Carver P4 Heater

My sister and I  have recently purchased a year 2000 Topaz.  After about 20 minutes working normally the heater shuts down and shows a static red light.  Following the troubleshooting advice, I turn it off for 5 minutes or so, then switch back on.  It runs for 10 minutes and shuts down again.  I am a 77 yr old female a lot of practical DIY skills.  Is there anything not too technical I can do to solve the problem.  It is still under warranty but after the first weekend it did this, the Dealer said it was probably an air lock in the gas supply, I am thinking I should go back to them, but it would be good to know if this is a real mechanical problem.    

Also, it is not clear from the instructions whether this runs on 240v when on hook-up. 

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

We had a P4 in our old Duetto and I can say that it was a gas only unit without the ability to run on mains electric.

Just a thought, but are you using butane, or propane gas? If butane, the heater may be drawing so much gas on a chilly evening that the bottle cannot supply enough and that is the reason for the shutdown. A few minutes later, the bottle has warmed enough to produce gas for another few minutes of use and so on.

A steady, non-flashing  red light on a P4 indicates a gas problem, more than likely air in the system. If it hasn't been used for a long time, this can take anything up to 20 firings before it remains on. And no it is not mains powered, 12v being needed to ignite it and then for the fan to run. If not on hook-up your battery will run down if used for prolonged period, if on hook-up then your charger keeps your 12v system topped up.

Just had the same issue with our new Topaz the first time we used it over easter, left the heater on over night thinking it will come on as needed (0 deg c warning over night) but nothing and van was freezing. Turned the control knob up fan came on then off after about 20s, kept doing it and the red light was on.

Eventually noticed that the 12v battery light on the zig unit was on so switched the charger on (240v hook up) and hey presto heater worked, so I would say your 12v battery is under it's operating voltage and your heater is working correctly, either hook up the 240 volts or run the engine and charge the leisure battery.

Bit silly that it won't run on 240v even the fan, how does one wild camp in the winter without the heater working??

Thanks for all the replies.  We are using Propane.  The battery is fine, there is a monitor so I have been checking that.  I guess the only solution is to keep waiting and re-igniting and make a note of timings etc.  Not what you want to do when cold and wanting to get sorted for moving on.  I was puzzled because in the previous van, a Romahome Duo the Carver heater only had on and off no warm up and fan speed change and it always stayed on (running on Butane) until the van was nice and cosy.  This weekend will really test the heater as the forecast is cold and we will be away for 4 nights. brrrrr!

Twinkletoes77 wrote:Thanks for all the replies.  We are using Propane.  The battery is fine, there is a monitor so I have been checking that.  I guess the only solution is to keep waiting and re-igniting and make a note of timings etc.  Not what you want to do when cold and wanting to get sorted for moving on.  I was puzzled because in the previous van, a Romahome Duo the Carver heater only had on and off no warm up and fan speed change and it always stayed on (running on Butane) until the van was nice and cosy.  This weekend will really test the heater as the forecast is cold and we will be away for 4 nights. brrrrr!

I've had a couple of issues with my Carver P4.  First it red lighted pretty quickly, so maybe not your problem, but the fix was to renove the outer cover on the side of the van, and there was quite a built up of loose limsecale dust on the heater,  Brsuhing this all out got the heater running ok.

On other occasion, just changing the gas bottle over caused air in the system which caused red lighting after nn seconds and took maybe 10-20 relights before the relighting stopped.

Marc

I think you may be referring to the Carver water heater not the P4 blower heater as there is no panel on the side of the van from a P4.

Paulmold wrote:I think you may be referring to the Carver water heater not the P4 blower heater as there is no panel on the side of the van from a P4.

Ooops, yes, you're quite right.  I'll get my coat ...