Alde Heating Questions? (1 Viewer)

[Wissel]

I'm seriously considering going the Alde route in our next van, but I'm unsure on a few things and could do with some help.

This van will be for fulltiming. I like the cold and snow sports etc - the Missus and dog don't
If I'm to stand any chance of talking her into spending weeks in the cold I'm going to need to make sure she is toasty at all times.

Firstly, I remember on our first van (an older Pilote A-class) the frost control would trigger quite often, emptying the water. That van had a much older heating system and I'm sure the Truma Combi 6E would be much better, but would the Alde be better again?

Next, Heat Exchanger?
I understand this enables the van to be heated via the engines cooling system whilst driving.
How well does this work?
One of the arguments against the Alde seems to be it takes longer to heat up the van. If running it whilst driving with the Heat Exchanger, is this an issue?
I know the Truma can also be used in transit (with crash sensor), but would obviously run off gas.

Still on the Heat Exchanger, I see another option is a pump to pre-heat the engine. What are the advantages of this?
Sure I read somewhere that this clears condensation from the windscreen or something like that. Is this the case? If so, how? Does it use a fan or something? (confused on this one)

Along with the above Alde options, the van I'm looking at has an option for adding a small Truma heater with the Alde. Not sure why this is an option. Any ideas?

Does the Alde use more/less gas than the Truma, or are they similar?

I see that Alde do a heated towel rail. This would definitely score me brownie points
Does this work well?

Are there any other advantages/disadvantages with the Alde compared to the Truma in more extreme climates?

Thanks.

 

[pappajohn]

It does take longer to heat up, it's got to heat water not air, but the advantage when it is warm is there are no cold spots, just an even heat.
A heat exchanger will sort that out though and pre-heat the alde system while driving .
The pumped heat exchanger warms the engine cooling system via the hab heating so making easier starting in really low temperatures plus the vans own screen blower/demister will blow warm air even before you start the engine.
A heated towel rail shouldn't make much difference to the overall efficiency of the heater and could score a few browny points.
In my opinion it shouldn't use any more gas than any other system but refillable bottles wouldn't go amiss....especially in winter off the beaten track.

 

[Deleted member 29692]

The boiler dump valve is there no matter what system you have. They're design to operate at around 5 degrees. Once the fabric of the van is warmed up it won't operate.

The heat exchanger uses the heat of the engine to heat the central heating. You need to have the system on and the heat pump running then open the heat exchanger control. It works a treat.

I don't accept that it takes longer to heat the van. It's central heating so it heats it properly. Ours goes from cold to toasty in 20 minutes or so. It stays that way if you switch the system off for a while.
A blown air system may feel like it's working quicker but switch it off and you'll find that it hasn't actually heated the van at all, you've just felt the hot air being blown out of the vents.

Don't know about the engine pre heat. We don't have it.

Our van has a Truma heater as well, it was a dealer demonstrator, we didn't spec it. I have no idea why you would want it. We've never used it and never will unless the Aldi fails I suppose.

The towel rail is part of the wet central heating system. Yes it works very well.

Gas wise I don't think there's much to choose. If anything under normal use the Alde is probably a bit more efficient. The only time we've ever really hammered it was over a new year when it ran literally 24 hours a day for about 5 days. Yes we used a fair bit of gas but we would have done with any system.

The other thing you need to be aware of is that the system is hot water priority. This means that when you switch it on the first thing it does it heat the hot water. The central heating doesn't kick in until the water is hot. Unless they've changed the system recently it's not possible to turn the heating on without the hot water. This is no big deal though, it's pretty quick so you won't notice.

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[pappajohn]

An inline circulator pump will be quieter, and probably more efficient, than the 'in the header tank' type which can gurgle and make some noise.

 

[Wissel]

The boiler dump valve is there no matter what system you have. They're design to operate at around 5 degrees.

The other thing you need to be aware of is that the system is hot water priority. This means that when you switch it on the first thing it does it heat the hot water. The central heating doesn't kick in until the water is hot. Unless they've changed the system recently it's not possible to turn the heating on without the hot water. This is no big deal though, it's pretty quick so you won't notice.

