New hot water heater

dwna1a

dwna1a

Well-Known Member
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Apr 23, 2012
5,981
James River
Boat Info
88 Weekender 300 "Seahorse"
Engines
Twins 350
My old water heater is showing signs of it's age, it's rusting along it's base. SeaRayguy has a nice stainless steal 6gal heater, my question is, I have a heat exchanger, does this mean anything when it comes to replacing the heater itself?
 
On the 496/8.1 engine the raw water pump feeds sea water to the cold side of the heat exchanger, cooling hot engine anti-freeze. Anti-freeze in turn is cycled through the engine and water heater core. My sense is that where the heater tank is small (6gal) and static, it gets up to temp pretty quickly and contributes very little to the engine cooling process. The heater is equipped with a temp pressure relief valve, so I think once at temperature it can't provide any more delta t.

I do know it takes almost no time to recharge the heater by running our engine, definitely faster than the electric element.

That suggests to me that heat exchanger, or not, the engine generates more than enough heat for the water heater.




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heat exchanger is typically used for cooling the jacket water in a system... So I would say no. Not sure how your boat is set up, but you might have some lines on or near the heat exchanger that can be used to heat the water heater if not using electricity.
 
If the water heater you have now has the heat exchanger then you want to purchase a replacement with the heat exchanger if your current setup does not have a heat exchanger then you don't need one in the replacement. But you could add that feature if you wanted to. I replaced my rusty old water heater last year with the stainless steel version and it really dresses up the engine room!
 
Thanks everyone, I ordered it and it should be here sometime this week, I even sold my old one for $75. Neighbors boats heater is leaking so he wants my old one. Removing it looks pretty easy and as mine is already drained and water is unhooked this seems to be a good time to get this done.
 
Hey, gang - - speaking of water heaters - - the water heater on my 270 DA works well with shore power, or with the generator (when the generator is working) - - it used to work fine after running the engine for a while, but now the water doesn't heat when running the engine (but works with shore power). Any suggestions? thanks; Pete/guitarfish
 
guitarfish said:
Hey, gang - - speaking of water heaters - - the water heater on my 270 DA works well with shore power, or with the generator (when the generator is working) - - it used to work fine after running the engine for a while, but now the water doesn't heat when running the engine (but works with shore power). Any suggestions? thanks; Pete/guitarfish
Click to expand...

If it has a bypass, the heat exchanger system may not be engaged post winterization.
 
guitarfish said:
Hey, gang - - speaking of water heaters - - the water heater on my 270 DA works well with shore power, or with the generator (when the generator is working) - - it used to work fine after running the engine for a while, but now the water doesn't heat when running the engine (but works with shore power). Any suggestions? thanks; Pete/guitarfish
Click to expand...

Pete, start a new post and we can continue the comments/advice in that thread.
 
Was it working before you winterized?
 
George - yup, replacing a HWH is pretty straight forward and it seems like you have a good handle on it. Remember to turn off the breaker for the heater before you start messing with the wires.
 
Lazy Daze said:
George - yup, replacing a HWH is pretty straight forward and it seems like you have a good handle on it. Remember to turn off the breaker for the heater before you start messing with the wires.
Click to expand...

I hate electricity.....that was the first thing I did! I did run into an issue with the hoses bringing hot coolant from the engine to the heater. One was completely blocked, the other was red muck. Nothing was running thru them. Both will be replaced from the block to the water heater tomorrow. I do have one question.... Hot side is from the top of this circuit and cold from the bottom, right?
 
dwna1a said:
I hate electricity.....that was the first thing I did! I did run into an issue with the hoses bringing hot coolant from the engine to the heater. One was completely blocked, the other was red muck. Nothing was running thru them. Both will be replaced from the block to the water heater tomorrow. I do have one question.... Hot side is from the top of this circuit and cold from the bottom, right?
Click to expand...


I see you are on the James River. Are you FWC or RWC?

If RWC you may want to consider a flushing system.
 
Fresh water. She docked in Jamestown Yacht Basin
 
George, are you referring to where to hook up the two hoses from the engine? It doesn't really matter - it's just a loop inside the HWH.

Since you had all that muck inside the hoses, you may want to check the block as that could lead to overheating. Pull the block drains and see what comes out. I would even go as far to keep one out while you run the engine a bit to flush out the block (keep an eye on your temp gauge). Then switch to the other drain.
 
The block was clean and green. I replaced the two hoses this morning. The engine never got hot, she stayed witting 10 of the other engine. All the gunk was at the water heater end of the lines. Richmond Marine had just done a flush back in May, I guess when the flush was done they never flushed the heater part or thought that end flushed itself out.....idk, but it's fixed now. $330 for the heater and $26 in new hoses. It could have been worse if the blockage was at the motor end..
 
Maybe your ER is different than mine. It looks like I have to remove a riser to get mine out. I know I have to mess with the Vacuflush. Do you have any pix of the evolution?
 
Move a riser to get the water heater out? Or get the block plugs out?
 
Thank god....no! My heater is at the stern behind my Port engine, just to the left rear of my Genset. Easy to get in and out, I'm sorry I didn't take photos. What marina are you at up river?
 
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