# 2001 Hymer 584 Water Frozen with heating on



## Aquasue (Mar 22, 2010)

Hi all 

We recently bought a double floor B584 A class with the intention of doing skiing holidays. My belief was that they were fully winterised but recently on our first trip to the Alps that overnight the water system was freezing.

This is with having the water heater on gas and the internal heating set to the lowest setting (5degrees.) After a day in the sunshine the water would eventually start flowing again or if I turned the heating up to full and the inside van temperature reached 16 degrees.

Does anyone have any solutions as to how we can stop this happening in future? I thought having the heating on the lowest setting would be enough to stop the water pipes from freezing but obviously not. It made my morning hair washing a nightmare and delayed our depature to the ski lifts which my other half was not too impressed about.

Many thanks in advance 

Sue


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## JeanLuc (Jan 13, 2007)

Hi Sue,

I cannot speak from direct experience, since our Hymer has a single floor, and whilst we have not been out in skiing temperatures, we have never had any problems when temperatures have fallen well below zero. But here are some thoughts that may apply to your Hymer.

Have you checked the ends of the Truma warm air ducting in the floor void? They probably have 'butterfly" valves on them so you can adjust the amount of warm air being pumped into each area. You will certainly have seen these inside the van where the outlets are situated in the furniture bases. If the previous owner had shut the floor void outlets in order to maximise heat in the living area, it could have left the floor void without sufficient heat.
Another thing to check; the outlet pipes have a habit of coming adrift from the Truma as time goes by. They terminate in a metal ring that fits into a metal collar on the Truma. This has only happened once to us, but others have posted about it. If it has happened, the pipe collar needs a firm push back into its seating. A typical symptom of this problem would be a very hot under-wardrobe cupboard where the Truma sits. (n.b. this area gets hot anyway, but if a pipe drops off, the Truma pumps very hot air into the cupboard - it gets like an oven.) Have a look around with a torch. I think there are three outlet pipes from memory, and some of them may be around the back of the unit.

Finally, if all else fails, perhaps you could wash your hair when returning from the slopes? I presume your hair is under a safety helmet during the day? (Slightly tongue-in-cheek).

Philip


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## hogan (Oct 31, 2006)

We have a B574 The same as yours but a different layout.We have been down to minus 20 with no problems heater on 15 degs.I think it will be a simple fix as per the post above.
We have a outlet in the garage make sure this is open..


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## Boff (May 10, 2005)

Hi Sue!



Aquasue said:


> I thought having the heating on the lowest setting would be enough to stop the water pipes from freezing but obviously not.


Depending on the outside temperature, the lowest setting of the heater might simply be insufficient to keep the water from freezing. The only possibility then is to keep the heating on a higher setting.

When we do winter camping in our Euramobil - also with a double floor - then we set the heating to about 16 degrees at night. The thermostat then does the rest.

Best Regards,
Gerhard


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## Aquasue (Mar 22, 2010)

Thanks for the replies guys  

I got my other half to check where the pipes attach to the boiler and he said they were ok - so it just looks like 5 degrees on my thermostat is not warm enough to keep the pipes from not freezing in the double floor.

We didn't find it a problem having low temperatures in the van at night time as we were using thick duvets but I guess we don't have a choice and need to set the thermostat higher and use more gas to prevent any damage to the pipes from them freezing.

Oh well.......


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