Floë Induratec 868 2nd Gen Integrated Water Drain-Down System, is the latest offering from APT Innovations Ltd.
Floë 868 is suitable for draining down and winterising a static caravan, park home, lodge, wooden cabin, bricks and mortar homes and holiday homes in approximately 4 minutes. This takes the worry out of when to drain coming into autumn and also enables you to drain your own property, other water devices and garden irrigation without having to pay anyone to do it for you, while allowing you the benefit of using your property throughout the winter months, draining when and as often as you like before you leave.
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£259.99
(inc VAT)
Introducing Floë 868 Induratec 2nd Generation… The Smarter Way to Winterize Your Property
Say goodbye to costly callouts and hello to year-round freedom with Floë 868 Induratec 2nd Gen, the latest innovation from APT Innovations Ltd.
Designed for static caravans, park homes, lodges, wooden cabins, brick homes, and holiday properties, Floë 868 lets you drain down your water system in just 4 minutes safely, efficiently, and entirely by yourself. No more stressing about when to winterize. With Floë, you’re in control. Drain your system as often as you like before leaving, and enjoy peace of mind all winter long.
But Floë does more than just drain. It also cleans 99.95% of biofilm and algae from inside your pipes, while extending the life of your boiler’s heat exchanger indefinitely and cutting fuel usage by up to 15%.
Simple to install, effortless to use. Floë is mounted inside your property, ready whenever you are. Just switch off the mains water, power Floë on, and begin opening taps, showers, and toilets, one at a time, all from the comfort of indoors. Thanks to its smart PCB controller and built-in compressor, Floë manages pressure automatically, stopping and restarting as each outlet is cleared.
Even better? It’s designed to be completely removable. So if you move, Floë moves with you, leaving no trace behind.
And now, for the first time in the leisure industry, using Floë Induratec can lower your insurance premiums. We’ve partnered with top insurers to offer exclusive discounts for Floë users. Find full details on our website.
Please enjoy our Videos and FAQs and please dont forget, you can reach out and ask us a question.
Weight: 1160gms
Dimensions: 20 x 17 x 6cms
Comes with
A standard UK three pin plug and approximately 1m (3.3 ft) of electric cable
5 metres (16ft 5in) of airline. Flexible Fit for Your Static Caravan
Our airline is designed to run seamlessly, 3ft vertically through a wall, floor, or vent, before extending a generous 13ft 5in across your caravan. This setup is ideal for 14ft wide static caravans, with standard connections typically located about 1ft from the edge.
Need a longer reach? No problem. Check out our “Additional Airline” options on the product page, available in convenient 2m and 4m lengths to suit your needs.
15mm Tee Connection to the mains water line… Easy Connection to Your Mains Water Supply
Floë includes a convenient tee fitting designed to connect directly to your mains water line, installed between the main stopcock and where the pipe enters your property.
In some cases, your incoming water pipe may be a 20mm (approx.) blue or black alkathene plastic. This typically reduces to a standard 15mm pipe, compatible with our tee.
If your setup doesn’t allow a direct fit to 15mm, don’t worry…. we’ve got you covered. We offer a Reducing Kit available in 20mm (most common) and 25mm options. These kits allow a smooth transition from 20mm or 25mm down to 15mm for Floë’s tee, and then back up, ensuring a secure, leak-free connection.
Floë Portable Water Drainage System
Our Floë Portable Water Drainage System was the first system created by ourselves back in 2010. This system has served many people well over the years and we are still very proud of it. Basically it is a tool that enables air to be introduced into a water system in a sealed fashion. This air is compressed and pushes the residual water up the lines and against the back of all taps and outlets. Once a tap or outlet is opened, this compressed air forces the water out leading to that outlet. So long as all of the taps and outlets are drained one by one, the system can then be considerd drained and empty.
This was our first system, which connects to an outside water tap or a washing machine tee fitted to the main water line and the process video can be seen in the Static Lodge and Holiday home section
The user connects Floe to the main water line and connects on their own car compressor.
Once pressure is built up, the user goes indoors and opens a tap. Once drained the user needs to walk back out of the property to build up pressure again to drain the next tap.
The process does take about 25 – 30 mins mainly outside, but this is a great little system if you only wish to drain down once a year at Halloween and then lay up for the winter.
