There are a few parts of a campervan or motorhome that you only notice when they go wrong. Heating is one. You can have the loveliest upholstery, the cleverest storage, the fanciest fridge, and still end up quietly miserable if the living space never quite gets warm or the hot water runs out halfway through the second person’s shower.
That is why Truma’s Combi heaters have become such a familiar name in UK touring. They are not glamorous, but they are the sort of kit you end up trusting. The new CombiNeo 4 E is Truma’s attempt to move the whole conversation on from, “How long until the boiler is ready?” to, “Just get in the shower.” Truma is promising hot water in minutes and “endless” showers, alongside quicker room heating, all in a compact unit that still fits the way European vans are built.
It sounds like marketing, until you look at what has actually changed inside the box.
The CombiNeo 4 E is a combined space heater and water heater for motorhomes and caravans. It runs on gas, and it also has a proper electric heating mode up to 3 kW, which matters if you spend a lot of time on sites with hook up and you like saving gas.
Truma positions it as a “2 in 1” heater, but that is true of the older Combi units as well. The real difference is how it makes hot water.
Traditional Combi heaters heat a fixed tank of water, commonly 10 litres in the Combi 4 E. Once that is hot, you have a window of time to use it. If you are careful, 10 litres goes further than you think. If you have two adults who both like a proper shower, it goes surprisingly quickly.
The CombiNeo uses a much smaller water volume, around 5.6 litres, and focuses on heating water continuously as you draw it, within a set flow rate. That is how it gets to the headline claim of hot water in around three minutes and a shower experience that keeps going as long as you have water available in your fresh tank or you are connected to mains water.
There is an important practical takeaway here: it is not magic water. It is a different way of heating water, closer to the idea of a small domestic combi boiler, but constrained by the realities of a leisure vehicle. Truma itself uses careful wording and footnotes around “endless” and “instant”, because it depends on conditions and how you use it.
Truma unveiled CombiNeo publicly in the UK at the Caravan, Camping and Motorhome Show at the NEC in Birmingham on 18 February 2025. Truma also partnered with Auto Sleepers for an exclusive pre launch.
The broader European launch was planned around Caravan Salon 2025, and Truma’s own campaign information says specialist shop availability is planned for the end of 2026. In other words, for many people it will arrive first as factory fitted equipment in new vehicles, not as something you pick up off the shelf.
That matters when we talk about price and retrofitting later.
If you tour in the UK, your heating system ends up doing more jobs than you expect. It is not just warmth. It is drying damp clothes, warming towels, taking the edge off condensation, and turning a cold morning into something you can actually enjoy.
The CombiNeo 4 E’s main promises are:
None of those are small things if you have ever done the classic UK routine of arriving wet, parking up, and trying to get the van warm without turning it into a sauna.
The best way to judge a heating system is to picture an ordinary day, not an ideal one.
With older systems, the rhythm is familiar. You put the heating on, you wait for the air to warm, you wait longer for the water to get properly hot, and you try not to use too much of it because you know it is a finite tank. A Combi 4 E can absolutely do the job, but it encourages a certain scarcity mindset around hot water.
CombiNeo is designed to remove that feeling. If the heater can bring hot water online in minutes, you stop thinking of showers as a limited resource and more as a normal part of the day. That changes how you use your washroom, especially if you are touring as a couple, or if you have a family and a queue forms.
The caveat is flow rate. Continuous hot water systems usually protect themselves by limiting the amount of water that can pass through while maintaining temperature. That is sensible engineering, but it also means your “endless” shower might be a gentler shower than you get at home, and it might be less happy if you like turning the mixer fully open.
Truma’s own material makes it clear that performance depends on conditions, and the “endless” nature is about duration, not about turning your motorhome into a power shower suite.
In practice, many people will happily trade a slightly calmer flow for the ability to shower without watching the clock.
Hot water that arrives quickly is not just about showers. It is about all the little jobs: washing up after a windy dinner, cleaning up after a muddy walk, filling a bowl for a proper face wash when you cannot be bothered with the shower.
Those are the moments that make a motorhome feel civilised. A system that reduces the friction and waiting is quietly valuable.
It is worth pausing on the numbers, because they explain both the advantages and the trade offs.
