Hook Up Strangeness

Post by **thegamwellsmythes** » 21 Mar 2006, 08:38

We went away in the bus for the first time a couple of weeks ago in the snow.

On the Saturday night we hooked up and plugged in a 2400kW fan heater which worked fine.

The following morning it wouldn't work and the hook up cable and connections were frozen up. Brrr.....

When we got home the heater worked fine when plugged into the house. I checked it out in the hooked up bus last night and the heater wouldn't work but a stereo when plugged into the bus would work.

We are confused as there doesn't seem to be a fuse problem but the heater won't work when plugged into a hooked up bus.

I have heard that hook up cables can get damaged by freezing. Could this have partially damaged the cable so that not as much current is getting through as did before it froze up? Or is this just me being thick as I don't understand elastictrickery?

Help. Any advice (useful or just simply amusing will be very much appreciated).

Ta

Post by **Hacksawbob** » 21 Mar 2006, 10:39

when you were at home did you use the same hookup cable as you did at the site? if so cable is OK. if not then suspect cable, even test with a meter for continuity may not show up intermitent fault unless you wiggle it whilst testing (I mean the cable of course

) . large fan heater may have tripped the sites fuse though, esp if lots of people doing the same as you, more likely.

Post by **thegamwellsmythes** » 21 Mar 2006, 11:17

The fan heater worked then got cold and didn't.

It now works in the house but not in the bus but other plug in stuff does work in the bus. That doesn't sound like the cable or the fuses and we have checked the trip switches in the bus and they are also ok. Wierd.

I suspect a determined bout of wiggling may be required.

Post by **T2Andy** » 21 Mar 2006, 16:31

If other stuff works OK on the bus hookup I would suspect a fault with the fan heater.

Has the heater got a thermostat, or just switches to set the heat? Could be it cuts out if it dosn't like the supply its getting from the bus, don't know why though.

Post by **thegamwellsmythes** » 22 Mar 2006, 10:54

Thanks for your additional brainpower.

We are going to try another hook up cable and another smaller fan heater and see if that does the trick.

Cheers for your help.

leighinstoke · Post by **leighinstoke** » 23 Mar 2006, 22:36

Can't think why the fan-heater should fail as there is little inside one to go wrong. We have one (small greenhouse type from B&Q) and that works fine when on 1kW setting. We've tried 2kW but find it can take out the trips on sites, especially when we forget it's on and put the 600w kettle on with it.

Only thought here - we had one of the flat ones with a barrel-shaped fan inside from Argos that failed almost instantly (thermostat was fupped after it lived in the van for a while) whereas this one is one of the large propellor type fans with a different thermostat and hasn't failed in over 2 years. Also seems more efficient as the fan is bigger.

Leigh....

Post by **Zippy** » 23 Mar 2006, 23:36

If the heater itself is playing up it could be the thermal cut-out inside it, they can get tempermental,when they do its time to bin it and buy a new one. Try it with just the fan running and gradually wind the heat up, if it runs ok to start with then cuts out Bob's your uncle.

Or

You may have a high resistance fault in your wiring on the van or hook up . This would explain other low wattage appliances working, but if you hit it with a big chunk of load all that will happen is the volts will collapse. Means running through everything to check connections

Post by **thegamwellsmythes** » 24 Mar 2006, 12:22

All sounds a bit tricky.

We've borrowed a fan heater with 1000w and 2000w settings so we'll give that a go first and then check the wires if it still fails.

Anyway summers on the way so we can always worry about it next winter!

Thanks for all the help.