Truma Ultraheat abscent from some Broadway's

Can anyone give me some advice regarding the omission by AutoSleepers to not fit the Truma Ultraheat fires in certain Broadway models in favour of the Blown Hot Air system which I seem to recall they did as customers moaned about rattles from the Truma fires while travelling... 

I'd like to know if they heat efficiently enough, and concerned about noise having the blower on while asleep might be a problem also wondering how the blower would be powered off electric hook up? We've got used to leaving our Nuevo's Ultrastore on all night on gas or hook up and keeping us toasty in the winter months, just not sure how having a blown air setup will serve us in a similar way? 

Could someone who's familiar with this setup please clarify as I'm really in the dark? Thanks.

CC

My experience of blown air systems is both good and bad.  On gas, and 12v without hook up, it's very good and once the selected temperature is reached the fan slows to a crawl making hardly any noise. On electric hook up it's very poor and you would probably get more heat from a panting dog so either take one with you, or better still carry a 240v electric heater for the cold nights.
Others may have a different experiences.
Rich..

We have the combi heat, is that the same? 
It is brilliant with and without EHU. Have used over a cold weekend without EHU and no probs with battery voltage. 
On mains it also works very well on just 1kw once cabin up to temp and leaving ticking over at night it is quit quiet. Very cold I.e -5c and below the fan is obviously working more but again not particularly annoying.

We have the Truma combi in the Pilote and it is way superior to the old separate systems. Very quiet in operation and no faffing around

A lot depends on what the original buyer specified when the van was being built.  Our van has a Truma system in cos that was what we wanted. The standard fit in the Windsors was Eberspacher and there was no way we were going along that route due to noise levels etc

The blown air heating in our Broadway is excellent very quiet, and also works very well on electric hook up.

John.

The blown air system on our Broadway is quiet and very efficient and works well on ehu.

Thanks all for the feedback... 

I'm still not quite sure how the system fully works. (I'm not too bothered about hook up as we rarely use that these days as long as it's efficient) I'm thinking more about the 'off mains' side of things? 

Is there much or any drain on the leisure battery, or can it be run just to give out heat without a fan running? 

I'm Just totally unfamiliar with the system and just trying to educate myself as to how it works as we have found a Broadway that uses this system. On a positive note I guess it eliminates any rattles from the back end that you might otherwise encounter with the Truma fires.

One of the reasons we opted not to go down the route of buying a Broadway EB a couple of years ago was due to it not having the Truma Ultraheat system, (which we too leave on a low setting overnight on hook-up when out in  anything up to minus 15).
The above posts tend to give the impression we could have been wrong in thinking that the blown air system would be noisy and keep us awake.
I should really say keep nuevogirl awake, as she's the one with the excellent hearing. I'm getting so deaf, I can't even hear her snoring these days. 

Now, as they've got the option of the overcab cupboard and the standard water fill, all they've got to do is put in a decent bathroom sink.

Our Broadway FB has the Truma blown air heating and it is very efficient. We have used it on gas, gas and mains and just mains. It works just as well what ever it is on, but heats up quicker on gas.
The fan does blow quite hard sometimes, but that is generally for less than a minute and usually just after it turns on. Its kept on low over the winter when we aren't using the van ( with EHU) and has kept us toasty down to minus 10.
You can also operate it on a timer, which I don't think you can do with the older Ultraheat units.
As to battery drain, we haven't noticed it being a problem, we rarely use EHU when we are away at any time of year.
Allan

We never had any of these problems years ago, we just put another pair of socks on and lit the gas mantle. Ha Ha

The Truma S model is a wall mounted gas heater.  It can have added too it the Truma Ultraheat electric heating element and/or the Truma Fan to facilitate blown air from the unit.  When AS fit this heater they include the electric element and the fan.

The Truma Ultrastore is a gas and or electric fuelled water heater and storage tank.

Up to the arrival of the Truma Combi unit AS coachbuilts had the Ultrastor water heater and if wall space was available the Truma S, other wise the Truma E compact fan heater.

I've not seen any definitive assessment of battery usage when using the either the combi heater or Truma E off hookup in the winter.  My Duetto had a carver fan heater and in the winter it ate the battery in 24hrs so unless shown other wise I would avoid a fan or combi heater when off hookup in winter - we've just come home and the fire (Truma S) hasn't been off for the last 5 days.

The Truma combi needs to be switched to BOTH fuels when on hookup in winter or the water doesn't get warm enough.  The electric element isn't powerful enough to attain temperature on its own so the occasional burst of gas heating is (automatically) added.

Peter

In our experience the Truma combi system works well except that you can sometimes get a bit of a smell on water only. The new model does seem better than the previous one. When we had a van with a Truma air only heater and no fan the van could be uncomfortable because you got cold feet and an overheated head.  The fan stops this and never seems to keep us awake.  We have used the system on electric only and it seems fine, but if it is very cold it might struggle especially if you can only switch to the low power setting.
I suspect that the ideal would be a blown air air only system plus a dedicated water heater,  but that may also be the most expensive and heaviest.
On full fan the current (on the 12V supply) seems to be about 4-5A.  When the fan switches to low is seems to be about 1A.  I expect that there are spikes when the gas is lit but this will not matter for battery power.

we have the Truma combi system which caused problems initialy as it had the wrong card in the boiler.  however afterwards it has been absolutely brilliant as the interia temp controls to plus or minus 1 degree.  we have found no problems with hot water supply and heating  just from hook up supply and it is extremely quiet when running.  there can be a smell at start up but this is from the heating chamber at start because the first outlet pipe is very short and the start up cycle causes this.  i accidentialy ran on gas and though weather was mild the tank lasted for seventeen days.  i never use the timer relying on setting temperature at night to come on if temperator drops off.