truma combi boiler

[RodOne1]

Hello All,
does anyone have any knowledge/ experience of the new Truma Combi Boiler that is now fitted in Swifts Challenger Sport range. Does it maintain temperatures as well as the old Truma 'fire' and does it have to be constantly on blown air?

 

[DeliDave_]

Hi Rod,
I can't help but will be watching this thread as we have thought of swapping our heating.We have an Indiana,similar to your Vermont in equipment .I have seen adverts and think the fan has to be running for heating as there is no fire iirc but constant hot water is the attraction for us.

 

[RodOne1]

Hello Dave,
Since posting I have read quite a bit on another site about the pro's and cons of this system. As. usual there are some who have terrible trouble with it and others who swear by it. The Alde system was also compared with it. I am not thinking of changing the present system in the Vermont as it works perfectly well, it was more a case of seeing what the choices are if we change the van. One thing is clear - that it does rely on blown air as does the Alde, so if no 12volt power- no heating. So if you spend long periods away with no EHU, make sure that you have solar power back up or some means of keeping your battery up to speed. Sorry, should have made clear that Alde does require 12 volt power, but for pump, not blown airair

 

[RodOne1]

I have been reading up and discussing the Truma Combi with people and it seems to be ( in theory). a good system although it seems that the choice will be between this type and the whale under floor system- or the Alde wet system. Problem with the Alde wet type is the heat up time that can be quite considerable. I think that also, some have had problems getting air out of the Alde system and there are some 5 bleed points, not all simple to get to. And you need to periodically renew the glycol content. Overall then, for me at least, I I think that it comes down to the Truma Combi, or the Whale system. I believe the Whale system is quite recent, though Bailey are using it on some of their vans, so if any of you have any experience of either of the two 'dry' systems , I would be interested to hear any comments. Cheers

 

[RayS]

As you will see from two other threads further down in this Topic, I too have been looking at this matter with a view to narrowing the short list for a possible new van, perhaps an Elddis.
I have more or less decided to go for the Whale under floor unit and the Whale water heater (separate units). Much less complicated than the combined units and taking less space (marginally) undeer the seats.
However, even the Whale heater must need 12v for the fan (since you can use gas for the heat rather than mains). This is my reading of the workings - I have confirmed it will function on gas only but no mention was made of 12v supply - probably assumed there would be one.

Thus it seems none of the new generation heaters will work as the previous Truma does - as a pure convector - in the absence of 12v.
Progress ?

 

[RodOne1]

Hello Ray, My thoughts entirely. It seems that in a desperate scramble to reduce overall weight, some practicality is going out of the window. I put some comments about this on a post tonight but touched the wrong button and it I showing under Towcars! Like you, I tend to favour the Whale system, as I believe that the separate hot water set up, will heat the water faster and you will have more of it. There is also the fact that by having a single source for both heat and hot water all the eggs are in one basket. Hopefully someone will soon have a van with these systems fitted ( I think Coachman have been using the Combi fo a season) and they might be able to tell us more.

 

[Montrose]

Hello RodOne (again)
We have a 2012 Coachman VIP, fitted with said combi boiler. Yes, it took just a little getting used to, but without going into all of the details that you have mentioned, its just turn on and forget it. Once of course you have set the interior temperature and also the
water temperature. Yes, it does rely on 12v to blow hreat around, but once you have adjusted the butterfly vents at the front ( to
ensure warmth at the rear of the van is ok, there is't any more to it. Fastest heat up from cold, as in older methods, is to use gas and electric initially, which makes the system blow very strongly indeed, but when near temperature drop the gas use and it will then quietly ( and with the van barely on ) just get on with keeping the van warm. However, if you set the timer, you can have all day out and have a warm van before you get back to it of course, so no need to use gas then. We have no problems with the combi system.

 

[RodOne1]

Hello Mike,
Yes as you and Parksy say, it looks as though the Swift fitted panel is purely there to look after security systems while the van is shut down/stored. I hope that now that they have gone a little way down this road, the makers will see fit to introduce a panel that will work usefully on a non EHU site.

 

[ProfJohnL]

From the Truma website

http://www.truma.com/uk/en/heating/combi-6.php
The technical specification for the gas Combi boiler show that it does require a constant 12Vdc supply when the appliance is switched on.

As there is no convection option, the device will use 12V power whenever heat is demanded.

It has three power consuming states
1. At rest (Turned on but no heat is demanded) 0.001A
2. When starting up (just when the thermostat clicks onto demand, and I assume its the inrush current to get motors running and gas valves opening)which lasts for only a few seconds 5.6A
3. When the appliance has started and has settled into its running mode 1.1A.

In mode 3 running it uses no more power than the Trumavent fans fitted to the traditional convector heaters.

By comparison, the Alde heaters also require a 12v supply as detailed in :-
http://www.alde.co.uk/downloads/alde_3010_instruct.pdf

The manual is not too specific but it implies that the heater only requires a maximum of 1A @12Vdc and no more under any circumstances. It does not provide standby power requirements

So by comparison, the Alde uses less 12V power than the Truma. but the difference over say a 24 hour period will be quite small overall.

Note: The 12V performance gives no guide to the efficacy of the heating within the caravan.