Alde reliability

@jrslad my Tab 320MaxS is my first trailer, and it has been a learning curve. I wouldn't trade my first season adventures for the world! I love my Tab and I absolutely love the Alde heat! My winter project is to actually sit and read the manual (not one of my better points, ask @ericnliz!   ). In the meantime I've learned to crank it up hotter than I need it then turn it down when I'm warm enough as I tend to run cold a lot. I also close up the windows late afternoon, holding some heat from the day in. I turn the heat up later. I've also (knock on wood!) never blown a fuse yet. I am meticulous about the order I plug in and turn things on and off. Some day one will blow, and I have spares. Anyway, keep asking questions and search for past answers on the forum. The archives and people here are a wealth of knowledge!  Enjoy the journey!

Jrslad - this won’t impact you at sea level in Florida, but the vibration you referred to may have been at high elevations.  Apparently the model of Alde approved in the USA was not designed specifically for this.  But, the factory consulted Alde and designed the high altitude propane regulator which eliminated the problem.  By the way, how cold does the Panhandle get?

Being a year and a half into this, the up side is that the T@B as a whole and the Alde are remarkably well conceived, designed and made products. The towing characteristics, breaks, suspension and bearing systems seem to be of the highest quality and well integrated. The 3 way refrigerator and Alde have performed well.
But there is a major down side.
This is a very complex system, and the learning curve is substantial.
Documentation is not well unified and difficult to sort out. We got a huge stack of manuals, but no real plan on how to work with it, and although the material was there it is buried in among an enormous amount of verbiage that is irrelevant.
The essential problem is that this is a small and diverse market. In autos or trucks 95 percent of the market is in a hand full of brands with relatively strong dealer networks, documentation and parts supplies. The average trailer owner may be hundreds of miles rather than tens of miles from a dealer. And each dealer serves many brands. And, for instance, a 2011 Chevy Silverado is a known quantity with documented circuit diagrams and functions. Travel trailers are essentially built one at a time, and are undocumented except for what is put together by the internet community.
The plus side for the T@B is that factory support for the trailer and its components has in my experience been very good.
The major down side has been our dealer experience:

T@B Dealer Experience, General RV in Huntley, Illinois

We have been quite satisfied with our T@B trailer and although there is a steep learning curve there have been no issues of construction, quality or reliability. The dealer experience, however, is another story.
Our dealer was General RV, in Huntley, Illinois. This is a big chain with a lot of stock and an elaborate sales program, but very poor service.  To understand why, you need look no further then their web site, where you will see the notice: "We need RV technicians, and no experience is needed!"
When we made the purchase we were absolute beginners. We were told that we needed a break controller, so we got suckered in and paid $120 for a unit available on Amazon for about $60 and something like $120 for installation.
Tow vehicle is a 2011 Chevy Silverado half ton pickup.
"Installation," took all of five minutes, consisted of ramming two screws into the dash board and mounting the unit so that you could not see the LED indicators, or easily reach the controls. They hooked up the two under the hood wires for the controller and the trailer 12 volt power feed but just hand tightened the nuts, you could literally move them with your fingers. Naturally the brakes were intermittent, and it took some serious time and frustration to trace down the problem, including an hour or so with the manufacturer technical guy. (Tekonsha – Primus Factory support was excellent.)
They also hooked up the under the hood 12 volt trailer power lead, but did not plug in a fuse or inform us that we needed to do it. The first couple of test runs went fine, in retrospect we were on shore power prior to going, and plugged in to 120 volt on arrival; we thought we had 12 volt in transit but did not.
On our first extended trip the battery was dead about six hours out. I was able to figure out what the problem was relatively quickly, but finding the little square, green 40 amp fuse on the road is difficult; the local Chevy dealer parts department could not find it in stock, but then the counter guy dug out two of them in a box taken from old equipment and gave them to us free.
Then the interesting part, the thing had power on, but was still not charging very much. Digging through the inch and a half thick Silverado manual, we found deep in the small print the fact that the trailer power would not charge a battery unless the truck transmission was in tow mode. Who would have thought that the power feed charging enable was by means of the automatic transmission control?
I don't know about other dealers, but my conclusion is that to do this you pretty much have to commit to being your own mechanic, and really research anything you have to go to a shop for. Part of the problem is that there are so many trailer brands out there, and that apparently model year does not mean all that much, changes seem to be put in at any time as production goes on. But General RV is really dedicated to poor or outright abusive service practices, and it comes from the top down to those service technicians hired with no experience, presumably because they are willing to work for less.

Temp in the 60s sounds sweet.  Is there plenty of camping available there in the winter?  I know southern Florida is pretty packed that time of year.

@jrslad, 'Ya hit the nail RIGHT on the head with the comment "GO CAMP" and enjoy the experience! Hands on is the best teacher you can find. My advise to ALL new owners is to either first driveway camp, or pick a camping spot close to home. Play with EVERY button, switch, knob, & doomaflothchie you can find. The more you use something, the more comfortable & familiar you become with it. When you get to the  factor, come here & ask!!! I do!!!!!! Get out there & have fun....after all, that's what you bought your T@B for...right?

