# How do you rate your Alde Heating?



## stewartwebr

Pick up my new van soon and it has Alde wet heating onboard and a heated floor, which I think is electric and has nothing to do with the Alde system.

How do you folks find the Alde heating? I have read the manual about the header tank levels and bleeding the heaters if necessary. Sounds just the same as any domestic heating at home. But how have you found it for heating the van, does it keep it nice and warm, even in winter?

By what the dealer tells me the heated floor is not for heating the van. It's just a system to make the floor nice and warm when you walk on it...mmmm

Anything else I need to be aware of or look out for?

Love the idea of being able to set a timer for it to come off and on just like the central heating in the house. No more fighting over who will get up in the cold to switch on the blow air :lol: 

Stewart


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## trek

if you got some spare time

http://www.motorhomefacts.com/ftopict-74879-alde.html


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## SaddleTramp

Stewart the heating is absolutely fantastic, As is the underfloor heating.

It's not a problem with the header tank or the bleeding UNLESS you get a big airlock, I had one and it was a swine to clear.

Set temp, set timers just like at home and forget it, as you are driving it also heats water and van if you have an heat exchanger fitted, Brilliant.


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## NeilandDebs

*Alde heating*

Stewart
The heating is brilliant!! We have lived in our van for 4 yrs now. I have topped up the header tank a couple of times. The heating takes 15 to 20 minues to warm the van and then it keeps it as warm as toast. It even warms the bed! One point though if the windscreen blind is open the heating will not warm the van up it will stop it getting any colder, close the blinds and it warms the van very quickly.

Neil


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## teemyob

*Brilliant*

I think the idea is Brilliant.

I think ours was badly designed and fitted by Frankia.

We have had a few problems with it.

*Valve fell to bits and blocked the circulation while we were away in the Pyrenees In December.
*Have to top it up quite regular but cannot trace a leak (I think the heat exchanger or it's position is too efficient and causes the fluid to oil off)
*Pumps are prone to failure, ours is now very noisy. I think it would be best to carry a spare if venturing to far flung sub zeros in winter.
*The underfloor Fresh and Waste water pipes froze in the Pyrenees due to Frankia not installing rads low enough down in the underfloor. I have modified this myself.
*The rear garage freezes for the same reason as above.Will get around to sorting this out.

Pilote (Frankia) Have re-designed their ALDE and plumbing systems for 2011 MY onwards.

The underfloor heating may be linked to your ALDE as this is an option on the system.

TM


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## JohnWebb

Ours just works and keeps us warm! The automatic bleed valve started weeping and meant the header tank needed topping up, little wet patch under the van was the sign. I have temporarily blocked it with a bent pipe going into a bottle and have not got air anywhere. The calorifier using engine heat when driving makes the whole van warm. Carthago put enough rads in the floor and the garage so never have freezing problems. They have also put the waste dump valve inside so that does not freeze unlike some vans near us on our last trip when it went down to -5 or so for a while.


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## teemyob

*Waste dump*



JohnWebb said:


> Ours just works and keeps us warm! The automatic bleed valve started weeping and meant the header tank needed topping up, little wet patch under the van was the sign. I have temporarily blocked it with a bent pipe going into a bottle and have not got air anywhere. The calorifier using engine heat when driving makes the whole van warm. Carthago put enough rads in the floor and the garage so never have freezing problems. They have also put the waste dump valve inside so that does not freeze unlike some vans near us on our last trip when it went down to -5 or so for a while.


On our Eura Mobil the Waste dump valve was inside. We were up in Norway at -17c and it did not freeze using Truma Blown Air.

On the Frankia, the waste valve is also in the underfloor. But it froze at -3 due to the poor design layout of the ALDE.


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## Rapide561

*Alde*

Hi

My friend has ALDE in his Swift Conqueror caravan. He had a problem with the system and the engineer was called. The solution was to lower the front end of the caravan and leave like that for a couple of hours, then level up. The system worked fine after that.

He also had/asked to have it drained fully at the last hab service and the fluids replaced.

That's all I know about it.

Russell


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## kandsservices

Alde system are really good but you are suposed to have the antifreeze mixture replaced every two years if you read your owners manual.
kev


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## camperman101

we thinks its great
have had no problems with it - touch wood ! 
keeps the van warm even in the coldest of temps - we camp all year round e.g paris at xmas couple of years ago at eurodisney 
all we would say is that if not hooked up it used a lot of gas in a very short period of time when left on all day - so you need to mindful of this in cold periods if not on sites


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## olley

I wonder what the efficiency is? From their figures it doesn't sound to good. 7.5kw in and 5.5kw out on propane, around 74%. Modern domestic boilers are around 90%

Ian


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## teemyob

*TM*

Never thought of that Olley!


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## Glandwr

Not got the Alde but similar Truma wet/underfloor heating. Two advantages that I've found are, totally silent (important at night) and it does not dry out throat/sinuses.

Wet heating was one of our criteria when choosing a van.

Dick


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## Glandwr

olley said:


> I wonder what the efficiency is? From their figures it doesn't sound to good. 7.5kw in and 5.5kw out on propane, around 74%. Modern domestic boilers are around 90%
> 
> Ian


Shouldn't the comparison be made with other forms of van heating such as blown air Olley. It would score very highly there if only, 'cos (if it's like the Truma), it uses virtually no battery power being a convection system.

Dick


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## coppo

I have not found the blown air to any problem on my sinuses although Caroline says she cannot breate as good if its on full.

I dont think the blown air uses as much power as some people think, found it no problem whatsoever although got plenty of solar.

The important factor for me is that the Alde apparently uses more gas, which, if you fulltime is very important as we dont use EHU. You use enough gas as it is in winter without getting a system which uses more.

Paul.


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## olley

Glandwr said:


> Shouldn't the comparison be made with other forms of van heating such as blown air Olley. It would score very highly there if only, 'cos (if it's like the Truma), it uses virtually no battery power being a convection system.
> 
> Dick


Just an observation Dick. Domestic boilers have been over 80% for years, as the Alde is a modern design why isn't it up with them?

Ian


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## Ozzyjohn

Dick[/quote]

... the Alde is a modern design why isn't it up with them?

Ian[/quote]

Good question - possible answer could be the lack of competition. Alternatively, general apathy to the problem of boiler inefficiency in motorhomes / caravans - I must confess, I'd never given it a thought (and I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that).

On the original question - I've always found the Alde heating to be splendid. Used it down to -15C without problems.

Regards,
John


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## olley

Just a comparison: Alde 310x490x340 Glowworm condensing boiler 600x375x334 and around 90% efficiency. If you work it out the Glowworm is about a third bigger. So it is possible to make small high efficiency boilers. And at £640 its a damm site cheaper.

Ian


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