Truma Heating

Two weeks ago I used the valve under the bench seat to drain the water from the van because of a couple of cold nights. This week whilst preparing to return to the UK the current Mrs J went into the van and turned on the electrics to pack and somehow turned on the Truma heater at the same time which I did'nt find until the next morning. 
So my question is was it OK for the heater to be on without water. I hadn't specifically drained the boiler and it seemed to work OK driving back from France.

Heater should be OK but if the hot water was turned on you could be in trouble. The heating element is likely to have burned out. Opening the valve under the bench seat DOES drain the hot water tank - that is the purpose of the valve. Without it the non return valve in the feed from the cold tank coupled with the height of the taps in the van would ensure that boiler and pipes stayed full of water.

Thank you Ron. It seemed to work OK on our return trip but I was wondering if I could expect trouble in the future. I guess I just need to keep my lady wife away from the controls

As a 3 day newbie I had wondered what happens if you turn the hot water on with no water in the boiler?
I had assumed that there must be some kind of safety cut off but if I’ve read the above correctly, that is not the case.
Allowing the hot water boiler to be turned on when there is no water in the boiler is a disaster waiting to happen and as mentioned above could be accidentally done very easily....unless I’m missing something!

Dbvwt wrote:
Allowing the hot water boiler to be turned on when there is no water in the boiler is a disaster waiting to happen and as mentioned above could be accidentally done very easily....unless I’m missing something!

That's why it's so important that there are two of you to agree that things are being done correctly especially when unfamiliar with the complexity of the (new to you) van. So often I need my wife to confirm how this or that is operated or more often, something I may have mislaid or forgotten to do. "Have you remembered to do this or that"? may at times cause irritation but it has been necessary to prevent some catastrophe on my part. 

There is an overheating cutout which hopefully should stop the element from burning out. Make yourself aware of it's location should you need it. As for using space heating without water, it is designed to do just that. Im sorry I don't know how the digital control works as I have the older two dial system which has two separate settings for with or without water.

So...unless we are on top of things (and if we are all honest we are not as sharp as we were 30 years ago ).
I leave water in the boiler and it freezes or I empty it and burn the element out!

Sorry Paul, posted before I read your explanation about the cutout which I would have assumed was mandatory

I, too would hope for an automatic cut-out.  But I would not rely on it!  And I would hope that, as with a modern electric Kettle, it would reset automatically.
The two dial Truma controls are designed to prevent accidental operation of either heating or hot water.  If you accidentally leave the controls on when disconnecting from mains or 12V (eg by starting the engine) the right hand control needs to be switched to off before the heating or hot water will come on again. I would assume that the digital display may have the same safeguard but would nit rely on it as the heating can be switched on from your phone.  The safety on th etwo dial control stops me from using the timer on the Sargent to switch on the heating

I put our electric kettle on without any water in it (I only buy cheap kettles costing around £5.00) it turned itself off after a loud pop, thinking that I had killed it, I looked inside and all the rust / scale on the element was in a heap in the bottom of the kettle, washed it out and it boils even quicker now.
Pete

I am worried now. I just read out to my wife Breakaleg's response about his kettle and my wife said she does that deliberately to get rid of the scale!!
Having said I am worried, the kettle is twenty years young and still going strong.

Another 'two controls' user here on our 2013 van! Totally agree with the comments above about double-checking even if you think you are 100% familiar with the controls! In my experience you will always cause a 'cock-up' when you actually need something; i.e. heating when going out for a winter trip!
I once sailed with a Second Engineer who always did a check based on;...'what is the worst that can happen if I open this valve, flick this switch'...etc. He reckoned a final 5 seconds check saved him from creating serious problems on a number of occasions!!
'Measure twice, cut once' anyone??