Truma hot water leaking

Diggings · Senior Member

Truma hot water leaking

macka17 · Guru

Well.
If it's in an air line to gas flow.
I'd say it was welded/soldered screwed to side of tank to hold in place, and the joint/whatever, has sprung a leak.

If leak is in side of main tank.
Hmm Contact a plumber.
I wouldn't mess with anything pertaining to gas flow to burner.
Might get a big bang.

laurieoz · Senior Member

When you say " a leak" do you mean a gas leak ?

Have you tested for a gas leak? Do you smell it or have you leak checked with soapy water?

If a gas leak get it checked by a gas plumber now and turn the gas off!

If by "leak" you mean a water leak, it could be the relief valve leaking or a hole in the tank or a fitting

dieseltojo · Senior Member

Hi Dave,

The Truma unit has two pressure reducing overflows, one is from that area.The other is also activated with a tap through the floor. It should drip water from there occasionally.

If it does it constantly, check and clean your mains pressure reducing valve. Then run it only on the pump and keep an eye on it.

I have found most HWS blow up due to too much pressure from mains supply. A pump when new will send water at roughly 50 psi and not effect a HWS.

So if it is the town water pressure, just run the van on the pumps from your tanks till you can get time to clean or replace the pressure reducing valve. smile

bobkat · Veteran Member

Hi Dave & Welcome,

Just had the same fault on ours and it is only 6 months old so it was repaired under warranty

They replaced the blue pressure valve at the base of the system it is inline in the water pipe.

Hope this helps

Diggings · Senior Member

Sorry its a water leak, happened after I was hooked up in a town, even though it didn't seem to be much pressure

Diggings · Senior Member

Thanks for the replies

laurieoz · Senior Member

When I purchased my new motor home 2 years ago it did not a mains pressure water inlet. I complained at the time but they refuesd to install a mains pressure inlet.

I do not miss it -never needed to use one - and what I have read about mains pressure inlet problems , I am happy I do not have one.

dieseltojo · Senior Member

laurieoz wrote:
When I purchased my new motor home 2 years ago it did not a mains pressure water inlet. I complained at the time but they refuesd to install a mains pressure inlet.
I do not miss it -never needed to use one - and what I have read about mains pressure inlet problems , I am happy I do not have one.

Hi laurieoz,

I don't bother with mains either. I prefer to use the pumps and just fill the tanks when ever I need to.

Dave I feel you pain if its a leak it is a gonner. Mine broke down just this year and I put another Truma in. It had lasted 13 .5 years so RIP old Truma.

Ozzie_Traveller · Senior Member

G'day Dave

If your leak is a water / steam dribble coming out of the heat / hot air vent on the outside of the HWS, it probably signifies that the main stainless-steel water tank has rusted somewhere and steam is escaping. It happened twice for us ... solution each time was a $1200 replacement unit.

The 3rd Truma hws to fail did so spectacularly whereby it burst internally and the water pump [being a well behaved water pump] continued pumping water into the hws unit, causing flooding of the rear boot where the hws was installed. The first we knew about it when returning from shopping was a Niagara Falls look-alike coming from the rear of the MH. Each of the 3 units gave us about 2-1/2 yrs of use

We then swapped to a Suburban hws unit that uses a sacrificial anode - and now, 4-1/2 yrs later it's still going like a breeze

Hope this helps
Phil

dieseltojo · Senior Member

Ozzie_Traveller wrote:
G'day Dave

If your leak is a water / steam dribble coming out of the heat / hot air vent on the outside of the HWS, it probably signifies that the main stainless-steel water tank has rusted somewhere and steam is escaping. It happened twice for us ... solution each time was a $1200 replacement unit.

The 3rd Truma hws to fail did so spectacularly whereby it burst internally and the water pump [being a well behaved water pump] continued pumping water into the hws unit, causing flooding of the rear boot where the hws was installed. The first we knew about it when returning from shopping was a Niagara Falls look-alike coming from the rear of the MH. Each of the 3 units gave us about 2-1/2 yrs of use

We then swapped to a Suburban hws unit that uses a sacrificial anode - and now, 4-1/2 yrs later it's still going like a breeze

Hope this helps
Phil

Hi Phil, You can't be that unlucky.

Mine lasted 13 .5 years as I wrote above.

The Truma runs at two heat settings 60 and t75 degrees I think.

I never recommend the higher setting as it is simply too hot. Too hot pressure wise, use wise, and the modern ceramic mixing taps don't like the extra heat.

That said the Truma has a bad rap from not being fitted correctly, and the said plumber not appreciating the preferred replacement of the pressure reducing valve in the new installation. I mean if the thing is not very old and blows up there is a problem in the system and the first thing to look at is pressure.

I know that we can all have bad luck. I am betting the bloke that fitted the suburban was not the same one that fitted the Truma though. smile

Ozzie_Traveller · Senior Member

G'day mate

Agreed re lack of luck in this area ... also

we always used the lower temp to avoid both scalds & having to insert more cold water to balance the temp for showers & sink use ~ leaving the water tank to last another day or two before refills needed, and

most of our time is travelling the outback - so our water was straight out of the ground the same as the local town people were drinking, and very occasionally, filtered river water

As mentioned above, since fitting the Suburban and we're still cruising the same sort of places as before, we have had over 4 yrs of no problems in the hws department

Phil

Santa · Guru

We have a Truma gas/240 volt in our MH, 9 years old and has never missed a beat, an added bonus stainless steel tank so no rust or sacrificial anode to worry about. smile

-- Edited by Santa on Saturday 15th of October 2016 11:52:46 AM

Ozzie_Traveller · Senior Member

Santa wrote:
We have a Truma gas/240 volt in our MH, 9 years old and has never missed a beat, an added bonus stainless steel tank so no rust or sacrificial anode to worry about.

G'day mate

What I am trying to say in my above posts is that my Truma hws units with s/steel tanks - identical to yours - have all rusted out at around the 2-1/2 to 3 yrs mark. Three of the bluddy things - and we're using the MH for around 280 days each year, travelling outback Oz

Since going to the Suburban unit with its sacrificial anode, we have now got over 4-1/2 yrs of use, inspected the anode annually and have replaced the anode at the 3yr mark. The current anode will probably be replaced at Christmas, ready for next year's 8-months of travelling and daily use of the hws

Hope this helps
Phil

Santa · Guru

Ozzie_Traveller wrote:
Santa wrote:
We have a Truma gas/240 volt in our MH, 9 years old and has never missed a beat, an added bonus stainless steel tank so no rust or sacrificial anode to worry about.
G'day mate
What I am trying to say in my above posts is that my Truma hws units with s/steel tanks - identical to yours - have all rusted out at around the 2-1/2 to 3 yrs mark. Three of the bluddy things - and we're using the MH for around 280 days each year, travelling outback Oz
Since going to the Suburban unit with its sacrificial anode, we have now got over 4-1/2 yrs of use, inspected the anode annually and have replaced the anode at the 3yr mark. The current anode will probably be replaced at Christmas, ready for next year's 8-months of travelling and daily use of the hws
Hope this helps
Phil

Evening Phil,

One of the advantages of stainless steel is that it doesn't rust.

If you had two tanks rust they couldn't have been stainless tanks.

Is it possible poor quality highly mineralised water was the culprit?

Diggings · Senior Member

Stainless steel wont rust but unfortunately the welds do, so there isn't much advantage in having a stainless tank, I thought this thing would last a life time not 3 years. and I don't use bore water usually tank water, very disappointed and I have no idea how I will get the unit out without dismantling the wardrobe.