Alde Heater Failed $1.10 THERMO FUSE

tincan

We have a 2014 TAB Max S Wet with an analog 3010 heater controller. The heater worked fine on propane at home and on shore power as we prepped for a trip. The first night out ran the heater on propane and the heater worked intermittently then stopped working. I checked the replaceable fuses on the power board and they were good, Wall controller had 0 volts coming from the heater. 

At our next stop we had shore power but the heater not working on 120volt either. I confirmed no control voltage {5 volts) going to wall controller. I did notice a 3rd fuse 9THERMO FUSE) showing on the schematic but could not find it until I removed the power board from the heater. I contacted Truma Corp the Alde dealer for the USA. It took almost a week of email exchanges for them to answer a few simple questions. They received my emails and responded but their response indicated they did not read my email. They did eventually confirm my suspicion the power board was defective and a replacement would cost $319.00 plus labor if done by a dealer.

When I returned home I removed the board and found the THERMO FUSE and confirmed it was defective. Thermo fuses cost $1.10! I found a seller in Minnesota called Digi-Key. I bought 4 and the total cost including shipping $10.00. I desoldered the damaged fuse and soldered a new fuse. Put the board back in the heater hooked up the cables and the heater ran perfectly on propane and shore power. It pays to be handy. A $1.10 problem could have cost $319.00 plus labor!

 

ScottG

Good catch, and a good report on the fix. I think only one other owner (@ChanW?) has reported a similar repair. For those of us with older Aldes, this is good documentation to have on hand.

Your communication (or lack thereof) with Truma was not encouraging, but I'm glad you persevered through to a solution.   

Verna

Thank you for the detailed photos and writeup. 

@tincan, another 2014 T@B owner @Chan found this circuit board fuse to be faulty a few years and documented replacing it. Maybe he will chime in with a link to his post. 

One thing we former and current owners have discovered about the Alde is that if you turn off the controls before adding or removing power, particularly the outdoor electrical cord, you will not blow as many fuses. 

NüCamp also discovered that if the ground wire to the buss bar was removed and a ground wire was added going from the Alde to the battery, fewer fuses were blown also.

The category “Heating/Plumbing & Wintetizing” on the left side of the page has a lot of older posts from when we were learning so much about our earlier models with the new-to-nüCamp Alde heating. The earlier posts are a must read for the new owners of the 2014 T@B’s. . 

pthomas745

Here is the Chan W thread.  (2017).  Good news!  The price for the fuse has dropped from 1.19 to 1.10!

https://tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/4197/found-a-fix-for-no-alde-heat-when-all-fuses-are-good/p1

Michigan_Mike

Good write up and excellent information for future reference!