Floë Induratec 868 Water Drainage System
Three years after the launch of our portable system, we listened to many questions and comments from our customer. The same questions came up time after time.
Q. Do you sell Tyre Compressors
A. No, but you can get one at a local auto shop or online. Spend some money as cheap ones are not very reliable
Q. So, do i need to constantly monitor the pressure.
A. Yes, you dont want to over pressurise and damage the system.
Q. Does it mean that I have to go in and out of the property to pressurise and drain each tap
A. Yes, that is correct
So, we took all the good stuff from Floë portable and then added what customers wanted, together with some of our own ideas. The result in 2017 was our second generation – our Automated Floë Induratec 868 Water Drainage System
868 is fitted indoors, so the entire process is carried out from the warmth of inside, which is good for people with restricted physical abilities. It has its own internal compressor that will pressurise up to the desired amount and automatically stop for the owner to drain the first tap. Once a tap is opened, the water is pushed out, but as the air pressure drops, 868 will sense this and automatically restart again, without user intervention. So, when draining down, the owner simply switches of the water supply, goes indoors again and then walks around the property opening and closing taps until the system is empty.
Taking only 4-5 mins to drain the system, this is a great system if you want to drain down at Halloween and have the peace of mind that your property is protected whatever the weather. However, 868 also delivers the flexibility of being able to enjoy winter getaways during the winter months, simply taking a few minutes to drain before leaving again.
The 868 Induratec may be more expensive at £234.99 over the portable system at £26.99, this would pay for itself over two years of once a year draindowns. However, it is more convenient and if you wanted to visit a couple of times up to season end, then it may would pay for itself in the first year possibly a couple of times over. It really depends on physical abilty and how you wish to use your van over winter.
Further information and videos can be found on the link below
https://keepfloeing.com/product/static-lodge/floe-automated-induratec-868-240v-drainage-system/
So, our goods will leave same day of order, unless after 3pm, in which case it would be sent out the next day. Normal delivery takes 2-3 days with Parcel Force. Sometimes it takes a bit longer depending on their workload, to which we have no control. Holiday times such as Christmas should be factored in. However, much of the time it will arrive next day. We do appreciate your patience on this.
Without going into the different kinds with Corrosion Inhibitors, different Engine Requirements and different colours etc, the easiest way is to look on the bottle label for the period of time that the antifreeze will be effective for, or it’s efficacy.
Antifreeze efficacy times are usually 2, 5 and 10 years. You would put the 10 year into either your car or indeed the central heating side of your caravan / lodge boiler, as you would want it to work for much longer. Obviously this comes at more expense. However, for down the toilets and sink drains etc, which will only be there for a matter of weeks or months, you can use 2 year effective and this is the least expensive.
You will probably notice that this comes as an antifreeze and coolant combined and that is ok. By the way, when getting your boiler serviced. Do ask the engineer to check that the antifreeze in the central heating is still effective. They have a tool for this to test and then top up if required.
Once Floë has built up in pressure it will stop. This is your indication to drain the next tap. When you drain the tap, the water will pour out as if your mains water was still on. Then when teh pipe is empty, there will be a spurt of water and air at the end. This is telling you the pipe is empty.
Now, there is a temptation after the large spurt of, to watch the tap spit the last of the water out in fine drips and gurgles. These are just little drips clinging to the walls of the pipes, but there isn’t anything in the pipes that will do any damage and when the tap is left open at the very end of the draindown, these drips will most likely evaporate over time.
But by watching the tap indefinitely, the 15psi that Floë had built up will fall to 0psi very quickly. This is because the water has been removed and the air will stretch out, dropping the pressure inside. Floë will then have to rebuild the pressure from 0psi up to 15psi again.
Incidentally, the gurgling noise travels up the pipe from further down the pipework system. This is normal and should stop when all outlets are drained.
So, to speed up the process, it is worth shutting the tap off immediately after that large spurt of water/air has come out and you should be able to catch the pressure as it is falling at approx. 8 or 9 psi, which means that there is less time required to build the pressure up to 15psi. This method will help speed the draindown process dramatically.
We generally find that people tend to leave Floë all year without going near it until they need it in Autumn, which is understandable.
But as we all know, machines like to be used and it is good for them. Lubricants can dry out, so it puts more pressure on the working parts.
