Top Up for Alde Glycol Blue

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• Venat Member Posts: 6

  May 1

  
  

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• Venat Member Posts: 6

  May 1

  apparently it's not blue it's green. Went to the dealership where it was bought.
  
  they mentioned to run the system and see the level after.

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• pthomas745 Administrator, Moderator Posts: 4,521

  May 1

  The glycol color has always been a matter of guesswork.  Blue?  Green? Aqua?  All of those are pretty close.Trying to get a good idea of the color through that plastic window and then into the glycol tank sort of bends the light, too.

  What you want is the "Alde Glycol", which is what Truma sells.  When the "change"happened in Dec 2020, Nucamp and Alde called it the "RG-RTU-50", which is a product from a company called "Rhogard".  

  This is the Amazon link for the US side of Amazon.  For our Canadian friends, the price is somehow much higher.  

  https://www.amazon.com/Truma-Resistance-Components-Conditions-Eco-Friendly/dp/B0C7J6WBRP

  
  

  Was the "dealer" able to tell you if they could order some for you?  It is true that the glycol will "expand" as it heats, and the level will increase.  You still should have a "cold" glycol level closer to the "MIN" line, at least.

  The glycol is roughly a 50-50 mix of glycol and distilled water.  Adding a pint of distilled water will not materially change the "mix" of the glycol and will bring the tank level up a bit.  Your 400 holds about three gallons of glycol.

  Picture below is of the "Alde" glycol on the left, and the "Century" glycol on the right.  The Century brand was what Alde used before Dec 2020, and many owners stayed with it after doing glycol exchanges.

  
  

  
  

  2017 Outback

  Towed by 2014 Touareg TDi
  

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• Venat Member Posts: 6

  3:48PM

  Thanks so much, you are absolutely right. Even though we bought our second hand I was able to go to the dealership and they even introduced me to the person who poured the glycol in 2 years ago.
  
  it was in fact green.  They even said that due to low temperatures it is likely compressing and I probably don’t need to top off. I got a litre of it anyway but when I ran the system I confirmed it expanded well to the max line.  For now I won’t top off.
  
  one other suggestion they said was to top it off while it’s warm. (Though this scares me a bit as I fear it’ll blow if I open the tank)

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• pthomas745 Administrator, Moderator Posts: 4,521

  3:59PM

  The "Things Dealers Say" file.  The glycol level should be set with the glycol "cold" according to the Alde manual.  We could argue what they mean by "warm", but the glycol temperatures can run up to around 130 degrees (I'll have to check my notes on this), so the tank contents can be "hot" while the Alde is running.  So, as long as you pay a bit of attention to that, you will be fine.

  Some owners carry things like "turkey basters" to draw out some glycol if they feel the level while "cold" is too high.  Or, they can use the baster to add glycol, also.

  
  

  This is what the manual says; Regularly check the fluid level in the expansion tank. The markings on the side indicate the maximum and minimum fluid level (see figure 7). The level should be about 0.5 in (1 cm) above the minimum indicator in a cold tank. 

  
  

  If you look through the Alde "Tools" menu, you will find the Alde "Service" menu.  In that section of the display, there will be a page that tells you the temperatures of the glycol and the water in the Alde tank.  The sensors for that display are somewhere near the Alde tank itself.

  
  

  
  

  2017 Outback

  Towed by 2014 Touareg TDi
  

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