Much Ado About ALDE

[james.mileur]

Originally Posted by mojoe7009

My unit is at JD Sanders getting the Alde hot water fixed today. Keep your fingers crossed for me. Seems I'm the last one with hot water issues. They are good people there, so I have confidence it will be done right. Jon at Airstream is involved in it with them. Should know by Friday.

Aw' right, itz been a week, what's the verdict? Hot water in the shower or hot under the collar?

[mojoe7009]

Originally Posted by james.mileur

Aw' right, itz been a week, what's the verdict? Hot water in the shower or hot under the collar?

Hot under the collar. I'm getting about 3 1/2 minutes now. They completely rebuilt the plumbing of the Alde system to be as close to current factory setup as possible. They got 2 1/2 minutes of full hot water (120 degrees) at the shower head with shower valve at full hot. But even when backed down to about 2/3 open I'm still only getting the 3 1/2 minutes. I'm at a complete loss as to what to do next. Extremely frustrated. Everything else is great but this issue is 5 months old and has basically taken the joy out ownership.

[paiceman]

Originally Posted by mojoe7009

Hot under the collar. I'm getting about 3 1/2 minutes now. They completely rebuilt the plumbing of the Alde system to be as close to current factory setup as possible. They got 2 1/2 minutes of full hot water (120 degrees) at the shower head with shower valve at full hot. But even when backed down to about 2/3 open I'm still only getting the 3 1/2 minutes. I'm at a complete loss as to what to do next. Extremely frustrated. Everything else is great but this issue is 5 months old and has basically taken the joy out ownership.

Did they adjust the anti-scald fitting on the Kohler Shower handle? If not that one adjustment made a huge difference for our unit. You also first might try running hot water from the bathroom sink and or the kitchen sink to see how long it lasts.

Bud

[mojoe7009]

Originally Posted by paiceman

Did they adjust the anti-scald fitting on the Kohler Shower handle? If not that one adjustment made a huge difference for our unit. You also first might try running hot water from the bathroom sink and or the kitchen sink to see how long it lasts.

Bud

I'm getting hot water just not long enough. Adjusting the anti-scald valve would seem to exacerbate the problem I would use more hot water faster it would seem?

[paiceman]

Worked for us, anti scald is no longer functioning. Your thought process makes sense, except with the anti scald wide open we can't turn the handle all the way open so we are actually adding more cold water to the hot mix coming from the Alde. Our handle at our last few stops was at 9:00, at end of my shower I had to adjust to 9:30 or 10:00. As I said we are very happy with the alterations I made and have plenty of hot water, even if we forget to demand more on the Alde panel.

[mojoe7009]

Originally Posted by paiceman

Worked for us, anti scald is no longer functioning. Your thought process makes sense, except with the anti scald wide open we can't turn the handle all the way open so we are actually adding more cold water to the hot mix coming from the Alde. Our handle at our last few stops was at 9:00, at end of my shower I had to adjust to 9:30 or 10:00. As I said we are very happy with the alterations I made and have plenty of hot water, even if we forget to demand more on the Alde panel.

Ok. I'll try anything at this point. Where is the anti-scald valve and how do you adjust it? My mixing valve is currently wide open...at least at the dealer setting.

[69SoulShine]

Originally Posted by mojoe7009

Ok. I'll try anything at this point. Where is the anti-scald valve and how do you adjust it? My mixing valve is currently wide open...at least at the dealer setting.

Yes I would like to know how to adjust this also and is this adjustable at kitchen and bathroom sinks too?

[Bougeois]

2017 classic....I have heat and hot water, but hot water runs out in a min or so.
Both electric is on
Gas is on
In shower mode
????

[james.mileur]

Originally Posted by mojoe7009

Ok. I'll try anything at this point. Where is the anti-scald valve and how do you adjust it? My mixing valve is currently wide open...at least at the dealer setting.

Mojoe,

if you can measure water temp at the faucet, set your Mixing Valve down to about 115. If that temp is almost "too hot" to continuously run over your finger, it will be about right for a hot shower with shower valve full open.

