Nuevo EK

Good afternoon,

My wife and I bought a new Nuevo EK in December 2010 from Marquis in Tewkesbury.

I contacted the Marquis Service Department in Tewkesbury this morning to ask if I could arrange a visit to their centre to obtain a quote for some damp to be repaired, found on the floor of the nearside locker under the bench seat near to the rear wheel arch. 

They will be charging me £40.50 for them to inspect the affected area and to decide what materials etc and costs will be required to carry out the work.  IS THIS NORMAL PRACTICE   ????????????????????????????

No idea if that is normal Marquis but why not go to Willersey for a quote, it's not that far away. (17 miles from Tewkesbury).

My advice would be to try local caravan repairers and avoid top heavy dealerships. Sorry, don’t know the area so can’t recommend anyone, but why not begin with National Caravan Council Approved Workshop Scheme. 

Good luck.

harrysp wrote:My advice would be to try local caravan repairers and avoid top heavy dealerships. Sorry, don’t know the area so can’t recommend anyone, but why not begin with National Caravan Council Approved Workshop Scheme. 

god luck.

Be careful who you get, go for recommendations if you can.

I had an approved repairer to seal the top windows in my Topaz, not long after they leaked, another credited repairer, not local took out both windows cleaned up and refitted, no problems, apparently sealant was missing when  the first repairer, did it. she didn`t take out the windows, didn`t really know what she was doing.

So an accredited MH repairer doesn`t always mean a good job done. It cost me twice. No I didn`t contact her, will never use her or recommend her, others locally have had problems after they had her to do jobs on their caravan / motor homes. I didn`t know this at the time I had her.

Of course Daisy Mae is right, a recommendation trumps accreditation. All I was saying is that big shiny dealers are not necessarily better than the local caravan repair ‘workshop’ that might lack the finer things in life such as swish coffee machines, especially when you are paying for the work in preference to getting it done under warranty.

Many thanks to the members for sending me their advice. It is very much appreciated.

I am off to Willersley tomorrow to obtain a quote for repairing the damp problem. I did take it to Willersley in April this year and they replaced the nearside locker hatch which did help in stopping the damp in one part of the locker, BUT the problem still remains in another area of the locker. Wish me luck!!!!!

Interested to know what the cause of this turned out to be, on mine it was the fridge vent grill gaskets(nothing!). Don't appear to have a problem since grills replaced and gasket fitted.

Thanks jwells for your comment. I am due to take the Nuevo up to Willersley next week for them to sort out the problem. I will keep everyone posted.

I am a retired gas man. All these 'check a trade' and other bodies of 'recommended' tradesmen are just money making businesses. As a tradesman you send them a cheque or more likely a DD and copies of your certificates. You then get put on a register of local tradesmen. It doesn't mean you are any good, they never come and inspect your work or examine you. In fact the opposite can be true: if you feel the need to get on to one of these registers it means that you haven't got enough work. Why haven't you got enough work? could it be that you have 'all the gear, no idea'? If you are good, you don't get on any register, except of course you have to be on the Gas Safe Register to do gas work and the NICEIC to do electrical work. Anyone with a computer can look these up. In fact on the Isle of Man the good, skilled guys drove around in plain, unsignwritten vans because we didn't want people bothering us wanting work doing. The good guys had enough to do from recommendations. In fact the trick was to continually increase your prices until you started to need work. I didn't have the courage to do that though. When I was charging £150 a day, others I knew were on £350 a day and still not advertising.

Back to the subject: I would never have dreamed of charging for a quote, though I have heard of car garages in England doing it. At one time in my life I did car bodywork and quoting for a whole respray was simple. A basic £300 for the respray plus £20 for each dent that was going to take an hour to treat. It worked reliably and didn't take up much time. That was long ago and far away though.
You would expect them if they charged for a quote, to knock the price of the quote off if you gave them the job. To do the job they would have to assess it anyway in order to get the materials needed.

Gassy

As you are a gasman, question.

My Nueve Es 2015, had it 3 months from a dealer with fresh gas cert etc.
My CO2 detector goes off only when parked at home, never when we are out I it. Bought a new detector, same issue now I have 2 alarms,

I have turned off all gas taps in cupboard, and at tank, still does it.

Gas cooker flame is nice blue color we use gas fridge,cooker, heating all no alarms in use.

Used it last weekend , parked at home for a week no alarm, moved it and reparked and alarm goes off overnight (2 of them)
I may have gas rechecked at my local workshop, all I can think of. Does diesel exhaust set it off? Or battery charging gas, had a new leisure battery a couple of weeks ago.

