Quote: Originally posted by BOINGFC on 27/7/2020
Hi I have just bought an Elddis Autostratus Motor home, which has the Carver Cascade 2 Water Heater, I'm really struggling to locate the problem, no lights come on the control panel at all, either when Leisure battery or hooked up to the mains, My Volt meter confirmed that 12v power from the Leisure battery was getting to the panel, but still not lights, cant work out what i am missing.
Gas is on as my cooker works, water pump is working as tap run water.
any help greatly appreciated
That sounds very much like a blown fuse. The carver heater controls work off 12 volts, so there is probably a fuse somewhere that feeds it. If I remember right there is a fuse inside the control box on the one in my caravan, so if yours is a small box like mine it will have a fuse inside it too.
Strange that there's no lights on if the control box is getting 12 volts. Is the earth connection to the box ok? That box just looks like a slightly later version to the one I have.
If there are fuses inside the box, like mine, have you tried just removing them and putting them back, as sometimes the tiniest bit of corrosion that you can't even see will stop them making contact properly.
I must admit I'm stumped too without actually being there to look at it. Can you get to the heater unit itself to check if it's getting any power? Still seems strange there's no lights on though. Maybe a fault actually inside the control box, or a faulty light. I would imagine they are probably LEDs.
I can see the front of the heater, there is a cover i removed which exposes the elements, wiring as the red reset switch (I think) does 240v or 12v power this Heater at this point? I've also seen some videos showing a control unit which is located behind the cowel, and accesbile from outside the van, but ive not gon as far as dismatling the outside as yet
gary at arc systems when we had trouble with ours told me to reach down the back of the fire, and with my left hand feel down the back about 2/3rds up there should be an indentation from memory (this was about 15 yrs ago) and to press that area, and sure enough even tho i couldnt feel anything myself but doing so the heating would start working again! have a try, hopefully it solves your issue failing that you may have to ring gary, he has been brilliant with many members on here over the years
The actual controls for the gas heating are all operated by 12 volts, but if you have the optional electric element that will be mains. Ours is gas only, but slightly later ones were gas or electric. The two systems are completely separate, so it may be that the unit will function on electric but not gas. It certainly won't work on gas if that small control box won't light up.
Quote: Originally posted by BOINGFC on 28/7/2020
Just spoke to Gary at Arc Systems who is sending me a new Cascade Rapide 2 switch, fingers crossed this is the issue.
Thanks All
I did suspect it may be a faulty control box, as power was getting to it but no lights were coming on. I hope that does the trick. Let us know how you get on.
We have a very old Luna caravan (1996) with a cascade 2 water heater fitted. We are able to get hot water on 240v but unable to get any hot water from gas !!! Any suggestions welcome 🙏 thanks
Welcome to UKCS, Dickie123. That happened to our heater in a MH that was 10 years old when we got it. The habitation service revealed that the gas burner component was corroded & goosed. (Whiff of gas outside.) We were unable to replace the part (we didnt know about arc systems then), though you may be able to.
It didnt matter - we mostly stayed on sites with EHU as the fridge didnt work on gas either (that was corroded too).
Edit because it may be a cold temperature problem… I can’t remember the gas types to say which ones stop in the cold.
Quote: Originally posted by Fiona W on 29/12/2021
Welcome to UKCS, Dickie123. That happened to our heater in a MH that was 10 years old when we got it. The habitation service revealed that the gas burner component was corroded & goosed. (Whiff of gas outside.) We were unable to replace the part (we didnt know about arc systems then), though you may be able to.
It didnt matter - we mostly stayed on sites with EHU as the fridge didnt work on gas either (that was corroded too).
Edit because it may be a cold temperature problem… I can’t remember the gas types to say which ones stop in the cold.
Butane (Calor blue cylinder) won't work very well in the cold but Propane (Calor red cylinder) is fine. We have always found that even Butane will be ok down to about 5C anyway. Not a problem for us as we are never away in the caravan when the temperature gets anywhere near that low.
Our Carver Cascade 2 "exploded" last year. Not the gas, but the water. The through rod corroded and apparently, as I wasn't in the van at the time, it went off with quite a bang and water went everywhere. As I had only just turned it on I would imagine it was pressure from the heating water that did it. We only go on sites with electric supply because of our fridge, so I have now replaced the Carver with a new Propex electric water heater, which turned out to be £100 cheaper than getting the Carver repaired.
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Topic: Carver water heater instructions
via mobile 29/12/2021 at 10:34am
