# Truma boiler disaster



## spartacus (Jul 10, 2008)

Woken up at 4am by a strong smell of burning - leapt out of bed to see where the fire was, inside looked fine so checked the garage (which is under our bed) and all seemed fine. Then noticed that the red alarm light was glowing on the Truma dial/switch indicating an electrical fault. Checked the system through and we could not get either hot water or heating on gas or electric, fuses all intact (visible ones anyway) gas supply fine.
This is a disaster for us as we fulltime in the van and so without hot water it becomes virtually uninhabitable (no shower)  
I ring the supplying dealer at 9am stressing that this is urgent and finally get a response at 2pm saying that Truma UK, who were only 30 mins. drive away, would be happy to look at it for us BUT not until the 12th August!!!
How long can you go with only a cold shower :?: 
Have now got it booked in at Lowdhams for tomorrow morning but with a slim chance of sorting it quickly - they tell me that Truma, along with the rest of the MH and caravan industry are about to shut down for five weeks so support and parts will be slow going  
This fits in with the question raised yesterday about the motorhome industry anf the general poor level of service and over inflated prices etc.
Lowdhams can do their bit by diagnosing the fault (hopefully) but will be let down by Truma and the lack of urgency in supplying parts.
The van is only three months old so reliability looking poor with such a major failure after a very short time.

Any ideas on what may be the cause?

Stephen


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## gromett (May 9, 2005)

Ouch, that really sucks 
What's this about everyone going on holiday for 5 weeks?

Karl


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## spartacus (Jul 10, 2008)

Yes Karl - five weeks shut down or skeleton staffing for the "trade". Can you believe it, the busiest time of the year and the industry (apart from dealers) wraps up. The service is bad enough when they're at full chat


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## 101776 (Nov 13, 2006)

I know this is not really going to be helpful as I can't recall the exact location, but there is a chap who works independantly quite close to Lowdham on a farm, and he did a brilliant job of fixing my truma on the first Hobby I had, I got his info from one of the workshop managers at Brownhills of all places.....

Perhaps a discreet enquiry at Brownhills might shed some light on his name and location??, it was within 5 miles of Lowdham Leisure up a farm road.

I do hope someone helps you, nothing worse than being out of sorts with your truma! (damn expensive temperamental things!)


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## Sundial (May 11, 2005)

*Truma*

If you are looking for Truma parts, you might find that MIRIAD PRODUCTS will be able to help you. I have rung one morning and taken delivery the next day - a dump valve for our Truma boiler actually.

Hope this helps
Sundial


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## clarky021 (Jun 15, 2009)

*re*

We had a similar problem in the past and it turned out to be the printed circuit board.Unscrew the plastic cover on the top of the boiler and unclick the circuit board carefully from its clips and 2 plugs.Take a look at the board and look for water ingress or rusting marks on the board.We bought a replacement board off a dealer on ebay last month for £99 and it took 5 mins to fit,it works a treat and apparently is a very common fault with the boiler.Sometimes it can even be something as simple as the circuit board becoming dislodged from its plugs or clips.Hope that might help.


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## spartacus (Jul 10, 2008)

Thanks for the input, Lowdhams have spoken to Truma about it and the prime candidates are the PCB and the cooling fan. They say that if something was burning it could indicate a "two part" fault - something went faulty which caused something else to burn out.
Anyway I have to go the dealer or offical Truma service agent route to maintain the guarantee. The worry of course is the time it will take to sort


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## UncleNorm (May 1, 2005)

Hi Spartacus! I recognise your problem as we had a failure whilst way up in Scotland in March.

Within minutes of phoning our dealer, Timberland Motorhomes, they had been in contact with Truma. Truma suggested it could be the PCB and Timberland's Lee Sowerby was happy to send a new one by post. I declined the offer as we had other means of survival! We were happy to leave it until we got home.