A Combi 4 E is built around a 10 litre water tank.
CombiNeo uses around 5.6 litres.
On paper, that looks like a downgrade until you remember that CombiNeo is trying to heat continuously rather than heat a big tank and hope you use it wisely. The smaller volume also means less weight in water carried inside the heater itself, which helps with payload, and it can mean less heat up time for the water that is within the system.
Where this gets interesting is UK touring where many people are not on full service pitches. If you are off grid with a limited fresh water tank, you still cannot shower forever. The system cannot create water you do not have. What it can do is stop the heater being the limiting factor.
That is the shift. Your limiting factor becomes your fresh water supply and your willingness to refill, not the fact the boiler has run out of hot water.
UK touring is a mix. Some people love hook up and do not apologise for it. Others treat hook up like a mild character flaw and only use it when forced.
CombiNeo is trying to suit both camps.
On gas, it is designed to deliver quick room heat and continuous hot water within the constraints discussed above. On electric, you have a proper 3 kW mode, which is a step up from what many people are used to in older combined systems.
This is especially relevant on UK sites where a decent electric pitch can make a big difference to running costs and to comfort. If you can heat the living area and maintain hot water support electrically, you may reduce gas use, which helps in winter touring and helps reduce the hassle of bottle swaps.
Truma is very invested in its iNet X ecosystem, and CombiNeo is designed to be operated via the iNet X panel and app.
For some people, this is a clear win. The interface is modern, it can be more intuitive than older control panels, and the app control is genuinely useful if you like warming the van before you step back inside. For others, it is another layer of electronics that feels unnecessary.
The practical point for buyers is simple: when you are looking at a motorhome with CombiNeo, spend a minute with the control panel and make sure it makes sense to you. If you are not comfortable with touchscreens, you want to know that now, not on a cold night in February when you are trying to change settings with damp fingers.
This is the comparison most UK buyers will care about, because the Combi 4 E is everywhere, and it is well understood.
Combi 4 E strengths
Combi 4 E limitations
CombiNeo 4 E strengths
CombiNeo 4 E limitations
The honest view is that Combi 4 E is the safe, known quantity. CombiNeo is the exciting shift in how the system behaves day to day.
This is where the conversation gets slightly more nuanced, because heating preferences can be almost personal.
Many motorhomes and campervans use diesel space heating and a separate water heater, or a diesel combined system. Diesel has real advantages in the UK: it is easier to buy than LPG in some situations, and you are not swapping bottles. That said, diesel heaters have their own maintenance requirements, and some people do not love the smell or the sound when they are running hard on a cold night.
Truma already has diesel Combi options in the wider Combi range, but CombiNeo as presented is focused on gas with electric support.
If you are a diesel heating loyalist, CombiNeo is not necessarily the thing that will convert you. If you are happy with LPG and you want a more home like hot water experience, that is where CombiNeo fits.
Alde style wet heating is a different philosophy. It is radiant and even, and many people find it more comfortable, especially for long winter trips. Alde also has a strong reputation in premium motorhomes.
The trade off is complexity and space. Wet heating systems include more components, more fluid, and more installation demands. They can be lovely, but they are not always the right choice for compact panel vans or for buyers who want simplicity.
CombiNeo is trying to deliver a step change in comfort without turning the whole vehicle into a more complex system. It will not feel like Alde, but it might feel closer to domestic expectations for hot water, which is where many people actually notice the difference.
Whale’s approach often splits space heating and water heating into separate modules, which can be flexible for converters and can make sense in certain layouts. Whale’s Expanse water heater, for example, is commonly an 8 litre system in its own right.
The CombiNeo’s pitch is that you do not need separate boxes and separate compromises. You get an integrated system with a very specific aim: better hot water behaviour.
Right now, the tricky bit is that CombiNeo is new enough that firm UK retail pricing is not widely published, and Truma’s own information focuses on availability rather than RRP. It is positioned for model year adoption and then later specialist shop rollout.
So, instead of pretending we know an exact number, it is more useful to anchor expectations using the existing Combi 4 E market.
