Can anybody help me. The hot water tap in my van dosen't work. I reckon its the micro switch. I can recall seeing a web site showing drawings of taps but I can't find it now. I like to know whats involved before I get the spanners out! Does anybody know this site, and is it a job that can be done without to much trouble.
Hiya' Rejac, welcome to the site, it's a good 'un.
As far as I am aware there are basically two kinds of tap assembly in current caravans (though I'm sure somebody who has actually done it will shoot me down in flames...lol) There is one that you have to get under the sink to release the micro-switch, (removal, cleaning and/or replacement is fairly easy and straight forward though.) .....and the other, usually if you have a fridge directly under the sink, is accessable by undoing four small screws on the side of the tap unit and gently pulling the whole lot upwards until you can get at the micro-swithes.
The microswitches in the taps are not "man enough" to switch and run pumps (4 -6 amps in some cases)
I've always fitted a relay in my pump circuit and had no trouble with microswitches.It's wired so that the microswitch switches a relay and the relay switches the pump.
Any Autoshop should be able to supply a 12 volt relay.
So is the problem that the switches burn out, rather than stop mechanically working? If I fit a relay, presumably all four taps will be connected to the one relay which will still be energised by the microswitch in each tap.
Fit the relay coil connections in place of the pump, then take a 12V feed (fused) from the battery to a relay contact connection and the other relay contact connection to the pump. The negative side of the pump goes to the battery negative. When any tap is turned on, the relay energises (taking milliamps through the microswitch, instead of amps) and the relay contacts switch the pump on.
I've had no microswitch burnout in the past 20 years.