Truma 6e - heating imbalance!

Hi, my issue is cold weather related. In our Broadway with a Truma 6e boiler. The space heating can’t be raised to a toasty 16 or 17 degrees (or more), without the water from the taps soon up to 60 degrees plus. Even with space heating at 10 or 11 degrees, the water heats to an unacceptable level. Unless, on a regular basis you run off hot water (and waste it effectively!), but unless on a serviced pitch (and even then when the water tap outside is frozen), there is only a limited supply!!

I understand that heating the water is a byproduct of heating the space, but there is such a gulf between the two temperatures, that are achievable, I wonder if there is an issue or a different way to tackle heating the motorhome I’ve missed, that enables toasty space and reasonable water temp?

Help much appreciated. Thanks for reading.

Can I ask what level you have set your water heater at

Hi gef, the water heater itself is set to off. The van heating is set to 13 degrees on EL1, but as the hot water is a byproduct of the van (space) heating, that is the issue, as over an hour or more the water temp continues to rise.

Try putting water heater on lowest setting.  Have you actually taken water temperature

It seems like you have a fault. On our 2019 Kemerton XL with its Truma there's much more separation between the water heating and space heating. I suggest you give Truma a call, Rachel was helpful when I called them, though that was a couple of years ago.

If you have an iNet box I'd recommend using this with your mobile phone, it uses Bluetooth and there's an App. It will give you more information than what's showing on your Truma LCD screen. You'll have in effect a remote control for your Truma.

I've already reported this on ASOF, I found that if too much is asked of the heating system it seems to automatically switch to Mix from Elec 2, in other words it starts to also use gas without you realising.

Edit: Are there any fault codes showing on your Truma LCD screen?

gef wrote:Can I ask what level you have set your water heater at

The water heater is not on at all.... surely putting this onto ECO would simply increase the temperature further. I believe that the water is heated as a byproduct of using the space heater? Turning the actual water heater on would not help??

gef wrote:Try putting water heater on lowest setting.  Have you actually taken water temperature

Oh, and water temp? I use the Truma app via the iNet and that tells me via the Status menu - Leisure battery reading, EHU, internal temp and water temp.....

Relaxez-Vous wrote:It seems like you have a fault. On our 2019 Kemerton XL with its Truma there's much more separation between the water heating and space heating. I suggest you give Truma a call, Rachel was helpful when I called them, though that was a couple of years ago.

If you have an iNet box I'd recommend using this with your mobile phone, it uses Bluetooth and there's an App. It will give you more information than what's showing on your Truma LCD screen. You'll have in effect a remote control for your Truma.

I've already reported this on ASOF, I found that if too much is asked of the heating system it seems to automatically switch to Mix from Elec 2, in other words it starts to also use gas without you realising.

Edit: Are there any fault codes showing on your Truma LCD screen?

Hi Relaxez-Vous - I guess Truma is the logical route, I just hoped for a simple solution!! In case I'd missed something?!

Yep, I use the Truma app. No, thankfully, ours doesn't switch to Mix from EL2. We only use EL2 for 5 or 10 mins just to get a boost.

No fault codes show - eventually if we don't "manage" the heating, by turning off or running hot water and therefore drawing cold water into the system, we get a 401H code.

In my list of Truma fault codes [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] is "Summer mode with empty water container" and the remedy, "Switch heater off and allow to cool. Fill boiler with water".

A simple solution would be to press the reset button that is reached by removing a small black panel, no screw driver needed. I have my doubts that this will do the trick.

Relaxez-Vous wrote:In my list of Truma fault codes [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] is "Summer mode with empty water container" and the remedy, "Switch heater off and allow to cool. Fill boiler with water".

Ha, yeah - this came up on our app. But, as far as we knew - the boiler had been filled up, certainly, the Whale fill up cuts off and the display shows full water tank... we bleed the taps to ensure water is going to all taps....

I cannot say what your problem is caused by but….you are correct heating of water is by product of room heating,it is all achieved by a single element and water heating does not need to be selected.
I have just been away for week on EHU with heating on constantly,yes the water does get hot but no problems were encountered so I can only surmise it should work without fault.

For a full list of truma fault codes and action google truma fault codes and click onto [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Sorry don’t know how to attach a link.

Kdc wrote:I cannot say what your problem is caused by but….you are correct heating of water is by product of room heating,it is all achieved by a single element and water heating does not need to be selected.
I have just been away for week on EHU with heating on constantly,yes the water does get hot but no problems were encountered so I can only surmise it should work without fault.

For a full list of truma fault codes and action google truma fault codes and click onto [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Sorry don’t know how to attach a link.

Many thanks. I’ll certainly have a look at that link.

Soon after I bought my van 4 years ago, I soon realised that in the colder months, just setting the heating only on resulted in the hot water indirectly getting heated to very hot levels.
From what I learned on here, this was fairly normal and I’ve learned that just using the tap/shower mixers gives the right balance to hot water temperature.
It’s not something I’ve considered to be a fault with the boiler/system.

Caraman wrote:We only use EL2 (1800W).  When the van reaches our desired temperature the thermostat turns the heat source off and the hot water cools if it has not been turned on.  I wonder if your problem is a combination of EL1 and the very low temps we have at the moment resulting in the heat source being on constantly trying to warm up the van.  If you increase to EL2 the heat source should turn off more frequently.  I also wonder if the hot air vents are all open and the fan setting is high enough.  The more heat that is transferred into the van the less is available to warm the water.

