Gas fire
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barryd
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Depends if Kev posts summat. I have to try and wind him up every day. Its my job.
Oh. To answer your question, it seems not.
Pudsey Bear
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Well as you say you TRY, but you're crap at it, I've been married twice so you have no chance.Depends if Kev posts summat. I have to try and wind him up every day. Its my job.
Oh. To answer your question, it seems not.
wildebus
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A page 3 without BarryD "posting"? depends on what she looks like
Texastom
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Really miss the Carver in our old van, heated up the van in jig time and didn't use any battery power. We have a Whale blown air now, takes ages. I make sure we blast the cabin heaters on full before we park up, leave the engine running while I fit the outside cover and have the heating system working at the same time as I've figured out how to have it all working with engine on. By the time I get back in, and we organise ourselves for the night, the van is toasty.
Rumour
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We have just replaced our old Eberspacher "wet" boiler (combitronic) with an Autoterm D5 using the rest of the combitronic system except the controller. Temperature control, 3 timers a day and I can add a modem to start it when we are on the way back to the van. In our old Talbot (1994) Compass Calypso, there was a small gas heater, it didn't seem to make any difference unless it was left on all the time. I certainly don't want to have that thing back! There it is, no fan on the back, but not sure it would have made a difference...
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n brown
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if noone's mentioned it , carver type heaters can be tricky to fit in a self-build van ,because they need a large hole in the floor if floor-vented ,or a small flue venting through the roof . all you need is a large and comprehensive tool kit and a good knowledge of electrics , plumbing ,carpentry ,metalwork etc , and the confidence to use them
Glynno
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Most landlords biggest problem is tenants.. sold up invested earning more in interest no more problems. Sorted
Glynno
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Sounds like you need to to find a good service engineer - before your van is launchedI forgot to mention that they could be explosive. It clearly states in the manual that if you struggle to light it and the pilot light keeps going out to wait three minutes to try again. Well obviously you take no notice of that and in a frenzy and rage you keep plunging away. In Italy I found out why you should wait. There was a loud bang and the cowl on the roof outlet literally got launched into space. I don't know how far it went but there was what seemed like an incredibly long period of time before it came crashing back down on the van roof.
The Fridge was no better. The flue would get sooted and rusted up and it wouldnt light. In the absence of a compressor on one trip I can remember driving around at speed with the fridge vents removed trying to get enough air into them to blow out the crap. It worked and I got it lit. I left it lit until we went home.
to a great height. 
barryd
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Sounds like you need to to find a good service engineer - before your van is launched
This was about ten years ago and I now have a different van but it did get sorted.
gasgas
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Presumably you are referring to the Alde wet heating. I did the engineers training course for them. I wouldn't have a van if it was fitted with this system. Why do you want to lug around lots of litres of coolant - which equals lots of Kg (weight) of expensive (££££) coolant plus plumbing (£££) plus radiators (£££) plus annual servicing (£££££) ? I wouldn't. It takes longer to warm up than a diesel heater, which as I am experiencing is not as quick as the old Carver convector heater. Most new vans don't have Alde, it is just the latest showroom bling to try to make you buy the van, thinking it's better.
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gasgas
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Correct. If you learn how they work you can fix any fault yourself, cheaply. They are very logical: press the button and check there is a spark. If there isn't a spark it won't light, check the igniter - you could call it a spark plug, except it isn't a plug. It may have some carbon build up - clean it with a toothbrush. Its gap may have got too big. Move the sparky end closer to a bit of chassis.Sounds like you need to to find a good service engineer - before your van is launched
If it explodes after several tries, that's correct you should wait 3 minutes for the collected gas to disperse. The explosion is called post-ignition and is caused by there being gas all the time, but the spark only intermittently present. The spark is not working correctly so just take it apart and find out why. When you push the button, the click is a small hammer hitting a piezo crystal which generates a short pulse of high voltage. The volts run along a heat proof, insulated wire to an igniter next to the gas jet where there is gas. If it doesn't ignite then either the spark is weak - the igniter piezo may need replacing, or there is a short to earth from the insulated wire, or the spark gap is too big - or unusually some soot may have built up around the spark plug.
It's all very simple, and I just wish some dealers would be more honest. I have heard of people paying £800 to remove a gas heater and having an oil one installed. Purely because the dealer is a greedy dishonest money grabber playing on the ignorance of their customers. I have just got my first camper where the Carver has been replaced with a Chinese diesel heater, and I wish I still had the gas one.
gasgas
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Having pie and chips in a Weatherspoons is known as Central Eating. As is a gas fired heating system with radiators in a house in Hackney.
Pudsey Bear
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RTFM Instructions are just wasted on some folkSounds like you need to to find a good service engineer - before your van is launched
: 
r4dent
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Each to his own,
I love Alde heating.
Not sure how " it is just the latest showroom bling to try to make you buy the van" if "Most new vans don't have Alde".
The total weight of the Alde system (including fluid) is abour 20kg,
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Canalsman
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I had Alde heating in my narrow boat.
I never used it. Gas hungry, slow, and a pain to maintain.
My solid fuel stove was way, way better!
JQB
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Some folk simply do not understand the importance of air circulation in homes never mind in caravans. Countless pics on tv reports of heavy black moulds around window frames in rented property where it's blindingly obvious that the dust and filth has never been wiped off, never ventilated, so is therefore a perfect home for moulds.
If you live in an old cottage you know that you don't shove furniture like sideboards hard up against the wall because it'll like go mouldy behind it. Air movement and ventilation the key to reduce or prevent issues. Moldy or mould, whatever, you don't want it.
JQB
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Blown air working correctly does have the benefit if air circulation within the living space and should threfore, with enough trickle ventilation, combat creation of moulds in cols weather.
Pudsey Bear
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RTFM Instructions are just wasted on some folkSounds like you need to to find a good service engineer - before your van is launched
: Only if you're in it otherwise still air.
gasgas
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The regulation for ventilation for a gas fire in a house is as follows: research shows that there is enough ventilation in a house, even with double glazing, to provide enough oxygen to feed a fire up to 7Kw. More than that and you need extra ventilation. A gas fire with a back boiler will produce up to about 25 or 30Kw so it needs to have extra ventilation.
Thus, where there is one of those old back boiler central heating systems it is compulsory to have a large square air brick, and the servicing engineer must look through it to check it is not blocked. The tricks some people get up to is almost beyond belief. Quite apart from removing the grille and stuffing it with newspaper, once on inspecting the air brick from the inside I found that the householder had removed the grille, taken a photograph of the view from inside the grille and stuck the photograph inside the air brick tunnel. Trouble was he had taken the photo in the summer and now the outside was covered in snow!
Thankfully these boilers are now virtually extinct. Though they were far more reliable and easier to fix than modern ones.
Thus, where there is one of those old back boiler central heating systems it is compulsory to have a large square air brick, and the servicing engineer must look through it to check it is not blocked. The tricks some people get up to is almost beyond belief. Quite apart from removing the grille and stuffing it with newspaper, once on inspecting the air brick from the inside I found that the householder had removed the grille, taken a photograph of the view from inside the grille and stuck the photograph inside the air brick tunnel. Trouble was he had taken the photo in the summer and now the outside was covered in snow!
Thankfully these boilers are now virtually extinct. Though they were far more reliable and easier to fix than modern ones.