Propex Woes

[little.legs]

I have a propex heatsource 200 in my van which is generally brill.

However, I turned it on the other day and it wouldnt throw out any heat. Did its test cycle and then the red light on the thermostat started to flash 5 times in a row - airway bloackage I think this means. It hasnt been used in a while. I checked all pipes were clear, even removed them to be doubly sure. Checked gas flow was ok and electric supply good.

I did a search and found the thread re the impellor seizing and blowing compressed air through the inlet pipe to get it going. I spent a coupla hours doing this today and it began to work again.

BUT its back to doing the self test and then 5 red lights again. Aaaaaaaaargh!

Any ideas anyone before i return it to propex.

[R0B]

dont know owt about propex.but have you tested the battery voltage.

[little.legs]

Yeah checked that rob it was fine. The fact it has given heat once today and then stopped would seem to support this too. V annoying.

[1664]

I'd give Propex a ring before you go to the trouble of ripping it out and sending it back. They are very helpful apparently according to others who've had problems

[Fozzie]

They're very pressure sensitive - sure you've got plenty of gas in the bottle? Mine stopped working even though the flow seemed fine (and there was enough for at least another 20 kettles on the hob); changed the bottle and the heater fired up again.

[jason k]

IIRC 5 flashes is low voltage

[Cafnod]

If you have been trying it a lot voltage may have dropped below what it needs, have you checked voltage at ALL points on the unit, control and fan igniter etc?
Just cos its ok at batt terms doesnt mean its right elsewhere.

[R0B]

out of interest have you tried running it,with the engine running..

[Aidan]

modern version needs to be used regularly cos there's a secondary passive fan with an optical sensor in the air flow to check the flow is as required, part of interlock for CE approval that old ones didn't have apparantly. If not used the bearing grease in the passive fan goes a bit thick and so when the blower notor blows the fan doesn't spin fast enough to activate the optical sensor so locks out.
I phoned Propex when this happened to me and the advice was take an airline with nozzle on and blow through the external pipes in the inlet which will spin up the passive fan, after about thirty secs the grease will be redispersed and the thing will then light ok when you go through the normal start. Worked fine for me, I used an old sock to seal the inlet end with the air line blower attachment.
Top tip from Propex and it's in the manual is run the heater every month, even in the summer just to keep it free running and ready to light when you really need it.

WIKI ?

[donnieg]

I have the same problem with mine.What sort of airline is best to use would a compressor blow to hard

[Aidan]

mines just a little 25 litre job does about 8 bar max, iirc I used it as it was had about 100psi available, my inlet pipe is only 12" and I used the trigger nossle to modulate the airflow, you could actually hear the change in the note as the fan came up to speed, probably didn't give it full for more than a few secs, you can feel how much air the fan moves at the exhaust so aim to run abit more than that

[donnieg]

Thanks for that. Ill try it.