Run the Alde without water?

rhaspyhonker

Hey all, just wanted to see what we all thought about running the heater portion of the Alde after you have winterized the trailer.  No water in the Alde a bad thing when wanting heat in the cabin?  Just curious.
Thanks!

Nomad

I winterized and then camped for a month using just the heat. Didn't dewinterize until I got south to warmer temps.

judymac

PXLated, were you one of those owners who simply blew out the lines and did not put RV anti-freeze in the Alde?

ChanW

Alde has specified that running the Alde after winterizing is fine, as long as you do not have any antifreeze in the hot water 'tank'. ie: either use the bypass valve system to leave air in the Alde heater, or blow out the plumbing completely.

They are concerned that heated antifreeze might affect the system adversely.

Nomad

JudyMac - Yep, straight blow out - Personally can't see any reason to pollute the whole system with antifreeze if blown out really good. Makes for a much harder job sanitizing the system when dewinterizing.

rhaspyhonker

Hey guys, sounds good.  What setting do you put the Alde on?  I've got 3 lightning bolts on the far left switch.  Which do you set to for just heat no hot water?

jkjenn

rhaspyhonker said:

Hey guys, sounds good.  What setting do you put the Alde on?  I've got 3 lightning bolts on the far left switch.  Which do you set to for just heat no hot water?

If connected to 30 amp service, all the way to the top. If connected to my house, never more than 2 bolts.

rhaspyhonker

Hey Pxlated, do you do your "blowout" (sounds kinda messy ) with the water line bypasses set for winter or summer or both?  To me, you make a lot of sense...if the water is gone, what's the point of the pink stuff?  But how do you get the electric water pump cleared of H2O?  Several questions, sorry, but inquiring minds want to know! Thanks for the input in advance!

Nomad

Think it was summer but to be honest with you - I can't recall...Winterized twice last fall then headed to warmer climes and plan on not having to do it this year.
Last year there was no mention of putting antifreeze in your water lines, only traps after a good blowout. Then all of a sudden this year people are talking about antifreeze in their lines - don't know where that came from.

Da_Birds

So far I have only used my Alde to heat water and I want to test the heating system before a trip I have planned in a few weeks. I'd like to confirm I can run the heat without any water since this is an old discussion and because there's no concern with freezing temps. I could hook up water but would rather not bother since I only want to test the heating.

I intend to use gas to get things up to temp and then switch to electric to maintain the cabin temp. I'm going to monitor the cabin temp using a remote thermometer. Because I'll be connected at home with no 30amp service, I believe I need to use the 1KW electric setting when switching from gas to electric.

Nighttime lows are currently in the mid to high 40's and I hope to maintain a cabin temp of around 65. One of the reasons I'm going to monitor remotely is because I don't want to occupy the cabin and end up heating it largely with body heat since temps are not going to be that low. I suspect 2 adults could generate a significant amount of heat in a 320CS.

One other thing I'm curious about is where the temp sensor is for the Alde heat? I know we sure had our challenges maintaining a consistent temp with the Air8 AC until I reprogrammed it.

Our next trip is also intended to be a real world test of cooler weather camping in our T@B but I figure if I can get some experience before then it may save me some frustration when we finally get away from home. I know the time I spent playing around with the AC, hot water etc. before our first trip was well worth it.

ScottG

The Alde is designed to be run with or without water in the internal HW tank. The water is heated indirectly by the glycol, which is heated directly by the propane burner or electric elements. here's a schematic:

dragonsdofly

@Da_Birds, yes you can run the alde on the heat side without water in it or anywhere in the t@b. A completely blown dry winterizing will allow heating. However, you should not have run rv anti-freeze into the alde water tank. If you have winterized with rv antifreeze into the alde water tank, then do not run the heat. I understand some rv antifreeze brands have a high enough boil point but most do not. If you used the nautilus system to winterize and had it set to bypass the alde you are fine. The alde has an internal stainless steel water tank which will not melt when heating the cabin. Fears of a plastic water tank melting are from other rv's with different types of heating systems than the alde. Good luck. -Denise

Da_Birds

Thanks for the quick responses! That was what I believed to be the case but better to be safe and ask then be sorry.

Da_Birds

I was able to test last night and I am very impressed with the Alde. The only issue I had was that the Alde thermostat was reading 67 while my other thermometers were reading 62 (outside temp was 60) . I had my thermostat set to 65 so the incorrect reading was keeping my heat from turning on. I found the offset function in the Alde menus and learned, after consulting the manual, that the offset function can be used to calibrate the Alde's temp reading. I set the offset function to -5 degrees and that adjusted the temp reading on the Alde.

As planned I started heating with propane and then switched to electric and made the bed. Without getting into all of the details of readings etc, the cabin temp averaged around 68, but it felt closer to 65 to me. There were no wild temperature swings, that I noticed, and the bed didn't seem to heat up, as I was concerned about. I'm still surprised by how quiet the Alde is considering its right beneath you. Can't wait to try it out in cooler temperatures.