Electrics Blown. Dumb blonde :0)

Hay I've no idea, And I've lost some passion... so 2 months ago, I had an electric heater on, I had my rubbish bag near by and the teabags dripped through. So it blew everything.  I think I flipped the switch back up under cooker. I checked a fuse under the cab seat near leisure battery and as I then had no lights no heating and no diesel heater as it needed the electics to trigger that. I cut holiday short and came home.  Vans been sat there ever since. Can anyone suggest now a systematic system to start checking what's up. And what to buy. I have fuses. But Its staturday so need to get out today to buy sruff if needed. 
 Thanks so much.  Your all stars on here and you always help me with issues. Trisha.

Perhaps you may have tripped the switch on the EHU tower, assuming your van was connected to it?
Refer to your manual and check all fuses and trip switches on your van, hopefully one of the members who is familiar with your van could help you.
Boaby

Hi just replying now

I keep replying and it's not coming up????

Hi IanH,

Thanks for repling in a step by step way - I really appreciate it.
So I have a multimeter, but not sure if I used it well the  leisure battery says 10


So on EHU the lights and the sink water pump works.

I have checked the 3 fuses by the leisure battery and they are ok.

The Eberspacher heater the fridge and all the plugs are not working on EHU  - or on the leisure battery. 


I think the fuse box is correct switches are up and say on  - the red light is not on -I have pressed test and nothing happens.


there is something like a grey small box next to it and I do not know whati ti is for - it has a 230V on the rocker switch and then some waves on the down watd switch ith I think a symbol of a fuse? 


( I have no space left on my mac to download the photos from my phone - phwew  4th time lucky) 

Hi hopefully

Not  sure if the red switch is red? 
whats the 12v for? please - does that need checking?

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Your power sockets do not work  usually  when on battery, only EHU.

Your last pic above, there is a fuse under the bit on the right. Might be worth checking that. Disconnect the mains first.

Your leisure battery should show a bare minimum of 12v, any less than that heavier drawing items aren't going to work. Ideally it should be more like 12.7v. When the charger is working it would be around 13.5-14v. Same for the vehicle battery with the engine running.  Note here that the split charge relay won't allow the leisure battery to charge until the charge in the vehicle battery is back up. So you won't know if that's charging off the alternator until you've been running the engine for a while.

With no load on the battery (you aren't using anything) the figures for percentage of charge are as below.

100% 12.7v
90% 12.5v
80% 12.42v
70% 12.32v
60% 12.20v
50% 12.06v
40% 11.9v
30% 11.75v
20% 11.58v
10% 11.31v
0% 10.05v

Kind of says your battery is well flat if it's showing 10v. If you have the ehu plugged in, check the voltage at the battery terminals, see if it's rising. Again, if it's charging the input should be around 13-14 volts. If it's charging, but not holding the charge you have two options, it either has something draining it, or it's dead. Way to check, take the battery out and charge it. If it holds the charge, you have a drain, if it dies, new battery time. If it isn't charging there is a fault in the charging circuit, most likely a fuse somewhere.

240v. If using the ehu, when you plug a lamp into the plug socket, is it lighting the lamp? If yes, then it's just the 12v you have a problem with. Pressing the test button on the consumer unit should make the switches trip to the off position.

What sort of heater were you using, that got dripped into? If it's a 240v one, then that really ought not to have damaged your 12v system, it should have just tripped the circuit breakers. You have obviously managed to drive home, so it's not hurt the engine side. If you can't drive it now, I wonder if your dead leisure battery is draining your starter battery? Shouldn't, but you never know.

Kind of difficult to diagnose a problem when it's not in front of you, so trying to think of as many things as I can...hope it may be of help, though have to say it may not!

As Peatlander says, these types of fault are not easy to diagnose remotely, but one thing jumps out at me:

TreeTopRainbow wrote:I think the fuse box is correct switches are up and say on  - the red light is not on -I have pressed test and nothing happens.

If it does not trip off when you press the Test button, this means that you do not have 230V mains at the box with the Hager circuit breakers in it. You need to resolve that issue, because none of the mains-powered items (such as the battery charger) will work until you do. Without using test equipment, the simplest way to daignose something like that is if you're on a campsite, next to a van with a working setup. You can plug their van into your EHU bollard, to check the campsite supply is Ok, and then swap their EHU cable for yours, to (hopefully) rule out a faulty EHU cable.

You don't need to worry about the outlet with 12V on it in your second photo - it's just an old type of 12V outlet, largely replaced by different types of socket these days.

I read in your first post that you headed home, I wonder if you tripped the breaker on site, rather than your own. Have you had chance to hook it up to the mains at home?


Where my mind is at:- Your leisure battery has been on its way out, but when using the hook up it's getting enough juice in to run things. Now you have no mains it hasn't got the oomph to run your electrics on 12v. If its at 10v it's as flat as a flat thing. 

Try the hook up at home. If it works, then good, see if it's charging your Leisure battery. Then see if it stays charged. You might get lucky.  If the ehu doesn't work it's time for a rethink.

Any news?

Hi - Yes News - so I am not sure what happened but it all started to work - so I have been away wild camping, But only the heater did not work - and my fold-up solar panel was also not working I found a blown fuse with that so I replaced it and now I have realised I  need a new solar charger controller Dolio - they look pricey:0( 

-  However, when I did a test reader of the leisure battery although it was working the reading was low - So I've ordered a new Leisute battery and I am guessing then the Deisel heater should come on.

So as you had thought Peatlander - think originally the onsite electrics had tripped - ( other peoples were on...but who knows....) and also as you mentioned my leisure battery was on its way out -Pwhew - I am so glad that is all sorted. Now I am thinking of selling her - maybe not - Thanks again everyone.