DIY – Living with a TRECA bed

In 2005 we purchased an apartment in the south of Spain, and naturally the first thing we needed was a good bed, with a good mattress, and my wife always appreciated the motorised version so she could sit up in bed.

We ended up buying a complete bedroom suite that was on sale in Roche Bobois.

This post is about replacing the motor, and later replacing the remote control unit.

We also recently (2022) replaced the mattress.

Bedroom suite EDEN

We bought an EDEN suite and took the version with the taller headboard. We also added:-

2 box spring bedsteads Trecaflex M5 with two motors
2 mattresses Treca Silk Imperial Prestige.

First Problem - one motor broke down

Under guarantee one of the motors broke down. Our ‘local’ Roche Bobois wanted to recover the entire bedstead with the motor, as they were not sure if they could remove the motor for repair.

I learned the hard way to remove the motor by dismounting the entire system. I then saw how to remove and replace the motor the easy way. As they say you ‘live and learn’.

In any case I also found the piece that was broken, but I still decided to give Roche Bobois the entire motor unit for repair. It took more than two months, but this did not pose a problem because we were not in Spain at that time.

Second Problem - replace a motor unit

After more than 15 years of loyal service the other motor unit broke down completely.

I was able to quickly dismount it, and verify that one of the motors was completely dead. Contacting our ‘local’ Roche Bobois I learned that they no longer supported TRECA.

I have no idea how I found a contact in Madrid who could solve my problems, but the person was…

Miguel Ángel Olive Sanz

tel: 617 205 237

m.oliva555@gmail.com

He immediately understood my problem, and most importantly replied immediately to my emails. Within days he had shipped me a new motor with its command unit. These motor units are not easy to fit, but it worked, and still works, perfectly.

This type of motor unit can be found on the Internet under the name OKIN. I don’t know if the model I received is exactly the same because there was no name on it, but the dimensions and price were about the same. The command unit was a bit different, but had the same functions.

Third problem - replace our mattresses

Time to change the mattresses.

Expert advice is to change a mattress every 7 to 10 years. In 2022 our mattresses were about 17 years old, but in a holiday apartment my guess was that they had the equivalent use of about 7-8 years.

My initial view was to simply buy the same, but I could not source locally TRECA mattresses (our ‘local’ Roche Bobois could order them but that was all), and they were very expensive.

In addition my wife had acquired a back problem, so it appeared logical to at least be able to try out a selection of mattresses in a showroom or store, before committing to a specific model.

Our local El Corte Inglés solved this problem in their bedding department. My wife tried about 20 different mattresses, and finally picked TEMPUR Cool with a middle firmness. I picked the firm model.

Naturally my wife was less than 100% happy with the mattress, or with any mattress anywhere.

I have two practical criticisms:-

The first is that it has no handles and is thus very difficult to move around, etc.

The second is that, despite the affirmation of the sales people in El Corte Inglés, I’m not convince the mattress is designed for a bed with electric motors. Most mattresses have specific areas that bends with the motorised bedspread, but the TEMPUR mattress does not have these visible areas. And it tends to slid down the bedspread when the back support is placed in a vertical position. Again many bedspreads have a retaining bar at the foot of the bedspread, but our TRECA bedspread does not have one. You can buy the bars on the Internet, but they screw onto the wooden slats, and our TRECA is a box spring so there is nowhere to screw on a retaining bar. I created an additional wooden slat insert with a retaining bar, and it appeared to do the job.

Fourth problem - broken motor command

The latest problem (March 2023) was a broken motor command.

The new motor had a new command unit, but the old original motor had an old original command.

When I say broken I mean that the cable had become warn and the wires were dangerously exposed, although the hand unit itself still worked. I could have tried to open the hand unit and rewire it, or simply buy a new motor command.

Thanks again to Miguel Ángel Olive Sanz I found a solution.

Unfortunately he could not source a direct replacement unit, but he could provide another type of command, e.g. the same as on our new motor. But he did not know if it would work.

Both connectors, for the old and new motors, are the 5-pin DIN type set at 90° to the cable. This is where the next problem started, the connector orientation on the two different hand commands (old and new) were rotated by 180°. This meant that I could not insert the new command unit into the old motor because of a heavy plastic protection set into the motor body. I could not get enough access to cut away the protection, so ended up chipping it away with a chisel.

Finally I was able to insert the new command unit into the old motor, and it worked. I ordered a new command unit. For information, the old command unit did not work on the new motor.