We returned home for Mother's Day, and, on the Monday, I took Our Coral to Timberland, partly to have some warranty work sorted, and partly to have the boiler sorted. I visited Timberland on the Wednesday to be told that all the warranty work had been completed and a gentleman from Truma would be visiting on the Thursday morning to FIT A NEW BOILER! I'm just so pleased that I did not waste my time trying the PCB solution!

Once the plastic PCB cover has been removed, three LEDs can be seen, red, amber and green. My red LED had been flashing a coded message which translated into _*NEW BOILER NEEDED*_. So, by 11.00am on the Thursday, the new boiler had been fitted by the man from Truma. We got a call to ask us to collect the MH which was quickly packed and on the road again. And we all lived happily ever after.... :roll:

But I was seriously impressed by the after-sales service from Timberland and Staff.


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## HarleyDave (Jul 1, 2007)

_But I was seriously impressed by the after-sales service from Timberland and Staff. _

That'll be an example of "you get what you pay for" in action.

Cheers

Dave


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## spartacus (Jul 10, 2008)

*Truma boiler disaster Update*

After a bit of argument and what seemed like a poor response yesterday from Truma, Lowdhams received me at 8.30 this morining - all bright and shiny after a cold shower  
They stripped the boiler to find burnt out motor and melted printed circuit board  This was, apparently, the worse case Truma failure they'd ever seen :!: 
Anyway, parts were replaced - they just happened to have them "in stock" and we were back up and running by mid-afternoon 

No-one has any idea what caused such a major failure, but let's hope that's my share of boiler problems for the next few years.

Hats off to Lowdhams, they went the extra mile in getting me at such short notice - the workshop is full to overloaded with work.

Mind, it might be a good sales ploy as I spent a lot of time browsing their stock 

Stephen


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## cabby (May 14, 2005)

well I will keep them on my list of good dealers then.

cabby


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## Rapide561 (Oct 1, 2005)

*Truma*

Hi

Good to hear you are up and running again.

Did you have the work done at Lowdhams Huddersfield or Nottingham? Did you buy the van from there?

Cheers.


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## spartacus (Jul 10, 2008)

Thanks Russell, we had the work done at Nottingham which is where we bought the van. We ordered it in September last year to take advantage of the cash back they/Knaus were offering and they held it on a small(ish) deposit until we paid for and collected it at the end of April. So the deal worked out well for us


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## Graham101 (Jun 26, 2007)

Guess you are not the only one with a truma boiler problem!! I was in the NE last week when mine packed up and I am afraid I am past cold showers nowadays!! Truma gave me details of 4 local truma approved engineers and I found another, but none of them could even look at it for over 10 days. I gave up and came home. Locally, my own dealer and twootheras could not look at it for another week. Eventually, I got amobile engineer to look at it and it seems to be the ECB and parts are now awaited. Luckily I am still in the third year of the CI guarantee otherwise I would be even more annoyed at the apparent lack of any attempt to give any service even when the companies knew I was on the move. The ECB costs £110 plus VAT!! In addition my regulator packed up in June and I have since had stainless steel pipes fitted. Never had problems in over 20 years with a regulator attached to the bottle, but I guess no one manufacturers anything today that is intended to last.

Hope to get on mr travels again soon - that is if this problem is sorted


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## Jezport (Jun 19, 2008)

It would be more of a disaster if it was out of warranty. Glad you got it sorted.


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## UncleNorm (May 1, 2005)

Since the new boiler was fitted, it has stopped working twice: once at Amboise and once last weekend at Southport. Inconvenient to say the least when the MH is OFF hook-up. :x 

At Amboise, I removed the 1amp fuse from the PCB, checked it, it was fine, put it back in place and started the boiler!! Hmm... :? 

Seven weeks on, at Southport, I repeated the above procedure but nipped-up the fuse retaining clips before replacing the fuse. The boiler struck up straight away. Will it happen again? Was it just a loosely fitting fuse? Watch this space! :roll:


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