Alde heating , how effective should it be (1 Viewer)

[Neil S]

I have Alde heating in our 740 Autograph and the warmest I can get the temperature up to on both gas and 3kw electric is 23 c when the outside temp is 3c '.
If this is the warmest it gets I would surmise that in sub zero condition's - 4 / - 5
the van would be no warmer than 18 / 19 c which would not be warm enough for
SWMBO .
I was under the impression that Alde heating would keep the van toasty in even the most coldest conditions .

 

[old-mo]

I have put mine on when it went down to approx 8 - 10 deg on both elec & gas and after about half an hour or so had to turn it down or turn either the elec or gas off, but still had to keep the sliding scale digital thing about 25 deg.... and we had to turn the thermostat in the bedroom down... my lot both suffer from the cold..

Not been away in near to freezing temp`s "Yet"..

Go round and feel all the pipes and radiators to see if they are all getting hot..

If not your system may need bleeding to get rid of any air..

 

[icantremember]

You may have a problem with your system. ... We have used ours in temperature well below freezing and been very cosy.

Alde is quite slow to get going but thereafter keeps the mh at a steady temperature.

As Mo says try checking for air locks.

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[Glandwr]

Our van, a Hymer S740, has a 2 truma hot air heating systems and a truma aquatherm (essentually an Alde under floor system). The instruction book clearly says, use all 3 systems to get up to temp in very cold weather. Then maintain temp with the underfloor system. I know that by itself it takes a long time, an hour or so, to heat the van in very cold conditions.

Dick

 

[Jimbost]

On our first trip to France in April 2012,we were in temps down to -10 deg C. Only on one day of the trip did the temp get above freezing. Driving to the site we had the auxiliary pump running through the heat exchanger in our Alde system so the van was already warm from the engine when we arrived. Using 3kw and gas, at no time did we feel cold and at times we turned the Gas off. We did not change over bottles so we used less than 6KG gas for the week . I do know from experience that if you get an airlock in the system it can drastically reduce the level of heating. When I changed the heating fluid, 50/50 antifreeze/water I thought I had got all the air out as the headertank was getting hot when I tested it. There were, however cold spots in the system and I only managed to get them all out by driving around then re-bleeding the system. You should be nice and toasty so I suspect there maybe something amiss with your system.

 

[Deleted member 29692]

Don't assume that the temperature reading on the thermostat or display is accurate - they seldom ever are either in a house or a van and anyway are only reading where they are positioned. If you really feel the need to know the air temperature accurately you need to buy a half decent air temperature thermometer and make sure it's calibrated. But how important is the actual reading anyway? If you feel warm enough it is warm enough!
We have Alde in our van and usually only let it run for half an hour or so before it gets too hot and we turn it off agan.

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[dpsuk999]

I have had my van upto +28 in the van when the outside temperature was around -4. This was on 3kw and gas. It sounds like you may have air in your system and some of the radiators arnt as warm as they should be. Go round each radiator and try and identify any which appear colder than the others. There will be radiators hidden all over so hunt them down. Bleed from the highest bleed point, normally the radiator in the bathroom/shower.

Also I never realised until I found the info on the net that depending on the difference in the set temp and the actual temp controls how much power the boiler needs and regulates it.

If electricity of 3kw and gas is selected the boiler regulates it as follows:

+0.7c pump 33% electricity 1kw
+0.5c pump 66% electricity 2kw
+0.0c pump 100% electricity 3kw
-0.5c pump 100% electricity 3kw gas step 1 33%
-1.0c pump 100% electricity 3kw gas step 1 66%
-1.5c pump 100% electricity 3kw gas step 1 100%
-2.0c pump 100% electricity 3kw gas step 1 100% step 2 33%
-2.5c pump 100% electricity 3kw gas step 1 100% step 2 100%

 

[Neil S]

Thanks for all your reply's , it would appear that I have airlock in the system somewhere because
some parts of the heating system are hot and others only tepid .
I will be returning it to our supplying dealer and they can sort it out

 

[Mikey RV]

Do most peaple run there aldi heating on number 3 when it's really cold and boost with gas if temp is struggling. We normally run ours on electric no 2 and it's been fine, last night was about -6 and it struggled to get up to 18 degrees today so far, so am trying electric no 3

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[icantremember]

Do most peaple run there aldi heating on number 3 when it's really cold and boost with gas if temp is struggling. We normally run ours on electric no 2 and it's been fine, last night was about -6 and it struggled to get up to 18 degrees today so far, so am trying electric no 3

We only have 1 & 2 Kw settings but often run only at 1Kw once up to required temperature ..... to get things warm quickly I would use the 2Kw and gas.

 

[Judge Mental]

probably needs bleeding. There "should" be a bleed valve at a high point somewhere, have a look in handbook. a poor handover indeed if this was not all explained to you when you picked van up. But at the end of the day heating only as good as the installation and the van its been installed into, as some vans better insulated then others....... position of stat also important

 

[DBK]

Alde? I prefer Lidl.

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