@JimEngel, while it will take some reading, there are two Categories on the left that have plenty of references for the Alde.  Heating/Plumbing and Winterizing and User Manual/PDF Files, Videos and Resources. 

There is also a smartphone app Alde Service that has a copy of the Alde 3010 Manual, which is my go-to Manual for troubleshooting.  I guess I surprised the factory last January when I told them about what troubleshooting I had done (per the manual and owner’s comments on this forum) I had already done.  They shipped me the needed circuit board that I did replace.  

@JimEngel, I guess that might need to be answered by Tech Support at Alde USA.  Some of our owners have had great success speaking with them for those questions that aren’t asked frequently.  

My experience is that the circulation pump starts when there is a request for heat.  I’m winterized so I can’t say that this pump runs with the water heater also. I tested mine earlier this afternoon without the seat cover on and I could hear the pump kick in. It’s nice when more of the mystery is discovered through questions on this forum. 

DurangoTaB said:

Many of us T@B owners are first time RV folk, and we mistakenly think when we pay a premium (T@B, Airstream, RoadTrek, etc.) we also should be getting excellent service and support from the dealer.  Not always true.  I paid a premium for my Tacoma for that reason.  But hey, my neighbor has an $85K Airstream and he’s had more problems than I’ve had!  RV’s are different...Having done my share of boating/sailing I am often reminded of “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”...you know and take care of the bike and it’ll take care of you.  NuCamp does a darn good job considering their challenges, and this Forum is a wealth of information and helpful people, 24x7 no less!  

I loved that book. Just have recently read it again.

@juliantab, I think the alde recommendation is every 2 years.I seem to recall reading that somewhere, but my memory isn't gospel. Several owners have changed it themselves and posted about it. Use the search function and look up multiple threads. Some say easy, others won't do it again. YMMV. Good luck!

New 400 owner hear browsing the list to try to fix all my problems. Good to hear that most folks are happy with the Alde, we've found it a real bummer moving to this from the forced air heater of our Hallmark Pop-up (you jump in and are warm in 4 min). It takes many hours to heat up, hot water runs out really quickly (and we have to really fiddle to get it hot enough), and now I seem to have a problem that others don't have... we get 'gas failure' and the alde stops even though there is propane. I kinda think this is due to low voltage after a few different tests, but it happened after only 2 nights of pretty conservative use (and with a solar panel). The Alde service folks are nice, but they don't seem to have a way of diagnosing whether the unit is actually working right and now I'm going to have to find time to take it hours to a dealer to hope that things can get fixed. Oh, we have a glycol leak too around the fill tank.

Anyone else have a 'gas failure' or glycol leak issue?

Thanks!

@laetulos, here is a thread discussing Alde issue, maybe it will provide some information. I agree that whole system seems overly complicated. 
http://tab-rv.vanillaforums.com/discussion/6183/alde-hw-works-but-not-heating

I, too, love my Alde. Wonderful and comforting heat, hot water that I have never ran out of. Once you understand it, it is easy to use. I’ve had a Teardrop without built-in heat and there is no comparison. I’ve tried to read my sister’s class C manuals and I just put her Winnebago manual down, knowing I didn't have to light the pilot for heat or hot water, knowing the heat will be very comforting in just a few minutes. 

I did take the time to print out certain discussions from this forum before I took possession of my T@B and I can never thank the other owner’s for being so informative and so free with their helpful hints. If you are willing to invest some learning time, just search the Heating and A/C category and I will guarantee that you will learn how to use the Alde. Print some of the discussions, put them in a binder or folder and keep them with your T@B. It will only help you to have a quick reference from those who have experienced your situation. 

Thanks for the feedback folks. I appreciate the thoughts and have been interested by the whole above 3000 feet discussion in other threads, our heater is also quite loud although we weren't too concerned as that seemed to have been the least of the issues. It would have been nice if someone told us about this before (ie. the dealer located above 3000 feet where we bought it from). I believe Sam is correct that it heats up faster when on shore power, but we've only been connected to a 30 amp supply once in over 20 nights, so it doesn't help too much. Once it is hot inside it is pretty good and is fairly efficient with propane. Two nights ago it was 14 deg when we woke, and 64 (rather than the 67 it was set at) inside. Within the acceptable range.

The main problem problem I'm trying to get my head around is how long it takes to heat up. We regularly camp with temps around 20 and arrive after dark, this means we spend the evening cold. I guess my question here is whether it is normal in other people's experience for it to take 2-3 hours to heat up from, for example, 60 to 63 degrees (with temps below 20 and no wind)? The Alde folks said that it seemed slow, about 2x as long as in their tests, but didn't offer anyway to diagnose whether my system is working right or any other solution, Nucamp folks refer me to Alde. I'm going to be taking it to a dealer next week to hopefully get this and other issues fixed, I'm just afraid that they are going to say that this is in the normal range and I'll be stuck, so more feedback from other people would be useful.

Thanks!