[dd]

PF installed it with 2x 85amp batteries which clearly was not enough. I did think they would have been more professional as they get good feedback on this forum.

You are the only poster I know who runs their system on 2x 200amp batteries. This seems a good idea, but is not how they are set up by professional installers, who normally seem to fit 2x 110amp batteries.

Needless to say I would not use PF again.

With respect t that’s exactly what I said wrong batteries used 85 amp isn’t enough pure freedom are useless they didn’t Evan have the decency to get back to me and I phoned them on several occasions cowboy outfit as far as Ime concerned ; the minimum I would use would be 2x115 with my old system that’s what I had and worked fine , my new system is almost 400 amps I know it’s over kill but I also know I won’t have  any problems with it which is important when working 200 miles away from home

Glad to know I am not the only one PF have treated poorly as everyone else seems to think they are great. I think you are very sensible going for your 400 amp set up.  My experience is the heaters really drain batteries.

[Ian Sheppard]

A question I’d like to know also.......... is it going to sap your power from your batteries keep kicking in and starting throughout the night?

Or potentially does it kick in, then It generates so much heat in 20 minutes or so that it wouldn’t need to kick in again during the night.

Guess time will tell daz. My finger is hovering over the “send” button on my email to Oliver to arrange the system, so any info I can gather beforehand the better.

i doubt itll drain the batteries too much in one night mate or im sure they wouldnt fit the frost stat feature in the first place.apparently it doesnt kick in fully.just enough to stop everything freezing for 10 mins every hour.

if you left the van for a week in freezing conditions without driving it with the frost stat on then they might drain the batteries then but not one night.

How hard is it to run a lead out to the van to be on the safe side. When I had an Isothermal 1 from Pure Freedom my experience was that it ate batteries. My preference now is to use cold as it makes life much simpler for me.

Not hard at all mate.

But I have a smart split relay fitted. I won't need to charge up overnight often. Maybe once a week we ll see.

The Frost protection will run for approx 10 minutes once the set temperature is reached (2c is the default) in terms of battery usage the Webasto draws a chunk of current for a few seconds at start up (8 - 9amps) then drops very quickly  to around 3 amps, The pump while recirculating water is drawing maybe an amp an hour, So 10 minutes or so running time will probably draw between 2 - 4 amps over that time, if frosts activates a couple times over night you may draw 4 to 10amps out of the battery during the night but. The more often it fires up the higher the draw.  Two high AH batteries are a good idea as already mentioned above.

Split relays are useful however depending on milage and how long the engine runs they may not to put back in all the amps used so bench charging is a good idea a couple times a week.

[NWH]

Ideal for me I’m doing at least 50-60 miles a day.

[poles apart]

I've got two vans with the hot water Grippa tank systems and I don't use the froststat because it's too noisy in the dead of night! Used to wake me up so god knows what the neighbours were thinking. I bet they were looking out of their windows for a low flying jet! On the plus side, I've never had to charge the batteries as they're always charged up from the split relay charger fitted by Grippa. When I had an Ionics system (years ago) I was always charging the batteries from the mains.

[dazmond]

I've got two vans with the hot water Grippa tank systems and I don't use the froststat because it's too noisy in the dead of night! Used to wake me up so god knows what the neighbours were thinking. I bet they were looking out of their windows for a low flying jet! On the plus side, I've never had to charge the batteries as they're always charged up from the split relay charger fitted by Grippa. When I had an Ionics system (years ago) I was always charging the batteries from the mains.

how many miles do you do a day mate and how long is the engine running over the course of a day?   cheers

[poles apart]

We can travel as little as 8 miles to Swansea and stop start all day around there or we can travel 50 miles and just do two sites. It may be a different story if we were local all the time but thankfully were not.

[NWH]

The are trouble free if you do a bit of traveling during the day I’ve only mains charged once this week on Monday,every morning I’ve pulled up at the first job it’s read 14-2 volts lol happy days I never realised it could read that the lowest it’s been at the end of a big job is 12-6 volts then off to the next job and back up to 14 volts.

[dazmond]

The are trouble free if you do a bit of traveling during the day I’ve only mains charged once this week on Monday,every morning I’ve pulled up at the first job it’s read 14-2 volts lol happy days I never realised it could read that the lowest it’s been at the end of a big job is 12-6 volts then off to the next job and back up to 14 volts.

at the end of my working day today after the heater had been running 6 hours solid the batteries were reading 12.6!(i did have the engine running for 30 mins at lunchtime but thats it)

[dazmond]

my frost stat kicked in tonight.first time ive heard it fire up.its not too loud really.i only noticed it because i took the dog out.i had a look at it and the controller flashes the water temperature in the tank and turns off when it gets to 7c.lovely.

saves remembering to put a heater in my van on cold nights esp when im not working for a few days.

[NWH]

That’s the beauty of em plug into the tank when it’s freezing and the frost stat does it’s job,I’ve sorted what I think was the main problem with mine the 2 plugs on the heater were loose or the wires were that attatch them. Today it was like a brand new heater from the minute I turned it on although I’m going to buy those 2 new plugs in the new year as I think the wires are just worn from years of use.