Alde heating problem (1 Viewer)

[CRD]

MoHo: New Adria Matrix Supreme 670 DL
System : Alde Compact 3030 version 1.17
Panel version : 1.97

We collected the new MoHo on Tuesday and are having problems with the alde heating system. As we’ve not had Alde before, it could well be user error.

The problem:

First Night:

We wanted the system to maintain a minimum temperature of 16 degrees over night. Before going to bed, I adjusted the indoor temperature setting to 16 degrees and left everything else the same. In the morning, however, the van was really cold and the panel was showing 11 degrees indoor temperature!

So assuming user error, I set up night mode and day mode. Night mode was set to run from 10pm to 7am all days with a temp setting of 16 degrees, hot water off, Use bed sensor off.

The day mode settings are start :0700 End 22:00, temperature 21 degrees, Hot water On. All days

I also adjusted the indoor calibration to +1.5 degrees to bring the temperature readings to match the Adria temperature readings. I need to get a thermometer to find the true indoor temperatures, and calibrate accordingly.

Night Two:

The system switched to night mode correctly at 10pm, but in the morning at 06:45, the van was cold again, the heating wasn’t working and the panel was showing a temperature of 13 degrees.

However, the panel was showing the pump circulating symbol and the EHU symbol was illuminated showing that the system was using electricity. It seems that the panel was reacting to the low temperature but the boiler/circulatory system wasn’t.

At 07:00 the panel switched to day mode correctly, and the system started to heat up the van.

1) Should Pump be set to continuous? It currently isn’t but when I set it to continuous, a message says “Normal hot water disabled” so I leave continuous mode off.

2) Under system configuration Pump is set to manual. There are two choices manual or PWM. As I can’t find out what PWM is in the manual, I’ve left it at manual. Is that correct?

It all seems to work fine during the day, but takes time to warm up from cold, but at night the system isn’t maintaining the target temperature.

Any thoughts and advice, greatly appreciated!!

Thanks

 

[rb62]

I think you may find is that the Alde system is not that efficient on EHU and as the temperature drops overnight the pump will be on constantly as the temperature rops and the boiler can't keep up.Do you have it set at 1,2 or 3 KW
Have you tried it on gas overnight to see what happens?

 

[CRD]

I think you may find is that the Alde system is not that efficient on EHU and as the temperature drops overnight the pump will be on constantly as the temperature rops and the boiler can't keep up.Do you have it set at 1,2 or 3 KW
Have you tried it on gas overnight to see what happens?

We have it set to 2KW over night, but switch it to 3KW during the day, but not when we’re using the kettle etc.

I haven’t tried it on gas overnight, but can try it tonight.

Thanks for you suggestions.

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[MisterB]

i can only dream of having problems with an Alde heating system, i miss ours ..... !

 

[AdrianChen]

Will be bettor on gas - 2kw will struggle overnight I would think, at least it does in our van, even 3kw is not a lot of energy on a cold night (or without sun), with less than perfect insulation (particularly the cab area)!

Best not to have the pump on continuous, it should come on when its needed.

We use night mode but not day mode, generally only heating water in advance of cooking/cleaning/shower etc.

Tempting if on an EHU pitch to leave it on 3kw, but I'm sure some would say that's wasteful etc, so we do (grudgingly) use gas, especially when we have been out and the van is cold, or for the first batch of hot water.

So if its very cold we set 17 overnight and then it should pop up to 21, our normal setting, sometime before the dogs wake us up, and I turn the hot water & kettle on and feed them.

Cunningly Carthago put the internal temp sensor right next to our tectower oven, so when cooking the Alde thinks it is 35degrees and turns off!

 

[HugoBNB]

To endorse post #5. Our Alde system is much more efficient on gas, particularly in the colder months. That was also the same when we had Alde in our caravan. To that end, we always kick the heating off on gas (or mix of gas ±2kw if we are on an EHU). Once it is up to speed, it usually ticks over quite well on EHU and maintains 12⁰C overnight if the external temperature is about 10⁰C. Any lower than that, we usually found we needed the gas, or an extra blanket. So saying, we usually find it okay with it switched off overnight. We just give it a blast on the gas when we wake up. After about 20 minutes, all is ice and toasty.
I hope you get it sorted.

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[whisky walker]

We had an issue with the pump and hot water keep turning off. Apparently I had fiddled with the setting and altered the pump cerculation settings. Called Alde and they talked me through setting it up and haven't had any issues since. They are really helpful on the phone so might be worth giving them a bell.

