Multiplus II 3000 vs 5000

[AdrianChen]

It all seemed so simple!

This has been very helpful, thanks everyone.

 

[AdrianChen]

And this will help achieve some goals, at least so far as reducing gas consumption. Alde reckon it will fit.

Alde Compact 4000 D Plus - Alde

The boiler Alde Compact 4000 D provides both heating and hot water. The heating system contains both a diesel burner and electrical cartridges, and ca...

www.alde.co.uk

 

[ian27]

And this will help achieve some goals, at least so far as reducing gas consumption. Alde reckon it will fit.

Alde Compact 4000 D Plus - Alde

The boiler Alde Compact 4000 D provides both heating and hot water. The heating system contains both a diesel burner and electrical cartridges, and ca...

www.alde.co.uk

looks to me like its a wet system: mention of pipes in the blurb, and there's a glycol circuit in the tech spec. if you are thinking to replace a gas blown air system, that'll be a lot of work to fit wet radiators.

personally having had a wet system in a caravan I wouldn't have one again. yes its quiet. But its dog slow to warm up, hard to control (one pipe system, versus domestic CH which is two pipe, vs blown where you can shut/open vents in seconds), and obviously heavier than an air system.

 

[AdrianChen]

looks to me like its a wet system: mention of pipes in the blurb, and there's a glycol circuit in the tech spec. if you are thinking to replace a gas blown air system, that'll be a lot of work to fit wet radiators.

personally having had a wet system in a caravan I wouldn't have one again. yes its quiet. But its dog slow to warm up, hard to control (one pipe system, versus domestic CH which is two pipe, vs blown where you can shut/open vents in seconds), and obviously heavier than an air system.

Yes we already have an Alde System in the van so it will be able to use the existing plumbing - We do have underfloor heating in one section, so might be able to use the second circuit on the new one.

I agree about the ducted air system, much quicker to get a sense of heat if the van is dead cold, but once warm I like the wet systems. We did have a heater matrix/fan on one of ours in the past, which meant after a few minutes, the matrix would be blowing warm air into the living area whilst the rest of the system warmed up. Not sure I'd bother on this van though!

 

[ian27]

I agree about the ducted air system, much quicker to get a sense of heat if the van is dead cold, but once warm I like the wet systems. We did have a heater matrix/fan on one of ours in the past, which meant after a few minutes, the matrix would be blowing warm air into the living area whilst the rest of the system warmed up. Not sure I'd bother on this van though!

agree, it depends on the use case. In a system with a high thermal mass , long duration occupancy , long system run time , decent insulation, and no weight constraint, (a house!) , wet is usually the correct solution. For a leisure unit that is used statically a lot, then maybe.... But for mobile leisure unit use case I don't think they makes sense : to me it was one of those cases of leisure manufacturers trying to unnecessarily over-luxuriate their units.

on the other hand, if you already have an alde system then you're half way there .. no point to rip it out. good luck!

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[Carpmart]

It's quite easy to go over 3kw, 2200w kettle and it doesn't leave much headroom for anything else.

Curiosity has got me Martin; why do you have a 2.2kw kettle in the MoHo? 900W two mug kettle works fine for us!

 

[mikash]

agree, it depends on the use case. In a system with a high thermal mass , long duration occupancy , long system run time , decent insulation, and no weight constraint, (a house!) , wet is usually the correct solution. For a leisure unit that is used statically a lot, then maybe.... But for mobile leisure unit use case I don't think they makes sense : to me it was one of those cases of leisure manufacturers trying to unnecessarily over-luxuriate their units.

on the other hand, if you already have an alde system then you're half way there .. no point to rip it out. good luck!

Alde's very popular amongst the 4-seasoners here, so much so, that many consider it essential kit for a proper winter proof van. Air heating on the other hand is often viewed as more of a 3-season thing, not really fit for proper winter.
While I don't see the contrast that startk myself, I do think properly built hydronic heating has merits that are very hard to replicate with an air heating system and the differences will be more obvious the colder it gets. If you look at f.ex. Kabe motorhomes and how they're totally built around the Alde system, I don't think there exists anything comparable in the air heating realm as far as winter comfort goes.
It'll be interesting to see how the diesel system fares. I would hope we'd see more Alde in the < 3500kg segment since the weight of the complete installation has always been a bit of a downside and diesel eliminates the gas bottles from the payload.

 

[AdrianChen]

Alde's very popular amongst the 4-seasoners here, so much so, that many consider it essential kit for a proper winter proof van. Air heating on the other hand is often viewed as more of a 3-season thing, not really fit for proper winter.
While I don't see the contrast that startk myself, I do think properly built hydronic heating has merits that are very hard to replicate with an air heating system and the differences will be more obvious the colder it gets. If you look at f.ex. Kabe motorhomes and how they're totally built around the Alde system, I don't think there exists anything comparable in the air heating realm as far as winter comfort goes.
It'll be interesting to see how the diesel system fares. I would hope we'd see more Alde in the < 3500kg segment since the weight of the complete installation has always been a bit of a downside and diesel eliminates the gas bottles from the payload.

My last two boats were almost identical, one had air based heating, and the other water based. They were 50ft, but if you remove the cockpit, and the pointy front similar accommodation length to the van I expect, albeit they were double the width.

The hot air was pretty weak in the front cabins, even with the big pipes insulating jackets in place, we had to turn off the saloon and aft cabin areas to get decent blast into the front. The air just looses its oomph over the course of the pipework I guess.

The water based system was not prone to that problem (the smaller bore pipework took up less space as well), and the delay in getting warmth into the boat, was really only an issue on day one of the trip, when it took a while to get everything toasty. It also made the hot water (65l tank twin coiled for Heating and engine source plus 230v element)

My choice would be hydronic in most larger environments including my 8.6m van, but would prefer diesel to gas (with care over the exhaust smells and neighbours).