Alde system flush complete for 40 pounds !

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Nov 11, 2009
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Seems you saved a few bob as ours cost £150 and it was done by ALDE using the 5 year fluid. What did you do with the old fluid as it is probably illegal to flush down the drain?

I take all my old fluids, paints etc to our household recycling center. Gone are the days when I painted the fences with old engine oil mixed with paraffin. In fact since Covid hit our HRC has had a booking only system with reduced number of bays. An absolute delight, along with easy parking at the regional hospital; one of the few benefits of Covid.
 
Nov 4, 2020
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I have to wonder just how important this fluid change is. As the Barron says, he is only just doing the first change on a 3010 system. And he does not mention having any prior problems.

My car is 7 years old and There is no mention of coolant change in the servicing. Mine was done last week with a cam belt change. But prior to this, no problems. Same principles, same anti freeze!

John

I agree it could be a racket going on, the fluid out was not all murky , i had no issues going on, its a sealed system , i am told the rust veto element wears away but the anti freeze bit is forever. Anyway its done now i feel good about it- i took it out for a tow as well - full set of checks all the normal stuff . If anyone wants any more info pm me.
 
Jul 18, 2017
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I agree it could be a racket going on, the fluid out was not all murky , i had no issues going on, its a sealed system , i am told the rust veto element wears away but the anti freeze bit is forever. Anyway its done now i feel good about it- i took it out for a tow as well - full set of checks all the normal stuff . If anyone wants any more info pm me.
Not sure about rust, but corrosion is the main issue.
 
Jul 17, 2008
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It makes me laugh, I bought the factory kit to do it for £40 off ebay a couple of years ago. Bargain!

I changed ours at the start of the season last year and has only been used 3 times since.
 

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Mar 29, 2021
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The Alde fluid does a few things, the obvious and also increasing the boiling point, main reason I changed the fluid was because of the phenomena known as "Kettling".
When the system is on basically it sounds like the kettles boiling!
Reason I've hit this thread is I'm pondering, I did change my own fluid when required using a drill mounted pump, gorilla tape to make the od of hose pipe fit id of the Alde pipes after removing header tank, flush then push.
But
I'm sat thinking about the drain plug, its at the rear of the van, if pulled it would only drain less than a 1/4 of the system, but I'm wondering if I set the alde pump to run continuously would that lift the fluid round the system and out the drain hole?
(pumps in the header tank)


Now down side is air, but upside is how easy would that be when it comes to changing the fluid.
 

JTQ

May 7, 2005
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if I set the alde pump to run continuously would that lift the fluid round the system and out the drain hole?
(pumps in the header tank)

Not a chance as the header drains first, so the header pump is then not in fluid to pump it anywhere.
 
Jun 16, 2020
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I'm sat thinking about the drain plug, its at the rear of the van, if pulled it would only drain less than a 1/4 of the system, but I'm wondering if I set the alde pump to run continuously would that lift the fluid round the system and out the drain hole?
(pumps in the header tank)


Now down side is air, but upside is how easy would that be when it comes to changing the fluid.

When I did mine, I drained 90%, then tipped the van up as much as possible now using a small container to catch the remaining fluid.

I did not have an air lock problem, pump on full for a while and kept checking the vents and topping up. And I only filled my system using gravity.

John
 
Mar 29, 2021
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Not a chance as the header drains first, so the header pump is then not in fluid to pump it anywhere.
Which is my thinking, but:-
Is the pump powerful enough to lift the fluid.
Why have a drain plug that doesn't drain the whole system.

The pump lives in a housing molded into the header tank that is fluid in, fluid out is slightly higher so the pump is lifting the fluid to an extent. Its the drain plug thats in my mind seems a pointless addition unless?????
 
Mar 29, 2021
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When I did mine, I drained 90%, then tipped the van up as much as possible now using a small container to catch the remaining fluid.

I did not have an air lock problem, pump on full for a while and kept checking the vents and topping up. And I only filled my system using gravity.

John
Drained?
How?
 

JTQ

May 7, 2005
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Which is my thinking, but:-
Is the pump powerful enough to lift the fluid.
Why have a drain plug that doesn't drain the whole system.

The pump lives in a housing molded into the header tank that is fluid in, fluid out is slightly higher so the pump is lifting the fluid to an extent. Its the drain plug thats in my mind seems a pointless addition unless?????

