Truma Burner Fail

[Galway Girl]

Our hull 505 in service Aug 2019 has a major Truma burner fail at 29 months. (2 yr wty)

The burner box no longer contains flames on startup and we smelled burning plastic before we shut it down.

Pix from video shows symptom of flames engulfing wiring and controls. 

We will try to get a whole new unit for install and send dead one back to Truma for analysis.  I’ll be asking Truma for some adjustment to warranty. 

we are lucky this happens while daylight and I could take action immediately.Any one else had the same promlem?  Is it a design flaw?  Doesn’t seem like an Aging type of failure. 

 

 

 

[Overland]

Yikes

I can't get your videos to load but the photo looks pretty scary.  Glad you noticed quickly and got it shut off.  Did just turning off the unit close the valve or did you have to turn off the gas?  It would have been reassuring if the unit had detected the problem and shut itself down on it's own.  Maybe with a little more time it would have?  It does look like the flame was contained within the box so that's something I suppose. 

I may have to remount my little Atom smoke detector back in that compartment.  

To answer your question, I don't think anyone here has posted about mechanical failures on the Truma - could be wrong, just don't remember.  But nothing like this for sure.  They had a software issue a few years back on some units that required swapping out the control board.  And mine I managed to break on our first outing, but that was almost certainly an installation issue and Oliver dealt with it.  And there was another plumbing error that made me think the Truma wasn't working right (again not really a Truma issue) but once I fixed that, I've had nothing bad to say about it.  

That's a pretty serious failure, and I definitely want to hear Truma's response.  I'd let Oliver know also - not that I think it's any of their fault, but I think they'd want to know and maybe they can help you with Truma.

On the videos, I don't know if others can see them, but the most reliable way to post them I've found is to upload them to YouTube and then just paste the YouTube link into the post.  

[dewdev]

I also could not open the videos.

It looks like the picture is of the Truma Instant water heat.

My 2018 Oliver with the Truma instant water heat has run without any issues.

Let us know what Truma says happened and what the fix is.

Good Luck and Stay Safe

[SeaDawg]

I haven't seen that here before,  and didn't find that failure on a quick Google search. Truma is known for long tests before market introduction. 

Glad you are ok. Let us know the results. 

[Galway Girl]

Update: Flame out

I’m getting great support from Oliver.

This has happened a few times, the burner supports break and drop down causing the flames to direct outside the burner box enclosure.  
 

we smelled plastic and flipped off the outside switch on the unit which shut down the gas supply and the flames stopped.

I now notice the door fins are warped from the heat. 

Oliver will ship us a full unit for field replacement,  then ship back old unit for inspection by Oliver and Truma.

I will discuss extended warranty claim with Truma as this shouldn’t be a wear out failure. 
 

More as it transpires. 
 

Craig

[Overland]

Thanks for the update.  Are those supports able to be inspected at all from the front of the unit? I haven’t looked on mine but it seems like the burner is pretty well hidden. We bang our trailer around enough that if those are something that are prone to break then I’d want to regularly check them if possible. 

[Overland]

12 minutes ago, Galway Girl said:

This has happened a few times, the burner supports break and drop down causing the flames to direct outside the burner box enclosure.  

Two things come to mind about this. One, I really wish that people would post about failures like you did. I realize that not every owner is on the forum (of course, they should be); but if someone who had this failure is on the forum, shame on them for not posting about it.  

Two - more importantly, if this has happened more than once and Oliver knows about it, then every owner with a Truma should know about it.  

[ADKCamper]

Hmmm... similar vintage here (#409, late 2018) so also wondering how to inspect. Would like to see more pictures or video if possible to understand what I'm looking for. Will take the "mirror on a stick" and a flashlight next time I visit the storage unit to try and see the burner area deep inside.

[Boudicca908]

As a relative newbie, I'm not sure how this works, but perhaps Oliver could upload videos on the Tech Bulletin section? It's certainly something everyone (including future owners with Truma) should be aware of and able to inspect. 

