gas heater 1999 Transit duetto

Can anyone please advise. Complete novice here. Love the van! The gas central heating  does not go on, panel light is on,gas connected, but it cuts out before ignition, red light on panel, I tried it 3 or 4 times and no heat. Greatly appreciate any suggestions...

Is this a Proper heater or a Carver P4?.

If a P4 look in the 'factsheet' section on home page and you'll find instructions (it's titled C4 by mistake). There is a fault chart indicated by the number of flashes of the red light.

If a Proper, then perhaps someone else with same heater can help.

Thanks , Its a Carver P4, I will check the factsheet, which I assume is on the Carver website.

Carver were bought by Truma some years ago and do not offer support for Carver users.

So I read up on the internet and the original Autohome Guide as suggested,and persevered..red light coming on means air in the gas pipes....so I put cooker on full, burners and oven,blasted it,  then tried the heating again and again and just now got heat! Brilliant, sad really that I feel so satisfied.....I need to go back and try it again before I get too carried away, oh and the next question will be what winterizing do I need to do......we are in the Pennines and will get freezing soon at night. Camper is in the driveway. Drain drinking water? waste tank?  Water for toilet? Any advice?

Those heaters can take many tries to purge system.As for draining down I think you have it sussed, just remember to leave taps open and also remove shower head and drop hose to floor to drain it.
Almost forgot, drain water heater.

Thanks for the advice, will do the draining, any clues how to drain the water heater, we have only just discovered how to get hot water and are not sure where it comes from,we are just grateful. Cheers.

Should be a large white drain plug on exterior of water heater on outside of the van,,Just remove it and put it safe,,in the sink is my choice,,,BUSBY65,,

You might want to put it back very loosely just to keep spiders out.

Thanks, I will check for outside white plug in daylight tommorrow,but dont recollect seeing one. Would it be under the chassis?

Its just a small plug, the size of a 10p coin, found on the face of the unit near the exhaust vent on side panel. .....slit indentation to unscrew with a 2p coin. Should be a small rubber ring washer, which can be smeared with olive oil.

Just been down and found plug! Brilliant thanks to you guys. I actually doubt whether I would ever have found it without advice, cheers! I am a trier but not too good at practical things. I love this vehicle already and it has been  a pain so far. I am just starting to understand the lure.
I also re started the heating, it seems to take quite a bit of purging the air out, but I got it going again! I could well come back today with another question that is a mystery to me ....

So, my next question...
Under the cooker at the back is an on/off switch on a small aluminium vented panel.
What is it? Should it be on or off? There seems to be a little black push button on the same panel below the on off switch, or is it something else...Thank you for reading this..

Sorry can't help on that one. I had a Symphony not a Duetto and never found such a thing. Hopefully a Duetto owner will be along soon.

Thanks Paulmold, I hope so, forum has been very helpful so far.

Hi, that switch is for the battery charger when on mains hook-up. If switched on there will also be a green charging light on the panel above the sink.
Jollywalker

That explains it, but do I ever need to switch it off? Does it harm to just leave it switched on, and then when hooking up with elec it will automatically recharge the battery. Or should I leave it switched off until van is plugged in to mains supply? I am not good at this as you can tell, but want to learn. Your help is really appreciated.

Good question maxamillion, others will have a view, but personally I find the battery will charge whilst driving, I rarely put the charger on. It does depend on time of year, these dark nights means internal lights are on longer etc. I do not leave it on permanently, but others might?
Jollywalker

Cheers, I will take your advice, my van is 1999 too.

On our Symphony we used to switch on after connecting to hook up. On the Nuevo the charger is under floor of wardrobe and stays switched on all the time so I'm sure you can leave it on all the time.

Hi  

I leave mine on all the time. After all it’s not just a charger, it’s a power supply for the van as well.

When on hook-up the van runs from the power supply not the leisure battery (apart from any short periods where you draw more than 12A) so you don’t have to worry about flattening the battery however long you leave the lights, heater, TV or anything else on.

If there’s no hook-up the power supply doesn’t do anything anyway so I can't really see a down side.

Brod

Thanks, sounds good to me.