Whale heating and hot water controls

My new Warwick XL has Whale heating and hot water but the Harmony hand book only refers to Truma equipment. I have contacted AS several times to find out how to set the timers for  Whale and have been sent a Whale document which shows their own controls and not the Sargent EC700 as fitted to the van. Has anyone else experienced this problem and found out how to set the timers?

Have you had a look at YouTube? 

There are quite a few video instructions, but I don't know which model is yours. I just put in "Whale heating controls youtube" and up they came. 

Hi Malc73,

Could you please PM me the best contact number/email address to get you on and I will ask our Customer Services team to give you a call?

Thank you,
Scott

Hi Scott,
That would be good, thanks
Malc73

Seems I cannot give my email address as I am a new member. Phone 01974299555
or 07834731694

Unfortunately Whale unable to help as their control system different to the AS Harmony box

Malc73 wrote:My new Warwick XL has Whale heating and hot water

Is it the underfloor Whale system?

It’s pretty shambolic of AS to put the wrong system info in the handbook, especially when they trumpet their Harmony system so loudly.

Tim

No surprise as from recent experience  they couldnt even tell me what each switch did on the cluster of 4 as you enter our Warwick XL  van. I know they record calls and eventually said 'so you are telling me as the technical specialist of engineering  that no one can tell me what these switches do ? ' ...YEs!   was the reply...  I gave up and kindly got the answer from forum members.

I'm still waiting for AS to provide a handbook for the Whale heating and hot water system. Why they produced an updated version of the Warwick XL without providing the appropriate handbook is beyond me and is very poor customer service. The fact that they have still failed to provide any information in the 10 months that I have owned the van is appalling. 
The owner's club have been unable to help and I despair of AS doing anything.

Malc73 wrote:Unfortunately Whale unable to help as their control system different to the AS  Harmony box

Do you have any reason to believe the Whale heating system is integrated into the Harmony system?

There are screens in the EC700 which seem to cover programming the heater and hot water but no instructions about setting the times. The Harmony handbook only refers to Truma.

Yes Harmony interfaces to Trumas iNet and AS fitted iNet. Whale have iVan but does Harmony interface to iVan and have AS fitted it?
I agree AS should have produced a manual and be able to tell you.

Harmony does not interface to iVan and it is not fitted. When I asked AS about this they sent me info on iVan.

Was this resolved at all. I've got a 2023 Symbol and I didn't get a Harmony book. The latest version on the website still references Truma and not Whale. There is a screen in the EC700 settings but I can't get it to work although it does say Whale not Truma.

I’m intrigued that you have a screen page on the EC700 that refers to Whale. None of the display pages on ours refer to the Whale system and as far as I’m aware there is no integration between the two systems. The fact that the Whale control panel and the EC700 display share the same fascia plate implies there is some form of interaction but I don’t believe there is.

That said, yours is a newer van so maybe things have changed. Are you able to confirm the hardware and software version numbers? They’ll be shown on one of the screen pages.

Tim

I went through this when we bought our van, which has Harmony and the Whale Duo system.  Prior to purchase I went through the Harmony settings and could see that there was, what looked like, a comprehensive section on Whale hot water and heating timing settings.  Mind at rest, we went ahead with the purchase.

After purchase I spent some time going through these settings with the heating on and a hot water tank full (but not heated).  Nothing would work, the Whale systems would not recognise the Harmony settings.  I spent some time talking to AS Support - Karen very helpful - and she called back later to confirm that having spoken to Sargent and her own engineers, the Whale controls in the Harmony settings would not work - they are redundant.

To say I was p----d off would be an understatement.  It means that you have to get out of bed on a chilly morning to turn the heating up on the Whale Duo system - everything is manual, which is surprising for a van at this price.  

I asked why they fitted the Whale system, and the answer was that it was much more compact than Truma, offering more storage space.

Regards,

Thanks for confirming Rocky, much as I thought. One forum member (Timsurf2021) replaced the Whale with the Truma on his Kingham.

Tim

Yes Tim, it was the best thing that I did to the van, so much more efficient and the control panel is much better than the Whale.

I hope we don’t have to face the same scenario Tim, as it would be a major change in the Kemerton where space is tighter than in the Kingham with its large volume under the fixed bed. We’ll soon find out how the Whale system works this winter.

Tim

Hi Tim, if you look at the post KINGHAM HEATING you will see what I have done. A/S used to fit the heater under the bed, I got them to move it on our first Kingham to under the sofa to make better use of the under bed space. Putting under the sofa works much better as you want the heat that end and not under the bed. I have seen Kingham owners complaining about lack of heat up front with the heater under the bed.

Tim

Page 15 of the Harmony handbook shows am EC700 CP 'Heating Settings' page annotated as Truma but recommends using the Truma CP settings instead.  Initially my EC700 CP screen included the 'Heater Settings' page and I wasn't given the Harmony handbook, both of which caused me frustration and confusion.  Eventually it was a resolved with a software upgrade which removed the 'Heater Settings' page on the EC700 CP and I was given a Harmony handbook.  I could use the timer on the Truma CP but never do.  I don't even set the time on the Truma CP which defaults to 0:00 every time the EC700 is shutdown.

Not quite sure what happened there but you get the idea!