No 230V and crackling/fizzing PSU

Hi

We were camping yesterday in Silverdale (can certainly recommend Gibralter Farm Campsite) and on return from a very wet walk, put the kettle on for a cuppa. It started to heat up and then cut out. By a process of elimination we worked out that

The kettle was working okay.
None of the 230V sockets or appliances were working.
The campsite electric supply was fine. We plugged the EHU into a couple of outlets and the site steward checked the supply. We had been hooked up for the previous 24 hours without any problems.
We tried a different EHU cable and no change and so we assumed our EHU cable was fine.
On checking the PSU we found that the RCD had not tripped but that the reverse polarity light was flickering. Fuses had not tripped.
We switched everything off, unplugged and 'set up' again. This time, the reverse polarity light flickered, the RCD would not stay up and there was an alarming fizzing and crackling noise from the PSU.
Both the steward and I agreed that the whole thing needed switching off and should not be used again until it had been checked.
Whilst the van runs happily on 12v we were unsure of the relationship between 12v and the PSU so decided to return home.

So, I shall phone Spinney in the morning and I'm sure they will sort it out but I always find it helpful to know if other people have experienced anything similar and given that I have no electrical expertise whatsoever, whether there is anything that I particularly need to know in advance about what the problem might be or how it should be fixed. The van is less than a year old and under warranty. It was raining all day so I wondered whether damp had gotten in but can't imagine that should be able to happen.

Thanks very much.

L2

I agree with what Peter says BUT I would definitely not involve Sargent until you have got confirmation that you can do that, or you risk A/S saying that the warranty is no longer valid. In the strictest (legal, consumer rights) sense, you should contact the supplying dealer and request their advice & assistance, before taking other measures if they fail to respond.

Fortunately, if it's an EC328 there's a good chance that both solar (if you have a panel, obviously) and split charge will still be working, so you may find that the leisure battery will hold up for a couple of days, especially if you have to drive any distance.

IMO there is no point in talking to Sargent about a repair service for the EC328 (if that's what they have), or anything else for that matter, if they are not in a position to do anything about it because it's a warranty issue. Personally, I would leave talking to Sargent to either the dealer or A/S, but I agree that different people may approach this in different ways than I would...

I had this reversed polarity light flicker a couple of months ago and by a process of elimination put it down to an iffy connection in the mhu lead. I substituted with a shorter one and bingo the. crackling stopped and the polarity light to normal operation

Sadly that didn't work for us. A different EHU cable didn't make any difference. We still didn't have any 230v supply into the van. I'm sure the dealer will sort it. We've always found them to be very good. I just wondered whether anyone else had experienced the same lack of 230v to the van and the consequent issues that we saw on the PSU. Thanks for your posts.
L2

Well, the problem was a faulty connection plug between the vans electrical input point and the PSU. The electrical engineer at the dealer changed it and it all seems to be working well again. Fingers crossed it stays that way.
Cheers
L2

Thanks for coming back and letting us know what the problem was. Fingers crossed that it has been sorted