Thanks for this - it's interesting what you say about EL2. However, we've just tried EL2 with the space heat set at 13 degrees. It only got to 11 degrees, but the water was heated up to 60 degrees.

Yes, the heat air vents are fully opened. We learnt this several years ago when first getting the MoHo. At one point I just thought they opened as the fan worked... but, now we know they do have to be fully open. Does the fan merely "blow" air across the heater or does it also contribute to the heating of water within the tank? I'm a bit confused as we have tried increasing the spped of the fan - but it merely seems to contribute to the problem?...

Thanks for replying.

Dbvwt wrote:Soon after I bought my van 4 years ago, I soon realised that in the colder months, just setting the heating only on resulted in the hot water indirectly getting heated to very hot levels.
From what I learned on here, this was fairly normal and I’ve learned that just using the tap/shower mixers gives the right balance to hot water temperature.
It’s not something I’ve considered to be a fault with the boiler/system.

Hi Dbywt - but, the fact that one has to run water off, to balance the temperature, when water is not required - feels like an issue that shouldn't exist and therefore a problem?

I suppose my criticism of our Truma is that it seems to prefer to heat the water to 60C, after all heating the water to 40C is near enough to body temperature. Run a bowl of 40C Eco temperature water and you'll soon have barely warm water. I'd rather like more control over the hot water temperature than just 40C or 60C, even having a 50C option would be acceptable.

Fantail19 I'm impressed that you want your van's space heating set at only 13C. I rather prefer a setting of 20C, and around 17C when we are in bed.

I'm still thinking you have a fault with your Truma.

Relaxez-Vous wrote:I suppose my criticism of our Truma is that it seems to prefer to heat the water to 60C, after all heating the water to 40C is near enough to body temperature. Run a bowl of 40C Eco temperature water and you'll soon have barely warm water. I'd rather like more control over the hot water temperature than just 40C or 60C, even having a 50C option would be acceptable.

Fantail19 I'm impressed that you want your van's space heating set at only 13C. I rather prefer a setting of 20C, and around 17C when we are in bed.

Our issue remains that as we increase the space heat to 12C or 13C, the water temperature increases unrelenting to 65C - at which point the blower goes into overdrive to cool the heater - with an error code of W401H. And at that point we turn it off! We'd love to have a toasty 17C or 20C!!!

I think your Truma unit has developed a fault.

Relaxez-Vous wrote:I think your Truma unit has developed a fault.

Relaxez-Vous, I think you're right! The thing is we've had this issue from when we first got the van in 2019. But, not knowing any different and what with the pandemic and so on - we didn't get away all that much in the colder months. So, the issue was short lived - as we know in the warmer months, you don't need heating on - just a boost to the water for washing and so on. We have tried a variety of things, including reading the not very clear manual, on numerous occasions - but not made any progress. And yes, in this particularly cold snap - it has become more noticeable and a bigger issue for us.

A call to Truma is definitely required.

Thanks for your help and suggestions.

Caraman wrote:

Fantail19 wrote:

Relaxez-Vous wrote:....

Our issue remains that as we increase the space heat to 12C or 13C, the water temperature increases unrelenting to 65C - at which point the blower goes into overdrive to cool the heater - with an error code of W401H. And at that point we turn it off! We'd love to have a toasty 17C or 20C!!!

I think if you explain this to Truma they should be able to help.

I spoke to Truma this morning who were very helpful. They suggest that the boiler is inspected for frost damage. They also say that the boiler is designed as a gas boiler and using EL1 would never get to a pleasant temperature in cold weather conditions. (Which we knew). That the water will get hot - but, not to the point where the fault code and fan to cool the boiler kicks in and so on. They also asked about the size of the vent into the boiler - and when I said, it was manufacturer installed, they replied - well that doesn't really mean very much!

So, MoHo booked in for the middle of January.

We're leaving Castleton a day early and have just cancelled early January at Chatsworth!

Thanks to folks for your help and suggestions - have a peaceful Christmas and an adventurous New Year!!

Caraman wrote:Such a shame about shortening your trip and cancelling Chatsworth.  We were in Chatsworth in Jan this year when it was very cold but lovely.  EL2 kept us warm (set to 20 degrees in the daytime when we were in the van and 14 degrees for the rest of the time) as it has done on other occasions in very cold weather.  Hopefully the fault will be sorted and without too much expense.  When we have used boost for the hot water and then switched boost off, the blower has sometimes gone into overdrive like yours and sometimes shown an error code but on all but one occasion the error code went and the blower speed dropped to normal.  On the one occasion it didn't, I couldn't even turn the Truma off.  I had to use the reset button on the Truma's PCB before normal service was resumed.  I can't remember the error code.

Yes, we love Castleton, the village anyway and have now been to the CAMC site a couple of times. And Chatsworth of course is a brilliant site and we have been a couple of times, but not in January! Maybe in 2024!! We'll hopefully get there at other times in the year.

Ha! I think sometimes - "how long is it ok for the blower to blow at full tilt, before it's more serious?"

Anyway, thanks again for your support and help. We're home now - and we did manage to drain down, so hopefully no more damage will be done before mid January.