Where is safety/drain valve for the heating system? (T@B400 2024)

BillCB

The Alde manual says to open this valve every ten days or so. Is the drain valve the one just behind the driver side wheel?

BillCB

I think that valve drains the hot water tank but I assume Alde want to one to drain the heating tank - are they the same thing?

Sharon_is_SAM

The Alde is designed to heat the glycol, which then heats the sleeve of water surrounding the inner glycol tank.
2 separate areas within the Alde unit.  The glycol is held in by a plug located under the trailer in the area of the Alde.

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And a little more info specific to 400s with the Flow…

The Alde Safety/Drain valves are the  yellow valves located under the bed.  

The yellow valve on the red, hot line is the Safety/Drain valve on the main Alde water tank.  This requires an air cushion and is the one open every 10 days.

The yellow valve on the blue, cold line is the Safety/Drain valve for the Alde Flow water tank.  (This tank preheats water to provide a steady hot water supply).

Open both of the drains to empty the tanks after the system has cooled.  

Then open the outside hot and cold water low point drains to drain the remainder of the plumbing.

(TaB owners without the Flow can just use the low point drain as the Alde is filled directly from a cold line, not via a connection with another tank.)

Bill&Suze

@Sharon_is_SAM, thanks for providing the diagrams. I've understood for a while now that the yellow valves are the appropriate ones to open. What I'm still not clear on is just how long one should keep the valve on the red line open. How much water should be drained to recreate the air buffer? Should the water jacket be completely emptied every 10 days?

BillCB

Thank you very much, Sharon. The pix are particularly useful. I'm just about to embark on a month-long trip in my as-yet unused T@B 400 so I want to treat it right!

Sharon_is_SAM

@Bill&Suze - I understand the confusion as the manual for the 3020 says to renew the air cushion every 10 days by a) holding the yellow valve a few seconds and b) completely emptying the hot water tank every 10 days.

I suspect Alde decided that there was no way to confirm an adequate air cushion using the yellow valve technique so they added the belt and suspenders approach of actually emptying the tank.  Our travels see us emptying our tank regularly, so it is not an issue, but, if we camped for a prolonged time, I would fully empty the tank until there are only drips.