urbanracer Posted September 23, 2012 Share Posted September 23, 2012 I have a 2012 Elddis motorhome fitted with Whale blown heating on the gas set the fan/unit is very noisy/loud. Has anyone here had similar problems? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain Strachan Posted September 23, 2012 Share Posted September 23, 2012 Hi, we have an Aspire 255, (2011) has a Alde heating system, this is like a central heating system in a house and when we first got it was very noisey, came down to needing the radiators bleed, and some antifreeze in the system. Also had a failure of the Whale water system which was sorted by phoning Whale in Belfast, ask to speak to Aiden Devlin, he is a very helpful man! Other than that take iy back and coplain hard! Cheers Iain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urbanracer Posted September 23, 2012 Author Share Posted September 23, 2012 Thannks for reply,but mines blown all the time untill it reaches set temp,I was told it would get better with use but its not. I have just had my home central heating rads drained new rad stats and chemical to prevent internal rust and stop banging noise,its worked :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 urbanracer - 2012-09-23 6:40 PM Thannks for reply,but mines blown all the time untill it reaches set temp,I was told it would get better with use but its not. I have just had my home central heating rads drained new rad stats and chemical to prevent internal rust and stop banging noise,its worked :-D The Elddis literature (page 03 of the following .pdf file) suggests that your motorhome has the Whale underfloor model. http://www.elddis.co.uk/documents/Brochures/2012/Autoquest-Brochure-2011-2012-LOW-RES.pdf In principle, as the heater's fan-unit is outside the motorhome's living-area, one might reasonably anticipate operating noise to be less than for, say, the equivalent output Whale model designed to be installed inside the leisure-vehicle. You haven't said exactly which Elddis motorhome model you own, but a blown-air heater with just a 2kw output on gas should be expected to need to run at maximum output for a considerable time in order to bring a leisure-vehicle with a good size internal volume up to a comfortable temperature. There's also the matter of how loud "very noisy/loud" is considered to be. If you were previously accustomed to a quiet air-heating system (eg a Truma 'fire' or radiator-based heating like Iain's Alde system) any fan-powered blown-air system may seem irritatingly noisy. I doubt very much that your heater will become quieter with use (Why should it?) so, if you believe it to be unacceptably noisy, then do as Iain says and demand that the noisiness be investigated and - if something is found wrong with your present heater - that a replacement is fitted. I suspect though that all Whale blown-air heaters of the type you have will produce a similar amount of noise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urbanracer Posted September 24, 2012 Author Share Posted September 24, 2012 My boat has a diesel powered blown system made by Wallas and its not as noisey as the Whale system, the Whale system is sold as quiet but its not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 I note that a Wallas 22DT heater (which in heat output will be closest to your Whale model) is advertised as having a "...measured sound level...equivalent to a whisper in a library". Also, that the Wallas heater has the option of having a silencer in the blown-air trunking. I can't find any noise level data for your motorhome's heater in Whale's literature, nor can I find any claim that, when operating ON GAS, the Whale heater will be "quiet". I'd also guess that the Whale heater will be no louder during gas operation than an equivalent output gas-fuelled blown-air heater from Truma or Propex. The Wallas 22DT heater is advertised as near-silent. Assuming that's what you have in your boat and the heater lives up to its advertising, if near-silence is what you thought you would be getting from the Whale heater, I believe you are going to be disillusioned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 Out of curiosity I GOOGLE-searched on "Whale heater noise". I got two 'hits' - a March 2012 O&ALive forum thread that you posted to: http://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=27034 and this August 2012 ukcampsite.co.uk complaint from the owner of an Elddis Xplore 304 caravan: http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/chatter/display_topic_threads.asp?ForumID=8&TopicID=282363&PagePosition=1 Elddis proclaims the benefits of the Whale air-heater for their caravans here: http://www.elddis.co.uk/news/elddis-and-whale-partners-in-heating-innovation For caravans, I believe it's a major mistake to choose this type of heater rather than the gas/230V convector-'fire' (+ blown-air option) that's traditionally been fitted to caravans (and the type of air-heating system tony51 mentioned in the March O&ALive thread that he had been accustomed to). The Whale heater's design will inevitably produce some noise when operating, whereas a 'fire' in convection-mode will be silent, and pretty quiet even in blown-air mode. For motorcaravans, where interior space tends to be more restricted, an underfloor blown-air heater (as tony51 suggested) will maximise that space, and also will allow the motorhome designer more interior layout flexibility. The benefits advertised by Elddis may therefore be more realistic for motorhomes. tony51 promised to "keep you posted" back in March, but his last forum logon was on 7 April. I'd guess from the lack of forum feedback that, having listened to tony51's recording of the noise, his contact Mark at Whale could offer no satisfactory solution. If a single motorhome or caravan owner were compaining of the noise his/her Whale air-heater was making, there's the possibility that the noise was a characteristic unique to that specific heater. But, as at least three people have complained about this, it's probable that the noise your heater makes is 'normal' for this model of Whale appliance. I suggest you follow tony51's lead and contact Whale yourself about this. If nothing useful comes of that, you might try experimenting with lagging the blown-air trunking to see if that helps. Try packing thick towels around the trunking. If that fails to reduce the noise you'll have lost nothing: if it does cut down the noise you could then replace the towels with a more sophisticated, less bulky sound-deadening material. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urbanracer Posted September 24, 2012 Author Share Posted September 24, 2012 I contacted tony today he has just had his whale unit fixed he has given me a contact at Whale. Maybe its a problem with the early batch of new Elddis Euro 5 motorhome with the whale system. I guess for the few people that have these new vans not many may have usde the gas side of this system untill about now as its getting colder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 urbanracer - 2012-09-24 8:12 PM ...Maybe its a problem with the early batch of new Elddis Euro 5 motorhome with the whale system... As Tony and you both bought Elddis motohomes at about the same time, there may be a problem with a batch of Whale heaters that includes yours and Tony's. However, it appears that Elddis began to fit this appliance to their caravans in the early part of 2010 http://www.caravanguard.co.uk/news/elddis-xplore-302-caravan-review-164/ It's interesting that "The new underfloor-mounted heating system in the Elddis Xplore has been named the biggest caravan innovation of 2011 in a public vote". http://www.elddis.co.uk/news/public-votes-elddis-underfloor-heating-the-biggest-caravan-innovation-of-the-year- My understanding is that UK caravanners are habituated to a 230V hook-up and (as there don't seem to be many complaints from Elddis-owning caravanners about this heater's noise) I assume the Whale heater is pretty guiet when operating via mains electricty. I still believe it's a mistake for a caravan application though, even if it does allow Elddis to put a fridge under a wardrobe. Good luck with your heater - presumably Tony has confirmed that whatever 'fix' was carried out on his heater has satisfactorily reduced its noisiness on gas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rolandrat Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 I think it was a step in the wrong direction when Elldis and other manufactures started to put Whale type heating into their motorhomes, there is nothing better than a heater you can see and can be run on gas only if needed.I'm talking about the old favourite Truma and I see that the latest version has been upgraded as well. When you rally all year round as we do heating is a very important consideration, I know of owners who carry 4 batteries because they have the blower type heaters and some are very noisy when you are parked next to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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