So, from time to time every month or so, its a good idea if you are passing Floë, to switch Floë on for literally 1 – 2 seconds. Floë operates at 2500 revolutions per minute, so that time should be plenty, just to move the parts and keep it lubricated. You don’t need to turn off the water or do any preparation at all. Just plug Floë in and switch on. This should keep it good.
When a Floë unit does not stop and you believe that it is not pressurising the system, the most likely reason is that there is a small air leak somewhere in either the Floë airline setup, or the property water system.
So, for testing purposes, we need to make sure of a few things first
Now there could be an air leak due to the seals in the Floë assembly connections. So what you need to do is check these and that the Floe unit works normally, So,
Retry and if problem persists still, contact us on 028 9247 4040 Mon – Fri 9-5 or 07895 465 956 Sat 11-1.
When you open a tap, the water will pour out until there is a large spurt of water mixed with air. It is for that reason we give you a cloth to drape over the end of the tap to keep the counters and walls dry. Also, you can use it to clean up any excess water.
By the way, it is worth putting the cloth into the wash a few times. This will make it more absorbent.
You don’t need to use pipe inserts with Floë. The tee and other pipe components that we provide are a speed fit type. This means that when you slide the pipe in to a fitting, there are little teeth in there that grip the pipe. These will only release again if you pull the little collar back at the end of the fitting into the fitting. Speed fit connections can be connected to plastic or copper.
The only time you need to use inserts is when you are fitting a brass compression type fitting to a plastic pipe. Compression fittings are metal and have a little wedding ring shape ring of copper called an olive. When you tighten the nut on a compression fitting, the olive will bite down and compress against the pipe. Now, copper pipes don’t need an insert, because they are rigid enough, but plastic pipes do. Without an insert, the olive can crush down onto the plastic pipe, allowing a leak.
So in summary, you don’t need to use inserts when using speed fit type connectors. If you wanted to use them anyway, it wont do any harm and as the ends of the pipe inserts are rounded, this will give you a rounded end to the cut pipe. But, not necessary.
If you watch the Washing machines video under the photos at this link below, it will give you a good explanation of what is going on with them. Now, dishwashers work in exactly the same way.
https://keepfloeing.com/product/floe-automated-induratec-868-240v-drainage-system/
But essentially, the process is like this
The water that comes into the machine will only be half a glass at most, but it will clear that intake valve and protect it. The water in the bottom of the machine will be fine. You don’t need to worry about that, as there is a lot of space in there for it to freeze, so it is fine. It doesn’t need antifreeze either. It’s the valve we are concentrating on there.
The short answer is yes, but we just to explain why. The drain valves under a Caravan or Lodge date back to a bygone era of draining down. There were two schools of thought at that time. Either open the valves and open a tap inside so gravity alone will allow the water to come out. (This really never worked). Or, open the valves and try to use a compressor or pump airline attached to the tap inside, to push the water out in reverse from each tap, down through the system and out of the drain valves.
This process was used for years, but due to one way valves in the shower and boiler, it is nearly impossible to carry out a proper draindown without dismantling these devices.
The modern drain down involves following the direction of the water from the outside in and pushing the water out of taps and outlets. If you can see that it has been removed, it is removed.
Now, water doesn’t travel anywhere randomly. It goes to taps, toilets, showers, outside taps, washing machines and dishwashers. If you drain each one of these fully, then the water in the system has been removed. Therefore, having the drain valves connected are now surplus to requirements. They are an appendix or an additional leg that can be removed. As you will push the water out of the outlets, you do not need the drain valves.
However, the first time you use Floë, you will want to drain the drain valves at the end, just to see how much is in there. If you find there is a cup full, then you might want to consider draining them each time, or removing them. If there is only a quick spray of water, then you might want to just wrap foam lagging around the ends. It’s a decision call.
Should you wish to remove them, you will probably need to remove the lagging around the pipes first. If you find that the pipe to the drain valve is connected to a tee, then replace the tee with a 90 degree right angled elbow. This will remove the drain valve pipe, but complete the system again. You can also cut the pipe close to the connection and use quick push fit stop ends. The removal of the pipe completely is not necessary, as it can simply be left where it is.
The answer is no, you will be fine. Its an issue you we made allowances for.
When you get the non return valve (NRV), try to blow through it and you will see that it is very strong. Now, the water will touch the front face of the NRV in normal use, but that’s it, no further. It can gather limescale as much as it wants, but it will only be on the front face.
