Showering in the caravan
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So there you go. After 7 pages the answer is you will have to try out your shower yourself, to see if it works for you. I would comment that it is worth remembering that Alde has a boost function which increases the hot water temperature, therefore a tank goes further as well as heating up quicker at the cost of effectively switching the heating off. The other consideration is that most people who use there own facilities have two Aquarolls for convenience.
Finally, I am I the only person who has queued up for a site shower only to find it's not that clean and the water is at best a tepid trickle?
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ET
As you well know the Europeans are generally summer campers except for the few that like to go to winter ski resorts. In the UK many of us camp all year round and many use CL type site that might not have the luxury of a toilet/shower block which might explain why UK caravans/motorhomes are better equipped. Most of the time we use our own facilities because we can just roll out of bed and into the shower and get dressed in comfort. None of this having to get half dressed for the daily march to the ablutions. We do sometimes make an exception if we are in Germany and Austria (where we are often charged for electricity) where the toilet/shower facilities are usually far more impressive than they are in France
David
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Even so, it would be extra weight we just do not need as we are on a weight reduction crusade right now! Every kilo counts, and they soon add up.
We have plenty of space elsewhere in the van we could put table and chairs, like under the bed, but if we used all the space we have we would be over our weight limit, sadly.
Have those of you who take over what should be empty space for additional storage had your vans weighed when loaded? With the miserable payloads of some vans these days, it would be very easy to be over your limit.
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I have just been reading the original question, which the recent posts have moved well away from.
I don't know this Alde water heating system as I've always has the Truma one, but it does heat the water rapidly enough to keep up a continuous flow for ages. I use two linked Aquarolls so there is in theory 80 litres (of mixed) water available.
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You'll not be surprised to know that everything I have in the van that stays permanently in there (aqauroll, wastemaster, gas, sleeping stuff, pots and pans, plates, cutlery, shower stuff, front locker tools and hoses, stuff in the front drawers... whatever) has been weighed before being put in and accounted for in my caravan spread sheet. We have those blue ikea large bags for clothing that when full weigh about 6kg so we know exactly what our van weighs when being towed. Can you say likewise?
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Yes sorry to get this back to the original question.
In my experience the Truma system gave more hot water than the Alde system, not supprising really as the storage tank was bigger and the temperature on gas at least was higher. Alde do apparently offer an additional heat exchanger to give continuous hot water, but I think it costs iirc more than £600 to have it fitted.
Ps that is not to say you can't have an adequate shower from the Alde system as is.
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You can however boost the water temperature on the Alde which raises the temperature.
How much hot water does the system produce?
The Alde Compact boilers uses a store of 8.4 litres of hot water at >50 °C. When mixed at the fixture to a usable 38 °C, this amounts to ≈12 litres of heated water every 30 mins. Cold water <10 °C will take longer to heat.
The Hot Water Boost function—the tap icon on the digital control panel—cuts out the central heating for 30 mins while another 8.4 litres of hot water is heated to >65 °C. This amounts to ≈15 litres of heated water, mixed. Assuming an average flow rate of 3 litres per minute, this gives ≈5 minutes of continuous heated water for showers.
This can also be used to kill Legionella bacteria if the system has been standing unused for a spell. (Legionella bacteria dies within 2 mins at 65 °C.)
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unless one weighs the/your actual van fully loaded as TG has done, just adding the weight of loaded items to the 'brochure weight' of a caravan or MH is hardly accurate.
manufacturers have a 'tolerance' (inaccuracy) of +/- 5% so a caravan weighing 1500kg in the brochure might actually weigh 1575kg, so if you are running anywhere near the 'theoretical' maximum, the van may already be significantly overweight. with paltry caravan payloads, this might be crucial.
on a 3500kg MH, this tolerance could be as much as 175kg, a significant amount to be short of in the payload department.
i had this van weighed in a known state prior to purchase (including factory fitted extras) rather than relying on the catalog figures, and weighed all equipment that got loaded into the van, including us
, so i know the true weight of this actual van.stay safe out there.....
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Yes, I can.
Did you weigh the empty van first, then add on your weights, or did you use the manufacturer's figure?
Our MIRO(we are in the old ystem as a 2008 van) is given as 1532kg, and our MTPLM is 1900kg, so theoretically we have a decent payload of 368kg.
Allowing for battery 20kg, gas 20kg, air con 32kg, mover 33kg, Fiamma 11kg, and say a generous 30kg for other bits we have added ( shock absorbers, extra sockets, extra shelves, Alde accessories, dish racks, a little water in the toilet, and water in the HW tank)......a total of 146kg......we should still have 222kg left.
This has to cover food, clothes, shoes, toiletries, cleaning materials, toilet chemicals, cooking equipment, dishes, bedding, towels, prescription items, Wastemaster, pipes and hose, spare EHU cable, and about 10kg of assorted spares and tools.
This should be plenty, it is considerably more than the total allowed for many newer vans, yet when we weighed the van fully loaded last year, we found we were on or even above our limit, depending on the accuracy of the weighbridge, so we are having a ruthless cull.
I suspect the van must have weighed a fair bit more than the 1532kg stated originally, just sorry we did not weigh it when we first got it!
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But the boosted temperature is the same temperature as the ultrastore on electric ~65C and as the tank is smaller less hot water. The anti legionella setting is true but slightly misleading because I believe that the greatest risk would be from the shower head, as legionella is typically transmitted in aerosols, and this isn't exposed to high temperatures. The risk must be pretty infintesmal anyway so I wouldn't worry.
We will be away for 4 nights over Easter, the shower will be getting plenty of practical use as a shower.
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...or the least?
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We have one of those, but struggle to get an accurate figure as we have no flat area at home on which to use it, and it did not like being put on the gravel on a hardstanding either.
Will need to take it with us again and find a nice flat, quiet bit of site road to try it out on!
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lol. sorry each bag weighs 6kg full so if we put in 5 bags that's 30 kg.
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We used the weight given by the manufacturer empty and if they get it wrong, well maybe a rethink is in order, but even so now there's only two or three of us at one time and it's a six berth caravan and I allocated 36kg for clothes we should be well under.
We weighed everything that went in, not individually but in batches .
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