Shawn York said:
[quote="Tony Dees":3ruvan3r]Mine worked great for 2 years, then went to shit. Over the past prob 3 weeks total I've blown 2 Paraflex at the reel(if it wasn't bolted down, it would be down the street), burned up 2 Hurricanes(black death), and had 5 bubbling Paraflexes fixed.
Over 400 degrees the first time, about 358, then 320 or so. Finally
AT sent me a new flapper for the internal. Keeping my fingers crossed, only been a week so far. I still have to fix another hose and pick up one. I've done everything but piss on it. Maybe I should try that. Just hoping I don't screw something up in the mean time.
Over the last year and a half I have on occasion questioned the value of the
Vortex Xentherm heat transfer system. This was primarily because of the complete lack of overheating "incidents" I had heard from
AT users in the field. When I first heard the Areo Tech would be using conventional heating technology I was convinced that somebody was going to get hurt. The very first
Vortex prototypes built used conventional heat exchange technology as well.
I had two "incidents" when doing some early testing that scared me so bad I completely abandoned the idea. Unless you have ever been around a ruptured plumbing system with 3000psi rated exchangers and 460 degree water you could never understand. I found part of a circle seal ball valve handle over thirty feet away from the machine after the second "incident".
I've been eating some crow until 4 days ago. This makes two incidents that just remind me that no matter how you slice it up, a locked diverter valve will heat water over 400 degrees if there is no Xentherm fluid to cushion and absorb excess heat. The heat that comes out of the exhaust of a vehicle is a whole different animal than the heat that comes out of a traditional slide-in machine engine. Capturing all that heat is easy - it's what to do with the heat when someting goes wrong that requires the "artistic" engineering.
Yeah, the Xentherm transfer system may spit some oil on the floor of your truck once in a while if you don't maintain your diverter - and yeah, it makes the machine a bit more expensive up front - and yeah it costs a couple hundred bucks more a year for the magic fluid - but it will also keep you from having to remove a hose reel from the Mrs' Jones Mercedes windshield - or having to retrain your newly blinded technician how to clean couches in the shop by "feel".
To those of you who I expressed any doubt to - I hereby fully take all my words back. I'm a hardcore Xentherm fan.
I'm curious - have any other
AT owners had any "close calls"?[/quote:3ruvan3r]
at this point in time one of the biggest things that is holding me back from buying a new
AT is that there is no therm oil HX on them anymore......The therm oil is a PITA at times but just like all the other machines out there...once you get a good grip on it and just do your maintenance like you are supposed to it does its job and will serve you well.......I run my machine hard and it has not had a good break for a while now and I am sure that if that isolated shield was not put around the lower HX to allow it to hold all that moister and rust it would still be working today.....same with the muffler.....mine is pretty much shot because of all the moister the shield has been holding and allowing it to rust......The entire exhaust system is my next project when I get back from vacation... ( along with 500 other things I have going )
I like the new
AT and I like that they have pretty much stayed with the older design..it is more user friendly....But that huge water heat changer behind the hose reel.. running off the EVD and lower HX just does not make me all warm and fuzzy.....I understand what the therm oil is doing cushion and absorb excess heat.....I have worked on a lot of huge boiler systems and there is nothing more scary then to mess with hot water generated by raw heat....there is no room for forgiveness...........
BTW........ replacing the flapper still does not make any since to me.........
