Hot Water

scaup

How hot is the hot water that the Alde produces?

I have the mixing valve, the one next to the Alde boiler under the rear seat, turned to maximum, propane and electricity selected and the menu setting at max water temp.

The water starts out really hot, then cools to what I would call warm.

Thanks

Norbert1223

What year of T@B?   My 2016 seems to do the same thing in the kitchen sink.  I did have plenty of hot water for indoor shower and outdoor shower.

ScottG

Running on electricity, my Alde will maintain hot water at ~130F or ~154F, depending on the setting. (I haven't tested it on propane, but it should perform similarly.)

Keep in mind that the Alde's hot water tank is small (<3 gallons), and what you draw off will immediately be replaced with cold water that will temporarily lower the temperature in the tank, and cause the water coming from the tap to get progressively cooler as more is drawn off.

Note that I have a 2015 S with the analog (slider) Alde controls and no mixing valve. The digital controls may have different operating parameters, and the mixing valve (not to mention the temperature of the incoming cold water) can also have an influence. I vaguely recall at least one issue someone had with a faulty mixing valve--perhaps someone experienced with those upgrades will chime in with more info.   

scaup

After searching under "Hot Water" on this site (which I should have done in the first place), there was a good explanation of the mixing valve and how to increase the hot to cold water ratio even after hitting the max stop point on the mixing valve.

After adjusting the mixing valve on my 2017 T@B Max S, I have sufficient hot water.

Photomom

@scaup, can you summarize what you did? Searching for hot water pulls up all kinds of unrelated stuff.

Tommy

scaup said:

After searching under "Hot Water" on this site (which I should have done in the first place), there was a good explanation of the mixing valve and how to increase the hot to cold water ratio even after hitting the max stop point on the mixing valve.

After adjusting the mixing valve on my 2017 T@B Max S, I have sufficient hot water.

Please link us to the explanation? thanks.

Norbert1223

I adjusted the mixing valve to what should be the max hot to cold ratio and I still get cold after running the kitchen sink a few seconds, maybe enough to fill a soup sized bowl.  

scaup

Sorry to lead you guys in the wrong direction. Search under "Mixing Valve" and look under the thread titled "Little Hot Water". Ed Kauffman from PVT has a letter and a tech sheet on the mixing valve installed in my 2017 Max S.

Going on it looks like not all mixing valves are like mine and some T@Bs don't have mixing valves.

GrandmasKid

We just got a new 2017 Outback and I haven't been able to figure out how to tell if the hot water tank has water in it. Our dealer put some water in the fresh water tank. Does that mean I've automatically got water in the hot water tank? I haven't turned on the Alde heater yet. In the manual I read in a couple of places that turning on the hot water tank without having water in it would burn out the heating element. This may be a dumb question but it would be even dumber to burn out my hot water tank before we go camping. The Alde will heat the interior of the camper and It's hot water tank I think. For both functions is the Alde using glycol? I'm confused and would appreciate some help.

Nomad

Hmmmm - Had never actually thought about how the hot water tank gets filled - just presumed that when you turn on the water pump it pumps water thru the system. When it stops, everything, lines and hot water tank are pressurized and full. That's what I did and everything's worked fine for almost two years.
Will be interesting to see what those that dig into these details come up with :-)

Michigan_Mike

PXLated said:

Hmmmm - Had never actually thought about how the hot water tank gets filled - just presumed that when you turn on the water pump it pumps water thru the system. When it stops, everything, lines and hot water tank are pressurized and full. That's what I did and everything's worked fine for almost two years.
Will be interesting to see what those that dig into these details come up with :-)

That's how it works....  If there is freshwater in the tank you flip the pump switch on, the water is pumped up into the trailer plumbing, into the hot water tank and hot and cold water lines.  Turn the faucet on for a bit, run out any air in the lines and you should be good to go....  The same goes for the city water hook-up, but the city water hook-up doesn't place water into the freshwater tank and only runs water into the trailer's water lines and into the Alde unit.  Fresh water tank must be filled manually via the fresh water port on the side of the trailer.  

This is how I fill my fresh water tank.



When the Alde unit is turned on via the digital thermostat you do need to program it for the hot water tank setting and it takes approximately 15 minutes to have hot water via the 2.5 gallon hot water tank (as I recall) in the Alde.  Be careful as the water is very hot and can scauld skin if you don't use care and mix it with some cold water.

Nomad

Sorry Mike, way to elaborate for me. Simple flexible hose attachment for me :-)

GrandmasKid

Thanks for the rapid responses. Now I can work with (play with) the Alde in my driveway with some confidence that I won't break the water heater. 

ChanW

GrandmasKid, you can run the Alde even with no water in the system. It won't hurt it.