Jake Drummond Posted July 22, 2016 Share Posted July 22, 2016 I appear to have made a massive (anx expensive) mistake in buying a Swift Escape 664. After purchasing a near new, very low miles model with 1300 miles on the clock I've discovered that no heating is available from system on 12v, only on mains electrict. Advise please..... . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mel64 Posted July 22, 2016 Share Posted July 22, 2016 Sorry to say I do not know of any motorhome that has 12 volt heating. Only 230 volt and gas for habitation or do you mean cab heat? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted July 22, 2016 Share Posted July 22, 2016 Looking at Swifts website this model appears to have Combi 4 or 6, this is a standard heater and should have gas and 240v electric heating, as above the 12v is for running the fan (and electronics) to pump heat around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake Drummond Posted July 23, 2016 Author Share Posted July 23, 2016 The heating is dual fuel as in gas and electric, but appears only to operate while on mains hookup. There are no instructions in the handbook fpr operating on battery power while off grid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted July 23, 2016 Share Posted July 23, 2016 Welcome to the Out&AboutLive forums, Jake. Motorhome heating may be fuelled by gas, 230V or the vehicle’s own fuel, with 12V power usually being required for the heating system’s control electronics, circulation pump, fans, etc. 12V alone just does not have enough ‘oomph’ to heat a large vehicle. Assuming that your Escape 664 is a 2015 model, this Swift handbook should apply to it https://assets.swiftgroup.co.uk/swift-group/handbooks/2015%20Owners%20Handbooks/2015%20Motorhome%20Owners%20Handbook.pdf There’s a long section (Pages 100-116) relating to the Truma “Combi” heater. You say that "There are no instructions in the handbook for operating on battery power while off grid.” This is simply because it is not possible to operate a Truma “Combi” heater on battery-power alone. When you are ‘off grid’ the the heater will need to be operated on gas: when you are ‘on grid’ you have the choice of operating the heater on 230V, gas, or 230V+gas. Whether off-grid or on-grid, 12V power from the motorhome’s leisure battery will be needed to power the Combi’s electronics and fan(s), but it won’t do any of the actual heating. I suspect you have interpreted the dual-fuel/gas-and-electric heating capability as meaning that 12V heating is possible, but the more correct description is "dual-fuel/gas-and-230V-electric heating”. 12V power is a requirement but it does not provide heat. It’s perhaps worth adding that a Truma “Combi” is designed to be operated safely from gas while the motorhome is being driven. This is covered in the “En-route heating” section (Page 61) of the Swift handbook. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted July 23, 2016 Share Posted July 23, 2016 All Comi's are designed to run off gas with 12v supplying the electronics and the fan, sounds like you haven't selected gas operation. The are better run on gas anyway as the mains electric elements are fairly low power and don't give much heat also cheaper to run on gas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted July 24, 2016 Share Posted July 24, 2016 It will (potentially) be cheaper to run a Combi “E” heater on gas only when one is being charged for the 230V electricity. A Combi “E” heating using 230V has two heat settings - 900W or 1800W. Both of these are perfectly adequate to heat water, though blown-air heating via 230V should be considered ‘background heating’ only. As lennyhb says, you don’t select 'battery operation' when you want to operate a Combi off grid, you must select 'gas operation' and then leave the heater to look after itself. Last year I visited the Truma stand at the NEC and watched the use of the CP digital control-panel being demonstrated to a chap who had bought a new motorhome in Germany, only had German-language documentation for it and had no experience of Truma combination air/water heaters. It was like watching paint dry and, despite being shown several times how to use the CP panel (and being ‘tested’ by the Truma rep on how the panel functioned), it was apparent that the motorhome owner still did not understand the heater’s basic principles. It would be best if Jake could find someone familiar with a Combi (the vendor of his Swift Escape?) to stand at his shoulder in his motorhome and talk him through the heater’s operating procedure. Combi “E”s with the latest digital control panel are claimed to be intuitive to operate, but that assumes that one is familiar with this type of heater to begin with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted July 24, 2016 Share Posted July 24, 2016 Derek Uzzell - 2016-07-24 9:33 AM Combi “E”s with the latest digital control panel are claimed to be intuitive to operate, but that assumes that one is familiar with this type of heater to begin with. Only if you are a numpty, if you are a logical normal person you don't stand a chance. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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