Blow out heating nor coming out of all the vents.

[S444MY]

Hello all,
I'm very new to this site so apologies if i get anything wrong.

I have a Bailey senator series 6 Louisiana 2008 that i love. this is an upgrade for me. I have some slight teething problems and one being the blow out air system, i use this on electric. The air is very powerful at the first vent in the bedroom but as it goes round the van the blow out is almost non existent. I have looked around the van and cannot notice any problems with the hose. Is this normal for a large van? or does anyone have any suggestions?

Thank you in advance
Sam

 

[Dodger524]

Welcome to the forum.

It is normal to have to balance the air outputs of a blown system by closing all the vents accept the last one and then gradually opening the others until each give the air output required.

 

[S444MY]

Thank you dodger, forgive me for being thick but when you say close them, how do you do that??

 

[ProfJohnL]

On the presumption that you have a Truma Heating system fitted, each of the air outlets should have a butterfly flap that you can progressively open or close as desired. The butterfly valve can also be twisted to direct air in virtually any direction.

A 2008 model is likely to have a A Truma Utraheat or SSL3002

Look on the Truma website for the operating instructions which should give you some guidance on how to use their systems

https://www.truma.com/uk/en/service/truma-manuals-instructions.html
Hopefully it is obvious that the outlets furthest from the heater will have the weakest flow of air, so by restricting the outlets that are closer to the heater will help to move the air to the further outlets. So its common to find it best to partially close the outlets nearer the heater to leave enough air in the pipe to feed the furthest outlets.

A properly balanced system can keep the whole caravan very comfortable.

 

[Craigyoung]

Try shutting the one vent in the bathroom and then it may give more output to the main ones in the main part of the van where you are. that's what we do .

 

[S444MY]

Thank you for all your advice, it actually makes lots of scene B) .I am going to my van in a few weeks and will try this.

I think i will be getting a lot of help from this sight.

 

[Dodger524]

Thank you dodger, forgive me for being thick but when you say close them, how do you do that??

I should have been clearer.

As the Prof said each outlet should have a butterfly valve that can be closed to restrict air flow. Air will take the easiest route hence my advice to close all but the furthest valve to force air through the whole system. Leaving the furthest vent wide open you can then commence opening each vent progressively nearer to the heater until you obtain a satisfactory airflow from each.

One problem with the valves is that some are far too easy to move so alter their settings whilst in use or when the van is being towed. I used Blu-Tack to wedge the sloppy ones in place in our last 'van that had this sort of heating.

 

[Raywood]

I would go with Craig Young's idea. Shut the bathroom one first and that should help heat up the living area. I would then partially close the room vents and open the bathroom one to warm the bathroom and you then have to find a happy medium by trial and error with the butterfly valves.
You can use the heater on a mix of gas and electric to get more heat and this could be worth trying.
I do wonder though if the heater is powerful enough for a large caravan in very cold weather. Our caravan is shorter and I do feel the Truma system is near its limit. If heating is a major problem though I would have the heater checked out by an engineer.

 

[Craigyoung]

Ray , that's assuming Sammy can shut the vents as on the Swift that we have no you can't, they're open constantly but however ours is 8 metres and our truma system is sufficient enough for us, doesn't take long to get to temperature.
I don't know whether his is the same that we have but our last Bailys you could swivell the vent and shut them one by one , if you can't just stick a sock in the vent ?

 

[Gafferbill]

.........Is this normal for a large van? or does anyone have any suggestions?

I supplement my blown air system with a cheap convector heater that sits unobtrusively in front of the Truma.
You also have the flexibility to move it to any cold area .....not the bathroom though as it would not be safe.
It has 750/1250 and 2000kw heat settings, a thermostat and a 24hr multi segment timer......they don't cost much!
See here ........a good point is that they are silent
I juggle the settings and run both if I want some low down heat at floor level.
I then run the Truma at it's lowest setting.

......as has already been said if you want heat from the blown air system to reach the extremities of the ducting then you have to restrict some of the butterfly valves nearest the heater.

 

[otherclive]

My last van a 2005 Bailey had the Truma heater central in the van so the air had to go towards the two front outlets near the window, and the rear bedroom and bathroom outlets. Behind the Truma was a diverter plate that could be adjusted to balance the quantity of air going forwards or backwards. So you could push more air to the rear if required and then fine tune the heat in the end bedroom and bathroom by adjusting the vent nozzle plates.
Don’t know what arrangement this current caravan has because it’s insulation is better than the Bailey, it’s half a metre shorter and still has the 2kw or higher gas output. So apart from adjusting the vent plates I’ve never had to investigate further as it’s often turned quite low even in winter.

 

[Gaters]

Hi there, we bought our 6 berth Pursuit last year, back blow heating just wasn't getting though. We took it back to yorkshire coast caravans who contacted both Bailey and Truma about bad design of heating system to the rear of caravan, both blamed each othe!! Eventually Bailey said it was a design fault and they would pay for parts if Truma fitted them, pipe had to be taken out underneath the van and repositioned ...result thanks to the engineer from Yorkshie Cost Caravans!!

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hi there, we bought our 6 berth Pursuit last year, back blow heating just wasn't getting though. We took it back to yorkshire coast caravans who contacted both Bailey and Truma about bad design of heating system to the rear of caravan, both blamed each othe!! ...

What a cheek!,

Truma design and manufacture a wide range of parts for caravan heating systems but they don't fit them to new caravans.

I worked for a major a company that offered a consultancy service to the manufacturers to help them select the best kit of parts for heating systems, but only a few manufacturers took us up on the offer and not for all their models.

We also offered an environmental chamber so the performance of a caravan could be checked at temperature extremes, and even fewer manufacturers took advantage of this facility.

What we proved on several occasions was that a system designed and fitted by a caravan manufacturer offered poor heating throughout the caravan. Under analysis we discovered that blown air ducting was

• sometimes kinked.
• Had more bends than needed, which restricts air flow
• Was taken under floor without additional insulation and weather protection.
• TEE pieces wrongly orientated which impeded the low of air
• Outlet registers pointing in the wrong direction, Or not fitted where they should be.
• Fan diverters not set.
  
  We were able to demonstrate to the manufacturer that by putting right these basic mistakes the system could function highly effectively.
  
  When it comes to blown air systems the ball is firmly in the caravan manufacturers court as they decide on what parts to fit, not teh appliance manufacturer, and we were told, that its down to cost.