JohnMQ Posted March 3, 2013 Share Posted March 3, 2013 Hi All, anyone particularly good on the sparks front? We've been away for the weekend and had a hell of a time. Experienced a blow out on the caravan on the way out and ended up running on a rim on one side... interesting! Booked into the the site and the electrics were tripping out all along the line of vans and motorhomes so there were certainly some spiking going on, probably due to people using domestic heaters, is was a bit parky to be fair. Anyway, during the evening I smelled burning plastic and I traced the smell to the consumer unit. It's a Schaudt CSV 409 which i understand are prone to packing in when the hook up is less than perfect. Basically there was a block of three fuses burnt out. The fuses were the correct ampage but they burned anyway. I pulled out what was left of them and carried on. All the electrics in the van work except the ignition for the cooker and the light in the fridge. Additionally the battery doesn't charge. By pure fluke I had a battery charger in the boot which works on sealed units. By plugging this in and attaching it to the battery we managed to survive the weekend with almost everything working. That said it doesn't charge very well because as soon as I unplugged the hook up the battery died very quickly. Getting to the point; I am loathe to install another Schaudt unit as they are apparently vunerable. does anyone have any suggestions as to what my best way forward is? This is what the unit looks like and the burned out block is labeled 'loadmodul' http://www.reimo.com/r40/vc_reimo/bilder/firma16/artikel/popup/80070_popup.jpg Any suggestions would be appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave225 Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 Have no knowledge of the unit you have but mine is the following and works well. It automatically switches between power sources both car, battery and 230 volt and charges the battery but can only guess if it would be a suitable alternative for you. Mine is the 18 amp version and has a fan etc for cooling http://www.toetsuwinkoop.nl/pagina%27s/pagina%27s%20gb/03-Electric%20installation%20parts/03%20Electric%20parts%20-%20B.html It is available in the Uk and costs about £110. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keithl Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 Hi John and welcome to the forums, There was a thread on Motorhome Matters a fair few months ago about Schaudt units packing up and I copied info from a (then) recent edition of MMM, here is a link to the thread and the post in question. It might be of help to you. Keith. Link to thread Keithl - 2012-09-29 4:22 PM Stella, In the October issue of MMM there is an article on page 204 about servicing a Schaudt control unit and the writer sings the praises of A & N Caravan Services of Conwy who also service and repair Elektroblock units. They give contact details as www.aandnmotorhomeservices.co.uk or telephone 07803 072636. It might be worth giving them a call to see if they can help (assuming you haven't already come across them). Keith. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted March 6, 2013 Share Posted March 6, 2013 JohnMQ - 2013-03-03 10:29 PM ...Getting to the point; I am loathe to install another Schaudt unit as they are apparently vunerable. does anyone have any suggestions as to what my best way forward is? If it proves impracticable for your Schaudt unit to be repaired, you'll need to ask yourself how replacing the unit with anything except another CSV 409 would work. A unit from a different manufacturer is unlikely to have the same connections and/or facilities as a CSV 409, and there's every chance that your caravan's control-panel will be incompatible with an alternative unit. There have been reports of Schaudt units being vulnerable to 'spiking'. This is discussed here http://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Hymer-Electroblocks/19583/#M352389 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnMQ Posted March 9, 2013 Author Share Posted March 9, 2013 Sorry for the delay in responding and thanks for the responses. I've had a bit of a result here. I bought the caravan from Lowdhams and I didn't realise it came with a 2 year warranty as standard. They deserve a mention actually; there was no quibble whatsoever and the parts arrive on Wednesday. There is a slight downside in that they have to service the caravan for it to remain in warranty for the remaining 11 months of the two years. (this is actually unlawful - see block exemption) but it is due a service anyway and I'd rather have the peace of mind of the warranty than pick that particular fight. Thanks for your help anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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