Cheers

 

[DavidG58]

Although I agree the system is much more efficient on gas than electric I don’t think ours would let it drop 3C below the set point

I would be looking for something else , does yours have the Amp monitor enabled, just wondering if that is set and might be disabling the electrics , although I can’t think what load you might be using overnight

 

[CRD]

Thanks AdrianChen and HugoBNB for these suggestions about using gas more, which we will try.

Last night, there wasn’t any heat coming from the radiators alongside the rear beds, with inside temperature at 13 degrees, so it seemed as though there was no circulation of heat at all during the night, rather than the boiler struggling to overcome the ambient temperature on EHU.

There’s quite a learning curve switching to Alde after so long with a Truma!

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[CRD]

We had an issue with the pump and hot water keep turning off. Apparently I had fiddled with the setting and altered the pump cerculation settings. Called Alde and they talked me through setting it up and haven't had any issues since. They are really helpful on the phone so might be worth giving them a bell.

Cheers

I’m wondering if this is the issue, along with needing to use gas more. We’re travelling atm, but I’ll try and call Alde later on. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[whisky walker]

I’m wondering if this is the issue, along with needing to use gas more. We’re travelling atm, but I’ll try and call Alde later on. Thanks for the suggestion.

No worries, like I said they are really good. Hope you get it sorted.

 

[CRD]

Although I agree the system is much more efficient on gas than electric I don’t think ours would let it drop 3C below the set point

I would be looking for something else , does yours have the Amp monitor enabled, just wondering if that is set and might be disabling the electrics , although I can’t think what load you might be using overnight

I’ll check the amp monitor setting, but the electric icon was lit and we were only set at 2KW on a 16A EHU with no appliances other than the fridge being used.

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[HugoBNB]

Thanks AdrianChen and HugoBNB for these suggestions about using gas more, which we will try.

Last night, there wasn’t any heat coming from the radiators alongside the rear beds, with inside temperature at 13 degrees, so it seemed as though there was no circulation of heat at all during the night, rather than the boiler struggling to overcome the ambient temperature on EHU.

There’s quite a learning curve switching to Alde after so long with a Truma!

The lack of heat at the rear bedroom could be in indication that you have air in your system. Similar to what you get in your home. Apologies if sucking eggs leaps into your mind.
Firstly - Check the reservoir for your system. Ours is located behind a removable panel in the shower wall. The fluid can be pink or yellow, and should be at 2cm above the low level mark when the heating is off, and cool. If it is below this level, top it up using the Alde recommended fluid (don't use water). Only fill to 2cm above the minimum mark. The remainder of the reservoir is to allow for expansion when the system is in use.
Second - Find your bleed valves. The location of these will vary. Ours for the rear rads are behind removable panels in the wardrobes. Keep a cloth handy and getntly open the valve (usually a knurled screw), keep it open until fluid seeps out, then close the valve. After you have done this at all the bleed points, re-check the reservoir and fill again if necessary.
I hope that this helps.

 

[HugoBNB]

PS If you get really stuck, call the Alde helpline. They are brilliant!

 

[CRD]

The lack of heat at the rear bedroom could be in indication that you have air in your system. Similar to what you get in your home. Apologies if sucking eggs leaps into your mind.
Firstly - Check the reservoir for your system. Ours is located behind a removable panel in the shower wall.

Thanks for this detailed information, HugoBNB. The bedroom radiators do warm up once the system is running, but not at night, which seems odd, and could indicate a pump configuration issue.

We spent 30 minutes looking for the reservoir this morning! The manual says it’s in the wardrobe (which it is in the island bed version of our MoHo), but definitely isn’t in our version. I’m going to phone the dealer to find out where it actually is!

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[L' Hobo]

Thanks for this detailed information, HugoBNB. The bedroom radiators do warm up once the system is running, but not at night, which seems odd, and could indicate a pump configuration issue.

We spent 30 minutes looking for the reservoir this morning! The manual says it’s in the wardrobe (which it is in the island bed version of our MoHo), but definitely isn’t in our version. I’m going to phone the dealer to find out where it actually is!

I know nothing of the Alde system BUT you wrote that it is working perfectly on the day mode.
Until you get a fix, why not extend the day mode to come on very early in the morning?
Is that not possible?

 

[Bustup15]

I tend not to use day night settings and when going to bed reduce the temperature. Get up and raise it again. Unless you're religious about going to bed and getting up at exactly the same time everyday ?

 

[funflair]

Hi CRD have you got a different temperature sensor selected for overnight ? you most likely don't have a bedroom one (we don't) do you know that there is a services page where you can check what power it is actually consuming.

