Hi, we’re new caravanners and have just picked up our new Troll 530. We are new to caravans, but have been camping foreverzz asks motorhoming for the past 17 years. We are really pleased with the van but cannot get the onboard water supply to work: firstly I had the tank drain plug the wrong way and it emptied itself (not surprisingly). Then we reset that and refilled. Now I tried running tap in hot position in order to fill the water heater tank. This time the tank emptied itself because a drain tap was open. So we refilled and closed the drain tap. This time the water poured out of a drain at the rear of the van, where the pipes cross under the bed to the kitchen, so I closed a valve near where the water was draining. I tried to run the tap in hot mode and noticed a little pool of water near the tank and the water heater, which shouldn’t be there so I have emptied the tank and given up.
What have I done wrong?
PS I didn’t really want an on board water tank but it came that way😟
Phil

Hi Phil, don't give up on your on board tank, it's probably something small. Make sure all your valves are in the correct position. When we first tried to get our water system going last year on our new Troll 540 it didn't go as planned. You would think that the pump would self prime and after many frustrating attempts, in the small print it suggests agitating the pump when you've turned it on to prime it. Now we know this it's a doddle, stick your hand in and give the pump a really good wiggle. Funnily enough we sparked up our system yesterday for the first time since last October and using that procedure it worked perfectly. This may not be your issue but may help someone else.

Thanks for your quick reply. Does your 540 have an on board fresh water tank? I haven’t tried jiggling the pump, but will do. Also finding out which way the valves should be is difficult. In my burstner Motorhome, for example the hot water drain valve was vertical when closed, so that if there was a frost, it snapped down to release the water, this is the other way round. And I can find no mention of the drain from the pipes leading to the sink, but there is one and I have no idea if closing the valve has simply closed the drain or closed the pipe to the kitchen. I should have known what the manual would be like as the Burstner is also part of the Hymer group and I suspect that they are all equally incomprehensible 😟

Yes, we have a 40 litre on board tank. The valves are a bit odd but we screw them down when we want to commission the system and undo them to drain same. We had a Laika motorhome for eight years (also part of the Hymer Group) with the same set up as your Burstner and that system too took a bit of getting used to.Perhaps others on the forum may be able to give more help if you still have a problem.Good luck.

Our 2020 530 has two valves near the boiler in the water pipes which need to be screwed down tightly to fill the system, there is a further screw valve under the bed by the battery but for ours nothing beneath the kitchen sink. In addition there is a yellow handled valve which drains the water heater, that needs to be horizontal for filling. The water tank drain plug benefits from a slight twist to seat the rubber ring properly. I am not sure where the small puddle of water came from but would guess it is one of the screw in valves not fully tightened. If it is any consolation we had difficulty filling the system first time, it just seems counterintuitive, one of those Eriba build quirks that you need to come to terms with!

......oh and for us it seems more effective to start filling the hot then the cold water system first from the kitchen followed by the bathroom.

We seem to have the opinion that no two water systems are the same, suppose each dealers workshop has their own way. For us with our 540 GT it's fill the on board tank then having primed the pump open hot tap in washroom to fill the hot tank which takes about two minutes then that tap will start to flow,then switch to cold which bleeds very quickly then hot and cold in any order at the kitchen taps. Voila, it works for us, but after lots of head scratching initially.Good luck.

Hi Phil

As new owners of our Troll 540 in 2016 the hot water boiler drove me to distraction. I could get it heating water on electric or the gas no problem and it ran out of both taps - bingo, a result.

However 20 minutes later when I came out with Kath to show her the water was barely lukewarm. I scratched my head and tried several times with the same result, despite a detailed and thorough reading of the handbook. We just gave up on hot water for 3 months - we were tenters and so not used to hot water unless we boiled some.

When we took it for its first service at ALV at Tebay they knew what it was straight away. Hymer had neglected to fit a non-return valve somewhere in the area between the two tanks. Apparently the hot water was being drained back into the main tank. ALV fitted a valve and the problem was solved.

Sorry I am not technically minded enough to know if this might be effecting yours.................

Hope you resolve it soon. Kath now loves having the hot water and it heats up really quickly on just the electric

MikeT

Thanks everyone for your really useful contributions. After the puddle appeared we gave up. However we did pop in to Highbridge caravans on our way home and while waiting for their technician, I put my hand in and jiggled around with the pump. When the technician arrived we put some water in the tank and opened the tap on hot, in the kitchen. Low and behold I could hear the pump sucking up water and filling the heater tank. We ran water through on hot and cold in the kitchen and bathroom and got rid of a few air bubbles, sorted. Interestingly, my sister in law in Oz had a problem with a missing non return valve in her van (not an eriba).
Out of interest has anyone with a built in tank had an external 12v socket fitted for an external pump? I know that if we’re parked up for more than a few days, we’ll need to top up the tank, and most sites don’t have water at every pitch, so I’m thinking about a rolly polly water carrier and a pump, hence the external switch!

Thanks again for all the really helpful feedback, Phil

Good point Colin, I had thought of that as a low cost option!
Phil

Hi again Phil, think I mentioned in a previous post that we use a watering can bought from Argos, it's a ten litre and also very narrow compaired to most so easier to store.

Hi Phil

I'm similar to Colin in that fill the tank with a water container - takes about three to fill it. Then every day I put a half container of water in to top it up. I keep the container under the van underneath the filler. It literally takes a minute to do. I wander to the nearest tap most days and put a bit more water into .the container.

I have never felt the need to gat an aqua roll.

I used to use a watering can but now ose the container and a funel and short piece of hose and it works a treat. I will try to attach a picture - apologies to people who have seen it before.

Filling water tank kit.JPG - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)Filling water tank kit2.JPG - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

MikeT