Re: Van cold at front end.

by Peter Brown Tue Nov 07, 2017 10:33 am

greycaster wrote:That's what we used to do but my wife uses it for storage if we are on site. When we do use it we do the same and leave the door open, but if someone forgets and shuts the door the toilet then becomes a sauna.

I put a hook and eye on our Wilton to hold the bathroom door open an inch or so in those circumstances. It also works the other way around; if the interior is being kept warm by an ancillary heater, the warmth gets into the bathroom and keeps the toilet flush tank from freezing.

by StewPotch Tue Nov 07, 2017 10:40 am

Wargenwolf wrote:
StewPotch wrote:
If I put an empty kettle onto a gas burner it might not damage the kettle immediately, but after time it might damage it. Owners choice really.
A fair point regarding kettles, but they're not designed or intended to be used without water, whereas the boiler in question is.

Ken.

To quote a paragraph singularly is taking what I said out of context. I’m well aware of the difference between a kettle and a boiler, in fact, Boilers are very much part of my line of business.
Unless you’re filling your system with deareated, demineralised, chemically treated H2O you WILL shorten both the lifespan and efficiency of your boiler If running it wet and dry.
But as I said - owners choice

by greycaster Tue Nov 07, 2017 11:49 am

Ah, now there's an idea

by pjkxpjkx Tue Nov 07, 2017 1:14 pm

First, make sure that the ducts are fitted to the heater. On our Warwick Duo the ducting was cut too short and not straight so it fell out of the heater. If you only have 3 vents then one must be blanked off. The blanking plugs commonly fall out
PeteJ

by greycaster Tue Nov 07, 2017 3:05 pm

I have just had a good look round my system, the are 4 outlets 1 goes to the shower cubicle and 2 go to the vents under the offside bench seat/bed. The 4th outlet comes out of the heater with normal ducting but the is immediately reduced down to a smaller size, I think this smaller ducting feeds forward to the vent in the step. If I look inside the step vent I can see it's attached to normal sized ducting. I then presume this is stepped down to the smaller size trunking. It's possible that the connection at the reducer has come adrift but I don't know how to access this joint, I don't even know where it is.

by pjkxpjkx Tue Nov 07, 2017 4:08 pm

It is possible to run ducting under the van. That is way AS designed our 2011 Warwick Duo. Which has a completely different layout.
I have split the feed to the bathroom with a Y connector and sent half of the bathroom heating back into the lounge which balances the temperature up better.
All of the bits are available from somewhere like [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
AS did not bother to insulate the duct under the van but it still works.
PeteJ

by greycaster Tue Nov 07, 2017 4:24 pm

I think that may be the way to go as there is no other way to run full size ducting to the front. That's the reason AS have used the smaller size ducting which does not work.

by AndyRoyd Tue Nov 07, 2017 4:44 pm

Quilter wrote:

When AS added -unasked- the extra ( 4th) vent in our van after changing the boiler we were told it was necessary in order to dissipate the heat produced by a 6kW heater as opposed to a 4kW one.

We can't remember ever using the 6kW setting, even when it is very cold, but having the extra vent at the front makes all the difference to heat distribution.

Hi Quilter,
Where did they fit your 4th vent, I have one to the bathroom and two outlets below the wardrobe.
I am in the process of checking why my combi is not working on 230v and notice there is a spare blanked off outlet.

by Kingham Tue Nov 07, 2017 5:40 pm

StewPotch wrote:

To quote a paragraph singularly is taking what I said out of context. I’m well aware of the difference between a kettle and a boiler, in fact, Boilers are very much part of my line of business.
Unless you’re filling your system with deareated, demineralised, chemically treated H2O you WILL shorten both the lifespan and efficiency of your boiler If running it wet and dry.
But as I said - owners choice

I wasn't suggesting you don't know the difference between a kettle and a heater and I apologise if that's how it seemed to you, but I'm still of the opinion that it was a poor analogy, as a kettle is not designed to be heated whilst devoid of water, the Truma heater is.

As with most things in life, using something will shorten its lifespan, but running my Truma boiler without water won't cause it to fail any earlier than running it with water.

Just to clarify the information in the owner's handbook, earlier today I emailed Truma's technical people for their view on running my boiler for prolonged periods without water and their response was thus.....

"There is no maximum time limit, it will not do any damage to the heater if you only ever run heating with no water."

For me, that response from the manufacturer of the heater answers the question of safely running the heater without water, even for prolonged periods.

Ken.

by herby660 Sun Dec 03, 2017 9:09 pm

Just bought a Fairford and had same questions as everyone else about the front heater vents, they are next to useless. This is simply due to ducting size as already stated, shame AS can't sort this. Just bought an oil filled radiator 500w for cab end during colder nights. Thinking of a silver screen too to hopefully help insulate the cab end.