Kingham heating

Last night I needed the heating for the first time since I bought it in April. 

The vents under the bed and in the washroom are fantastic with lots of warm air, but there was no discernable heat coming from the 2 little vents at the front near the blue led lights. 

Do I have a fault or is this a fault in the design - as it seems a long distance from the heater to actually have a chance.

On our Kemerton we have the same ,two vents on front step
I think one draws air into heater other keeps heater cool .

Are you sure. In the Kingham the heater is right at the back of the van 4 metres away from the step. It seems a lot of unnecessary pipework.

This has been a problem in our 2014 Kingham from new (it's also mentioned in an earlier post). It's been back to the dealer a couple of times for investigation, the first time to re-connect the feed hose to the front vent (step with led's), unfortunately this made no difference. It's down to the poor design - firstly the two feeds from the heater unit are reduced in diameter over the rear wheel arch (presumably so they'll fit behind the fridge). One of these feeds splits behind the fridge to supply the wardrobe (why?) and the area under the bench seat (presumably because of the water inlet pipes are located here), the other runs to the front vent in the step. Unfortunately because of it's small diameter there is no resultant warm air output by the time it arrives here.
I was going to have a go at adding a vent in the external face of the bench seat using the feec to the wardrobe (blocking this off) but not got around to it yet. Really needs the larger diameter feed pipes routing all the way forward - but I can't see how to achieve this behind the fridge. In the meantime we take a small oil filled radiator to provide some evening/night time heat at the front of the van when we're away in the winter.

Our Fairford doesn't blow very well out of the vents furthest from the heater, however after extensive use last winter I found leaving the heater permanently on whilst away the van temp can be controlled very well. We turned n it down at night and back up in a the day.
When we first try to beat a cold van we have to put up with the jet engine roar for the first few hours whilst the heater attempts to warm everything up. We only use the gas heating initially and switch over to electric after that.

PLOUGHLIN wrote:The manual for my Truma heater says both electric and gas can be used together for speedy warm up invery cold climates.

Have you ever tried it?

You could do toast against the outlets I reckon.   They certainly get very hot in no time.

In our Fairford, I discovered the front two feed pipes not connected. I connected them but next to useless.
The rear two get very hot - just a pity A/S can't get it sorted.

As previously stated, same problem on the Kemerton, its useless. Feet are often freezing when sitting near the sliding door, where the air intake vent is placed. Takes ages for the two 'working' vents to heat the van up. Forced to rely often on a more efficient and quiet mobile fan heater when on EHU and occasionally use a small oil-filled radiator in the long winter months.
Mel

PLOUGHLIN wrote:The manual for my Truma heater says both electric and gas can be used together for speedy warm up invery cold climates.

Gas is FAR more powerful than the electric element. 3 times the heat output if you have the winter pack (Truma Combi 6E).
6,000W from Gas, 1,800W max from electric.

I tested the heater in my Warwick Duo and good heat comes from all vents including the front vent.

My Warwick xl hardly manages to blow out from the single outlet on the step. Only just able to feel a slight breath coming out, and no discernible warmth. Thought it might have a break in the ducting. It is also fed by a reduced sized pipe. Maybe its just for show ?.

A bit confused with this blown air heating issue with Autosleeper can anyone help us ALL get to the bottom of this problem of no or little heat to the cab step vent.My experience is I purchased a new Warwick XL on 1st September this year and used the blown air heating system for the first time last month.There are four outlets from the heater with three of these very efficient.The fourth outlet which feeds the vent located in the cab step area does not blow any air neither hot or cold.I can appreciate this pipe is the longest run and reduces in size for installation purposes is not going to be as efficient as the other three outlets but on checking the four outlet pipes at their connecting points to the heater I discovered that the pipe connected to the cab step was cold while the other three were hot.Bearing this in mind if it's not going to be hot at the start of the run at the boiler end it's never going to be hot at the vent in the step.I read on the forum that another Warwick XL owner experienced identical problems a year ago.As this is effecting so many owners is someone able provide a solution to what appears to be an ongoing problem.

Following Welshbudda's post, I tried the heating today to see if the pipe feeding the vent in the step was getting hot.  I found that  the pipe was getting hot but nothing like the 3 other pipes. I will try disconnecting the pipe were it reduces in size to see what is going on. I can detect a very weak air flow from the vent, but no warmth.

Our Warwick XL front outlets seem to work ok, very low flow but we can feel heat coming out. Closing all the other vents proves there is definitely heated flow. We bought the van last month, so maybe they've changed something recently.

Our Warwick XL, now nearly 2 years old, has never had anything but luke warm air from the one vent on the step up to the cab. Its fed from a smaller diameter pipe than other vents from the Truma boiler. All other vents are very hot indeed. I removed the feed at the boiler end this morning, and its as hot as all the others at the boiler end, but the route is much longer than the others... its routed under or behind the bathroom panel, the toilet and the raised cab area floor.. By the time it gets there ALL heat is lost. I imagine if I removed the panel, the front seats and the raised cab floor I could add extra insulation but I will probably just continue to leave the bathroom door open to heat the van's front end..

If you read the installation instructions on Truma combis, they state that the heater should be central with all ducts the same length. Obviously AS simply ignore this and install it where they want rather than where manufacturers suuggest and whatever length ducting they fancy.

Like water, hot air will take the easiest path.  Our Nuevo toilet compartment vent has far less heat going to it and th edifference in length is far less than on your Kingham.

Whilst not having the XL - I found on my duo the boiler had 4 vent outlets and only 3 were connected.  The majority of hot air was simply being wasted through the unconnected outlet under the rear o/s bench.    

I did the standard mod (see Nimbus thread) of adding a new vent at the rear.

Simply adding the pipe and vent has meant the existing 3 pipes are a lot more effective and by having 2 at the rear with vents part closed the front and bathroom vents are more effective.

Likewise my step heater in the Kingham is pretty useless and one of those "little" things that AS have sadly disregarded .

The one in the bathroom works well in our duo though even after the pipe goes outside the van floor. I did wonder why it does not have insulation.  Likewise the front one is hopeless at least our one was connected.

Likewise, our 2015 Duo now works and heats all the van well. I did find the outlet flexi pipe from the heater was not connected, simple job to put back and now secured with a small self tapping screw. Bathroom is like a hot house.

Have any of you tried partially closing the hot outlets, so as to boost flow to the cold / cool ones? Our Warwick Duo is just fine like this.

Yep tried closing all of them and nothing detectable to front of van. I don't like to keep them closed for more than a couple of minutes as they get so hot they would melt the flaps.

melcragg wrote:Yep tried closing all of them and nothing detectable to front of van. I don't like to keep them closed for more than a couple of minutes as they get so hot they would melt the flaps.

This does suggest either a blockage or a disconnection. under such conditions there must be a strong flow through the front vents.

Checked my kingham vent at front of the van. I found the two small bore spiral ducts go under the side bench seat. one goes into the outlet grill set in the cab step.
The second small bore spiral duct has been closed off under the seat, with ordinary masking tape and holes made in the duct behind the two vents fitted under the side bench seat internally. As this duct is the furthest point from the heater and most restrictive in terms of being less than 50% free area compared to the other outlets it will never get enough airflow to the front vent. If both ducts were connected to the outlet I am sure it would improve the airflow from this grill. 
I am guessing Auto Sleepers do this to protect the water pipes and pump fitted under this seat from frost. I Would suggest to them that the heat loss from the spiral duct under the seat is adequate for frost protection and connect both spiral ducts to the outlet grill.