broken heater

killalanerr

we had to cut our trip short as the heater packed up last night,it was working early in the night but it woke me in the night clicking away trying to fire but it never did light after that,its a trauma water and blow heater in an 04 van,all the other gas appliances are working i had a look but could not see any thing obvious ,any ideas of what it might be ?

eura

killalanerr wrote: »

we had to cut our trip short as the heater packed up last night,it was working early in the night but it woke me in the night clicking away trying to fire but it never did light after that,its a trauma water and blow heater in an 04 van,all the other gas appliances are working i had a look but could not see any thing obvious ,any ideas of what it might be ?

Is there water in the boiler, with the cold weathe upon us, the water dump valve mave have opened to let off the water from the boiler. To stop it from freezing,thus causing damage to the boiler

killalanerr

Thanks but thats the first thing i checked.

Aidan_M_M

they will light and run without gas anyway . Not long term unless it's a more modern Combi ., but certainly for a few mins . I've had a good few burn out the combustion fan , it's down low near the bottom . Get someone to turn it on to Water heating only , while you're at the outside vent , see if you can hear clicking only , or a fan blowing and clicking .

killalanerr

ya the fan is runing and you can hear it clicking trying to fire but after about 8 to 10 clicks it cuts out showing the red light at the control dial .

Aidan_M_M

are you sure it's not the blower fan you hear? That;s why I said try it on water only. It'll be a much quieter fan than the blower fan .

killalanerr

ok i will try it tomorrow and see what i can hear Thanks

Aidan_M_M

no worries .

killalanerr

we got the heating working but we are still not sure why it wouldnt work when we were away,i ran it on water heater to start as was suggested and it fired first time i then ran the blow heat and again it fired with no problem,
after having to cut one trip short because of no heat its a bit of a worry with the nights getting colder id like to be sure the heater would work ?

niloc1951

Are you running propane or butane.
It's getting cold now and butane will stop gassing when it reaches 0° centigrade.
While it can be a few degrees higher outside, as the liquid gas turns from liquid to gas it draws heat from within the gas locker, which has only limited ventilation to the outside world, this in turn can cause the 'local' temperature inside the locker to fall to zero and the liquid will stop gassing until the temperature rises again.

Apart from summer time it is best to use propane, particularly if there is expected to be a draw-off during the night hours.

Aidan_M_M

Aidan_M_M wrote: »

they will light and run without gas anyway . Not long term unless it's a more modern Combi ., but certainly for a few mins . I've had a good few burn out the combustion fan , it's down low near the bottom . Get someone to turn it on to Water heating only , while you're at the outside vent , see if you can hear clicking only , or a fan blowing and clicking .

edit , that should obviously read run without water...

killalanerr

niloc1951 wrote: »

Are you running propane or butane.
It's getting cold now and butane will stop gassing when it reaches 0° centigrade.
While it can be a few degrees higher outside, as the liquid gas turns from liquid to gas it draws heat from within the gas locker, which has only limited ventilation to the outside world, this in turn can cause the 'local' temperature inside the locker to fall to zero and the liquid will stop gassing until the temperature rises again.

Apart from summer time it is best to use propane, particularly if there is expected to be a draw-off during the night hours.

im running on LPG dont know if you get this problem with this gas i had just filled it that day as we had ran out the first night ,the fridge and hop were running fine it was only the blow heating that would not fire

niloc1951

killalanerr wrote: »

im running on LPG dont know if you get this problem with this gas i had just filled it that day as we had ran out the first night ,the fridge and hop were running fine it was only the blow heating that would not fire

Probably not non-gassing gas so.
However as LPG is a mixture of Propane and Butane, in cold weather the butane will stop gassing but the propane will continue to gas. This phenomenum will result in gas appliances loosing a supply of gas, when the propane runs out, while at the same time the gas tank will still contain liquid butane. (all the propane is gone, the butane is still left but it won't turn from liquid to gas)

It has been known that prolonged use and multiple refills for LPG (Autogas), with a high proportion of butane, during cold weather has resulted in a nearly full tank of butane. This answers the mystery often posed after a user has 'run out of gas' but the tank only takes a few litres and it's 'full' again.

The extent to which occurs will depend on the mixture, which may change seasonally.