New 4.3kw blow air heating
Hi everyone, does anyone have a van with the whale 4.3kw dual/fuel heating system in it, seems to me that nearly all of the Elldiss range seem to be turning back to this from Alde heating. Can someone who have used both compare it for me, new one for me except the eighties lol. thank you for your help.
Peter L
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OH just 4.3kw on electric that will use up 18 amps and on club sites is 16 amps without anything else on, did wonder if there is a restriction for electric side as on gas that will heat the caravan up quickly.
We have had friends who have had trouble with Alde heating and one has changed their caravan other has had to have repair on 2 years old Elddis caravan so perhaps they are changing to a different system.
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4.3kw! That's not a caravan, that's a mobile sauna!
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The 4.3 kW will refer to the combined gas plus electric heating, not just electric.
As for the comparison between Alde and Whale (which I assume is blown air) the two are very different and there have been many threads on the topic. The Aldi system is a “wet” system with carefully located radiators which gives a very even heat throughout the van and on all surfaces. Highly desirable. Hot air heats up very quickly but does not provide the same even distribution.
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In a nutshell, HG.👍🏻
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Thankyou all, the 4.3KW is elec and gas working together it also has a quiet night time run, at the moment i have an alde system but im soon changing the van for Elldiss Casita 860 with blown air wondered if the blown air nowdays is better than it use to be, i have a mate who said the Alde heating is very juicy to run in the winter time which i am planning to do more of this year.
Pete
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We had an Alde system in our caravan which was brilliant. When we switched to a motorhome we were worried that it only had blown air, however, it’s a compact van and heats up very quickly so in our situation with a small internal volume an Alde would not be a big benefit.
The point about power consumption is that if you are off EHU the Alde pump runs on 12 volts. According to the Alde FAQs this is only between 0.2 and 0.6 amps so shouldn’t be any more than a blown air system.
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That’s not our experience. We've had to top up blown air systems in several bathrooms, by using an oil filled radiator. Night operation and timing has never worked as well as our Alde system. So we’d probably not consider a blown air system, unless it could be demonstrated that it was as effective as Alde.
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Hi
we have a blown air system on our bologna gt65, having been out in many winds and weathers, our system has worked perfectly. Ok we did add a couple of butterfly valves, so we could balance the air flow, but once this had been done it has always been toasty warm.
the important thing to remember is 90 % of us use the brick built thing we have struggled 25 years to pay for, when the snow starts to fall.
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It seems to me the biggest potential weakness with a blown air system is installation. If you have long runs of uninsulated ducting outside of the van then it’s not going to be very efficient. If the ducting is internal then it is going to be much more efficient.
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Just snuggle up close to your OH.
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The Alde 3020 system can deliver up to 8.7 kW
Its a caravan!
We have been out in very cold temps and having set on economy setting keeps it unbearably warm inside (not my choice!) regardless of the system type. 8.7Kw could heat a 3 bed semi, in winter.
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8.7kW figure is imho slightly misleading imho. The limiting factor is going to be the output from the convectors. These are have an output of 400W per meter, so unless you have 17 meters of convector installed then the maximum out from the boiler is not that relevant.
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l have had both systems but not the whale, to be honest l prefer the Truma combi system l have in my 460 Coachman VIP admittedly its only a two berth where my other 3 vans were Bailey Madrid Lunar FB and a Lunar SB all 3 with Aldi Heating, l agree it gives heating just like at home but in the night we found the pump could keep you awake, where as the Truma you could hardly here it. Its one of those some prefer the Aldi and some the Truma you pays your money and takes your choice
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The Madrid pump was under offside bed at the front so when it kicked in early morning would wake us up, plus if we had it on over night when it was really cold kept coming in periodically, in the Lunar FB it was in the wardrobe situated on top of the tank the wardrobe accentuated the noise acting like an amplifier,as was the same in the Lunar SB. l do agree it was better at keeping the van warm no cold spots anywhere, even so the Truma is lighter and we have learned how to balance the system its toasty warm as well not quite like the Aldi as the bathroom is slightly cooler. l also find its easy to set the timer on the combi system. Obviously they might have solved some of the problems by relighting the pump, it wouldn't stop me having the system again as now Coachman fit Aldi heating in their VIP's
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We have had at least 6 vans with various forms of blown air heating and it was why we looked specifically for Alde heating - firstly Bailey Unicorn Valencia - fantastic Alde heating but very poor quality control from Bailey. So we changed - and our last 4 vans have all been Hymer, with Alde for uniform, evenly distributed heat (which was critical with my wife suffering arthritis). We also had one Hymer Arctic Star - imported by me from Austria - with underfloor heating.
I can't think of any reason why I would move away from a van with Alde heating now.
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We've had both. The last van (Bailey) had Alde, the present one (Knaus) has Truma blown air. I don't think there's much to choose between them. The Truma heats the van much more quickly; Alde gives a more 'all round' heat but both were not good at heating the bathroom so we tend to use a fan heater in there if it's really cold. I'm contemplating fitting an electric towel radiator in this bathroom to try and improve things.
On the "Eco" setting, you can barely hear the Truma fan so it's fine to leave it on 'tickover' at night whereas the Alde system was quite audible.
I must admit I was a bit concerned about taking what I perceived to be a backward step when we bought the Knaus, in terms of the heating, but I have to say that those concerns were totally unfounded.
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Also had both. Our Bailey U2 Cadiz had the Alde and we really liked it and would have preferred it in our MH, although it also wasn’t good at heating the bathroom. However, the MH that suited us best had Truma blown air and certainly in our sized van it is good and unlike the version we had in our old Abbey the ducting is all internal. As the bathroom is about 30cm from the heater and first on the run, it actually gets too hot if the vent is left fully open.😂
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