Uncle Bulgaria Posted October 2, 2009 Share Posted October 2, 2009 Just returned from a 7-week trip around France, so its nice to be able to log on again to the forum and see what's what. However, whilst away the mains powered part of the battery charging system packed up, so we had to limit ourselves to no more than 2 nights on any site without a drive to recharge the habitation battery throught the engine alternator. The charging system, and control system for all the habitation facilities, is a Calira EVS 30/20-DS/IU, made in Germany by Trautmann GmbH. I understand that this company was taken over by Truma about a year ago. When connected to a 230 volt a.c. supply, the unit emits a "squeaking" noise and there is no 12 d.c. output to the habitation battery or the engine battery. All the control functions continue to work (fridge, Truma heating and water system, pump, lights etc.) Reading the Calira Operating Instructions supplied with the vehicle, I was concerned to note that the converter's installation did not conform with Calira's requirements for free ventilation space. I've noticed that the casing of the unit does get warm to the touch, but nowhere near the "up to approx 75 C" quoted in the Calira Operating Instructions. So, it may be my bad luck that the charging system has just failed or it may have failed due to overheating. The supplying dealer has not been much help, only offering to return the unit via the converter, but giving no indication as to how long it would take. Knaus does seem to be emerging from it recent troubles, but whether it has the time or inclination to deal with a very minor issue like mine I do not know. Therefore, I'm going to approach Claira direct, but before I do so I would welcome any advice of suggestions from forum members. Richard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aljen Posted October 2, 2009 Share Posted October 2, 2009 Hi Whilst i dont have the same make of charger unit, mine was Reich and like yours was not charging even when on hook up. I emailed Reich direct and complained that i did not expect the charger unit to fail so early and was put in touch with their uk office. They emailed me and asked if i could send the unit to them, not easy when you want to use the van. I explained that i was going away soon and that would be a problem. They replied and said they would post out another new charger unit and when i had swapped them over to return faulty unit back to them. Within a few days it arrived and was fitted in a couple of hours. No charges at all for this excellent service, so sometimes it does help to contact direct as your van is relatively new i would hope you may recieve the same attention Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Champstar Posted October 4, 2009 Share Posted October 4, 2009 Tried that one with my old caliria charger.....no chance..they wanted 750 euro for a new one...or send the old one back with no garantee (spelling!!) that it was fixable....hastened my decision to change my motorhome!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dikyenfo Posted October 5, 2009 Share Posted October 5, 2009 Try to locate an electrics chap who can strip the unit down and repair it. The level of techno. inside these units is crude to say the least and there is no need to panic about the costs. The heat will be coming from the transformer and is usual.The rectifier is the most likely part to have failed and should be an easy matter to replace with a beefed up jobby.For now if you want to get instant usage get a good qual. charger like Cetech and connect for now. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freewheeler Posted October 5, 2009 Share Posted October 5, 2009 Unfortunately, problems with Calira model that you have, are quite well known, although ours is still fine after over 3yrs use. Have a look on the Knaus owners website for more info at http://knausowners.com/ It does appear that contacting Calira direct can be beneficial, because they offer a repair/return service, although it isn't cheap. Regards, FREEWHEELER Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aevans42 Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 We are A and N Caravan Services the UKs biggest repairer and seller of Motorhome and Caravan Charger/PDUs and contrary to the earlier post the chargers like the 38/20 are not crude large transformer based units with the old fashioned rectifier setup but are very sophisticated multi stage charging systems with computer controlled output. Please don't do as advised and take your Calira 38/20 to a 'local' man, we have so many units that come to us via this route and the damage inflicted just makes the job harder and your bill larger. Calira chargers are amongst the best we repair, they are sophisticated, strong well made units. The forums posting on capacitor faults, design issues, etc is not borne out in our experience. The primary reason that Calira chargers fail, and this applies to most Leisure based chargers, is poor batteries. If you want your Calira to last change your batteries at double the battery warranty period. If the batteries are guaranteed 1 year then change them after 2, guaranteed 2 years change at 4 years, etc. If you have Elecsol batteries, we suggest you replace them, as in our opinion, they do not suit the unit. See our page our Battery Technology, it goes against traditional thinking : http://www.aandncaravanservices.co.uk/battery-technology.php Please be aware that Truma have begun the shutdown of the Calira factory in Kaufbeuren, which will complete 31/5/2013. According to our German source at the factory the Calira products used in UK built motorhomes will no longer be made, our supply of stock has already been cut. Support will move to the Truma factory at Putzbrunn, but they will not manufacture any Calira products. Putzbrunn do not seem to be very good at responding to any enquires. We have already sent a unit to Truma in Putzbrunn and the turnaround and repair costs were not an improvement on the service we had come to expect from Calira at Kaufbeuren. Costs were close to that of a new unit and turnaround, of an urgent repair, was over 6 weeks. We are trying hard to increase our stock, via another source, to ensure we can meet demand. But please be aware that this will place added work on us. Our response to Calira unit repairs might not be as speedy as it has been. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracker Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 Have you considered replacing the unit with a Sargent one? They are very helpful and should be able to advise you if they have a suitable unit and if it is a worthwhile consideration? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keithl Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 Tracker, The post that A and N replied to is nearly 4 years old! Nice that they take the time to advertise their services but a slightly underhand way of doing it methinks! Keith. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aevans42 Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 Hello Keith, the thread is still very relevant because if anyone with a Calira charging issue Googles Calira problems, this is one of the top entries. The intention was to help those with Calira charging issues and highlight to all that habitation battery age/condition is key if you want to extend the battery chargers life. Our website page on Battery Technology helps those interested to identify the most appropriate battery at the lowest cost. It also explains why you should not use a Car Battery Charger, particularly the CTEK as suggested above. I understand your scepticism but the above and our Battery Technology page are aimed to inform. Before anyone asks, we do not sell Batteries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin McCarthy Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 Keith, Yes, it may seem a bit underhand. I sent my Calira to Atlantic Motor Home Services (also known as A&N) who repaired it. But the repair didn't last long (one trip away for 6 weeks and then over a year in storage) and it failed again. I contacted Allan Evans who accused me of fitting a rubbish leisure battery which he said caused it to fail. Strange really because one of the batteries was brand new and recommended by him. I was quite happy to pay for it to be repaired again but he refused. I was rather mystified as to his attitude. Anyway I had the batteries checked out and both were in good condition. I have now had the Calira repaired elsewhere. The repairer pointed out that two components were missing from the previous repair. I'm sure that other people have received good service from Allan Evans but sadly not me. Kevin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PJay Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 Kevin McCarthy - 2015-07-20 9:47 AM Keith, Yes, it may seem a bit underhand. I sent my Calira to Atlantic Motor Home Services (also known as A&N) who repaired it. But the repair didn't last long (one trip away for 6 weeks and then over a year in storage) and it failed again. I contacted Allan Evans who accused me of fitting a rubbish leisure battery which he said caused it to fail. Strange really because one of the batteries was brand new and recommended by him. I was quite happy to pay for it to be repaired again but he refused. I was rather mystified as to his attitude. Anyway I had the batteries checked out and both were in good condition. I have now had the Calira repaired elsewhere. The repairer pointed out that two components were missing from the previous repair. I'm sure that other people have received good service from Allan Evans but sadly not me. Kevin Hi Kevin and welcome to the forum. The origanal post was from 2009, and the one you are repling to is 2 years old PJay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
747 Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 Kevin McCarthy - 2015-07-20 9:47 AM Keith, Yes, it may seem a bit underhand. I sent my Calira to Atlantic Motor Home Services (also known as A&N) who repaired it. But the repair didn't last long (one trip away for 6 weeks and then over a year in storage) and it failed again. I contacted Allan Evans who accused me of fitting a rubbish leisure battery which he said caused it to fail. Strange really because one of the batteries was brand new and recommended by him. I was quite happy to pay for it to be repaired again but he refused. I was rather mystified as to his attitude. Anyway I had the batteries checked out and both were in good condition. I have now had the Calira repaired elsewhere. The repairer pointed out that two components were missing from the previous repair. I'm sure that other people have received good service from Allan Evans but sadly not me. Kevin Various chargers fail simply because the owner doubles the Leisure Battery capacity. I personally know of the owner with a Calira charger who had this problem. My present motorhome had a failed Reich charger for the same reason (before I bought it). In the case of my van, the previous owner uprated to a different Reich charger which can handle an extra Leisure battery. If you have a solar panel fitted, the charger has less work to do as it is rare for the battery(ies) to be heavily discharged. A common reason for fitting a second battery is that owners believe they can just fit a large inverter without any repercussions. Unfortunately there is a downside to this. It has been much worse with caravans seemingly. I was having some work done on my last van a couple of years ago and the proprietor was buying caravan chargers in bulk because it was his most common job. He explained and showed me the huge cardboard box they were delivered in. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuartO Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 Kevin McCarthy - 2015-07-20 9:47 AM .....I sent my Calira to Atlantic Motor Home Services (also known as A&N) who repaired it. But the repair didn't last long (one trip away for 6 weeks and then over a year in storage) and it failed again. I contacted Allan Evans who accused me of fitting a rubbish leisure battery which he said caused it to fail. Strange really because one of the batteries was brand new and recommended by him. I was quite happy to pay for it to be repaired again but he refused. I was rather mystified as to his attitude. Anyway I had the batteries checked out and both were in good condition. I have now had the Calira repaired elsewhere. The repairer pointed out that two components were missing from the previous repair. I'm sure that other people have received good service from Allan Evans but sadly not me. Kevin Whenever I read a moan about a supplier I always look for clues that we're being given only part of the story and the complainer isn't really being fair. In this case the original repair lasted over a year before it failed and the MH owner had (by his own admission, only one battery was new) fitted mismatched leisure batteries against advice. The supplier is said to have "accused" the complainer of fitting a "rubbish" battery, which might of course have been true - or the supplier might simply have asked the relevant questions. Perhaps it is merely the complainer's perception that he was being "accused". And we're told that two components were found missing after the original repair but with no further details. What components, and missing from what part of the device? The original repair lasted over a year, so perhaps they weren't important at all. We can't know the full truth of this episode without independent investigation of the facts and that's not going to happen. Maybe the complainer has some entitlement to have a moan - but I suspect not, he fitted mismatched leisure batteries, perhaps also of poor quality and the second failure occured after a year in storage, presumably connected the the mains, with the repaird charger coping with mismatched and maybe poor batteries so maybe he got what he deserved. I'm certainly not jumping to the conclusion that he deserves much sympathy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aandncaravan Posted May 20, 2018 Share Posted May 20, 2018 We have started dealing with Calira units again and a potential purchaser pointed out this thread with this distortion of events. Kevein Mccarthy contacted us 06/05/13 and we replied : "Hello Kevin, The burnt connector block and the failed mains charger is a sign that the habitation batteries are long past their best. Old, duff batteries are almost always the cause of mains charger failure. The burnt connector block is a sign that the habitation batteries have been drawing very high current, another indication that they are past it". When the broken unit arrived it was badly burnt from coping with very poor batteries. We re-iterated the importance of top quality batteries and recommended Varta LFD90, etc. He opted for a Calira re-manufactured PCB, not a repair, due to the damage inside the unit. On the 27/6/2013 we wrote : "Hello Kevin, Your unit now has a re-manufactured board from Calira, one of the last we got before the factory closed, so it is ready to ship. Did it already have a dent in the top or is that transit damage? It did not have much soft padding around, just tight cardboard which would have transferred any shocks". Then on the 25/03/15, almost 1 year 9 months later, he contacted us to say, " You exchanged my Calira power supply last year which fixed the problem of the leisure battery not charging from the mains so many thanks for that. Problem now is that if we have the motorhome plugged into the 240volts on a campsite then everything is OK. If we are driving with the motor running then again everything is OK. But if I stop and turn the engine off then the battery discharges very quickly, in a matter of minutes. I have a spare leisure battery but both produce the same results. They are Lucas LL25MF 90AH C23 batteries. One is about 5 years old, the other about 18 months old". Note that at this point EVERYTHING in the Calira was working ok, just that the battery was discharging quickly. You will note that despite our previous advice that a quality battery is key, he had two budget, low quality and short life (typically 18 months) Lucas batteries, one 5 years old. Clearly he was not helping himself and the charger was destined to be overloaded. We indicated the issue was likely to be the batteries, however said we WOULD look at the Motorhome if he wished. He then contacted us in July 2015, over 2 years after we supplied a Factory rebuilt charger, to say that the unit had been getting really hot, which it only does when working hard, like on a poor battery. Following this the charger died. Obviously well out of guarantee, he wanted to pay (not a warranty claim) for a second factory rebuilt charger. We then declined to quote for the work, for obvious reasons. The entire, original, email history is available for anyone who wants to view it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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