Putting on the heating without water in the system
Hello
I am sorry if the answer to this is obvious. We have had our caravan about 18m. Last winter, we used it often and did not drain down the system. This year, we knew we wouldn't get the chance to use it much over winter, opened the valve at the front and drained what we could.
Today, my partner went to the storage place to get bits ready for our trip out this weekend. She put the heating on using the gas. Or rather, she thought that she did. It didn't work. We have had problems with out heating system so we are concerned that we may have a further problem. Alternatively, is it not working because there is no water in the system? I had understood that the two things were not related but I could be wrong.
Many thanks.
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What type of heating system? On our Alde system there is no need of water in the hot water tank to use the heating. On some there is to prevent damage. On the previous 'van there was a cover to remove from the external gas flue before gas could be used on the present 'van this is not the case. Have you used this caravan on gas before?
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if it is a Truma Combi then you can run the heating without water in the boiler...obviously, dont turn the hot water function on....
you say it wont run on gas.....some quick checks....
does the hob or fridge work on gas, ie is the gas turned on properly and reaching the appliances....check also the isolation valves...
if the hob doesnt work, theres your answer..
if it does work then you could try the heater no electric by hooking up, if possible...may not be at the storage site...
just a thought, youre not using Butane (blue cylinder) as this doesnt gass off well in very cold weather, somthe heater (which requires quite a lot of gas) may struggle.
if you are using butane, see if you can borrow a propane bottle for a few minutes to check your heater with that.
good luck.
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Sorry, yes, I realised at work today that I hadn't said it's an Alde system in a 2015 caravan.
My partner did the draining, not me - am absolved! 😇
Yes, the cooker worked - that was used as the heater for a few minutes!
The gas is Safefill Lpg
The heating fluid is at an okay level. One of the problems with the heating has been the fluid mysteriously disappearing to nothing.
Thank you for your replies.
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Sounds like you either have a leak somewhere, a faulty pressure relief valve,or a lot of air in the system that is gradually escaping.
However, none of the above should stop the Alde working on gas.
It is OK to run heating without filling the water system.
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Have you checked all the obvious things.......
is gas selected?
is the boiler actually turned on?
does it have good 12v supply?
is the thermostat set high enough?
are there any blown fuses?
If you will have EHU this weekend, take along a small fan heater just in case. We always carry one as a back up, and it does give you instant heat while the Alde is warming up the van.
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i was assuming that only the hot water boiler had been drained, however if the full system has been drained then the answer might be more straightforward
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Hello and thank you for the further replies.
I am a rather 'tail between legs'. It turns out it was working fine but took a very very long time to kick in.
Last year, we used the caravan several times in the winter, but haven't been able to this time. Maybe that is one reason for the delay (and probably the reason for lots of condensation yesterday morning - never had that before!).
We did take a heater just in case, and it was nice for the 'instant heat' and the warm glow too.
And yes, it was just the water we drained down.
I really appreciate your time and care. Hope you appreciate the candid confession 😥
Now, the sliding plastic thing on the toilet, that is a different matter. 😠🙄
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Hello and thank you for the further replies.
I am a rather 'tail between legs'. It turns out it was working fine but took a very very long time to kick in.
Last year, we used the caravan several times in the winter, but haven't been able to this time. Maybe that is one reason for the delay (and probably the reason for lots of condensation yesterday morning - never had that before!).
We did take a heater just in case, and it was nice for the 'instant heat' and the warm glow too.
And yes, it was just the water we drained down.
I really appreciate your time and care. Hope you appreciate the candid confession 😥
Now, the sliding plastic thing on the toilet, that is a different matter. 😠🙄
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one of the downsides with the alde system is how long it takes the radiators to get warm, i can see that you might have thought nothing was happening....thanks for replying
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When using it on gas, you should be able to hear it when the boiler fires up, and to check, go outside and put your hand above the flue, you will feel the warm exhaust gases.
The warm up on gas should be reasonably fast, but it is so cold at the moment that the fabric of the van will take quite a while to heat up, hence the reason we always carry a small fan heater to use when we get to a site.
As we have the Alde load monitor fitted, we turn the fan heater to 2kw, and the Alde to gas+2kw (our max) and let the monitor cut it to 1kw as required.
By the time we have connected water and waste etc etc, the van will be reasonably warm and we can turn off the gas.
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