Hope you're all enjoying the caravan season! Wee question about the water heater in a touring caravan. When leaving the van for the day or few hours when away do you just leave the heater on or switch it off? I'm always afraid of it over heating ??
Thanks!
I'll probably be dismissed as paranoid by some, and heralded as 'green' by others!
If it's not needed in my absence, it gets turned OFF!
My heating (Truma Combi blown air) may be set by timer to kick in (in good time) for my return so I come 'home' to a comfy van but is otherwise off. My hot water takes all of 20 minutes from cold to hot (60C), so is left off when away, and maybe turned on when I return.
Even when EHU is 'free' by means of bundled into pitch fee, I see no good reason for wasting electricity, if for no other reason than running heating elements and water heating elements is encroaching on their finite life, so why 'waste' their 'expensive' life when I don't need them!
Although I always use a Aquaroll (have sometimes hooked up to a fully serviced pitch with float valve in Aquaroll), I turn off the water pump 'just in case a leak' occurs and pumps the contents of the Aquaroll into the van, when I'm absent.
It costs nothing to be vigilant, but negligence can cost the van owner dearly IMHO!
Hi, we always turn off water heater and pump when leaving caravan for the day. The heating of the water causes a pressure build up and if one of the connections was to come off and you were not present then water pump could empty your water tub into the caravan. Not common but has happened.
Always turn off heating and water pump when out for the day, easy to turn heater on gas to get the van warm again in cooler weather and then back to EHU once warm.
Same goes for those leaving air con going when they are out, no wonder pitch fees keep going up, but that's another argument altogether.
All I leave on when we are out for the day is the battery charger and the fridge.
One reason I have kept our micro-switched water system is that there is no risk of flooding the van should a pipe come loose while we are out, unlike with a pressurised system. We did have one flood though when our old Carver Cascade water heater burst, but fortunately it didn't do any real damage. Most of the water exited through the vents in the locker floor.
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Topic: Water heater query ??
via mobile 09/6/2026 at 7:38pm
