Alde wet heating v blown air
We have been caravanning for 20 years and currently own a 2008 Bailey with blown air central heating and are considering a 2012/2013 Elddis with Alde wet central heating, and would be interested in members' views on which system is best, and whether they've experienced any issues with the wet system.
My husband is worried about having an amount of water inside the 'van, in the holding tank and the fact that you have pipes running all around the perimeter that may develop leaks.
He is also concerned about how long it takes for the 'van to get warm as he has had mixed reviews. Can it run on gas as well as electric, as the Truma does to initially boost the system and how hot does it get?
Any help or advice much appreciated :-)
Thanks.
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Yes, you can use both, but it is a clever system and will only actually use the gas if it thinks it needs to. You will possibly have the 3kw version, ours is only 2kw on electricity, so a slightly longer warm up time.
For best results, we find it ideal to carry a small fan heater (also good for emergencies), and we set this on 2kw for instant heat and the Alde on gas only (6kw) for fast warm up. Once we are cosy we remove the fan heater and turn the Alde onto electricity only. Takes about 30 minutes with the help of the fan heater, about 60 minutes otherwise. We have a large twin axle Sterling.
It is a very good system, even heat, heats the whole fabric of the van, good control system too.
No problem with the fluid, it is about 50/50 water and antifreeze, the header tank is very small, there is no free water sloshing around. We keep the HW system filled except over winter when not using the van, but you can drain it to save a little weight.
Our van is just over 9 years old, has travelled over 30,000 miles with no leaks, till this spring, and those were not the fault of the system itself, rather the caravan manufacturer.
2 pipes near the boiler, the flow and return, had been installed touching, not a good idea as over the years they were rubbing together as we rattled around Europe, and eventually rubbed holes in each other.
I was able to repair the pipes with a couple of Alde's rubber joining pieces, it was fairly easy, but sourcing them in Germany was rather more difficult!
Would not want to go back to blown air.
Has your OH read up about the system on the Alde website, lots of info there on how it works etc.
Make sure the antifreeze has been changed at the correct intervals when purchasing......every 2 years for blue, every 5 years for pink.
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I would not even consider a caravan unless it has Alde heating, once youv'e had it you will not want to go back to blown air. Superb on gas and OK on electric, we are ralliers so usually use gas but also prefer gas whilst wintering in Spain. If you are buying second hand ensure the fluid had been changed in the system as the initial fill by most manufacturers has only 2 years life before the corrosion inhibitors need replacing. 5 year fluid is available. So a 2013 caravan should have had at least 1 if not 2 fluid changes. This should be in the service records although not part of the service. Failure to change the fluid results in internal corrosion in the boiler so not a cheap fix.
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Those who have it tend to think it's the best system ever, however there are occasional real problems as it is complicated and requires some maintenance.
When blown air heating was introduced I thought it was fantastic, I still find it is more than adequate with no problems.
Apart from normal habitation services it has never failed in any way.
However, if you stay on sites for long periods I would suggest Aldi could well be worth trying.
Good Luck
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Alde for me every time. The van is evenly warmed with no cold spots and the radiator in the bathroom keeps the towels dry after a shower. Plenty of hot water for showers and during the day.
I don't find that it takes too long to earn the van. By the time I have finished all the outside tasks the interior is warming up nicely.
The system was used in boats for years before it made its way to caravans so it is well tried and. You should have no worries about leaks.
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How hot it is depends on how high the owner has set it really.
I have little doubt that 10 years ago if I had entered a caravan set at our present December heat levels I would have thought it too warm. With the arthritis in my spine I run it warmer than 10 years ago!
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One advantage / disadvantage is that because the central heating pipes circle the van low down, all the under bed, under seat and even the front lockers are warmed. It means the walking boots don't have to be brought into the body of the van to warm up. 😀 However, we no longer have a cold locker in which to keep vegetables.☹️
Overall the advantages far outway the disadvantages. I much prefer it to blown air.
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Returning to caravanning three years ago, I was also a bit apprehensive about the Alde system, having previously been used to blown air. My reservations proved to be totally unfounded and I have to say that I regard the Alde system as being fantastic and I wouldn't consider anything else. We use the caravan all year-round and we have never felt chilly at all - quite the reverse in fact and often have to turn it down because we are too hot. From cold, and switched to both gas and electric, it brings the van to an acceptable temperature within about 10 minutes and the fact that the heat is distributed evenly through the vents behind seating and the bed ensures there are no cold spots - unlike the cold air system which by comparison gave an uneven distribution of heat. The increased insulation in new vans also significantly improves the situation.
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l always swore by the Alde heating but have recently changed to a van with Truma Combi which l find just has good has the Alde, one advantage over the Alde is the faster heat up time plus cool air circulation in summer. The timer is simpler, also its quieter when it comes on in early morning. All the vans l have had with the Alde system has the pump noise no matter where its situated when it comes in. Only time will tell if it is has good as the Alde. The caravan l have is a 2014 VIP 460 Coachman who have now put Alde Heating in their vans.
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We have just changed caravans and one of the deciding factors when choosing was the Alde heating. We had only ever had warm air heating before but had heard many good reports.
