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Hi

Just got back from a lovely weekend near London but have got a problem with the  water heater in our Pathfinder . On Friday night we all went off for a shower but when we returned we found we had no electric . It had tripped the electric hook up bollard as well as the water heater trip under the seat and blown the fuse on the water heater switch ( one on the seat side with the red light ) . I reset the trips and replaced fuse but it tripped it again straight away so i'm guessing the heating element has gone . Problem is i then tried it on gas ( first time since we've owned it ) and that didn't work either . The instructions said i should get a green light on the control panel if on and a red light if it fails to light , but got no lights at all .  Can anyone help as we go to France in a fortnight ! . Is there another fuse i should be looking for ? I checked the ones on the bottom of the main consumer unit , all ok .

Steve

hi i wonderd if you could e mail me your instructions on puting up the awning on the pathfinder.every time we go away we have different poles left over hope you can help

thank you

glenn

Hi Steve,

sad 2 hear about your water problem and problem getting the gas to work as alternative to the electric. We were thinking about upgrading our Sterling to a Pathfinder but found a little known bit of knowledge which has'nt been shouted about and you might not be aware of but Pennine had stopped putting dual fuel water heaters into the Pathfinders from 2004/5 and only fitted mains electric water heaters. Which sadly put us off a bit cos we dont always take a mains hook up.  Check if yours is actually a gas/ electric truma heater or just one of the electric only's.

la belle France magnifique!  

Spoke to a local caravan dealer today about heater problem . He suggested i try it again at home as sometimes you get air in the system which can cause the element to overheat and trip the electric . Done that tonight and still no joy on electric , just trips the power straight away . On the plus side i found a small fuse on the heater circuit board had blown and after replacing it the gas side worked . Going to leave it at that for now and run it on gas while in France . I'll get the electric side of it looked at at a later date .

Steve

Great news Steve!

Recommend you take plenty of spare fuses with you - am just back from france myself and know some things don't translate too well if the natives are'nt in a co-operative mood.

Also be aware its not easy to get our type of 4.5kg gas bottles in france they use refillables and other sizes. 

Thanks , going to take 2 full bottles and just heat water as and when we need it . We can always boil the kettle for washing if we don't fancy walking to the shower block . Do you find that it uses alot of gas ? . Still annoyed about it really as the electric is already paid for in your site fee's ! . I'll make sure i've got spare fuses with me just in case and i'll remove the fuse for the electric side so that it can't trip if little fingers switch it on by mistake ! .

Steve

Can't say how much gas they use  - its the one thing we don't have on the sterling, which was why we were looking at the pathfinder as our step up. Guess you'd be ok if you don't run it constantly and use a gas barbie too. Many caravans have dual fuel trumas fitted so if you know someone with a van they might be able to give you an indication.

Kettle takes forever to boil on the 8 amp electrics on french sites. Don't worry about the showers they are generally free and better than our uk site showers, its the "napoleon's revenge" toilets with the footpads you've got to watchout for.

Have a great time  , Dark