Froggy

Please ignore the link three posts back, which I can no longer delete or edit. Further posts from myself will appear here, I'll be back with an update soon.

Ok, due to zero take up on this topic could Admin please delete? Any ongoing conversation will be here: https://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?/topic/95828-looking-for-parts-and-documentation-for-stoves-vanette-gg7000/

I'm hoping we don't have to go down that route!

I've now created a new Topic to cover the last post: https://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?/topic/124710-stoves-vanette-gg7000-how-to-position-new-burner/

Over the past few months our oven has been making a sputtering sound. Occasionally, when just lit, it would extinguish, but if it stayed lit for a few minutes it would be fine, but the sputtering would come back if the door was opened, presumably due to an ingress of air. All the while the grill, which is off the same gas line, would work fine (the hobs are off a different line). Now a few days ago the sputtering got so bad it finally prompted me to take things apart after all these years. 😄 The burner was in a bad state at the back as per first picture. Fortunately (and amazingly) these are still readily available so I've ordered a new one. I'm not totally convinced this is what caused the sputtering though because I temporarily glued a craft blade to cover the holes, cleaned the debris out and cleaned the jet as best I could with a pin and put it back together, but now the issue is as follows: the burner lights and burns with an improved flame (second picture) but then extinguishes after two to three minutes. So here is a question for the few who might still have one of these appliances: when I put the burner back I wasn't sure if I was to pass the bolt through the second hole to the left (as per picture 2) or the extreme left one next to it. The bolt almost aligns with the extreme left hole, which would give a snugger fit to the jet, but I didn't want to force it and risk snapping the bolt. I'd be grateful if anyone who still has one of these could take a look and report back. I'm annoyed that I didn't take a photo before disassembling as I normally would, but I had it in mind I had an earlier picture on my phone, which I can't now find.

Well, who'd have thought that I'd be googling 'Vanette GG7000 burner' and come across a thread I started myself 7 years earlier! 😄 Not only that, causing me some confusion, I have two similar threads on this forum - not sure how that happened. 😅 Ok, I have a new issue - more of that in the next paragraph. But first a quick résumé for the likes of NB Alnwick. We never replaced the grill thermocouple, and the grill still works fine. If the thermocouple is knocked slightly out of place the grill cuts out; this is resolved by pushing it very gently in at the hole as per first picture. (This picture has loaded in sideways orientation, probably my fault). For some reason, it seems to need to be in contact with the metal as it passes through the hole. I've gently bent the curve and it stays in place quite nicely. As for the oven, a few years ago I let the gas run for about 30 seconds before igniting and the mini explosion seemed to partially clear the jet and improve the flame a bit, and prove the thermostat works, since although the oven still didn't really get hot enough it was now a case of doubling rather than quadrupling the cooking time, and if left on long enough it would eventually kick down into low heat mode. We've lived with this quite happily for a few years. Until now..... So onto the current issue. Over the past few months the oven has been making a sputtering sound. Occasionally, when just lit, it would extinguish, but if it stayed lit for a few minutes it would be fine, but the sputtering would come back if the door was opened, presumably due to an ingress of air. All the while the grill, which is off the same gas line, would work fine (the hobs are off a different line). Now a few days ago the sputtering got so bad it finally prompted me to take things apart after all these years. 😄 The burner was in a bad state at the back as per second picture. Fortunately (and amazingly) these are still readily available so I've ordered a new one. I'm not totally convinced this is what caused the sputtering though because I temporarily glued a craft blade to cover the holes, cleaned the debris out and cleaned the jet as best I could with a pin and put it back together, but now the issue is as follows: the burner lights and burns with an improved flame (third picture) but then extinguishes after two-three minutes. So here is a question for the few who might still have one of these appliances: when I put the burner back I wasn't sure if I was to pass the bolt through the second hole to the left (as per picture 3) or the extreme left one next to it. The bolt almost aligns with the extreme left hole, which would give a snugger fit to the jet, but I didn't want to force it and risk snapping the bolt. I'd be grateful if anyone who still has one of these could take a look and report back. I'm annoyed that I didn't take a picture before disassembling as I normally would, but I had it in mind I had an earlier picture on my phone, which I can't now find.

Ok, thanks, i was forgetting how badly blocked those vent grills at the rear were, we were quite shocked when we took the alternator off, it wasn't evident from the top and front when checking oil and water levels.

I'm guessing though that a blown diode might possibly indicate too large a load could have been imposed on the alternator at the time of failure by running too many high-demand appliances?

You are correct, belt had been slipping for a while on startup, it usually resolved after 5-10 minutes, i tended to have to readjust belt roughly once a month but hadn't got around to it that time. What can you see in the photos to indicate slippage, is it the way the backing has parted company in the second photo? Ok, well that's reassuring, i just wanted to cover all bases since the repair is costing about £160.

Ok, thanks. Profiles looked more or less identical although photos don't really show this, but old belt has been binned so can't double-check. New belt ran about 6 hours before alternator failure. Hopefully just coincidence, there were no obvious indications of belt slippage.

Latest update on this is that a diode was blown. Alternator is getting an extensive refurbishment in addition to the diode. Is it possible that fitting a belt that isn't an exact replacement could cause issues? The replacement belt was already on the boat but i did note the teeth were a little chunkier but just assumed it was due to wear on the older belt and/or different manufacturing tolerances. Both belts were as good as identical in terms of width and circumference. Taking a closer look at these close-ups now though there does seem to be a real difference in the profile of the teeth. The older belt is at the bottom in both photos.

Thanks for the suggestion but domestic alternator is now in for repair.

Tony, i am asking a lot of questions because i am a novice with electrics, but very inquisitive (and need to make a decision quickly since we are currently without power and have had to defer a fairly lengthy week's cruise until this is sorted). I appreciate all the advice you have given. No, we haven't done a power audit but our existing charging regime has kept us in good stead in the four years or so we've had the boat. The batteries still seem to hold their charge well about three years in and the belt has only been changed twice in over four years. The engine is probably only run on average for about 10 hours a week, apart from occasional longer cruises. We are normally very frugal with power consumption: the tv, fridge and vacuum are used very sparingly (the fridge is only used in very hot weather, mainly to cool drinks) and the microwave almost never; most of our lighting has been converted to led. I'm going to phone Barrus tomorrow to see if they can shed any light on the alternators that might have originally been fitted / recommended for this engine. Then I'll await the refurbisher's report and take it from there. I'll report back on how this pans out, and obviously the advice you and others have given will help guide my decisions.

The main predicament here is that we don't at this moment know the output of our dysfunctional alternator. If this can be ascertained we can try to source a similarly rated alternator, or have the existing one repaired. If we can't determine this the dilemma would be having to guess and ending up with an alternator with an inferior rating to the original. If you think a 50 amp alternator would efficiently drive a service battery bank i will bear that in mind.

It might be because the boat was originally fitted out as a six-berth hire boat. At the time it had four Trojan domestics and from memory (we still have the original manual) it still had a separate battery for the diesel heater, which was originally a Webasto.