To be continued, lunch is ready

And on the subject of power consumption the Alde load monitor is a handy bit of kit, basically it has a ring that sits around the mains incoming live cable and it monitors total amps being used and compares against what you set as a limit on the panel, when it sees a high load like a kettle it switches the Alde electric off to avoid tripping the bollard.

As a final add to this post you most likely have the 3030 control panel where we have the 3020, your looks quite complicated PWM mode amongst other things is explained below.

https://products.alde.se/storage/media/16788777796411a453cb2c0/quick-guide-for-control-panel-to-alde-compact-30303030-plus.pdf

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[CRD]

I know nothing of the Alde system BUT you wrote that it is working perfectly on the day mode.
Until you get a fix, why not extend the day mode to come on very early in the morning?
Is that not possible?

I tend not to use day night settings and when going to bed reduce the temperature. Get up and raise it again. Unless you're religious about going to bed and getting up at exactly the same time everyday ?

Ha ha, we’re not religious about going to bed at exactly the same times

We did exactly what you suggested on the first night - just reduced the temperature for the night and then boosted it the next morning. The problem was that the van was very cold at 11 degrees in the morning when I had set it to 16 degrees.

I’d rather not bother with night and day modes and just do as you suggested, but for some reason, the heating didn’t work.

 

[CRD]

Hi CRD have you got a different temperature sensor selected for overnight ? you most likely don't have a bedroom one (we don't) do you know that there is a services page where you can check what power it is actually consuming.

To be continued, lunch is ready

And on the subject of power consumption the Alde load monitor is a handy bit of kit, basically it has a ring that sits around the mains incoming live cable and it monitors total amps being used and compares against what you set as a limit on the panel, when it sees a high load like a kettle it switches the Alde electric off to avoid tripping the bollard.

The panel has a selector for bedroom sensor on/off but I don’t know if there is actually one installed. I also don’t know where the main temperature sensor is located. A phone call to the dealer is required, particularly as I also don’t know where the reservoir is either!

I have found the system status pages, which show real time stats like power consumption. The load monitor sounds very useful. The person giving us the handover spiel on Tuesday glossed over that!

 

[AdrianChen]

The panel has a selector for bedroom sensor on/off but I don’t know if there is actually one installed. I also don’t know where the main temperature sensor is located. A phone call to the dealer is required, particularly as I also don’t know where the reservoir is either!

The 3030 Alde is designed to have two zones, so I you may well have a bedroom sensor as well if it shows on your main screen/installed accessories. If the sensor on/off was switched off when you looked at the menu it might not be. However if the main living area is staying colder than the set temp then Im not sure that alone would be the cause, unless 2k is simply not enough power.

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[Roger S]

My experience of having 3 vans with Alde is that gas is more efficient but 2kw would keep the van at a good temperature. I recall there is a setting which perhaps you can adjust that at night the temperature drops 4 degrees

 

[funflair]

The panel has a selector for bedroom sensor on/off but I don’t know if there is actually one installed. I also don’t know where the main temperature sensor is located. A phone call to the dealer is required, particularly as I also don’t know where the reservoir is either!

I have found the system status pages, which show real time stats like power consumption. The load monitor sounds very useful. The person giving us the handover spiel on Tuesday glossed over that!

Again on ours that is 3020 the temperature sensor is either in the panel or in the room which as others I think is close to the door, we also have "auto" which I leave it on as then it can pick it's own or i suppose use both, I think 2kw should be enough to know whether it's working or not but the services page should tell you, yes the load monitor is great and an easy fit if you don't mind rummaging in the 240v electrics are. Yes the 3030 is a multizone system but not all installers use all these features.

 

[CRD]

So I phoned Alde, and yes, they provide a superb support service.

They asked me to do a hard reset of the system (disconnect the 12V connector from the boiler and wait 10 seconds). They then asked me to test the system again overnight, but not using the night mode.

If that doesn’t work, then I have to remove the cover from the Alde panel and see if there is a hardwired connection between it and the Alde control panel, remove that connection and test it again. They think that the Adria panel could be interfering with the Alde panel.

If that fails, then I have to phone them back as there could be some sort of fault.

In the meantime, I am waiting for the dealer to call me back so that I can learn where the reservoir is and if there is two zone system installed.

Re night and day modes, they recommend that you should have a gap between them ie night mode ends at 07:00 and day mode starts at 07:15 for example. It confuses the system if night mode ends and day mode starts at the same time. They also said that the day mode is not really that useful anyway.

