Alde heating ...changing the fluid

chill59

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Alde heating ...changing the fluid

Is it right that I need to replace the fluid in our Alde central heating after 2 years?
TIA Chris
 
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It is possibly the recommended interval but it is not necessary.
 
Depends on the colour of the antifreeze

if its blue then yes If its red then it has a longer life upto 5years


this is to prevent corrosion from eating away the boiler hot water jacket





 
You'll definitely know when it needs changing as the vent will start to smell somewhat fishy-really. Don't know if its a built in tell tale or its passing its use by date but ours did and when changed it was fine. Ours was the blue one.

For anyone who doesn't already know, if you have the 2 year blue fluid and are due for renewal, you can go for the 5 year one and without having to flush the system out as blue and 5yr pink aren't compatible; by going for Comma XstreamG40 fluid(which is compatible) priced at £21 per 5 litres as against Aldes own brand which is around £60-no brainer!
 
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I hope you realise that it is not a 5 minute job to do. You need to work out how to drain it down, topping up is easy enough and then bleed the air out of the system.
 
maingate;n9652 said:
I hope you realise that it is not a 5 minute job to do. You need to work out how to drain it down, topping up is easy enough and then bleed the air out of the system.
Click to expand...

Yes. I've watched the Alde video on You Tube and decided to get a professional to do it.
 
We had an Alde Approved engineer in to replace the fluid in our system as it was very old. On completion, we found the system had persistant airlocks that wouldn't clear. In despair, I contacted Alde UK in Wellingborough and booked into their workshop. They found the reservoir had been put back with the pipes reversed and the one-way valve was missing it had been forced out because the flow was going the wrong way and had lodged in the boiler. It took them a few hours to remedy all the problems, the van is now back to toasty warm. In future, I would only entrust any work on the Alde heating system to Alde themselves.
 
A friend has a Columbus and his Alde sytem stopped working and it went back to Belgium to the seller , they had to power-flush it through, to remove a load of peculiar gelled goo, I think that somebody had topped up with the other liquid before it was readied for delivery to him. Maybe the dealers do not know there are two liquids.
 
I can't remember who was telling me but apparently on some Alde systems you actually need a pump to manage to refill the system properly ,as I can only guess that there must be lots of changes in levels on the installed pipe work which would cause air locks ?
 
I have drained and refilled my alde system several times after fluid changes and alterations to system

its straight forward as long as you can find ALL the bleed points and these should be at every high point

so if the pipe work goes up and then down Then there should be a bleed valve at that point




The pump equipment speeds the process up and i certainly didnt need it
 
Hi Katv

I assume your pump is located in the reservoir because otherwise it wouldn't matter which way round the connections were


so in your case the pump was pumping the wrong way

If the pump was at the boiler as many are it would’t matter

Dont know why they needed to remove your reservoir anyway and they would be real muppets to fit it back the wrong way unless they disconnected pipes far down at floor level to drain system which potentially be a very messy job as the antifreeze could spill all over floor
 
It is straightforward enough to drain. Ideally it is best done with the van on a slope and the system opened at or near the lowest point. Refilling and removing airlocks is a bit of a faff and best sorted by driving the van up and down a few hills to get the last of the air out. My vans were Tag Axle vans and had longer pipework runs. As it happens, I did plenty of Hydrostatic testing in my career and was no stranger to the method. My biggest gripe is that a dedicated drain down point is not fitted as standard.
 
Cost me £160 to have 5 year fluid professionally put in.at that price not worth the time and trouble of doing it myself. Plus the possibility of buggering up the system.
 
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