[Steph and Dud B]

Perhaps report this to the NHTSA as well. They can do an investigation and, if it's a  repeating occurrence and a safety hazard, initiate a recall. https://www.nhtsa.gov/report-a-safety-problem#index

[Galway Girl]

Update:  Jan 19, 2022

 

Due to a shipping damage issue a second replacement unit is on its way by Jan 24.  

It appears the packaging was not adequate protection for the unit and the case was bent in a way that the burner box punched into the tank (copper).

When we remove the old unit next week,  I’ll take detailed removal pix and of the failed components as possible.

Truma has now requested that I ship the failed unit back to them directly.  They are in discussions with Oliver and wanted another failed unit for dissection.

Truma service said they’ve only seen this on Oliver trailers…and are trying to see if there’s a mounting change required.

The current mounting method  seems pretty sturdy..

 

At this point I’ve paid Oliver for a replacement unit as the Truma is past warranty.

 

Truma said they would refund shipping costs for the defective unit.  
 

After their assessment, then we can discuss any refunds from Truma. 
 

More as it transpires.

 

Winegard DtV Fail:

On another note, my Wingard DtV antenna failed at the antenna head (shorted main board) and Wingard sent me a new style antenna as a lifetime warranty replacement no charge

 ( I will do a separate post on that when I do the repair in March. 

 

[Galway Girl]

Update: PSA - Truma Water Heater  

Situation:

On our Hull 505 -Elite II the Truma water heater failed with fire coming outside the box and starting to melt wiring etc.  (Pix attached)

Symptoms:  

When the Truma was igniting we heard unusually loud huffing noises followed by a loud whoosh.  Every so often there would be a loud whoosh and a pop. (Blowing itself out.)

On one incident I went outside, opened the door and saw flames outside the burner assembly engulfing controls.  I turned off unit and flames stopped.

Cause? 

It appears the burner and the copper flue box may have  gotten out of alignment after 13k miles on chassis.

Given the plastic smell I decided to replace the whole unit.

Truma response:

1) stated it’s past warranty, so no $ for replacement, but they asked I ship the unit back to them for post mortem.  
2) Cost $110 to ship back.   
3)They said they will cover shipping.

Replacement:

A new replacement unit was sold and shipped to us by Oliver Service. (Great response).

Removal and replacement was a 3 hour job with a mobile tech from our adjoining campsite helping where we are staying at Desert Hotsprings CA. Checked gas pressure at unit before installing and all was correct. 

New unit working well.

After removal and visual check I couldn’t see any obvious defects in the old unit, other than the lower edges of the copper burner box were slightly folded inward. Maybe  Truma can see something when they tear into the unit. 

As soon as I hear any resolution from Truma,  I’ll provide an update.

I plan to file with NHTSA after the Truma update.

[ChrisMI]

29 minutes ago, Galway Girl said:

Truma response:

1) stated it’s past warranty, so no $ for replacement, but they asked I ship the unit back to them for post mortem.  

I’m kind of surprised by this response.  Not the path I would have taken if I was at all interested in offering other new products to the RV industry.  Please keep us updated!

[Jim_Oker]

I must say that this incident combined with the Truma maker's response leaves me with some degree of regret at having opted for the Truma in my trailer, and thinking I'm likely to avoid their products in general in the future, unless you happen to report back that they have had a change of mind after seeing the unit you send back to them. Thanks for taking the time to write this up for us.

[Galway Girl]

Final Update:

Upon factory inspection by Truma of the failed unit.
They reported back to Oliver that the issue was with some improperly torqued connections inside the water heater, caused by improperly calibrated production tools at Truma.  

So they have fully refunded the cost of my repair.

I don't know if NHTSA is taking any action, but I'll report back the results I heard from Oliver and Truma.

CS

[AZ Wonderer]

1 hour ago, Galway Girl said:

Final Update:

Upon factory inspection by Truma of the failed unit.
They reported back to Oliver that the issue was with some improperly torqued connections inside the water heater, caused by improperly calibrated production tools at Truma.  

So they have fully refunded the cost of my repair.

I don't know if NHTSA is taking any action, but I'll report back the results I heard from Oliver and Truma.

CS

Thank you for that update.  I'm happy to hear Truma acknowledged its error and refunded the repair cost.  Hopefully the issue has been fixed for future units.