BGD Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 Hi Guys - The 2001 Benimar motorhome that we upgraded to a few months ago is fitted with a Trumatic S3002 gas fire, mated to the Trumavent fan/warm air blower. This is bog-standard equipment for gazillions of motorhomes and caravans. Now that the weather has got colder, we've started to use the gas fire. But we've noticed that if we have just the gas fire on, without the fan-blower, then after maybe 10-15 minutes, the automatic piezzo ignition starts ticking again....and keeps going until I turn the fire off for a few minutes. Obviously by the time the igniter starts ticking again, the fire is giving out a lot of heat. The "AA" sized ignition battery is virtually new, and the "ticking" is very rapid....so it's nothing to do with an almost empty battery. This issue does NOT happen at all if we run the fan/blown air blower part of the system too; but only if "fire-only" is selected. I'm so far guessing at two possible causes but I'd really welcome others ideas........ 1. Could it be that we are running when on "fire-only" at too high a heat setting? We've been running it at about number 8 on the 1-to-10 heat twist-knob control; but I've just noticed this morning when reading the official Truma operating instructions that I've just downloaded from their website, that they recommend a "fire-only" heat setting of 3 to 5. 2. Could it be beacuse the battery is not temperature resistant? I notice this morning that the Truma instructions say to use a "temperature resistant (+70 degrees C) leakproof Mignon battery, Truma part number 30030-99200". The battery installed when we bought the MH a couple of months ago is a bog-standard AA one; it's certainly not one of the Tuma posh jobbies. (I can't quite see why this would make the difference though. Shouldn't it be something else in the control system that tells the battery to supply current to the piezzo igniter, rather than the battery deciding when to do that?) Do other people really religiously buy/use only these Truma heat resistant batteries in their gas fires? If so, does anyone know from where can I get a couple posted over to me here in Spain from (as both the local motorhome/caravan dealers here just looked blank when I asked for temperature resistant batteries, and waved ordinary ones at me instead.....so it would seem that certainly over here in Spain most people just use an AA battery of any type/brand). Over to you good people.................. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracker Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 I dunno Bruce - but the flame failure thermo couple comes to mind as a possible failure? This is the bit that (used to according to my ancient memory) protrudes out into the flame to sense temperature and if it mistakenly thinks that the flame has gone out it either tries to relight - as possibly in your case - or it cuts off the gas if it fails to relight. The same principle applies to a gas fridge which is why it starts clicking when the gas runs out! I'll happily post you a battery - or any other part - if you tell me which one you need and the supplier will only ship to a UK address but I suspect that you should be able to get these things online and posted direct to you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike 202 Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 Hi Bruce, Had exactly the same problem as you. If the fire was running flat out from the start then the main burner flame was hot enough to stop the auto ignition from firing, lots of clicks as you describe. As soon as the van got warm and the main burner flame started to reduce then the auto ignition started clicking. Turned the temperature up to higher setting hence burner flat out and clicking stopped. A small part of the main burner flame had some yellow (instead of the pure blue) near the auto ignition spark. Took it to Marquis under warranty, i.e. not very old less than 12 months, and they diagnosed that the top of the main burner had become partially detatched and therefore when the temperature that had been set was reached and the main flame died down enough the fire's auto ignition thought that the fire was out and therefore started clicking again. They said that this fault was rare but not unknown to them and could be caused by just driving the van around or possibly faulty manufacture. As they sorted it under warranty i just filed their response in case it ever happened again. They fitted a new burner and "touch wood " all ok to date some 3 years later. Regards Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnP Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 Is it possible to move the battery and it's holder out of the heater housing tempararily. If so, then try the heater. If it works at least it will eliminate the suspected battery "problem" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retread24800 Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 Hi Bruce The clicking only happens when the heater has reached its operating temperature and the thermocouple thinks the flame has gone out because the pilot light is not impinging on the T/C therefore the suggestion from Mike above needs investigating, the theory further stands up in that when you are deliberately cooling the heater by running the fan it doesn't happen i.e. the heater is still running at full chat, the clicking only happens when the heater is on tick :-) over the flame is then too small or in the wrong place to keep the T/C warm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BGD Posted November 6, 2012 Author Share Posted November 6, 2012 Thanks for your inputs chaps! Do keep the ideas coming please............ It's actually (shock, horror!) totally tipping down with rain here today, so I'll leave it till tomorrow to have a further investigation of the operation of the heater in "fire only" mode in the MH, based on your ideas. Anyone use/got any of the high temperature batteries for the Trumatic or does everyone just use an ordinary AA battery in theirs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keithl Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 Hi Bruce, I have only ever used good old Duracell in ours and never had a problem like yours. Is this the first time you have used it on Fire only or had it used to be OK? PS And it's time to update your profile!!! Keith. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BGD Posted November 6, 2012 Author Share Posted November 6, 2012 Oops! Cheers Keith! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike 202 Posted November 10, 2012 Share Posted November 10, 2012 Hi Bruce, Did you fix your fire ? Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BGD Posted November 10, 2012 Author Share Posted November 10, 2012 Hi Mike - not as yet. The thing seems to work just fine on fan/blower setting, so we'll carry on like that for the moment. I do rather suspect that it's a fault with the flame sensing thermocouple - either mis-aligned or on the blink, so that it can't "feel" just the pilot light when the main burner stops firing. I took the front off and gave the insides a damn good clean, but without doing major surgery on it I can't get at the flame thermocouple. As as the MH came with a 12 month warranty, and we are passing the "Mydalex Motorhomes" Dealer who is on the N332 just North of Alicante on our way South to Murcia/Almeria next week, I'll pop in and ask him to have a look at it. If he needs to order any spares he can do so whilst we are away, and fit them a couple of weeks later as we pass him again on the way back North.....although he's got plenty of MH's and caravans in stock, so he can maybe nick any spare part needed from one of them for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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