RG
Any ideas?
RG

Gassygassy may not agree, but there have been plenty of reports that some CO detectors are sensitive to the hydrogen gas given off when batteries are gassing during (over) charging.

When parked at home, do you connect the EHU, or have solar panels? Seems unlikely that you could have batteries gassing when parked up unless you have one or both.

I think Roopert may have the solution. A solar panel shouldn't overcharge a battery because it should have a regulator in the wiring from solar panel to battery. The battery may overcharge if you have a mains charger connected, or indeed just the charger built into the camper.
CO detectors are fantastically sensitive, they go off at the slightest whiff of CO, or hydrogen gas. The level of gas would have to be about 100 times as strong before you suffered any harm from it.
The gas safety check is conclusive, it isn't one of those 'in the opinion of the examiner' things. The examiner will connect a pressure gauge to the gas pipe, turn the gas on to pressurise the system and then turn it off. The pipes and appliances are then full with gas. If there is any leakage the pressure gauge will drop and the examiner will see it dropping and take appropriate action.
That is just how the gas safety check is done. There is another thing that points to the battery. CO is only given off by burnt gas, not by a leakage on the gas installation. So vapourised LPG won't set it off, only if the detector is in the presence of concentrated burnt gas, or apparently battery gas.
Try disconnecting the battery from the charger and see if the CO detector stays silent.

gassygassy wrote:A solar panel shouldn't overcharge a battery because it should have a regulator in the wiring from solar panel to battery.

Agreed - but I was thinking of a situation where the solar regulator stops working properly. Not a very likely situation IMO, but I've heard that it can happen.

gassygassy wrote:I think Roopert may have the solution. A solar panel shouldn't overcharge a battery because it should have a regulator in the wiring from solar panel to battery. The battery may overcharge if you have a mains charger connected, or indeed just the charger built into the camper.
CO detectors are fantastically sensitive, they go off at the slightest whiff of CO, or hydrogen gas. The level of gas would have to be about 100 times as strong before you suffered any harm from it.
The gas safety check is conclusive, it isn't one of those 'in the opinion of the examiner' things. The examiner will connect a pressure gauge to the gas pipe, turn the gas on to pressurise the system and then turn it off. The pipes and appliances are then full with gas. If there is any leakage the pressure gauge will drop and the examiner will see it dropping and take appropriate action.
That is just how the gas safety check is done. There is another thing that points to the battery. CO is only given off by burnt gas, not by a leakage on the gas installation. So vapourised LPG won't set it off, only if the detector is in the presence of concentrated burnt gas, or apparently battery gas.
Try disconnecting the battery from the charger and see if the CO detector stays silent.

All seems logical.

Now parked without mains connected and all ok.
Concluded it must be battery charging fumes, I had a new one fitted 2 weeks ago and no problem before then.  I don't need to have mains connected as I have solar panels. 
But if on a site connected to mains same can happen, maybe there is a way to switch off the onboard charger.

Which make/model of power system controller do you have? Not by any chance a Sargent EC325 is it?

Roopert wrote:Which make/model of power system controller do you have? Not by any chance a Sargent EC325 is it?

Don't know I will have a look tomorrow.

Why.....something you know?

RG

Just to update you on the problem of damp in my Nuevo EK in the upper nearside locker as reported earlier last month.
 
I took my motorhome to Auto Sleepers at Willersley last week and they removed and installed two new fridge vents. They are confident that due to the seals around the vent having "perished" and cracked - that this was the source of water ingress. 

I have dried out the affected area to below 15%. I will obviously monitor the situation over the next few weeks especially following heavy rain. 

Thank you to the members who have contributed to this problem.

Jaime 007 wrote:Just to update you on the problem of damp in my Nuevo EK in the upper nearside locker as reported earlier last month.
 
I took my motorhome to Auto Sleepers at Willersley last week and they removed and installed two new fridge vents. They are confident that due to the seals around the vent having "perished" and cracked - that this was the source of water ingress. 

I have dried out the affected area to below 15%. I will obviously monitor the situation over the next few weeks especially following heavy rain. 

Thank you to the members who have contributed to this problem.

Glad you got it sorted.
I do hope that the forum contributed to the solution to your problem and not the problem itself 

. . . but isn't the upper locker higher up the wall than the fridge vents? I don't get the connection between the upper locker and the fridge vents.

The top fridge vent is slightly higher than the floor of the top locker. This is where the technician feels that the water is coming through, albeit rather slowly.

Anyway, only time will tell. If the dampness returns then it will have to be plan c-3!!!!!!