Does this mean if the dump valve is triggered and the water empties, the Alde heating can't be used?

If this is the case I'm starting to see why an additional blown air heater is an option?

Having said that, I think the van I'm looking at has the water tank underneath so it's not as likely the water tank would be emptied.

 

[Deleted member 29692]

Does this mean if the dump valve is triggered and the water empties, the Alde heating can't be used?

If this is the case I'm starting to see why an additional blown air heater is an option?

Having said that, I think the van I'm looking at has the water tank underneath so it's not as likely the water tank would be emptied.

I think the central heating can still be used. That side of it is filled with an antifreeze type liquid so isn't reliant on fresh water.

As far as I know the boiler will still run with no fresh water in the system. You obviously won't have any fresh water though, hot or otherwise.

The only time I've ever had any problem with the dump valve is when filling the system after a drain down when the whole van is cold.

Like I said in my other post if you're using the van it should never get cold enough inside to let the valve operate. Ours never does.

Once the fabric of the van is warm it stays warm for quite a while.

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[Sundowners]

We have the header tank in the wardrobe and unless we open the door cannot hear it, ours does take longer to heat the van than blown air,but once up to heat there are no hot/cold spots or periods. We have pipes/radiators all around the van--------no cold/condensation anywhere.
The heat exchanger from engine to van (and van to engine) work extremely well.
Ours is the old 3000 model, the newer ones have some neat mods. like electronic programmable control!.
They work on EHU too so convenient when that is available. Can't compare with truma but compared to RV type blown air Alde is light years ahead (IMHO)
I would be interested to know how it would compare to diesel heating, diesel is easier to source and 'red' is available on many forecourts abroard.
I imagine with the Alde system full of liquid it will be a bit heavier????????
We love our Alde system and would be very happy to use it in Sweden in the winter, (given the chance!!!!)
Nigel & Pamala

 

[Deleted member 29692]

'red' is available on many forecourts abroard.

Good luck explaining that if you happen to get dipped here.

 

[funflair]

The boiler dump valve is there no matter what system you have. They're design to operate at around 5 degrees. Once the fabric of the van is warmed up it won't operate.

The heat exchanger uses the heat of the engine to heat the central heating. You need to have the system on and the heat pump running then open the heat exchanger control. It works a treat.

I don't accept that it takes longer to heat the van. It's central heating so it heats it properly. Ours goes from cold to toasty in 20 minutes or so. It stays that way if you switch the system off for a while.
A blown air system may feel like it's working quicker but switch it off and you'll find that it hasn't actually heated the van at all, you've just felt the hot air being blown out of the vents.

Don't know about the engine pre heat. We don't have it.

Our van has a Truma heater as well, it was a dealer demonstrator, we didn't spec it. I have no idea why you would want it. We've never used it and never will unless the Aldi fails I suppose.

The towel rail is part of the wet central heating system. Yes it works very well.

Gas wise I don't think there's much to choose. If anything under normal use the Alde is probably a bit more efficient. The only time we've ever really hammered it was over a new year when it ran literally 24 hours a day for about 5 days. Yes we used a fair bit of gas but we would have done with any system.

The other thing you need to be aware of is that the system is hot water priority. This means that when you switch it on the first thing it does it heat the hot water. The central heating doesn't kick in until the water is hot. Unless they've changed the system recently it's not possible to turn the heating on without the hot water. This is no big deal though, it's pretty quick so you won't notice.

No dump valve on Alde to the best of my knowledge, if there is ours has never dumped in 6 years, and yes you can run the heating with the hot water side drained.

Martin

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[Wissel]

Think I'll go with the Alde with Heat Exchange.

Thanks for the help guys

 

[Deleted member 29692]

No dump valve on Alde to the best of my knowledge, if there is ours has never dumped in 6 years, and yes you can run the heating with the hot water side drained.

Martin

There is on ours