When Floë is in operation, the air pressure has built up enough to instantaneously push any water away from the opening of the NRV after it opens. This is because your water has been switched off and therefore dead in pressure and easy to move out of the way.
Hopefully, we can assume you know how a traditional ball valve in a toilet works.
Well, the modern ones work in exactly the same way, except they have a little float in the mechanism, but we need to identify the float. So, before you carry out a drain down and while your water is still switched on, as a trial, take the cistern lid off and look at the mechanism inside.
Then, flush the toilet and you will notice a little float inside the mechanism that will drop down to the bottom of the cistern. This will open the water inlet valve in another part of the mechanism, to refill the cistern.
Although these modern toilets all work the same, there are many kinds of mechanisms out there, so we don’t want to direct you to a specific part, but watch carefully as the water drains from the cistern. A float will definitely fall. When you see the float, just remember where it is. So, once you are ready to carry out a drain down, you’ll know where to find it from now on.
Draining Down
OK, so when draining down, you will want to drain the pipe leading to the toilet as part of the process. This is ignored on many paid for drain downs by the way. So, when Floë has pressurised the system, simply press down gently on the little float. Go easy, as the water level may rise with the water coming in from the pipe. But do this until the water has come out and only air is being forced into the cistern. It only takes a second to drain and you’ll probably notice the water rising excessively. This is the air doing its job.
Remember that draining the pipe to the toilet is only part of the draindown and that the draindown is only part of the winterising. Therefore remember, do not flush the toilet after draining the pipe leading to it. Only when you have completely finished the entire drain down process around the property, can you carry out the rest of the winterising, which involves flushing the toilets and putting half a glass of antifreeze down into the toilet bowl and a half a glass into what remains in the cistern.
Now, rarely some cistern mechanisms can be problematic. If you find that after you drain the toilet pipe into the cistern, that you can no longer build up pressure, then you have a couple of options. This is very rare, but happens from time to time.
In this rare situation, it is the water in the pipe that makes the seal and without it, some cistern mechanisms can be a little flaky about staying shut. In this instance, it is advisable to leave the toilets to the end of the drain down, however with an ensuite toilet, you may need to have someone hold the ball valve, or float up, or turn the shut off valve half way up the toilet pipe to off, just for the last toilet.
As a complete solution, it is advisable to replace this part of the toilet mechanism for about £12-16. Simply take a picture of the cistern to a hardware store and they can replace the part for you. Floë is simply showing a future problem, as air will escape more easily than water. In time, this will end up being one of those toilets that drips and refills continuously.
In general, Floë will push the water out of one tap/outlet at a time, but it does have the ability to do two, however, you need to have plenty of space in the system to fill with air.
The vertical shower has a factory preset temperature of 38 oC and has an override facility to increase the temp to 43 oC. Now, the typical boiler will push out hot water at approximately 45-55 oC, so this means that, both the Hot and the Cold (H&C) pipes leading to the shower obviously have to be open, to reduce the temp. That said, there is no facility, as per our DVD, to turn all the way to hot and drain and then all the way to cold and drain. In this example, both H&C will be open and therefore we need to drain both pipes at the same time.
So, the shower should be left to the end of the draindown procedure. This way, most of the pipework will be empty (except the shower) and give lots of space in the pipework for compressed air.
Now, there is the override, which will allow a slight adjustment, so you could drain the shower twice. First with the override down at its lowest temperature and then a second time with it at its highest. This will open the H&C independently, giving you more H than C and vice versa and a better drain on both sides.
Basically, once you drain the water and get to the fine spray stage, you’ll know that, whatever water is left, is simply mixing with the air and therefore the two H&C pipes leading to the shower are empty.
From the 1960s and 70s, static caravans have had water heaters or geezers. Today it is the same, but with the introduction of central heating radiators, most modern caravans today will have what is known as, a gas combination boiler.
A combination boiler or combi for short, is one that will heat the fresh hot water for washing and bathing as before, but they will also heat the water in the radiators. Now, without getting too technical, think of a combi boiler as being in two halves. The top half looks after the central heating and the lower half looks after the heating of your hot water.
