Carver II water heater pro - any ideas??

Hi All, Has anyone got any experience with the use/maintenance/repair of the Carver II water heater. I have just sourced my first van - Talbot from 1994 converted from new by Autosleeper. The previous owner informed me that it was a simple procedure. I have followed the manual to the absolute letter - both gas and electric (thus creating a faster warm up time of approx. 20 minutes")
Green light comes on followed shortly by red light, wait 3 minutes and try again. Done this 18 times now. I think that I have pretty much exhausted all ideas from myself - (checked water in heater, checked supply of gas and 230volt mains electric)
Please, can anyone help with this problem - I have looked on another website which suggests that Carver are now not in business (not water heaters, at least). If mine is beyond economic repair, can anyone suggest a suitable replacement please?

We are really looking forward to getting out there with our new to us van. This is the only piece of kit that is not operational (quite lucky really considering the age of the van)

Thanks
Hippo

Instructions for Carver heaters can be downloaded from this website.....

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as for replacement heaters - Henry water heaters are supposed to be a direct replacement.

The red light indicates there is either air in the system or not enough power available. I cant remember which, but this unit was fitted to many vans including Executives, Boxer based Talisman and others. Someone will pick your thread up and answer I am sure.

Hi Hippo
I had the same problem with my Executive when I first had it. It turned out to be a faulty switch. The heater was perfectly OK. Got a new switch from ARC SYSTEMS Gary even fitted it for me. He has both new and reconditioned switches at a very reasonable price. Check out the web site.
Cheers. Whisky.

Hi All,

My pennyworth,
If you change to a 'Henry' unit, you will need to use their switch/wire as they are sadly different (bummer or what !!)
Brian

hippo wrote: I have followed the manual to the absolute letter - both gas and electric (thus creating a faster warm up time of approx. 20 minutes")
Green light comes on followed shortly by red light, wait 3 minutes and try again. Done this 18 times now. I think that I have pretty much exhausted all ideas from myself - (checked water in heater, checked supply of gas and 230volt mains electric)

Have you tried the heater on electric alone and gas alone? Unlikely that both the electric element and gas burner both faulty so could point to faulty switch or circuit board. You could, if you've a couple of hours to spare, look through the Carver thread on Preloved. It's only 197 pages long but every possible scenario is there somewhere............. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Hi again,
Just remembered (grey cells ) when 'tugging' we had the same problem and i bought a new module, only to find out that the wiring plug had dropped out of the heater (that will teach me to drive over rough ground too fast) in my defense it was a case of 'momentum' won the day ... but still egg all over my face !!
Worth a look
Brian

Hi
I had this problem where the red light comes on after few seconds, took the outside cover off and then the internal plate (a couple of screws) and had a look at the burner and found the end of the burner had rusted away so removed the burner ass and made a end plate fitted to burner and refitted result working fine.
maybe an idea just to have a look see
vwt4
Mike

You might wish to try working through this useful procedure.

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vwt4 wrote:Hi
I had this problem where the red light comes on after few seconds, took the outside cover off and then the internal plate (a couple of screws) and had a look at the burner and found the end of the burner had rusted away so removed the burner ass and made a end plate fitted to burner and refitted result working fine.
maybe an idea just to have a look see
vwt4
Mike

Same thing happened to mine simply replace burner box,

Thanks guys, seems these little monkeys are a troublesome piece of kit - makes you wonder how they sold so many without offering the aspect of a safety recall???
Anyway, got a day off work tomorrow and have set the tools up ready to tackle this water heater. Tried to contact Gary at ARC systems (he has written the all the help tips on this subject on the website, "Preloved") No reply as yet...
Trolled through a lot of his replies and there does seem to be quite a number of separate issues with these heaters. OK, wish me luck, I'm going in.............

Thanks again everyone



Hippo.

Let us know how you get on Hippo, we may be able to help further
vwt4
mike

Hi there , silly question I know but we will be using are camper for the first time next week , can I leave my water heater on all day when on site , its a carver cascade .Thank you . Roger.

Hi Roger

It's not a silly question if you don't know the answer. It would be silly not to ask it though !

Assuming you will be on hook-up, you can switch it on as soon as you arrive, and switch off when you leave. It will be perfectly OK.

If you are using gas however, it might be wise to switch it on an hour or so before you want to use the hot water, and off again afterwards. (An hour should be more than long enough, as the water heats up surprisingly quickly.)

They don't use huge amounts of gas, but there's not much point in keeping the water hot for hours on end when you won't be needing it.

Dave

You can leave it on all day on either gas or electric if you want to, it is thermostatically controlled but the insulation jacket is only polystyrene so heating as Gromit says for maybe an hour morning and evening would be sensible..

where about's in manchester are you?

Apologies - talking rubbish.

Didn't read the details properly.

Dave

That's brilliant thank you very much to all of you , we are looking forward to are first camping in are new but second hand van . Happy Camping to all .Roger and Pam.