The Vaillant wall-mounted water heater in our 1992 Autosleeper Talisman GL, sprang a leak. Our usual repair chap has discovered he can no longer get the necessary replacement parts so we need a new/reconditioned replacement heater. Anyone any ideas on a suitable replacement heater?
Thanks.
Thanks for that. Spoke to my repair chap today & he's done a sort of repair to the diaphragm housing and is coming Thur to fit it & see if it works. If it doesn't stop the leak fttb he'll set the system up so we at least have a cold water supply (never intended to use the shower in the van anyway & we can always boil a kettle for washing or washing up the old fashioned way).
Not sure what we'll decide long term after that as new water heater might not be viable (we are led to understand you can no longer install that type of heater in a mobile caravan/motorhome which is why all newer ones have room sealed flue heaters in bed-boxes with sealed flue through side wall -not a viable option because of need to reroute water and gas pipes, we'd lose valuable under seat storage, need to cut new hole in wall, and of course cost! That's not to mention the big hole in our loo compartment wall where the old heater currently sits.)
Well it's official, our water heater is unuseable and we do need a replacement. Our repair chap has tried everything he can but it's just not safe to use. He's going to keep his eyes open for a used/recon one as a new one is probably not cost effective.
In meantime we have cold water supply and as we grew up with camping, and caravans that only had cold water supply anyway and then not from onboard tanks (this is the first leisure vehicle we've had that had water heating & we were not specifically looking for that when searching for a m/van) long term we may not bother and may just stay with only cold water supply. We were never going to use the shower in the van anyway.
ebay lpg water heaters very often there are some for good prices last ones i bought were 57 quid http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221354231025?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
dare say they will be getting more . there are also uk places selling similar . portsmouth was one place . they come and go.
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Hope its not too late.Your Vaillant heater is one of the best ever manufactured.Sounds like your repair man doesnt know what he is doing.Spares are readily available.Sounds like typical frost damage.I have had to change ours twice over the years.Believe me stick with your Vaillant.Buying new seems to be the answer to everybody that do not know what their doing these days.
Regards
Rtavy
No it's not too late. As for whether he knows what he is doing, I believe he does. Apart from his gas fitting credentials he has spent years previously in the caravan repair business, previously working for one of our local main dealerships prior to setting up on his own. He's been very good when I've used him before and he gets so much work by word of mouth (always a good sign) he has had to take someone on to take some of the load.
Yes, it all started with probable frost damage. He knew immediately what the problem was likely to be (I had contacted other repairers when I was having trouble contacting him, and some hadn't even heard of the Vaillant!). He stripped down the diaphragm housing, the diaphragm itself is fine but the housing itself was leaking. He sealed that ok but it was still
leaking
from 2 "tubes" at the side which appeared to serve no purpose other than
to act as locating pins. He tried Autosleepers and various parts people, none of whom could tell him what those were for. So he sealed them (filled them with solder). Leaks stopped.
When he reassembled it all, the boiler fired up ok and no leaks. But it would not switch off when the hot tap was turned off, you had to manually switch the heater off at the control knob. In addition, the water flow rate was too slow so the heater was effectively boiling the water before it reached the tap, steam was coming out of the tap, and it was obvious steam pressure was building up inside the heater. First time he tried it before it got hot, the pressure blew the water pipes off. He resealed everything and reconnected and that's when you started to get the steam out of the hot tap.
Both he & I were wondering if the 2 tubes which had initially been leaking, were more than just locating pins but were some kind of breather or pressure release, but if so, what to do about them leaking?
He at that point was not happy that it was going to be safe to use and from what I saw (I was with him all through this) I agreed with him (bear in mind it is not intended to be a steam pressure vessel!)
He had already investigated availability of replacement parts and come up blank, even from the ones who advertise Vaillant parts. The message coming back from everyone seems to be that it is now so long since these heaters have been manufactured (1997 was mentioned?), parts are now no longer available (they may have been for some years but not now).
If anyone can come up with any solutions, I'm all ears as we cannot really afford to replace the heater and would dearly love to be able to keep it going. Indeed we're due to be going away for 5 weeks shortly and as it stands we're stuck with just cold water supply (not the end if the world I know but...). But bear in mind he's gonna have to certify it is safe to use as it is a gas installation.
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Topic: Vaillant water heater suitable replacemen
