obgraham wrote:
Actually Alde USA, which used to be in Vancouver, Washington, is now in Indiana.
The Alde has been in Roadtrek Class B's for a number of years. It takes up less space than a furnace and HWH.
When it works well it is great -- hydronic fluid circulating to convectors and heating the floor directly.
It does, however, require maintenance, including periodic flushing, bleeding the system, and fluid exchange.
On forums devoted to Roadtrek, the Alde is a frequent item that "just doesn't;t seem to be working right". The company's US division has not been very responsive to the consumer, and technicians that know it are uncommon.
In my opinion the Alde is over-engineered for the task it has to do. An RV furnace and water heater are more reliable, if somewhat noisy.
Thanks for the head office correction.
In my Cirrus truck camper the Alde ran fine for the 400+ days I used it. As I mentioned in the post above the water temp was set too high and I had the pressure relief open and lose some antifreeze when camping at 9800ft
I used regular aluminum compatible green antifreeze in mine. Potable antifreeze is recommended because in the event the heat exchanger for the water heating portion were to crack it could allow fluid into the hot potable water. I recognize the taste of glycol so I reasoned I would not drink the hot water and check what is wrong.
The system is unpressurized vented to atmoshphere so some fluid is lost to evaporation over many hours of operation.
"Bleeding" - not sure what Roadtrek means - but if the system is installed by an oem such that air that enters the system due to a fluid change or owner neglect needs to be pushed downhill that is troublesome. The one time in 2-1/2 years I did a fluid change I filled the system and ran it, topped it off, then went for a drive with the system running. The rocking and rolling burped it quite nicely.
I did help 3 or 4 other Alde owners by referring them to which page in the owners manual answers to their "issues" could be found :).
The main issue I had was ENDTRH* disorder, kinda like cats get.
*Excessive Napping Due To Radiant Heat
