Water Heater Replacement on 370DA

[JackH]

Time to replace the leaky water heater on my 97 370DA. Seems a fairly straightforward project, but has one minor hitch. The heater is mounted under a bench in the rear of the cabin. It sits in a compartment, like a small well, just big enough to hold the heater itself. I'd like to drain the heater before removal, to make it easier to lift out of the well, but there's really no place to drain the water but the well itself. I might be able to connect a hose to the drain, but it the hose will have to go up, and the heater can't drain against gravity.

Does anyone else who's removed one of these have any tips?

Thanks,
Jack

 

[gerryb]

short hose connection...then a shopvac to the hose will suck the majority of the water out.

 

[ANGEL ANNE]

I changed mine last year. The pressure releif valve should have a hose that drains into the bilge. The drain valve on mine also drained into the bilge. There will still be some water that gets into the compartment when disconecting the hoses, but you can easily dry that once its out. It is a very tight fit making the connections. Good luck.

 

[gerryb]

I changed mine last year. The pressure releif valve should have a hose that drains into the bilge. The drain valve on mine also drained into the bilge. There will still be some water that gets into the compartment when disconecting the hoses, but you can easily dry that once its out. It is a very tight fit making the connections. Good luck.

The pressure relief valve is usually too high to serve as a drain point? But you are correct, they both drain into the bilge. Every time I look at them I wonder why Searay didn't spend a few dollars for some piping to get the water DOWN into the bilge and not across the pumps and engines when either of them release water.

 

[J Levine]

I have a short length of tubing connected to my drain valve that I leave in place all year and then use it to drain the heater for winter. I just pressurize the water system at the dock side connection with a air compressor set at about 30 PSI, then I put the end of the tubing in a 5 gallon bucket and open up the drain valve and bingo the tank is empty.