I’ll update this thread with the outcome, but many thanks to everyone who has contributed. It’s very much appreciated.

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[CRD]

i can only dream of having problems with an Alde heating system, i miss ours ..... !

I can understand that, as the way the Alde system evenly heats the MoHo is far better than a Truma blown air system.

A few months ago, I met a couple who had been living in their van for two years, but were complaining about how their blown air heater was drying out their skin.

I’m looking forward to getting our Alde system working properly as it and the Alde support is fantastic.

 

[DerryW]

If on EHU we always start the Alde on gas, and swap to electric (2kw) once everywhere is nice and warm and water is hot. This normally takes about 45mins.

 

[CRD]

The saga continued with an embarrassing outcome……!

After following the instructions from Alde support and rebooting the system, I set up the temperature to 17 degrees overnight (not using night mode) and hoped that it would be working well the next morning.

Nope!

Indoor temperature was 15 degrees, so it hadn’t maintained the temperature over night, again. Following the next part of the instructions from Alde support, I then carefully took off the Alde panel cover, undid the retaining screws and took out the panel to see if a cable was connected to the JP3 port from the adria control panel.

There wasn’t a cable so I put it all back together again and thought about phoning the dealer to log a warranty claim to get the error investigated.

Then it dawned on us that I was turning the control panel off at night, not realising that it also turned off the heating system!! We hadn’t been told about that and assumed that the panel on/off switch just controlled the panel and not the entire system.

So last night I kept the panel turned on, but dimmed as low as possible, and this morning the indoor temperature was exactly at the temp I had set in the evening. It worked perfectly!

This explained why temperature control was working during the day, but not at night.

The system is working fine, shame about the user though!

How embarrassing to have jumped through all these hoops, but we’ve only had this van for four days, and I guess our handover wasn’t as comprehensive as it should have been.

Thanks, everyone, for all your help and advice.

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[AdrianChen]

The saga continued with an embarrassing outcome……!

After following the instructions from Alde support and rebooting the system, I set up the temperature to 17 degrees overnight (not using night mode) and hoped that it would be working well the next morning.

Nope!

Indoor temperature was 15 degrees, so it hadn’t maintained the temperature over night, again. Following the next part of the instructions from Alde support, I then carefully took off the Alde panel cover, undid the retaining screws and took out the panel to see if a cable was connected to the JP3 port from the adria control panel.

There wasn’t a cable so I put it all back together again and thought about phoning the dealer to log a warranty claim to get the error investigated.

Then it dawned on us that I was turning the control panel off at night, not realising that it also turned off the heating system!! We hadn’t been told about that and assumed that the panel on/off switch just controlled the panel and not the entire system.

So last night I kept the panel turned on, but dimmed as low as possible, and this morning the indoor temperature was exactly at the temp I had set in the evening. It worked perfectly!

This explained why temperature control was working during the day, but not at night.

The system is working fine, shame about the user though!

How embarrassing to have jumped through all these hoops, but we’ve only had this van for four days, and I guess our handover wasn’t as comprehensive as it should have been.

Thanks, everyone, for all your help and advice.

Thats good news! Always helps to know the outcome.

 

[L' Hobo]

The saga continued with an embarrassing outcome……!

After following the instructions from Alde support and rebooting the system, I set up the temperature to 17 degrees overnight (not using night mode) and hoped that it would be working well the next morning.

Nope!

Indoor temperature was 15 degrees, so it hadn’t maintained the temperature over night, again. Following the next part of the instructions from Alde support, I then carefully took off the Alde panel cover, undid the retaining screws and took out the panel to see if a cable was connected to the JP3 port from the adria control panel.

There wasn’t a cable so I put it all back together again and thought about phoning the dealer to log a warranty claim to get the error investigated.

Then it dawned on us that I was turning the control panel off at night, not realising that it also turned off the heating system!! We hadn’t been told about that and assumed that the panel on/off switch just controlled the panel and not the entire system.

So last night I kept the panel turned on, but dimmed as low as possible, and this morning the indoor temperature was exactly at the temp I had set in the evening. It worked perfectly!

This explained why temperature control was working during the day, but not at night.

The system is working fine, shame about the user though!

How embarrassing to have jumped through all these hoops, but we’ve only had this van for four days, and I guess our handover wasn’t as comprehensive as it should have been.

Thanks, everyone, for all your help and advice.

Great you found the problem and many thanks for publishing the solution, so many people forget.

 

[ceejayt]

Trust me - I have made more dumb arse mistakes than that in my motorhome

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