SYMBOL - Heater Vents

Hi all,

I have a 2008 Symbol. There are two vents that operate when the Ersprecher heater is active. One under the bench seat(near the cooker) blows out warm air. The other vent is located under the travel seat on the nearside and only visible when the sliding door is open. When the heater is operating this vent pumps out cold air. Can anyone tell me the purpose of this vent please?

Jmn

I think the one behind the sliding door sucks in cold air to feed the heater which then blows out hot air from the vent by the cooker.

That was my thinking but Journeyman says it blows out cold air.

journeyman wrote:when the Ersprecher heater is active.

[Pedant alert! It's Eberspacher, with an umlaut over the a.]

Assuming it's an Airtronic, it will almost certainly be a recirculation system (unlike Hydronic Eberspachers, which often have an inlet from outside), so it must have an inlet within the van, and it seems likely that this is what you have found.

We have a 2011 Symbol and that seems to blow cold air from the vent by the sliding door. Can anyone confirm how they should work ??
Regards Wallis3

Thanks for the response guys(and the grammar lessons ). It is an Airtronic and i'm pretty certain its blowing out cold air. If thats normal, i'm happy with that.

Best

Jmn

It certainly doesn't ~sound~ normal! If you look at the diagram here:

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You see that an Airtronic has only one fan, one inlet and one outlet. So, unless your system has more fans added than the one in the Airtronic, I can't see how the one fan can be blowing hot and cold air at the same time!

Cheers Mojo, i'll have a closer look at this. Its notable Wallis3 has the same thoughts that his heater blows at the door vent. I note there is a fan inside the inlet, perhaps thats what we are feeling when we put our hand by the vent.

Thanks again.

Put a piece of very thin tissue in front of the inlet vent and see if it's sucking or blowing, if its blowing maybe the fan blades have been put on wrong way round.

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If you look at the photos in the thread link above you can see that the size of duct used on the output is too large to cross to the other side of the van.

Any heater air input vent would be 'unobstructable' and it seems there is one in those photos that allows air under the seat to be drawn in my the eberspacher, the hot air as standard only coming to one controllable vent.

The vent at the door could well be a vent from the gas locker and the cold air coming from it is a result of pressure differences caused by the air circulated by the heater.

It should be relatively easy to look under the seats and see where ducting goes and it would be nice to hear the result of an inspection.

Peter

Great idea, excellent mod on the other van as well.

The 'tissue paper' test is the way to go.
It's probably just draught.

PB

Hi. I have just been checking and we have a Whale Space Heater fitted and the operating instructions do not say anything about inlets or outlets. I have just checked again and it seems to be blowing cold as the outher two are blowing hot.
Confused Wallis3

Ring Mark at Autosleepers Willersey, 01386 853338, with the van build number, he should be able to tell you the exact specification on your van.
I had the Airlectic unit fitted to my Airtronic D2, on my 59 Symbol, this worked via the EHU.

Boaby

Ok solved it. This morning I had a good look at the Inlet. Its actually located below the raised floor. On closer inspection I could see that the pipe under the floor wasn't actually connected to the inlet, by a good distance. So I removed the floor casing and re-joined the pipe back to the inlet.



I then flicked on the heater and carried out the "tissue test" as suggested by Paul. Sure enough it was sucking it in like a jet engine! So it is as many pointed out, the inlet for the heater. I noted the grill on the inlet was missing, so I'll need to get that rectified. I'm also hopeful by reconnecting the pipe it will marginally improve my insulation as cold air was entering the inside of the van directly from underneath the floor insulation.

Thanks all.

Glad you sorted it. It's good to read about such things as you never know when it might happen to you.