The importance of draining a motorhome water system down thoroughly in very cold weather really cannot be stressed enough.
When water freezes, it expands, and if that water happens to be inside a closed container when it freezes, it can exert enough force to break the container.
I recently had a job in the workshop that demonstrated this – and why draining a motorhome water system is so important – perfectly. It started out as a straightforward mains elements replacement in a Truma Combi. As Truma no longer supplies the bare elements, you have to replace the complete heat exchanger, with the new elements embedded in it. That means the heater has to be removed and almost completely stripped, and as the heat exchanger unit costs several hundred pounds, this is not a cheap job.
Pulling out the old heat exchanger
In this case, I got the motorhome heating system onto the bench and had most of it stripped, but when I came to pull out the heat exchanger, it was very tight, which was odd as this usually requires little force.
After 15 minutes of fighting with it, I managed to get it out, only to find the water tank (which surrounds the heat exchanger) had been frost damaged. It wasn’t split, but it did have a couple of very large bulges in it, which was why the heat exchanger was so tight.
A new water tank costs over £500, so with the heat exchanger and labour, it was getting very close to the cost of a total replacement of the heater. After we explained the situation to the customer, he agreed to go with a completely new unit, which had two bonuses.
First, we were able to upgrade the heater from a 4E to a 6E, and second, the new heater has the Truma iNet X control panel, which is simple to use and gives Bluetooth connectivity, so you can control the heater from your phone via Truma’s app. The iNet X can also control other third-party equipment if compatible – I recently saw a Roller Team ’van that uses this as the main control panel for the heating, cooling, lights and fridge.
Another job came about as a result of a habitation inspection – when I removed the cover from the Truma S3000 fire, I found weeds growing through it! The vehicle had been in storage at a farm for several months and had obviously been parked on grass, so some tall weeds had grown through the underfloor air intake for the fire, twining into the electric heating element. If the owners had used the fire on electric, they might have found themselves without a motorhome any more.
If you’re after a portable device for heating your ‘van, take a look at our best heater for a campervan guide to see our favourite picks for beating any chills in your ‘van.
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