More to follow for a weekend research project.

[james.mileur]

Originally Posted by mojoe7009

Ok. I'll try anything at this point. Where is the anti-scald valve and how do you adjust it? My mixing valve is currently wide open...at least at the dealer setting.

I don't have the company literature from Kohler, but;
1. press the water shutoff button on shower nozzle to stop flow.
2. hold the shower valve handle in one hand in the OFF position.
3. Turn the conical collar to the left (lefty-lose-e), which will screw off and remove the handle and collar.
4. Notice the small Allen-head screw on the plastic stop collar.
5. Adjust the screw so that when the shower valve is turned full open, it bottoms on the plastic collar stop, not the adjustable stop screw (this is why you pushed the button in step 1).
6. Re-engage the shower valve handle and retighten the escutcheon collar.
7. Check for proper operation of the shower handle. Your decorative escutcheon plate will now move slightly forevermore when you operate the shower handle.

This will only provide full hot water flow with no cold mixing at the full open position, not make hot water last longer.

More to follow today for weekend research project to establish a "normal" baseline to judge Alde performance.

[james.mileur]

Originally Posted by Bougeois

2017 classic....I have heat and hot water, but hot water runs out in a min or so.
Both electric is on
Gas is on
In shower mode
????

Please read this whole thread and the 2017 Classic Hot Water Mixing Valve thread to get up to speed on all the collected knowledge to date.

cheers.

[mojoe7009]

Originally Posted by Bougeois

2017 classic....I have heat and hot water, but hot water runs out in a min or so.
Both electric is on
Gas is on
In shower mode
????

If you're hooked to shore power and you have both gas and electric on at the Alde control panel the system will prioritize electric and ignore gas. Contrary to what some have posted, the gas doesn't come on in shower boost mode. I stayed in my trailer for almost three weeks in February with electric and gas both selected. Wife and I took showers (albeit short ones) each day and never used any propane as indicated by the tank level which never changed in 3 weeks.

[mojoe7009]

Originally Posted by james.mileur

I don't have the company literature from Kohler, but;
1. press the water shutoff button on shower nozzle to stop flow.
2. hold the shower valve handle in one hand in the OFF position.
3. Turn the conical collar to the left (lefty-lose-e), which will screw off and remove the handle and collar.
4. Notice the small Allen-head screw on the plastic stop collar.
5. Adjust the screw so that when the shower valve is turned full open, it bottoms on the plastic collar stop, not the adjustable stop screw (this is why you pushed the button in step 1).
6. Re-engage the shower valve handle and retighten the escutcheon collar.
7. Check for proper operation of the shower handle. Your decorative escutcheon plate will now move slightly forevermore when you operate the shower handle.

This will only provide full hot water flow with no cold mixing at the full open position, not make hot water last longer.

More to follow today for weekend research project to establish a "normal" baseline to judge Alde performance.

I figured out where it is. I have the Koehler manual that I downloaded from Koehler. No change. Opening the shower valve all the only increases the hot water flow thereby reducing the time of the shower. We set the valve open between the 9 & 10 o'clock position and the best I've stretched a shower to is just short of 4 minutes. I'm so jealous of Lauri and Bud. She gets 10 minute showers and Bud somehow seems to get unlimited. If only...

[paiceman]

James, what the Kohler adjustment does do is allow for an adjustment demanding less hit water as full hot water is coming to the handle. What I've found is by moving the handle to 9:00 works best and allows my wife to take a shower, washing her hair and not run out of hot water. Then I wait a couple of minutes, jump in take my shower and still have plenty of hot water.

