This is my first post here for ages and I'm hoping that MHF will be as helpful now as I always found it in the past.
After 7 years with a Knaus Sun Ti we recently downsized to a 2010 Murvi Piccolo. The handover we got was our worst ever and we've been left trying to figure things out from our past experience (of very different vans) and mind boggling readings of the various manuals. The problem we're having is with the Webasto boiler. We have managed to heat water and space with diesel, electric and both but we're having problems with draining the boiler. We think we've followed the manual but we end up with water on the habitation area floor rather than the outside of the van. We did note later that it is supposed to take 90 minutes to drain and we didn't leave it that long before halting the process, but we still don't see why water should end up inside the van, rather than outside or remain in the boiler.
Does anyone know where the water from the boiler is supposed to drain to from the Piccolo? We can't see where it exits by looking under the van. We're reluctant to try filling it again and leaving it to drain for 90 minutes in the hope that is the solution. After the weekend we'll try to get some professional opinions, but in the meantime I wondered if anyone on here has any advice.
Thanks John, I had already found that video in my searches and it confirms that we mostly did the right things. What we didn't do was wait 90 minutes. Much sooner than that - probably after about 20 to 30 minutes - we aborted the process, assuming that was the same as turning off. I still wouldn't expect that to result in water on the floor in the van. We're reluctant to fill it and try again with a 90 minute wait until I know a bit more about it.
Thanks John, I had already found that video in my searches and it confirms that we mostly did the right things. What we didn't do was wait 90 minutes. Much sooner than that - probably after about 20 to 30 minutes - we aborted the process, assuming that was the same as turning off. I still wouldn't expect that to result in water on the floor in the van. We're reluctant to fill it and try again with a 90 minute wait until I know a bit more about it.
I had a Webssto in my van (I removed it in 2019 as it was beyond economic repair) and the drain process was the same as in eurajohns video. Even if I interrupted the process, at no point would any remaining water end up in the van. The drain is ( or at least should be) under the van directly below the boiler so that a split or damage to the drain pipe shouldn't result in water in the van. Any damage to the drainage pipe leading from the boiler to the switched drain valve would presumably result in water inside the van at any time that the boiler had water in it and not just when operating the drain procedure. I found Webasto head office in the UK very helpful on the phone but since removing the boiler I've chucked away the handbook with the useful numbers in it.
If you seek professional help, make sure you use a registered Webasto agent as only they will have the correct software to diagnose the problem. They can plug into the back of the control panel from a laptop to do a diagnostics check.
Is there any chance your water on the floor is purely coincidental and nothing to do with the boiler?
I ask because this morning I discovered my bathroom mat was wet and the duck board was sitting in water. I immediately thought of you!
I have a swing wall in the bathroom so the waste pipe is in 2 bits, the pipe from the sink draining in the open to a further drain below the swing wall.
It turned out that that lower drain was pretty clogged up and was overflowing. Also there was gunge hanging out of the bottom of the upper pipe which allowed the water to miss the drain.
Oops, I've been a bit busy for the last few days and haven't looked in.
Jean, We now think that no water ended up under the van, except possibly some from the freshwater tank at the rear, as the procedure we were following included emptying that too. There was nowhere else the water in the habitation area could have come from. We have hardly used the van. In early September we had a trip to see a friend in Kent. It was meant to be our last trip in the Knaus before selling it and then looking for a small Murvi type van. As it happened we saw the Piccolo advertised by an East Sussex dealer and went to look while we were in the south. We liked it, they made us a reasonable offer for the Knaus, so we paid a deposit. There was no way we could have fitted everything from the Knaus into the Piccolo so we arrange to return the follow week.
When we went back we spent ages in the office having to listen to all sorts of compliance paperwork being read to us, then the ownership was transferred and we paid the balance. I was then expecting a proper handover but we were handed the keys and the sales person said 'You know more about motorhomes than I do, and I've got another appointment now'. We were tired and hungry and had to transfer all our stuff and work out where to put it in the Piccolo, so we didn't protest. The plan was to go back to our friend's in Kent for two nights as John had arranged to help her with a garden task. We slept in the house and I tried to work my way through a range of instruction manuals that were not really designed for optimal comprehensibility for the end user. We spent our only night in the van so far at Clumber Park on the way home. We attempted to drain the van whilst on the site, but we mainly used the procedure we'd used in the Knaus i.e. flushing water through the system into the waste tank, then following the Webasto instructions to complete any draining of the boiler. However we didn't notice then, or the next time, that you are supposed to wait 90 minutes for the drain process to end. After what we thought was a reasonable time we 'aborted' the draining as there appeared to be no other option to finish the procedure. We didn't notice then if any water left the van as we were on grass and weren't expecting much to come out anyway as we thought it'd be in the waste tank. Shortly after this we noticed water soaked into the carpet.
On the M62 the next day John had problems changing gear. Then, when we arrived home he couldn't engage reverse to put it on our drive. Turning everything off and on again worked though! The following week was spent getting the fault repaired, and though the component needed wasn't covered by the warranty the dealer agreed to pay. When we got the van back we tried again on our drive to check out the system. We managed to get hot water and space heating on both electric and diesel and all went well until draining again. This time more water appeared on the floor.
We now have an appointment for next week to take the van to our nearest Webasto approved company in Keighley. In the meantime we have rung Murvi to ask a few questions and they seem to think the most likely explanation is that the pipe that should be draining water from the boiler to the outside has become detached. We hoping if this is the case it is relatively simple to fix.
We've cancelled the two night trip we had booked for this weekend and are hoping we can get away and have a proper try out before too long.
Hmm, I live in Keighley, we rejected a van a year or two ago because it had webasto gear in it, and the nearest company who could fix it would have been Doncaster, what is the company in Keighley?
Hmm, didn't know they did Webasto, good news for you though, I know Richard Peel and his staff and also John Cubitt who owns the whole show, it is where I go for all my repairs, you will be in good hands, I dare say it will be Terry who will do the job on yours, slow but steady, and really knows his stuff.
No, we're trying really hard to be positive because (as long as it works OK) we think it's the right van for us at this stage of our motorhoming. We won't really know though how well it works for us until we can go away in it. When we slept at Clumber Park we used our thick mattress topper from the fixed bed in the Knaus. It was comfortable but is too bulky for normal use as we'd need to pack it up and get it out each day. If we'd been going away in the van this weekend we'd have tried the two duvets method - one underneath and one on top. If that's not right we'll have to think again, perhaps two single thinner toppers/duvalay thingies. The boiler problem just delays things. It would have been good to be out there enjoying it while we're still in early Autumn.
We collected the van this week and the problem has been resolved. It was, as Murvi had suggested, a detached pipe from the boiler to the outside, so fortunately fixing it didn't cost a fortune.
Now looking forward to a couple of nights in York to give it a proper test trip.
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