Hot Water Heater Question

[djstewy]

Hello All,

I recently splashed my 1994 250 Express Cruiser and fired up my fresh water system for the first time. Cold water was pumping out just fine, but then I heard some water leaking out of the compartment under my bench where the Atwood 6 gallon water heater is located.

When I peered inside I noticed that water was gushing from one of the two black rubber hose fittings on the rear of the unit. Unfortinatly it appears to be an issue with the connection point itself as its leaking out before reaching the hose. I've read some previous posts talking about similar issues people were having but I wanted to confirm a couple things before I start tearing stuff apart.

1.) My understanding is the two black 5/8" rubber hoses connecting to the rear of the unit is water from the engine for the heat exchanger right? If so can I just disconnect both hoses and connect them to themselves to bypass the tank? I don't really care about hot water while we're under way.

2.) The second question is if I want to remove this rusty 16+ water heater completely and stick with cold water can I just remove the unit, then connect the input and output PVC connectors to each other along with the two rubber hoses to each other and call it good?

I'm very new to the boating life as I just bought this cruiser a few weeks ago and I'm sure not a plumber so any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Derek

 

[katricol]

Yes to both questions, is the short answer. For # 1 tho you could ddo this down in your eng. room or just plug-up the hoses.

 

[88dancer300]

Yes, You can connect the two together. However, I would get a new section of the correct hose, and go from fitting to fitting on the engine. NOTE: make sure you make a lazy loop in the new hose, you dont want it to kink! I would not trust a splice. If you remove the water heater, make sure you properly disconnect and terminate the 110v power wires.

 

[djstewy]

Thanks for the tips guys. I'll go down to the boat this afternoon and try to figure out where the water is coming off the engine at and just loop that back into itself. Hopefully its not too difficult to figure out where its coming out and back in at.

Just out of curiousity, is the water pumping through heat exchanger on the water heater being pumped from outside the boat or from the fresh water cooling system?

 

[Alibuma]

One hose is probably coming out of the intake manifold (same plug as the temperature sensor on the front starboard side of the engine). The other one is probably coming from your circulation water pump assembly on the front of the engine, behind the belts. .

 

[djstewy]

Thanks for the heads up. I went and purchased the hose and clamps on lunch, I'll be heading down this afternoon to take a stab at it.

 

[Jimmy Buoy]

Just out of curiousity, is the water pumping through heat exchanger on the water heater being pumped from outside the boat or from the fresh water cooling system?

Not quite sure if I'm understanding this question, but I'll give it a try. Engine cooling fluid (either glycol or sea water) goes from the motor into the hot water tank, but does NOT mix with the fresh water within the tank. The engine cooling fluid passes through a sealed tube that is suspended within the hot water tank and comes out of the tank and is routed back to the engine with a return hose.

If this is not your question please clarify.

 

[djstewy]

That's exactly what I was wondering. I didn't know if it was fresh water from my closed cooling system passing through the heat exchanger or the salt water the boat intakes through the engine while underway.

Thanks.

 

[Westie]

If you're going to disable the hot water heating from the engine then do it the proper way. Remove the hoses all together and just get the plugs that go into where the hoses are connected to on the engine. No need to loop a hose back.

 

[dpmulvey]

If you don't care about hot water at all and if it's easy to get to, rip it out. No need to carry weight you don't need. You don't get much of a season in Olympia, WA. So it's an end of season project if it is not easy to get to. If you want hot water, anticipate replacing the unit at the end of the season. 16 years is probably a record for a marine water heater. If it has started to leak in one place, it's only a matter of time before it blows completely.

 

[djstewy]

Yeah I took the unit all the way out. Thankfully it was really easy to get to in my boat, its located under the large bench across from the helm. Since its pretty far away from the engine I had a hard time determining exactly what hoses ran from the engine to the water heater. For the time being I just connected two input and output hoses to each other in the compartment where the heater used to be. I clamped them down nice and tight and let the boat run for a half hour to make sure it'd hold. Tonight I'm going to do the same with the PVC pipe so I can start using my fresh water pump again.

I'm going to have one of my mechanic buddies come down next week and help me do it the right way by putting plugs in the engine where the hoses are. It's a little out of my comfort level doing it solo.

Thanks again for all the advice!

 

[hobbs]

First time out this season, I noticed water shooting out the bilge. I'm thinking hot water heater (I was having issues last year -- pressure value). BTW, I had the pressure value replaced and had the entire system tested before launch. Plus tested at the dock before pushing off.

Sure enough water pouring out from under the water heater. I make a quick splice and head straight back to port. About half way back the splice breaks and water shooting out the bilge again.

What I don't understand is why did the engine temperature fall to around 100 degrees when the splice broke?

Personally I'm done with this hot water system. I'm having the yard cap off these lines.

 

[rondds]

I recently discovered that my boat has this stupid option (ie: heat exchanger inside the HWH). Seems that my hoses enter the tank from underneath (read "frikkin impossible to get to.") I am going to spend some time disablling this system at my next scheduled coolant dump. If I can't get to the fittings on the tank I'd cut the lines close to the tank and connect them. Then plug the fittings on the circulator pump. It seems that mine has two rubber hoses coming off the circulating pump on the port engine. A problem waiting to happen.