We are thinking of upgrading our caravan and hubby and I have come to an impasse.
In both our caravans we have had alde wet heating and as we use the van all year round I am reluctant to change to blown heating. We've never had a van with it though so I may be talking nonsense.
Could any of you who have experienced both please let me know your thoughts.
The advantage of blown air heating is that in hot weather you can just have the fan running cold without the aid of heating which delivers cool air into the caravan. We have never had the experience of having Alde heating but I believe it's function is just to deliver warm heating and nothing more.
As well is two words!
How does a sage know everything about everything? or does he? or does he just think he does?
Remember, if you buy something you bought it, not brought it.
Never had Alde heating. And with the number of people on the various forums asking for 'fixs' because theirs is playing up, im not looking forward to any change of van with it. I think its one of those scenarios - a bit like anything 'technical', its all right, but only when its working.
Quote: Originally posted by Mick S. on 06/11/2023
Never had Alde heating. And with the number of people on the various forums asking for 'fixs' because theirs is playing up, im not looking forward to any change of van with it. I think its one of those scenarios - a bit like anything 'technical', its all right, but only when its working.
We had Alde in 2 caravans, and yes it is nice and when we went to motorhomes, we discounted 90% of them as not having Alde, but have had 2 now with Truma blown (never have another with Whale blown air) and now we know how to use it correctly, we love it and wouldn't go back. Have it on a mix of leccy & gas to get it up to temp then flick back to ehu. We tour all year too.
Need to factor in the extra weight of it and price of fluid changes, so we are converts and very happy with it.
Try a van with Truma, get dealer to get it up and running see what you think, you may be surprised or it will confirm you prefer the Alde.
We had blown air on our last caravan and alde on our present caravan.
Each has pros and cons but (in my opinion) I'd have absolutely no issues choosing a caravan withe either.
The majority of those that complain about the noise of blown air possibly don't realise that you can adjust the fan speed to make it quieter, I actually find the Alde to be quite noisy, the expansion tank is next to the bed and gurgles every now and then, the "ticking" of the piped heating up and cooling down is actually pretty annoying at night.
Obviously the Alde system needs refilling every few years,which costs more money and it also makes your caravan heavier.
As for the type of heat,I can't really notice it, some people say that blown air is a dry heat but I've never noticed, Alde obviously takes longer to warm up, although again,it's never really been noticeable asi usually turn it on whilst I'm setting everything up,so it's usually warm when i have finished.
Conclusion is that some people prefer Alde,some prefer blown air and some aren't bothered either way, I'm in the latter camp
Personally I would actively avoid Alde heating. I know people who have it and like it but they also have problems with it. We have the Truma combi system, it works well and heats up quickly and has never been a problem in three different vans.
Blown air for us, as well. In fact, even that does not get used very much, because we find the simplest and quickest heating system is a normal fan heater. Evening turning a bit chilly? Just plug in, switch on and within a couple of minutes the caravan is starting to feel quite cosy.
Of course, this is simply our preference, but no fluid changes needed or servicing required. Heater suddenly stops working? No problem, pop into the nearest retailer and buy a new one. No service engineer required.
MH here, so I’ve never had the option of a wet system, but I don’t know if the Alde system keeps the washroom warm? We have a drying line in our “bathroom” (standard with Autosleeper) and the blown air is great for drying damp coats, the shower towels & occasional line of undies. We close the vent if it’s not needed in there. The Alde system may have a hot towel rail instead?
BTW, the blown air fan on Eco is so quiet that I have to check the panel to see if it’s running or not.
You may find newer vans have far better insulation than older vans. This may make the blow air more acceptable as less heat is required.
However in a large van, the blow air ducts may be long and may have to run outside the van interior. This will lose heat meaning rooms at far end don't get warm.
We have a Bailey Pursuit 400-2 which is only 13 foot long and there are no external run ducts. The Truma combi blow air is fine. We have been away in sub zero temperatures with it.
The summer cool air only option is only available if the water heater is off.
I have always had blown air systems in both caravans and motorhomes so can't compared. I can only say the the blown air system is quick to heat up and certainly on the lower setting is hardly audible. I seem to recall that the Alde system is more power hungry which could be difficult on sites with lower ampage, although of course you could always use gas or a mix. I am not sure that not having one or the other would be a deal breaker to me if I was in the market for a new van.
We have had both. Our previous 2 caravans had blown air and while it heated the living area well, there were always cold areas that just didn’t heat up, like the washroom. Additionally, I used to keep getting flare ups of my asthma when we were away in the caravan which were caused by the blown air heating blowing the dust around the caravan. My dust allergy is a trigger for my asthma and it seemed to be much worse with the blown air.
Our current caravan has Alde heating and it is great. It doesn’t bother my asthma and the caravan doesn’t have any cold spots. It takes longer than blown air to warm up but that doesn’t bother us as we switch it on as soon as we arrive in winter and by the time we have done the rest of the set up it is warming up inside nicely.
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Topic: Blown heating or Alde wet heating
via mobile 06/11/2023 at 11:37am
