes. As we were stopping totally on 16 amp sites that wasn't a problem. Once at home we substituted a 1 or 2kw fan heater we already had and have carried it ever since. Only used it a couple of times since, in 15 years, once when the Alde control panel packed up and again  when we had to turn the heating off  to sort out a leak, however it's nice to know it is available just in case 

We have just bought a new (to us) motorhome with a Truma Combi 6E and Truma CP plus. We used to have a 17 yr old Alde Compact 3000, which always had problems so I was hoping the Truma would be less of a problem. However...

The heating side appears to work fine, but the boiler, when using gas, only with heating off should, according to the manual, heat the water to 60c in approximately 20 mins. However it takes an hour plus. Electric on 1800 is significantly quicker. (On heating using gas the blown air is considerably hotter than on 1800w electric.) I have tried using Boost but the result is the same.

In other respects it seems to be working well. 

Any thoughts or suggestions? The dealer has yet to return my phone call and they are >300 miles away! 

We had a similar problem with our 2015 challenger sport, the dealer replaced the circuit board but it played up again so we took it back but the dealer said it was all OK ( I later found out they did not have the test equipment to check the heater) so  we contacted Truma and they asked us to take it to them which we did, they connected it to their gadget  which brings up the faults codes in our case it pointed the the combustion fan so that was replaced under warranty 

notwithstanding the possibility of an issue as in the post above, the gas should heat the water easily in 20mins as the combi 6 uses 4kw of gas to heat water.

however, check you are on gas only and not mixed as this is not a recognised setting for water heating (although it is for heating!.

if used, the gas is NOT used and only the electric portion is used, so if you had it set to (say) mixed 1, you would only be using EL1, ie 900w, hence a slow warm up time.

are you sure about the setting? can you hear the gas boiler roaring away, a sure sign that the burner is working? 

Many thanks for the replies.

I have tested it again today, no ehu. After 20 mins with heating off and hot water on 60, water temp into mid 20s. (I ran off 1 litre first to make sure sampling boiler water temp) . Listening by the flu, only quiet and warm not roaring but definitely working.

Repeated with heating switched on, but water on boost so effectively heating switched out again for 40 mins. Again after 20 mins only 20 degree lift in water temp. And only quiet flu. Once boost ran over 40mins and heating came back on, boiler obviously working much harder, more noise and flu dramatically more exhaust draft. Hot air blown from ducts, working well.

So it does not appear to be a combustion fan fault as it works at full power on heating, and is on but quieter on water heating. Could it be a software glitch? CP plus problem? It seems like it's working on limited burners like the boiler might with no cp plus, when on summer mode. Would resetting the cp plus help?

Many thanks

 

An update, I rang Truma and was told "as no error code, that's what we expect, the weather's cold." Cornwall last week was 11 degrees so not really relevant. Even from water temp 28c it took 40 mins to get to 60c, and then only 3 or 4 litres before down to 30c again. Barely enough for a quick shower. Certainly not an evenly distributed tank full.

Dealer does not know what to suggest.

What do others find their Truma Combi 6 water heating performance is like? Do we put up n shut up cos it's often like this, or make a fuss because something is clearly not working as it should? 

Cheers