I am thinking about getting a touring caravan with wet central heating. I am new to caravans and at present have a folding camper. Could any one tell me if wet central heating is good / bad / expensive, really any thoughts would be helpful.
I have never had it but many people seem to like it. The vans with this tend to cost more new so I guess this is why a lot of vans still have the blown air method. Personally I have always found the truma blown air system fine but we don't tend to go in the depths of winter so can't comment on how it compares. We looked at a FC and caravan before making the decision for the tin can, think we made the best choice for us and really like the van for its ease of setting up with a 1yr old in tow!
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I don't think you will find many people that have a wet system going back to a blown air system. Its basically like your central heating at home so no noisy fan going all the time. I real boon if you do a lot of winter camping. I think it can be a bit more fiddly than the traditional blown system.
Wet central heating is the in thing at moment and I think that sooner or later all caravans Will use it.
I take it you did not see the caravan finder programme on information tv a few week back? They took a caravan down to minus 20 and it was still lovely and warm inside.
You may be able to find the episode on the caravan finder.tv website.
I have a coachman amara 640/6 with blown air and I wish it had wet central heating.
It Will also hold its value more.
Vanroyce were fitting it way back in the 90s, I seem to remember.
Now makes me wonder if I could manufacture my own wet system to fit in my old van. I have a fin-rad somewhere, which was going to go in a boat, but never did.
Does anyone have any links to any info on wet systems, you've all got me thinking now, it can't be that difficult, can it???
not all it is cracked up to be takes a long time to warm up compared with air blown and in a small box the 'old' style works well maybe if you are living in the van for a long period and using it as a static then it would be better too many reservations about the system as yet and there are moans beginning within the trade so keep you powder dry a lot of the positives will come from folk who are in to new and nothing else
I've had a look, done some research. It seems Alde are the market leaders. They are renowned as being a very expensive company for gas systems.
I like the idea, but a 2 hour warm-up time??!!! That's ridiculous.
Maybe on a motorhome, where you can utilise the engine's cooling circuit, to get the system going, but something like that can be fabricated quite easily without Alde's help.
Can't beat their ingenuity though,. that little combi boiler of theirs is a very compact piece of kit.
All it's cracked up to be. 15-20 minutes to warm our van up. -6 outside a few weeks ago, lovely and toasty inside. Don't know where the 2 hours comes from, but nowhere near it. Excellent system.
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Warm up time on gas is very quick so long as you don't put the hot water on boost as it will turn the circulation pump off for a period of time (forgot how long). On electric only it takes a while with a 2kW system. After caravanning for over 50 years my choice would always be a wet system. If you can find a caravan with the Alde underfloor heating so much the better! Minus -14C and deep snow was well within what the system could manage a few weeks back when the biggest problem was trying to get on of off site.
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I would not want to go back to a blown air system. Very warm in all areas of hte caravan and can be left on low on cold nights without the noise of the fan.
If it is cold use both gas and electric to warm up quickly, takes no time at all. The programmer manual is not the clearest but once you get the hang of it there are many timer options that you can set to meet your needs.
We have the alde system and its so much better than the blown air It keeps the entire van warm Takes around 25 minutes to fire itself up but after that.... you can use it on gas/electric or both You have to keep an eye on the fluid level we check ours maybe once a month and refill as nessary
The fluid needs to changed once every 2/5 years depending on what antifreeze you have in it