[kendrick.l.j]

Those that are still having trouble with getting and keeping hot water I would suggest to start from the beginning again and adjust the mixing valve all the way using the directions previously mentioned in the thread. I completely removed the first anti scalding stop on the Koehler shower head. I have never used the gas to try and heat the hot water. I now have hot water that last about 15 full minutes of serious hot water. I also dump the hot water tank weekly, ( I am living in it full time ). I also wait until the sanitary water temp indicates it is at 153 before stepping in. I have checked out of curiosity and the water temp says it is at 100 by the end of my shower. One thing I have noticed is that the colder it is outside it takes longer for the temp to reach my target so sometimes I have to hit the shower icon again before even trying to take a shower.
Guys, Ladies, I promise it will work and none of it was physically difficult to do, frustrating yes but it does work.
Now if I can figure out how the inverter works or why mine isn't working I will be happy again.

Lauri

[james.mileur]

Ahoy BAT Folks,

please see attached document for a little research project for the weekend. I thought after seeing mojoe's resolution that without anything to compare the data to, who knows if its good or not.

Please consider helping us all out, especially if you are really satisfied with your system. Providing us your data could really help spread the love.

Cheers,

James

[james.mileur]

Originally Posted by 69SoulShine

Yes I would like to know how to adjust this also and is this adjustable at kitchen and bathroom sinks too?

No temp adjust for sink faucets, except the Mixing Valve.

[paiceman]

Originally Posted by james.mileur

Ahoy BAT Folks,

please see attached document for a little research project for the weekend. I thought after seeing mojoe's resolution that without anything to compare the data to, who knows if its good or not.

Please consider helping us all out, especially if you are really satisfied with your system. Providing us your data could really help spread the love.

Cheers,

James

James,

Would love to participate but after our two and half months in our 2017 Classic I've reported for all that my wife and I have virtually endless hot water for showers. However, if she washes her hair and I get in as she is getting out I do have to move the Kohler handle to 11:00 towards the end of my shower, but I've yet to run out of what I consider hot water.

That said, I totally agree with Lauri, start at the beginning, go thru all the steps I and she have outlined in previous posts. PLUS, the Alde manual says to dump the system about once a month, I, like Lauri, have found this to be totally wrong - just plain wrong. When using full time or for extended periods I recommend dumping has Lauri has started to do, once per week or at most once every other week. This allows the vital air pocket to reform at the top of the hot water jacket and makes a huge difference.

To accomplish this "dumping", I open the pressure relief valve as well as the low point valves, plus the facets. Takes about five minutes to dump. For this the Alde system is OFF. Then I close all the valves and turn the hot water on, turn on the Alde and within half an hour good to go. When we are traveling and stopping at new places I simply do this every fifth night and travel with valves open. Works like a charm.

Now, as to participation - back from FL and ours is back at the storage lot, winterized and won't be out until the end of May. But, I would like to see the results of this survey.

Bud

[james.mileur]

[QUOTE=james.mileur;1930234]Ahoy BAT Folks,

please see attached document for a little research project for the weekend. I thought after seeing mojoe's resolution that without anything to compare the data to, who knows if its good or not.

Please consider helping us all out, especially if you are really satisfied with your system. Providing us your data could really help spread the love.

Added the file as a pdf for the mobile device campers and added an additional data point for MAX shower boost temps. Thx.

[dickschaak]

Originally Posted by kendrick.l.j

Those that are still having trouble with getting and keeping hot water I would suggest to start from the beginning again and adjust the mixing valve all the way using the directions previously mentioned in the thread. I completely removed the first anti scalding stop on the Koehler shower head. I have never used the gas to try and heat the hot water. I now have hot water that last about 15 full minutes of serious hot water. I also dump the hot water tank weekly, ( I am living in it full time ). I also wait until the sanitary water temp indicates it is at 153 before stepping in. I have checked out of curiosity and the water temp says it is at 100 by the end of my shower. One thing I have noticed is that the colder it is outside it takes longer for the temp to reach my target so sometimes I have to hit the shower icon again before even trying to take a shower.
Guys, Ladies, I promise it will work and none of it was physically difficult to do, frustrating yes but it does work.
Now if I can figure out how the inverter works or why mine isn't working I will be happy again.

Lauri

Laurie,
You continue to be the technical guru of the forum. Great going. We sold our 30 and switched to a 43 ft Tiffin motorhome. Hated to see it go.