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Hi

We have a one year old Elddis Oddessy 544, which due to a central heater and the heating ducts running from there to the back of the van and then outside before running all the way to the front of the van, we have little or now heat from the front vents.

Is anyone else experiencing this problem?

Afraid not, our previous 2 vans had blown heating and we didnt have a problem in any areas.  There is no reason you shouldnt have heating in your bathroom.  We normally have to shut the bathroom vent off in all our vans due to the intense heat in such a small space.

I dont think it is just the fact that the ducting is outside, I think the length of the ducting the full length of the van is a contributry factor

We have the 2007 Compass Liberte 19/4 which is based on the Compass Omega 544, essentially the identical van. I have found that blown air ducts very poor in comparison to our old 2000 Abbey. I tend to ignore the ducts all together and just go with the convected heat direct from the heater. A bit of a let down for the van IMHO.

Alistair

Our 2007 Burstner is fitted with blown air heating.

When we first had the van I noticed that the ducting pipework under the fixed bed had a few holes [cuts] in it.

I at first thought this was damage in manufacture or by the dealers.

I then noticed at several other places throughout the van under seat bases etc the same "cuts" had been made.

There is nothing wrong with the heating system in our van and I believe the manufacturer has deliberately done this to more evenly distribute the heat throughout the van and not just out of the few vents fitted.

Anyone else seen this on their vans?

Dave

I might not have explained the cuts/holes that have been made in the ducting pipework clearly.

All the pipework is inside of the van, I think that it simply means there is more heat distribution than just from the limited number of vents fitted.

Dave,

I find it hard to believe that, after paying out several thousand pounds, you are prepared to put up with poor heating.

I fitted a blown air system to our previous 'van ('92 Elddis Cyclone) and, being too tight to buy the proper Carver/Truma insulated ducting, lagged the ordinary ducting under the 'van with a cut down camping mat and gaffer tape. 

If you have a new 'van that has standard duct outside (brown in colour) rather than the correct, black insulated type, I would be complaining to the dealer.  If it is out of warrenty (for whatever reason) then lag it yourself.  Screwfix do a roll of bubble wrap lagging at a very reasonable price or, use the camping mat solution. Our 'van only has a short length of duct under the floor.

If your toilet compartment is overheating you may want to adjust the distribution lever at the rear of the heater or, if this serves more than one outlet, restrict the flow to the toilet compartment.

If the electric heating switches off when it reaches temperature but then you are are freezing your bits off before it turns back on again, you probably need a remote thermostat as the wall control thermostat is probably attached to the wardrobe wall - a big heatsink.  If you get one (see Gary at Arc Systems) follow his recommendation of where to fit it. I did - it works perfectly now.

Our 2002 Eccles Onyx has a 20mm duct (spurred off the front vent duct) that runs behind the O/S front seat.  This has holes in it (made with a screwdriver) to allow heat to percolate up the vent boards.  Nothing on the N/S but I obtained a duct straight fitting that has an oblique vent to give the same effect. I would imagine that the Hobby with holes in the ducting serve the same purpose of ventilating the underbed area.

The only time that the electric heating has been insufficient is when we were on a site with low voltage (in -4 degrees).  The neighbouring motorhome couldn't warm up a bowl of porrige after 10 minutes in the microwave.

Hope this helps.

Mike

Whoops!  For Hobby read Burstner.

Mike

thanks sbsuk  it is black ducting we have, didnt realise it was black as its insulated.  our thermostat is on the opposite wall from the wardrobe as is the heater.

We have tried it at the house so not an ampage problem, if the balck pipe insulated it must be the sheer length of the pipe thats causing the problem