One big advantage of the best motorhomes over rather more basic forms of camping is the vehicle’s hot water supply.
But how often have you found that your washing-up, or your family shower schedule, has been interrupted by the need to wait for the boiler to heat up the water again? This can
be a problem, even on those pitches where you are hooked up directly to the mains water supply.
Now, blown-air heating company Truma has introduced a new heater that should be able to solve that issue. And those who are thinking of buying a motorhome in the UK, you could be the first to benefit from it, if you go for a new Auto-Sleeper motorhome this season.
Continuous hot water
Truma’s CombiNeo heater, brought out in the year the German company has been celebrating its 75th birthday, provides continuous hot water while your water tank has water, or while you remain connected to the mains.
Truma UK joint managing director Martin Fitzpatrick is keen to point out that this is “continuous” hot water, not “instantaneous”. You do not get hot water as soon as you turn on the system. (Such systems, he says, are available in the US, but require a huge amount of energy to run and do not meet current European regulations.)
Instead, with CombiNeo you have to wait three minutes from start-up for the water to get to around 40ºC, suitable for washing-up, and eight minutes for it to get to 70ºC for you to enjoy a really hot shower. After that, it’s hot water all the time.
The motorhome heating system achieves this because, to put it very basically, within the boiler there is an auxiliary water circuit. This kicks in when you start using any water, and sends a small amount of water around the system to keep things super-hot.
The heater works on gas, delivering either 4.4kW or 6kW, or electricity, when it can deliver up to 3kW (this is a significant step up from the existing Truma Combi boiler, which can only manage up to 1.8kW in electric-only mode). There is also a hybrid option, where it is possible to get up to 7kW. A diesel heater will launch in 2026.
It’s no surprise that Auto-Sleepers was keen to take advantage of what was basically a marrying of production schedules to fit the new system in all of its blown-air heated ’vans for the 2025 model year. (In other words, everything except the Mercedes-based models, which run on Alde.)
All other motorhome manufacturers, in contrast, are having to wait until the Düsseldorf Caravan Salon this September for the European roll-out of the product.
The new boiler has other advantages, too. It’s considerably lighter, for one thing – filled with water and including all associated pipework and fittings, the CombiNeo 6E weighs in at 21kg, while the existing Combi 6E weighs around 27.2kg. It’s smaller, too, with a more rectangular shape compared to that of the cylindrical Combi.
Brian Cross, Auto-Sleepers’ Head of R&D, says this is a big advantage for design: “It provides new opportunities for where we can put the heater, and frees up more storage space.”
But perhaps best of all, Truma has produced a new control panel for the heater. With a clear touchscreen design that does away with the need for twirling knobs or flashing icon, it can easily connect with an app on your phone via Bluetooth.
It’s futureproofed, too: Truma has designed it to be synchronised with other apps and control panels, should the need to do so arise.
Launching new products
The CombiNeo, which was on display at the recent February NEC Show, is the first in a line of new products the company is bringing out during its anniversary year.
These will include the Eezy, a small electric heater you could possibly fit yourself, and the second-generation Aventa air-conditioning system.
But Truma is not leaving it at that when it comes to the CombiNeo. The company has a team of eight mobile engineers, who have already paid two visits to each Auto-Sleepers dealer, and will be making a third call when the new ’vans first start arriving later this spring, just to make sure all staff are comfortable with the new system.
So at last, that long wait for a shower could soon be a thing of the past – just make sure you know how to level a motorhome so the water stays in the shower tray!
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