Slow leak.......glycol from Alde????

scaup

We just got back from a short trip and I noticed slow drips out of a black drain under the drivers rear of my 2015 T@B 320. The drain is about 1" round and it seems to be green colored......maybe glycol from the Alde?????? Inside the trailer there is a black rubber plug that has three rubber hoses going to it, a black hose, a larger clear hose and a smaller clear hose. We just had the trailer serviced including the Alde.

What is causing the leak? Could they have overfilled the glycol?

Thanks

BrianZ

@scaup, there are two hoses in that drain from the Alde - the glycol tank overflow (clear hose) & the black one from the auto air bleeder assembly at top of Alde (red arrow).  If the glycol tank is not overfilled, you may want to check that the auto air bleeder is level.  It's possible some glycol came out from the bleeder after service while it was letting air out.  This could also happen if the valve were to get stuck open (if it's not level or faulty).  Try turning on your Alde pump, without turning on the heater if possible, to see if glycol continues to come out, then turn up pump speed midway (at white arrow) to test further.  If so, try tapping on the top of the bleeder to loosen a stuck valve disk.

Dalehelman

Question is it dripping from the 1” drain plug or from where the 3 small tubes/ hoses come together. If it is from the drain plug nothing serious it just needs to be resealed. I don’t recall if there is a hose clamp there or not. If not install one.

BrianZ

@scaup, see photo below - where is it dripping from, H or E?  If E, is there a hose clamp in the position shown, or is it farther up on the tube?  E is the main glycol drain for system service, which is shown in the normal operating manner, with plug & clamp.  H is the set of 3 hoses you described.  The larger clear hose of the three is an air inlet hose that facilitates draining water from the Alde tank.

scaup

BrianZ- Its dripping out of H. I talked with the place that did the service and they said if the drip finally stops its overflow; If it continues its a leak. Makes sense.  I'll first check the glycol level then try what you said above. Question- is the white arrow some sort of a rheostat or speed control?

Dalehelman- the 3 hoses seems to go thru the 1" plug. Yes there is a hose clamp around the 1" plug. I think the 1" plug is just to contain the hoses as they go thru the floor. Its hard to tell thru which hose the drip is coming from but my guess was the black one as I couldn't see any liquid in the clear hoses.

Thanks

Dalehelman

You can just pull each of the three hoses out to determine which one is dripping coolant. Once you determine which one you can move to the next step.

BrianZ

@scaup, yes, there should be a speed control on that glycol pump motor.  Here's what ours looks like..

Turning up the pump should increase the flow of glycol, and if there's any residual pockets of air, should help that auto air bleeder valve to clear it out.  It's possible some more drops could come out, but if it continues, try tapping on the bleeder, or if it persists get that flow assembly replaced. 

If you don't have the digital display panel that lets you turn on the pump without heating the Alde, then you may have to turn the Alde on to get the pump running.  You should hear an increased motor sound when you turn up the manual dial on the back of the pump.  After a few minutes, turn it back down.  If they already did this procedure, then it might just be some residual glycol in that black drain hose.  The only way you can have a persistent leak through that black air bleeder hose is if the air bleeder valve gets stuck open & let's glycol out with the air.  It needs to be level also.

If the system is cold & turned off, you could try pulling the black hose off the gold valve & blow air into the hose to clear any residual glycol in the hose (keep a rag underneath to avoid spills).  Then if it leaks again, you'll know you might have a leaky valve.

scaup

I checked the glycol reservoir behind the triangular panel at the drivers side rear of the trailer. I would say the reservoir is about half full. I had put a container under the drip (after I noticed it) and more than just a little bit of glycol had dripped out. The drip seems to have stopped now as the outlet (H above) seems to be dry.

We are going on a trip on Tuesday (right after Memorial Day) and I would like to know if I can use the Alde for at least hot water. Is the reservoir the same as the radiator reservoir on a car where it supplements water in the radiator and as long as there is water in the radiator its ok or is the glycol level so low that I shouldn't use the Alde at all. I discussed this with the service folks yesterday and they used Century Chemical TF-1 Heat Transfer Fluid and thought I shouldn't mix glycol types. Naturally this type of glycol is not readily available especially on a Sunday or Memorial Day.

Thanks for you help

Denny16

As long as the glycol level is above the lower minimum mark you should be fine to use the Alde, hot water and cabin heat uses the same glycol supply, doing hot water only just stops the heat circulation pumps from heating the entire cabin heating loop.  You do not want to mix glycol types, stay with the Century TF1, you can order it from Amazon, it’s good to have a bit on hand to top off the system every now and then.  If you want only a quart to have on hand, I can fix you up (not for the weekend), send me a PM.
cheers

BrianZ

The max fill line is actually only about halfway up the tank.  I've marked our min/max lines with a marker..
I would guess you are probably just fine.

scaup

Thank you all for your education. My general feeling is that the service department overfilled the glycol since the dripping has stopped, the 1" drain under the floor is dry to the touch and now that I see the max/min lines on the glycol reservoir, I thing the reservoir is almost full.

When I get back I'll start another thread about general items that have needed repairing on a 6 year old T@B. I think the quality is generally good but there are some items........

Thanks

BrianZ

Have fun!