A Truma Combi 4 E unit is commonly sold in the UK in the mid £1,000s depending on kit contents and retailer. For example, Leisure Shop Direct lists the Combi 4 E around £1,478 for one of its purchase options, while Trailertek lists a Combi 4 E with iNet X control panel at around £1,962 excluding VAT in the product display.
For supply and fitting, a fixed price example in the UK is Motorhome Workshop listing £2,427 supplied and fitted including VAT for a Combi 4 E.
CombiNeo will not necessarily match those figures. It may cost more, particularly early on, simply because it is new and because vehicles with it may bundle it into higher specification packages. The sensible expectation is that it will sit at least in the same general bracket as a high spec Combi system with iNet X control, and that installation cost will depend heavily on layout and how much of the plumbing and ducting is already prepared for it.
If you are buying a new motorhome where it is factory fitted, the real question is not the component price. It is what you would have needed to spend to get the same comfort from an older system.
This is where CombiNeo becomes real, because you can actually buy it as part of a vehicle rather than as a theoretical upgrade.
Swift’s Trekker motorhome range highlights the CombiNeo as a key feature, describing it as a new heating solution with continuous hot water and instant heating style benefits.
Auto Sleepers has also talked publicly about equipping models with the Truma Combi Neo system as part of its updates, positioning it as a major comfort upgrade.
As always, specification can vary by model year and by market, so treat any heating system claim as something to verify on the actual vehicle order form. But the direction of travel is clear: CombiNeo is being used by manufacturers as a headline comfort feature, not as a minor technical tweak.
Even if you never plan to retrofit a heater yourself, it is worth thinking like someone who might have to fix it on a wet Wednesday in Cumbria.
Here are the questions I would be asking a dealer on handover day.
Some vehicles make heater access straightforward, others bury it behind panels and storage. A system you cannot reach becomes a system you avoid maintaining.
UK winter touring is full of near misses. You forget to drain, temperature dips, and you wake up wondering what has frozen. Make sure you understand the drain procedure and where the valves are.
With any new product, there is a period where owners are learning what is normal and what is a fault. The first time you hear a new pump note or see a new icon on the panel, you want to know whether you should worry.
If you spend a lot of time on hook up, ask how the system behaves in electric mode and what it can realistically cover on a UK pitch. The 3 kW capability is meaningful, but it is still constrained by site supply and by what else you are running.
No heating system is perfect, and a review is only useful if it admits where the shine comes off.
If you have a modest fresh tank, you are still rationing water. CombiNeo stops the boiler being the limiting factor, but it cannot make your water tank bigger.
Some people will love it. Some people will miss a stronger shower. If you care deeply about shower pressure, try a demo vehicle.
Early adopters sometimes hit small niggles. That is not a criticism of Truma specifically, it is just how new systems settle into the world. Truma is an experienced manufacturer, but a new design still has to earn its reputation in British winters and real owner usage.
Because CombiNeo is arriving first as factory fit in certain vehicles and only later in specialist shops, it is not currently the simple swap that many people imagine.
If you are dreaming of retrofitting it into an older motorhome, you will want to speak to a Truma approved installer and you should expect more than a quick like for like change.
Yes, with the right expectations.
If your touring life includes regular showers, or you tour as a family, or you simply hate the feeling of timing your hot water, CombiNeo looks like a meaningful step forward. It tackles one of the most common annoyances in campervan and motorhome life, which is the slightly stingy nature of hot water when you are not on a big domestic system.
If you mostly wash up, have the occasional quick rinse, and you are happy with the rhythms of a classic Combi 4 E, then CombiNeo might not change your world. It will still be nice, but it may not feel essential.
The most interesting thing about CombiNeo is not the marketing language. It is the shift in daily behaviour it encourages. It is designed to make a motorhome feel less like a vehicle with a boiler and more like a tiny home that happens to move.
That is a strong direction for the industry, and it is the sort of upgrade that quietly improves touring life without needing you to buy a bigger vehicle or carry more kit.
As it rolls into more UK models and as owners build up a couple of seasons of real use, we will get the clearest picture of whether it becomes the new default or the clever premium option. For now, if you are considering a motorhome like the Swift Trekker where it is fitted as part of the package, it is one of the most compelling reasons to look closely at the specification sheet and take the heating system seriously, not as a footnote but as a central part of comfort.
