campskunk
Active member
my Alde had developed some propane ignition problems so when i started to replace the igniters and sensor i noticed about half an inch of water in the bottom of the Alde case. not good. i had an internal leak in the fresh water supply, and was going to need a new unit. luckily i found undermountAC.com, an Ontario supplier who's the best source for all things Alde in North America. the igniters had come from a RV supply place in England, which means you pay 30 bucks for the parts and 30 bucks for Royal Mail. and wait a month. I just needed the bare unit, not all the hoses, exhaust, control unit, etc. you need for a fresh install, and undermountAC.com got it to me in five days for less than $2000. the install is about a two hour job, which means i can do it if you give me all day, triple checking all the Sharkbite connectors and so forth because i don't want to have to take the bed apart again to get to all this stuff. i put it in and it works great.
what i found out was that Roadtrek put the pressure limiter regulator on the fresh cold water line going into the Alde unit, not on the rest of the cold water plumbing. my wife, bless her, eagerly ordered and got me to install a shower head with a cutoff valve, and a Water Pic type thing that hooks onto the wet bath sink faucet soon after we got the van, and these devices connected unregulated pressurized cold water to the hot water supply, which pressurized the Alde internal plumbing via the hot water outlet up to the 55 psi the pump produced, defeating the whole purpose of the pressure limiter regulator on the intake side and eventually causing a leak. she had been complaining about the difficulty of temperature regulation on the shower head - now i know why. before i put the new Alde in i installed a 30 psi limiter immediately downstream of the water pump, so now our entire water system operates at a more moderate pressure, and within design specs for the Alde.
considering that this unit lasted four years in its over pressurized and always-on condition (we are fulltimers), i can't complain. this unit has really spoiled us for any other system. i would hate to go back to cold floors and fan noise. and the 3020 is a direct swap-in for the stock 3010 in production Roadtreks, and it operates fine at high altitudes. if your 3010 craps out, get a 3020.
what i found out was that Roadtrek put the pressure limiter regulator on the fresh cold water line going into the Alde unit, not on the rest of the cold water plumbing. my wife, bless her, eagerly ordered and got me to install a shower head with a cutoff valve, and a Water Pic type thing that hooks onto the wet bath sink faucet soon after we got the van, and these devices connected unregulated pressurized cold water to the hot water supply, which pressurized the Alde internal plumbing via the hot water outlet up to the 55 psi the pump produced, defeating the whole purpose of the pressure limiter regulator on the intake side and eventually causing a leak. she had been complaining about the difficulty of temperature regulation on the shower head - now i know why. before i put the new Alde in i installed a 30 psi limiter immediately downstream of the water pump, so now our entire water system operates at a more moderate pressure, and within design specs for the Alde.
considering that this unit lasted four years in its over pressurized and always-on condition (we are fulltimers), i can't complain. this unit has really spoiled us for any other system. i would hate to go back to cold floors and fan noise. and the 3020 is a direct swap-in for the stock 3010 in production Roadtreks, and it operates fine at high altitudes. if your 3010 craps out, get a 3020.
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