In the top radiator half, there is a device slightly smaller than a house brick called a heat exchanger (HE) and inside it looks like honeycomb. The water from the radiators is passed through the HE, where it is heated and then a pump pushes the water around the radiators in a closed and sealed loop, until it eventually comes back into the boiler again, where it is heated and off it goes to the rads once more.
Now, since central heating was introduced to caravans, the manufacturers have always pumped antifreeze into the loop of radiator water, so that it is protected against winter. You don’t need to do anything with your radiators or indeed this part of the boiler in winter, however, next time you get your boiler serviced, get the plumber to check that there is enough anti-freeze in the loop.
This brings us to the lower part of the boiler which looks after the heating of your fresh water. Here there is another Heat Exchanger (HE) like the first, but specifically there to heat the fresh cold water. Basically, when you open a hot tap, the mains water pressure pushes cold water into this HE, where it is heated, and then comes out of the HE as hot water, that travels on to the hot taps. This is on demand water heating. Very simple, but very effective. I you don’t have a combi boiler, but just a water heater, this works exactly the same and the rest of this section relates to both combi’s and water heaters
So, what about draining down. Well, we have already established that the radiator part of the boiler does not need any intervention, however, the lower fresh water side is vulnerable against frost. You cannot put any anti-freeze (AF) into this water, as you would be polluting it. People have tried to introduce Food Grade AF, but it has not been passed by the Water Regulations Advisory Scheme (WRAS) and is therefore illegal.
So, we need to do something about this water, as it will freeze and damage the boiler. In days gone by when engineers were trying to drain the system in reverse, they knew that there is a one way valve in the boiler. This allows water to travel as cold into the hot side, but not the other way around. Again, that would be polluting the cold water system. So, to drain down they would have to remove parts of the boiler to drain it out. Incidentally, there is a one way valve in the shower mixer valve, which is why many engineers remove them and lay them on the floor of the shower.
However, Floë is different. Whether it is using our Portable Water Drainage System that connects to the outside tap, or our new Floë Induratec 868, both will remove the water by pushing it through the system and out of the taps, following the natural flow of the water. By following the natural flow, the cold water is pushed through the boiler and on to the hot taps. So, by draining one hot tap, you will have drained the boiler. There is absolutely no need for dismantling the boiler or the shower. As a matter of fact, there is no need to go near the boiler. It will be drained as part of the process.
Better yet, in a typical caravan, there are 4 hot outlets to drain, Kitchen, Bathroom Wash Hand Basin, Shower and the En-suite sink. Therefore, when all four have been drained, you will have drained the boiler 4 times.
As an additional feature, it is worth draining the hot taps through the summer once or twice. On a normal draindown, the air going through the boiler will disturb any sediment that naturally gathers in the Heat Exchanger. This is nothing like the rust sediments picked up by magnets in the central heating side. As we have discussed, that is a separate system. But left unchecked, this sediment will naturally increase and make the boiler burn inefficiently, costing more on gas and will eventually ruin the HE.
However, if you drain the system and especially the hot taps, Floë will disturb the sediment. If you then turn your water back on and run the hot taps while the sediment is disturbed and jiggled up, the new water will flush this sediment out of the taps. The result is a more efficient boiler that can save up to 15% on your gas bill and you will extend the life of the Heat Exchanger indefinitely. As mentioned, this is something you’d want to do through the summer season. Very effective though.
Over the years people have adopted other means of winterising their property. One of these ways is to leave a combination (combi) boiler on Frost Stat mode. This means that at about 3-4oC the boiler will fire up and push water around the loop of radiators, therefore heating the property.
While on the face of it this seems great, this really is only a short term measure for a property left vacant for winter holidays etc, as there are a few limitations.
In essence, this function was designed to protect the radiators and boiler that was originally made for a “2 up/2 down” house without antifreeze and not the main pipes of the house itself. Also, outside pipes would be buried in this example, unlike a caravan or lodge.
In a combi boiler, there are two heating systems. One for the radiators and one for the fresh hot water. By draining the system using Floë, you are evacuating all of the water from the fresh hot and cold water system. Floë does not touch the radiator water, as it is a closed loop system with antifreeze and doesn’t require draining.
While draining the hot taps, you will have drained the Fresh hot water side of the boiler into the bargain and in doing so, the boiler will be emptied and is now safe for winter. From this point you don’t need to do anything else to the boiler. As the entire water system will have been drained, there is no need to run the Frost Stat mode and it is not advisable. It’s a bit like trying to boil an empty kettle. As the saying goes, If the water’s not there, it can’t freeze.
