Hi, friends have a new van with the Alde heating in it. It seems to be incapable of heating up and is using anti-freeze for England. Any ideas, dealer had it back and reckoned it fine but they have spent Easter frozen whilst us Truma people toastie.!!
------------- Oh am loving the tin tent after campaining against it..........I was wrong.
Hi, are you leaving it on for long enough? Alde heating takes a fair bit longer to heat the van than the blown air systems. We find that if we up the wattage to 3kw (if the ehu can take it) and take the dogs for a walk for an hour the van has usually warmed up nicely by the time we get back - after that we can reduce the wattage to 2kw. Move the van is warm and toasty we find the Alde system much better than blown air. Also you say it is using anti-freeze. Do you mean as in you need to keep topping it up? You shouldn't need to do this more than once a year so if you ate having to do that it sonds like you may have a leak somewhere.
Thanks for that , yes topped up two or three times now. It seems we may be a little impatient thinking it will warm up quicker than than too. I think it is back to the dealer again to find a leak perhaps
------------- Oh am loving the tin tent after campaining against it..........I was wrong.
Yep, defo takes longer than you think (this is our second tin shed with it and we were surprised first time), but great once it gets going. Topping up doesn't sound good. Hope the dealer gets it sorted as does sound like you have a leak (we had our last van for three years and only topped it up once).
Even although it might look like there is very little fluid in the header tank on ours its always the right amount. The only time it needs changing/topping up is when it goes in for a service.
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Quote: Originally posted by Crazyplace on 01/4/2013Hi, friends have a new van with the Alde heating in it. It seems to be incapable of heating up and is using anti-freeze for England. Any ideas, dealer had it back and reckoned it fine but they have spent Easter frozen whilst us Truma people toastie.!!
As this is a new van, I reckon their problem could be that there is still a lot of air in the system. As the pump circulates the fluid, the air will gradually escape and the glycol will need to be topped up.
Also, when the van is towed, the shaking up it gets usually dislodges air, so the system would be low on arrival on site.
The system will not heat up properly if there is a lot of air in it.
The correct level for the fluid is about half way between MIN and MAX. If too much is added it can overflow.
To get rid of the air quicker, they need to find all the vents on the pipework and bleed the system when it is turned OFF.
If it continues to lose fluid, the main suspect, if no leak immediately apparent, is the auto vent on the boiler.
For better warm up, especially when it is very cold, run the system on both gas and electricity for the first hour.
Another method, for instant heat, is to get a small electric fan heater to use on 2kw, run the Alde on gas only, then revert to Alde on electric only once warm enough. It is good to carry a back-up for heating anyway in cold weather, and a small fan heater does not weigh much.
I was going to say, find all the bleed points (some are well hidden), bleed the system. As a last resort, tilt the caravan. We had the same problem and were convinced there was a leak. We had a "boiling", gurgling pump, loss of fluid. It all settled down after bleeding and after a few days and is great now, much better than blown air ever was. We got the dealer to send us a bottle of antifreeze, as we reckon that this should be a part of the deal.
Had similar problem in our van, I agree probably air in system.You can check how things are progressing by feeling the pipes near the header tank and elsewhere.I have bled the system a couple of times and it was very awkward ,many of the bleed vents were very difficult to get to.He system does take a while to get going,but brilliant when up and running.
If you get chance get the supplying dealer to bleed the system with the kit that Alde supply. If they don't have the kit they should not be doing the job imho.
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Topic: Alde heating - anti freeze