I am confident the pump, rather more a constrained rotor has next to zero net positive suction head, the ability to lift; probably just an inche or so, not the height of the header.
Its purpose is only to put a slight pressure bias in the fluid that circulates that near noiselessly.
If asked to do anything much it will simply cop out, pulling a vortex the odd cm down from the surface into the spinning rotors "eye", as the infinitely easier option.

The drain plug(s) is where the caravan designer chose to put it or put the number really required for the probable undulating route of the system; now this is caravan designers, we are talking about so the engineering requirements are unlikely to be a prime consideration.
 
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Jun 16, 2020
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Drained?
How?

Removed the drain plug you mentioned at the rear. (Though the location might vary on different makes of van). This easily allows most to drop out. It can be measured and compared to the specs for your van.

Then got a small container to replace the bucket. Lifted the rear steadies and raised the front as much as possible.

To make sure, though I think it was OTT, I flushed with deionised water. And then drained again.

Dispose of old fluid responsibly.

John
 
Mar 29, 2021
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Removed the drain plug you mentioned at the rear. (Though the location might vary on different makes of van). This easily allows most to drop out. It can be measured and compared to the specs for your van.

Then got a small container to replace the bucket. Lifted the rear steadies and raised the front as much as possible.

To make sure, though I think it was OTT, I flushed with deionised water. And then drained again.

Dispose of old fluid responsibly.

John
Lucky you,
The pipework in this caravan would require me to hang the van from a crane to drain via the plug.
Mine would drain via the bung from the high of the bathroom radiator to the high of the header tank less than a quarter of the pipework length.
Another Coachman design flaw
 
Jun 16, 2020
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Lucky you,
The pipework in this caravan would require me to hang the van from a crane to drain via the plug.
Mine would drain via the bung from the high of the bathroom radiator to the high of the header tank less than a quarter of the pipework length.
Another Coachman design flaw

Just remembered, (it was a long time ago). I helped it out with none of these.

863A3927-2CF5-4046-9E62-2B0FF5505A0B.jpeg

Remove the header tank and blow down flow and return with the drain plug removed.

John
 
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JTQ

May 7, 2005
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Just remembered, (it was a long time ago). I helped it out with none of these.

View attachment 1474

Remove the header tank and blow down flow and return with the drain plug removed.

John
Good technique, except I seriously would not advise blowing back down the riser tube.

Remember to only "blow" through the header's down tube, the flow direction, not the riser, as there is reportedly a very delicate non return valve integrated with the auto vent valve. Best this is not abused in any way IMO.
 
Mar 29, 2021
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Good technique, except I seriously would not advise blowing back down the riser tube.

Remember to only "blow" through the header's down tube, the flow direction, not the riser, as there is reportedly a very delicate non return valve integrated with the auto vent valve. Best this is not abused in any way IMO.
Not reportedly but there is a one way valve, dont know how delicate it is, when you are using hot water heating only function or the system has called for this, the valve stops the hot fluid creeping round the system.
 

JTQ

May 7, 2005
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Yes an anti thermo syphoning function.
IMO it stands to reason that as the available head to open it has to be minimal for noise reasons alone, along with others, the valve has to be very "delicate", hence why I considered here we need to use an air pump with care.
 
Jun 16, 2020
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Good technique, except I seriously would not advise blowing back down the riser tube.

Remember to only "blow" through the header's down tube, the flow direction, not the riser, as there is reportedly a very delicate non return valve integrated with the auto vent valve. Best this is not abused in any way IMO.

Mine allowed it to be blown in both directions without restriction. Therefore the valve had to be open so as I was only pumping air gently into an open vented system. Had the valve been closed I would have felt the pressure and not continued as it would have been pointless. These bellow pumps give quantity with little pressure.

John
 

JTQ

May 7, 2005
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John, you have the benefit of trying to blow against the designed direction of flow. For the reasons I gave I opted not to.

In my van's case it has the drain at the Alde's input port ( bottom) so at the most the only bit I did not purge was the riser to the header's connector, a couple of feet of 22 mm tube. In the scale of the potential retained fluid percentage, that amounts to, negligible.


On this vans two previous fluid change outs I did the full refill with deionised water flushing routine, this last time I decided as there was no product specification change, that very lengthy procedure was near valueless, so copped out.
 
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