For further information on how the boiler operates, please see the FAQ – Draining the boiler and discussing the radiators.
10 reviews for Floë 868 Induratec – Automated 240V Drainage System
sandra burrows –
They say the simplest things are the best, absolutely true. What a great tool. Sandra Burrows, Belfast, Northern Ireland
M Casey –
I would highly recommended the Floe 868 to any static caravan owner and I would also like to say a massive thank you to Jason and his team for producing such a great product and offering such an amazing service from start to finish.. A true pleasure to deal with and fantastic customer service…. M Casey
Nik Rawsthorne –
This is a great product. I’m not great at DIY but this is so simple to install and only took 20 minutes to fit to my ABI Westwood.
It works perfectly and only takes me 10 minutes to complete a full drain down including my washing machine and dish washer. The DVD is also really useful. I would highly recommend Floe and I am doing to other owners on our park. Thank you
Isobel Hamill –
Like most people we thought we had drained our caravan. My sister told me about your product so we ordered it right away.
After watching the demo on your web site. we then tried it on the caravan and were delighted at how easy it was. As you would expect we got quite a bit of water out of the caravan pipes. We also tried it on the garden hoses.
I would recommend this without any hesitation to anyone with a caravan.
Isobel Hamill, Livingston, Scotland
Lawson Evans –
My First ever review, Device so good I felt I had to give it praise. As a static owner it saves us £70 park draindown fee, And gives us six more weekends to enjoy the van. Very Pleased. – Lawson Evans, Gilfach Goch, South Wales
David Jones (verified owner) –
Very fast delivery of an amazing product. I have been DIYing for over 50 years and NEVER had anything with such comprehensive instructions. I watched all the videos before starting the installation and everything was so easy to do. Very please with how easy this was to install and operate in my ABI Ambleside..
Ronald Sewell –
Buy it. I’ve fitted 3 now to my friendly neighbours vans after they’ve seen mine and at £80 a park drain down it’s paid for itself in 3 goes. Most of all it extends your seasonal and short visits use of your van to get maximum use. ( it’s staggering how much gunge gets flushed out when you first use it on an older van). Our static is an 11 month site so other than February we now can go anytime or even weekends on a whim and not incur any drain down costs as we do this ourselves in 15 minutes, so even if there’s no likelihood of frost we drain down anyway so we can forget about it. It baffles me why most vans don’t offer the floe as a built in option. Brilliant product.
Anthony Proctor (verified owner) –
Installed this over the weekend. Great product and really well made. Loads of little improvements to the ones I have seen on other reviews and YouTube. When running the unit is much quieter and smoother.
Took approximately an hour to install and if you have a vent under the boiler you basically don’t have to make any major holes.
Can now do a full drain down in 15 mins. This means I can visit my holiday home in spring and autumn and do a full drain down and have the peace of mind that if we get a cold snap everything will be nice and safe from freezing mishaps. Plus the £85 saving a year for the park to do a drain down on their own time, this will pay for itself within a couple of years. And all from the comfort of inside the holiday home. Will be recommending this to others on our park when I see them. Very pleased with this purchase.
M ebrey –
Fantastic piece of kit easy to fit and works great would certainly recommend
Ron –
I fitted this myself to our ABI Carnaby static 3 years ago so have used the floe unit dozens of times now. Firstly it’s paid for itself after 3 draindowns (£80 a pop at our site). But most of all you will use your van more because you are not hit with a peace of mind drain down charge every time you vacate your van during the cold months. Takes about 10 to 15 minutes to drain down the van, turn off the water supply, put the boiler in safe mode on its controls, switch on the floe compressor then simply keep opening and closing the taps, shower or toilet valves until they are spluttering only air out. Leave your taps etc open to let air circulate in the pipes, switch off the Floe unit then you’re off home. It’s that simple. We are an 11 month site except February so are here 11 months of the year on and off now without worrying about frost or drain down costs. Showed our install to 2 friends onsite who are keen users of their caravans and they immeadiately ordered floe units which they fitted. It’s November now and the only occupants onsite are the floe fitted vans and one without. It’s the best £230 I ever spent on the van.