We have used the van a few times now and although it's been warm enough not to have to use it really we have had it on to test everything worked as it should. I was surprised how quickly it warmed up, and was very efficient, controls are easy to understand. I really like being able to set timer and temperature. Our pump is in the wardrobe and as it's next to the bed I did notice a slight hum when it came on, but otherwise thought it very quiet.
We are hoping that when we use it in the winter it will be warmer, our old van wasn't always that warm if the weather was very cold.
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A complete controllable wet radiator system is simpler than two or three inert pipes?
As I suggested people who require a fully adjustable central heating system for static periods it is probably a good idea...although I bet some hotels would arguably be better?
PS. I've never seen a complaint about noise with a hot air system but have seen many re Alde systems....but I do believe that it is getting better?
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To certain extent all heating systems are at the mercy of the installation. I this is more the case for an Alde system. So if it installed with a noisy pump in the wardrobe where you sleep and the boiler under a bed then maybe not so great particularly if they also scrimp on the number of convectors. Properly specified and installed it's a great system
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We are in year 10 with the Alde in our twin axle Sterling and we really do not have any noise from it. The boiler itself is under the bed, but the pump and header tank are in the wardrobe, which is on the opposite side of the van (side fixed bed) about a metre away. If you open the wardrobe door you can hear it faintly, but not with the door closed.
I think with some who get a noise, it is down to the position of the pump, and some may have air in the system or lack of fluid, you will hear the pump then.
The caravan makers probably need to give the position of the pump more thought.
We can leave ours to go off and on at night in winter without noise problems, but with the blown air there was always the sound of the fan.
The more technically complicated design of the system is not really something that affects the end user day to day, but there are those who complain the control system is too complicated for them to understand, though I believe the newer controllers are easier to use.
There are good instructions supplied, so all that is required is to sit down with the handbook and work through them to set up the functions you want to use. As I said, once set up they rarely need altered. The main problem is that a lot of people never take time to read instructions!
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The only noise we get from ours is from the gas exhaust when it is running from that source - otherwise it's completely silent other than the odd gurgle from the header tank in the wardrobe when it first starts up.
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For us the best thing about the Alde heating system is that it is fully programmable so you can set it to go off at a certain time each night, or reduce to say 10 degrees ( if winter caravanning ) then have it come up to full heat before you get out of bed. I must however admit the new colour touch screen controls are far far easier to use than the original.
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Only disadvantages I can think of is the 20kg extra payload and the fact that only a 2 year old fluid is used when 5 year could be fitted instead, the latter is disgraceful IMO, a waste of the worlds resources.
any pump noise will only be heard if you sleep near the pump, I am on caravan number two with Alde now in year 7, both have the same layout with a fixed bed and boiler mounted pump. No very little noise.
Our Unicorn 3010 system was faultless over 6 years, while our 3020 although it has a simpler control panel is more complicated and has frozen twice, when I say more complicated for some reason I've found after a period of isolation (I have no back up power pack) the pump has defaulted continuous not thermostat, something I hadn't noticed at first.
I also found the pump speed setting higher than required so turned it down to make it less noisy.
With over 8kw available using gas and electric warm up temperature is adequate IMO. But my last caravan had a cool shower room due to insufficient heat exchangers. so you do need to do your research if buying used.
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Having bought an almost new caravan last year with Alde heating, I can say that I prefer the wet heating system. With blown air I was anxious about the proximity of the main heater to the bed, which meant that bedclothes would hang against the heater if used overnight. I consider this a fire risk (I may be wrong), so we always had another form of heater running overnight at the kitchen end if necessary. No such worries with the Alde.
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Fake news I'm afraid.
The Alde system weighs between 3 & 7 Kg more than blown air. In most cases it's at the lower end of that scale.
Alde is quicker to heat the van and provides evenly spread and automatically controlled heating. It's head and shoulders better than blown air in our opinion, and we wouldn't consider ever going back to blown air.
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The Combi system has boiler not a fire and its under the off side bed just like the Alde system. Back to pump noise, l am partially deaf due to working with Boilers reciprocating compressors and Gas turbines for 20 years and when the heating system came on it woke me as it was under the off side bed in the Unicorn Madrid, it was in the wardrobe of our Clubman SB and still could hear it. The most intrusive noise was when we set the temp to 15 degree's for the night in winter the pump would come on periodically as the temp went under 15 degree's. Now we have not yet used the Combi system in winter so l will be able to compare both systems this Autumn
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I can't speak for Swift, and I don't know what they have added into the weight which you quote. What I do know is that when we looked into the weight which an Alde system was likely to add, a few years ago, it emerged that the overall weight gain was surprisingly small when compared to traditional blown air and the multi fuel boiler systems. A quick confirmation of my correction can be found here;
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Alde aren't necessarily comparing apples with apples they quote the extra weight compared to a caravan fitted with a separate heating and hot water system. ie the Truma Ultraheat and ultrastore systems. I would be interesting to know what the weight difference between Alde and the Truma combi system.
For what it's worth. For my system Hymer list and additional weight of 22kg but it is not clear to me if that is the whole system or just the underfloor heating part. Friends had a coachman with a truma combi system and it might of been lighter but on initial start up it sounded like a jet fighter from the outside. Don't know what it was like inside the van
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