Post by ronsilverfox on Aug 21, 2020 20:38:19 GMT
Hi All, I have owned 20 year old Jemima for the last 3 years and the electric side of the water heater has never worked. It was great on gas but when you are paying for electric hook up it makes sense to use it? I noticed on Ebay a couple of used electric elements for sale. ( £60 and £45 ) so decided to remove my element to replace it. It was a fairly simple job, once I had removed a few wires after noting where they were connected. The water must be drained first from the heater or it will enter the van as you remove the element.
On inspecting the element it made me wonder why the live (brown) wire was connected to a pair of small 'pots' held to the element by a spring clip. On removing the spring clip it seemed that the 'pots' were bedded in to the face of the element with some white 'paste'....all a mystery . One of the 'pots' had the red button to re-set the system if it became over heated and noting the name and number on each 'pot' I looked on Ebay to see what they were. "Lo and behold" one is a thermostat and the other, a re-set switch. The white paste was in fact to assist the conductivity of heat from the element so that the thermostat can detect the heat and using its internal bi-metal strip can safely regulate the maximum heat. It turns itself off and on to maintain the water at 70 degrees C. The other 'pot' acts as a failsafe and switches off the power if over heated and can be re-set by pressing the button after the system has cooled down. Now I understand how it works !!
I cobbled together a power connection to the two actual element connectors and it was heating up perfectly so I checked the other connections being the spade terminals on both the thermostat and re-set switch. After pressing the reset button, there was continuity from my meter between the two spade terminals on the switch but there was no continuity from the thermostat... so this was the culprit !! £4.99 from Mallorr Caravan Services and it's working great. The Carver element is a tough unit and with only 70 degrees C it should have a comfortable and long life. If your Carver does not work on site electric, try disconnecting the wires and checking continuity across the spades on both thermostat and re-set switch as it is probably one of these at fault , rather than the element. I felt really smug , having solved the problem. Good luck !
On inspecting the element it made me wonder why the live (brown) wire was connected to a pair of small 'pots' held to the element by a spring clip. On removing the spring clip it seemed that the 'pots' were bedded in to the face of the element with some white 'paste'....all a mystery . One of the 'pots' had the red button to re-set the system if it became over heated and noting the name and number on each 'pot' I looked on Ebay to see what they were. "Lo and behold" one is a thermostat and the other, a re-set switch. The white paste was in fact to assist the conductivity of heat from the element so that the thermostat can detect the heat and using its internal bi-metal strip can safely regulate the maximum heat. It turns itself off and on to maintain the water at 70 degrees C. The other 'pot' acts as a failsafe and switches off the power if over heated and can be re-set by pressing the button after the system has cooled down. Now I understand how it works !!
I cobbled together a power connection to the two actual element connectors and it was heating up perfectly so I checked the other connections being the spade terminals on both the thermostat and re-set switch. After pressing the reset button, there was continuity from my meter between the two spade terminals on the switch but there was no continuity from the thermostat... so this was the culprit !! £4.99 from Mallorr Caravan Services and it's working great. The Carver element is a tough unit and with only 70 degrees C it should have a comfortable and long life. If your Carver does not work on site electric, try disconnecting the wires and checking continuity across the spades on both thermostat and re-set switch as it is probably one of these at fault , rather than the element. I felt really smug , having solved the problem. Good luck !
