Trauma Heater

[michele]

I am asking for a friend of ours who has had a recall and took it back to Browhills ages ago . All is well except for the fact that it stinks of metal when its on .

If they put it on Gas & hot water its fine but if he does not want heating on a warm day say he only wants the hot water it stinks again ?

Any ideas . This never used to happen before the re call.

 

[Thai Bry]

Michele

I think it is down to the newness of the system.

Our new van gave a horrid smell when we 1st used it on both Gas, & then electric.Now no longer the case, as the smell has cleared up. But admittedly, it was horrid when we 1st went away at Easter this year

My guess- & I might be wrong here - is that they put in a new boiler unit and it's the newness smell.

If I'm wrong, then someone with more expert advice will be along to explain the condition.

Thai

[Miami]

What Truma heater is it?

[Derek Uzzell]

Michele:

 

Assuming (as seems virtually certain from your reference to a "recall" and description of its operation) that your friends' heater is a Truma C-Series (Combi) appliance, then the recall work would normally have involved replacement of the heater's top section that also incorporates the blown-air fan and blown-air input duct.

 

There is a tendency for these appliances to be smelly when in water-heating-only mode on gas. This is to some extent understandable as the design has a 2kW gas-burner blasting heat into a small, unventilated space. Historically though, the odour has been more 'hot plastic' than 'hot metal'. The smell is normally not present when blown-air heating is operating as the air passing through the Combi cools its interior.

 

The Combi in my previous motorhome used to smell unpleasantly of scorching plastic during gas water-heating, as did the Combi in my current Hobby before it was modified under the Truma recall programme. Now it's pretty much smell-free, unless you heat the water to 60 degrees Centigrade when it smells a mite 'hot' (which, of course, it is!) The revised top section includes a strip of metal protecting the edge of the plastic air input duct and I guess it's possible that this could produce a metallic smell when exposed to high heat.

 

Truma's Operating Instructions advise "During the initial operation of a brand new appliance (or after it has not been used for some time), a small amount of fumes and smell may be noticed for a short while. It is a good idea to heat the device up several times in summer operation (ie. hot water only) to 60C and to make sure that the area is well ventilated."

 

All I can suggest is that your friend tries doing this and, if the smell persists or is plainly unacceptably strong, then the heater needs to be checked over. If the heater didn't smell before it was modified and now does, it's logical to suspect that either the modification was done wrongly or that the replacement parts are to blame.

 

(I believe your motorhome has a Combi heater and that this went through the Truma recall process. Perhaps you could 'sniff' your friends' appliance to see how bad the smell is compared with your own heater.)

[michele]

Thank you so much everyone .

It is an Autotrail Cheyenne i should of said . I have sent this to our friends who like lots of people is not expert he will be grateful to read what it is that you say .Sorry Derek I cannot tell you what boiler it is other than a Trauma .

I know I,m pushing my luck a bit BUT one can try .

They have decided to come to Christmas holidays with us to Ski-ing In France his M/Home is in storage and it is quite away away .

 

He was asking us if his tyres would be the same as ours Duhh as if we would know he would like to buy snow chains would it be a case of all Auto trails being the same all campers being the same or is there a standard tyre that Auto trails each different manufactuer using their own ?

 

And would anyone know anything about buying snow chains I ask because we know nothing obviously we want to purchase the correct ones do they have to be so many inches thick .

Thanks once again.

[Miami]

Your mispelling of Truma sounds appropriate!

If the unit has been converted it may be that it was not done correctly.

I had to take ours back to Truma in Derby and they had to replace the unit top. I suspect that this is the problem. Since then we have had very little smell problems.

A trip to Derby will undoubtedly put it right.

[michele]

I seem to remember that I got the spelling wrong last time also .

Typical me. :D

[Brambles]

Michele, you aked about Snow Chains.

I would not recommend snow chains, they are difficult to put on and can also damage your tyres the snow is thin or has thawed.

I suggest these Autosocks might be worth considering, do not know much about then but the link I have given is a starting point.

http://www.autosock.co.uk/

 

Jon.

[Derek Uzzell]

Michele:

 

The wheel/tyre size of an Auto-Trail "Cheyenne" will depend on whether the motorhome is based on a Mercedes or Fiat and, if it's on a Fiat, which chassis has been used. If I knew the year and model number of your friends' vehicle I could make an educated guess at its wheel/tyre size, but it would be much safer if they checked this by reading off the data on the tyres' side-walls.

 

I remembered that the Autosock product came up on the forum before and, when I did a Search, I noticed that you said you had ordered chains for your own motorhome last year. Was there a problem?

[michele]

Thanks guys appreciated have sent Pm's to you .