Eberspacher heater

Hi
We have a 2006 VW trident.  The Eberspacher heater has been working fine and was serviced a couple of years ago.  To be honest we don't use it very often and it has not been used over the winter.  On a recent trip the heater wouldn't work.  It seems to start up OK and the fan is running but it fails to heat up and after a few minutes shuts down.  I thought it might be condensation so just ran the fan option for a while but with no effect.  I tried adjusting the control but that had no effect either.  Any ideas what might be wrong.?

Mary

Hi Mary

Never had one of those, but from reports on here they seem to be quite sensitive to battery voltage. Were you on hook-up when you tried it? If not, a slightly low battery might be your problem??

Just guesswork, but easy enough to check by hooking up.

The Eber does need a healthy battery at startup, as Gromit mentioned.  Try running the engine and then startup,   and leave it running until you know the fan speed is increasing This puts up to 13.5 into the habitation battery. 
The second check is to ensure that your "target temperature" should be set at least a couple of degrees above ambient temperature. This assumes that you have the 801 series control unit which gives a temperature display. If you only have the Mini Controller (standard AS fit) then turn the control knob to max setting.  Keith

Thanks both for your helpful comments.  I actually went on the search area and found quite a bit about this topic.  It would seem that you are both correct in your diagnosis of the problem.  I first hooked up and tried again but it was the same result.  Then i tried again with the engine running and it worked perfectly....result!!. I switched the engine off after a few minutes and it kept going fine.  Not sure about what all this means in terms of charge levels and whether my batteries are low but all other battery related functions are working. I will give them a charge anyway.  In the end I have a perfectly practical solution so I'm happy with that.

Thanks again

Mary

Thanks for the feedback Mary.

Always useful to others in a similar situation.

All the other electrical stuff on your van, lights, TV etc do not need as much power to run them. The heater and the water pump are the most demanding of your battery so will let you know if the battery isn’t up to it. I would have both your leisure and starter batteries checked. Even better if you can do it yourself. All you need is a simple multimeter and a 24 hour break for your camper to be stood idle and better still with batteries disconnect. After 24 hrs you should get a voltage reading of 12.6v if disconnected. Also a small 50watt or larger solar panel would help keep the batteries topped up.