Just a quick survey , anyone else have their bulkhead fitted gas regulator fail and at what age did it fail and did you get a replacement paid for or had to cough up the readies yourself. Did you replace like for like or opt out of Truma and look elsewhere ?
Ours has failed at 1 year 11 months and 64 days of use.
Having had that type of regulator on two vans over an eight year period I have not had any problems. I would add that I always turn the gas off at the cylinder overnight and when not in use.
Quote: Originally posted by David Klyne on 27/11/2011
Having had that type of regulator on two vans over an eight year period I have not had any problems. I would add that I always turn the gas off at the cylinder overnight and when not in use.
David
same here , made not a jot of difference .
wont be replacing it with a truma , gaslow with 5 year guarantee , the way forward i think .
Our truma regulator lasted less than a year!! We replaced ourselves and then our dealer refunded cost. Apparently it is a well known problem on lots of different units. Don't think it's anything to do with how they are used, just poor quality.If it fails again we will be replacing with better quality.
apparently its to do with oil / contaminates from gas cylinder and rubber from pigtail blocking regulator.
a stainless steel pigtail is supposed to help the situation , hence 5 year warranty with gaslow regulator when used with s/s pigtail
There is now a 'filter' that Truma are supplying to stop the regulator getting blocked, this is being widely reported in the Caravan press and questions being asked on forums.
Below is my reply, be in no doubt though, the Truma supplied GOK regulator is far superior than the Gaslow supplied Cleese regulator.....
Forget all the rubbish about the 'oil' leeching from the hose, if this were true, the hose would resemble a shrivelled prune and so hard it would break like a stick of rock! There is also far, far to much present to come from such a short length of hose.
The Cleese Regulator as promoted as a cure together with a stainless hose, yes the reg will not block because it will let the oil pass through, that's not just for 5yrs, it never will block. Once through though, that's not to say it's not then free to do more expensive damage to gas appliances, which be in no doubt it DOES!
Water heater is fav, ask how much it will cost to change a Truma Ultra-stor gas valve?
I will add, if your vans pipework system goes to a single vertical manifold of taps first, then any oil present will not pass this point, in this case the Clesse reg is a suitable work around, get them from BES.co.uk, about £14
However if your appliances are fed directly from the main feed pipe, even with a isolation tap in-line, think long and hard before changing.
Juries out for me on the stainless hose, I'm sure it won't help one jot with the oil problem, but and from the beginning with this idea, I've been dead against rubber hose taking full bottle pressure, up to 300psi! and a recipe for a disaster if ever there was one... no? well just wait until these post 2003 vans are 15 years old or more and rarely if ever serviced?!
Overall then and having a life of 25 years or more, stainless hose must be a good safety investment, if not on your own van, when pitched next to an old one several years from now!!
Which leaves Truma's regulator which is actually not theirs but made by GOK, it being an excellent reg for gas but was never designed to cope with something that should not be present, not it's fault either then.
As for Truma making money, it did original cost them in the region of half a million pounds on replacements, until they found out the reg was NOT at fault, so stopped changing them for free.
In the mean time they or more likely GOK have tried to make a trap which works, I know they have had several false dawns with traps that 'almost' work, maybe this new one is one that does 100%?
So what is the best thing to do to save yourself in the meantime, there are a couple of simple rules which should help.
1, When fetching a new bottle, make sure it stays upright and is not shuck about in transit, this will ensure the 'oil' if present, stays at the bottom of the bottle where it is out of harms way. (did I not say? it is in the bottle, be sure of that, but it's a lottery, in some, but far from all).
2, Before connection, crack open the bottle for a second and shut, repeat two or three times, this will eject any oil trapped in the pick up pipe and or valve itself. While doing this, if you hold a paper towel over the inlet, anything being blown out will be caught for you to see in advance.
well i can get a replacement truma for £30 which is reasonable ( once i can be sure its 10mm not 8 mm , pretty sure it is 10 like ) and a stainless hose about £20 . not too bad i suppose.
Hi Gary - I certa8nly hope this does not happen to me. But wonder if I should change anyway just in case it worjks its way to the appliances. Also you mention that the bottles should be vertical I wonder why fork lifts trucks fit their bottles horizontal. Not questioning your answer just curious.
------------- A barman is just a pharmacist
with a limited inventory
Hi Gary - I certa8nly hope this does not happen to me. But wonder if I should change anyway just in case it worjks its way to the appliances. Also you mention that the bottles should be vertical I wonder why fork lifts trucks fit their bottles horizontal. Not questioning your answer just curious.
The reason a forklift bottle is on its side is because the the lpg is feed into the fork lift as liquid. If you tried this with a standard bottle it could be a potential disas0ter. A standard bottle is only filled to 80% of total volume to prevent the possibilty of liquid entering the regulator
Ours only lasted about a year it failed while we were on site and I had to get a mobile fitter out cost me £100 including the callout but we needed the gas to work so we had to pay it.He told me too about the stainless steel pigtail where would I find one any suggestions.Cheers Alex
The fork truck question is more part of the debate than it would appear?
Since writing originally, part of what I said above is, I've found, incorrect, this is the last bit of the second part of the self help information where I said "this will eject any oil trapped in the pick up pipe and or valve itself"
There is no 'pick up pipe' just the neck of the valve flush with the tank sides inside.
I'd wrongly assumed there might be a short stub of pipe, but, I now realise this being present and standing clear of the tank sides, would actually help prevent oil escaping by preventing it getting trapped in the outlet.
It may well then be a cheap solution to the whole problem should those actually responsible ever admit to it?!
............
As far as LPG bottles for fork trucks and the like are concerned, these do have a long pick up pipe angled down and the bottle has to be mounted so the pipe is at the bottom, this makes sure only liquid comes out, as said, it changes to gas after being delivered to engines in liquid form
Original one lasted just over 1 year from new, got a replacement from the dealer who said if Truma accepted responsibility I could have it free, if not £40. Surprisingly enough Truma agreed and I got the replacement free. When I fitted it I also upgraded the hose to SS and now also burn off any gas in the system at shutdown. Didnt do that on the first one..........So far so good. (but because I have no faith that any of the changes will make a huge difference so I always carry a spare reg )
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Topic: Truma regulator failures
