Well the weekend turned out interesting didn't it.
Took the van out to our land to stay overnight with the family over the weekend. Had fridge turned on to gas and nothing else on all day. nobody went in the van all day as we had stuff to do. around 7pm or so we settled down to have some food and relax. Later that evening, could smell something plastic but couldn't work out what it was.
The miss's goes outside and starts screaming out to me. Bolt outside only to find a nice fire blazing away inside the the Hot Water System panel on the outside of the van. Oh #$@$ and a few more expletives come out.
Bolt around to the front of the van and turn off the gas. Run back and the flame dies out. Black soot and crap all over the side of the van, metal casing burning hot and lovely melted scorch mark on the side of the panda.
Not sure why but it looks like one of the kids hit those stupid switch's they insist on putting where your feet go and had turned on the hot water system. Now, shouldn't have mattered at all as it would have lit, heated up the water and then switched off as it's supposed to do but it DIDN'T.
May have been a small leak by the looks of it. We have never use the gas for the HWS only electric so have never tested it out except when we picked up the van and that was for only a few minutes. Although I cannot find a leak (soapy water) in the area. It looks like it is at the top of the control valve thingy as nothing below or to the right of that area has any damage ????
From the look of the damage it is all confined to the top left corner, it had burnt off the paint on the metal cover only in that corner as well as melted some plastic inside and all the heat was in that corner thus the fiberglass started to melt and crack.
Very very lucky indeed as it could have been a lot worse. Please everyone, make sure there are no leaks there as this is potentially a disaster waiting to happen.
I have wiped off all the soot as it looked awful and was frightening the kids but you can see what it has done.
Took the van out to our land to stay overnight with the family over the weekend. Had fridge turned on to gas and nothing else on all day. nobody went in the van all day as we had stuff to do. around 7pm or so we settled down to have some food and relax. Later that evening, could smell something plastic but couldn't work out what it was.
The miss's goes outside and starts screaming out to me. Bolt outside only to find a nice fire blazing away inside the the Hot Water System panel on the outside of the van. Oh #$@$ and a few more expletives come out.
Bolt around to the front of the van and turn off the gas. Run back and the flame dies out. Black soot and crap all over the side of the van, metal casing burning hot and lovely melted scorch mark on the side of the panda.
Not sure why but it looks like one of the kids hit those stupid switch's they insist on putting where your feet go and had turned on the hot water system. Now, shouldn't have mattered at all as it would have lit, heated up the water and then switched off as it's supposed to do but it DIDN'T.
May have been a small leak by the looks of it. We have never use the gas for the HWS only electric so have never tested it out except when we picked up the van and that was for only a few minutes. Although I cannot find a leak (soapy water) in the area. It looks like it is at the top of the control valve thingy as nothing below or to the right of that area has any damage ????
From the look of the damage it is all confined to the top left corner, it had burnt off the paint on the metal cover only in that corner as well as melted some plastic inside and all the heat was in that corner thus the fiberglass started to melt and crack.
Very very lucky indeed as it could have been a lot worse. Please everyone, make sure there are no leaks there as this is potentially a disaster waiting to happen.
I have wiped off all the soot as it looked awful and was frightening the kids but you can see what it has done.
