Last weekend we used the Motorhome as a base whilst we helped my daughter build a patio at her house in Crewe. We stopped at the Sunnyside Touring Park not far away but the weather was foul. So much so we needed some heating in the evenings. We had a fully serviced pitch so that was no problem, but I had the Alde set for 3kw and it occasionally triped the feed. When this happen the intelligent little unit decided to use gas and this is where the Alde Heating Problem started.
On checking the manual “Gas Failure” is lack of sufficient gas or failure to ignite the gas. Instead of trying to fix the Alde Heating problem then and there, I simply reset the trip and dropped the consumption to 2kw.
Now back home, tired and aching, it was time to get it fixed before our next trip. Tried to call Don Amott technical support initially. Managed to get through after 3 days and 15 attempts including leaving messages. They arranged for a technician to call me back with 24 hours. That was 3 days ago – still nothing.
Giving up on Don Amott I tried Alde – what a difference. A knowledgable person picked up after 3 rings and talked me through some trouble shooting.
- Was the control unit on? [did it have power]
- Was the gas on? [ did the gas hob work?]
- Was the gas getting to the boiler? [when the boiler was activated did I hear the gas solenoid click to open the gas feed?]
- Was the igniter working? [when the boiler was activated did I hear the igniter clicking?]
- Was the fan spinning? [check the Service Menu on the control panel]
- Did the gas light? [when the boiler was activated did I hear the gas ignite – whooosh sound?]
I got to the last test before I had to answer – No.
The Alde unit seemed to be doing what it should, but there was no gas. Since the gas was visible at the hob then there were 2 main culprits:
- blocked gas pipe – unlikely as it was working before
- insufficient gas pressure at the boiler
So time to investigate the gas supply. Was it a regulator problem? Was it the automatic cut-off? It turned out to be even simplier – the gas bottle was almost empty. There was sufficient left to power the hub, but not enough to power the Alde boiler.
Crisis avoided – no thanks to Don Amott who still haven’t called.