Alde Heating
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alde is in my opinion is much better then any other heating does not dry air out it does not take that long to heat up on 3kw just set it when your setting up and its lovely and warm when done and it is also silent
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Heats up much more quickly if you use gas and electric together.set the panel for priority electric and the gas will only kick in if the system needs it to attain your set temp.and it will then revert to elec. to keep warm.This saves a lot of gas being used.
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I like it more evenly distributed heat radiators generally surround the living area with one in bathroom. All radiators remain hot as piping is all inboard with many blown air systems the bathroom is often fed via ducting which runs under the van resulting in poor heating at the rear. Blown air eventually becomes a cold draught. The Alde in our Clubman does tend to gurgle at times despite bleeding, it can at times be heard faintly in the background but its not annoying. The principle on which it operates is different to blown air where the timer is used to switch it on and off as required, with Alde you use the timer to adjust the temperature between night and day. You will be paying quite a bit more for Alde Heating so consider if you will use it enough and bear in mind in two years you will have to either pay to change the fluid circa £200 or DIY.
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Well we just have Kj and I have to say I agree with you! The latest Truma blown air system is good but it's not as good as the Alde we had in our previous Barcelona. Although the new van (Knaus Starclass 695) is much bigger than the Bailey, there are cold spots with the blown air - particularly in the bathroom which is at the end of the run - despite it having underfloor heating. The Alde is more of a 'surround sound' as opposed to the 'stereo' of the Truma.
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All of the above is true, Alde is by far a superior system, it does however incur greater maintenance costs, fluid change for one.
But it's not without issues, my Coachman, yes Coachman, a brand supposedly at the top table, the placement of radiators and heat vents is poor.
Lounge lovely and warm, bedroom warmer still, end bathroom not so warm. It's as if Coachman were challenged to bugger up the Alde system, and won!
Basically too many heat exchanger units in the fixed transverse bedroom, and not enough in the bathroom.
Alde is a great system, but not without it's own faults.
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What do you mean?
Alde the fluid has to be changed, unless you want to live with the noise.
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You had commented on the Alde's "greater maintenance costs, fluid change for one".
I thought the Alde system required no other maintenance, only that one.
Nothing more complex, though have I over all these years missed doing anything else to maintain mine, this one for twelve years?
The fluid change is because of the limited life span of the corrosion and biocide inhibitors of any particular product, far more critical than noise issues.
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It was an expression.
But then, secondly
how often do you bleed blown air?I'm afraid the noise is far more critical, couldn't care less about the other stuff.
My system started kettling almost 2 years to the day, it was changed almost immediately.
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We are on the 5 year fluid, I have changed it twice myself, the only cost being the purchase of about 7 litres of the correct concentrated antifreeze, time taken, about 3 hours.
Bleeding the radiators.....only when we first got the van and when we changed the fluid.
I believe the kettling is caused by the % of glycol in the mix being too low, which can happen if you need to top up often and use only water.
You really should care about corrosion, these boilers are not cheap!
No other regular maintenance but nothing lasts forever, so some replacements may be required as the years go on, and the parts are quite pricey.
In 11 years I have had to repair 2 leaks on the system....one bend and one straight piece of pipe work, aluminium, rubbed through in 2016 due to poor installation by Swift (insufficient separation). The damaged pieces were cut out and replaced by rubber joining pieces, cost of parts was minimal but I would not have wanted to have had to pay the labour charge as it took quite a while to do. Unfortunately it happened 1000m up in the Black Forest in May, when it was down to -2 degrees.
Later that year, in York, we had to get the main PCB on the boiler replaced due to the big fuse failing, that time we had to pay for an Alde engineer, so well over £200. It is apparently a common fault. I kept the old board and have sourced and replaced the fuse, so now have a spare board.
Just recently, we had the pump in the header tank fail, about £120, and the controller go crazy, another roughly £180 as we upgraded to the latest colour touch controller. Both replaced by me, electrics/electronics Is a bit of a hobby for me, fortunately!
The van is well used, usually 3-4 months per year, and has covered some 35000 miles.
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Having just changed from a Bailey GT65 with the Whale "Typhoon jet engine on reheat for takeoff" racket to the near silent Alde system, days and nights are now bliss again. Anyone want a fan heater?
They didn't mention that nonsense in the magazine tests! Bet "they" never bothered trying the GT65 heating system on Gas.
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Know what you mean, our old Coachman Amara had Turma heating which was great, Our Elddis has the Whale "hair dryer" Wouldn't have another van with it fitted.
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