Winterizing the hot water heater

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Rick D

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I know the raw water side of the hot water heater should be flushed with fresh water and blown out with a air hose as anti freeze can cause corrosion.

What about the other side of the hot water heater... the hot and cold? Can the pink stuff go through that side or should it be flushed and blown out like the raw water side?

--Rick
 
Never heard that pink can corrode the raw water side.
It normally has salt water in it.
I run pink thru
Blow out fresh water side.
Drain first
 
Ok somebody will ask, why do you want to heat hot water, might as well be me.
You should drain and by-pass the water heater. Unless you blow it out with air from the output side, it won't work. If you drain and by-pass you do the hot same as the cold side.
Sounds to me like you get someone who knows how to help.
 
I thought the water heater got is heat supply from the antifreeze side of the motor. I can understand flushing out the freshwater side but if it already has antifreeze going through the other side why would you want to disconnect it?
 
I thought he was talking about the house water not the engine side. You take care of the engine right and the hot water tank will go with it.
 
Might be right about af thru water heater. Guess it depends on the connection.
I tell you my water is spanking hot after a good run and it stays hot for a while.
Guy by me once lost his coil in hot water heater.
Ran his engine 10 minutes and he had hot water.
 
I watched a youtube video with "Eddie from Long Island Boaters Club"... he shows bypassing the hot water heater on the raw water side and blowing it out instead of running pink through it.
Said this was a corrosion issue.

So I am asking if the house hot/cold side should be handled the same way... by passed and blown out rather than running pink through it.

--Rick
 
And this is from a forum talking about winterization:

"Shut off the power to the pressurized water pump so that you don’t fill the hot water heater full of antifreeze. Disconnect or block the inlet to the hot water heater (or use a small fitting to connect the tank’s inlet and outlet hoses together to completely circumvent the tank); then open its drain."

I found mention of it elsewhere as well... not allowing anti freeze to run through the hot water heater.
This is why I asked.

--Rick
 
Rick D, I'll stick by my thought, get someone who know how to help. It's not hard but anyone who talks about running pink in a water heater does not understand. I've been boating for 30 years and have always done mine and helped many others. I want to get start in the spring without any problems and want my friends to be able to also.
 
Water heaters I do this way for only 20 years I drain the heater thru the drain valve an open the relief valve disconnect the intake (cold) and out (hot)and install a bypass and run the pink thru the water pump to the all outlets after done remove the bypass and reconnect hot and cold.The heater exchanger from the engine will be winterized when you run the pink trhu the engine,.
 
Seems like everyone is talking about two different things including the OP.

Assuming you have a raw water take-off from your engine which heats the house water then all you need to do is winterize the engine, the rest will take care of its self. Antifreeze will flow in there. There is no corrision issue, antifreeze inhibits corrosion.

On the house water side of the heater (fresh water), you don't want run pink thru it. Mainly because it will take forever to displace the fresh water since it fills from the top. You'd need a ton of pink stuff. So just disconntect the cold-in and hot-out and connect them toghether. I use a lenght of tubing and two hose clamps to connect them. Open the valve on the heater and drain the fresh water out. No need for anti freeze as the water heater will be empty.

Now when you pump pink thru your house water system, it will flow thru the cold and hot lines and bypass the heater its self.

Some here will advocate blowing out the system with air. I've never done this so will leave it to them.
 
quote:
Originally posted by Prospective

Seems like everyone is talking about two different things including the OP.

Assuming you have a raw water take-off from your engine which heats the house water then all you need to do is winterize the engine, the rest will take care of its self. Antifreeze will flow in there. There is no corrision issue, antifreeze inhibits corrosion.

On the house water side of the heater (fresh water), you don't want run pink thru it. Mainly because it will take forever to displace the fresh water since it fills from the top. You'd need a ton of pink stuff. So just disconntect the cold-in and hot-out and connect them toghether. I use a lenght of tubing and two hose clamps to connect them. Open the valve on the heater and drain the fresh water out. No need for anti freeze as the water heater will be empty.

Now when you pump pink thru your house water system, it will flow thru the cold and hot lines and bypass the heater its self.

Some here will advocate blowing out the system with air. I've never done this so will leave it to them.

Click to expand...


Thanks for the clarification. I now understand why the house side should not have pink in it.

Re the hot water side, do you know why at 2:10 into the following video, Eddie indicates the raw water side should be disconnected prior to winterization?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bxpqmT1S3c

What you suggest makes perfect sense... just not clear on why he disconnected the raw water side and keeps it out of the loop.

--Rick
 
Watched it... I have not idea why he would do that unless he's not planing on running any pink thru the engine, just draining block?
 
He does that because he doesn't run the pink in with the motor running.
He pours it in.
If you run it in, you don't have to do that.
I prefer run in method, it guarantees you didn't miss a hose or pipe or pathway.
Everyone has their own method.
I have always ran it in with no issues.
 
The manual for my hot water heater recommends disconnecting the heating side of the heater before winterizing the engine because the heating coil doesn't like antifreeze in it. Last fall I left it connected and filled with anitfreeze. This fall I disconnected it and ran a loop on the engine from the feed to the return, leaving the heater side out of the loop. I drained the heater through the feed hoses and the water side through the faucets and the drain valve. I drained the cold and hot water tanks through the faucsts and the transom shower. I then poured two gallons of -50 antifreeze into the cold water tank and ran it through all the faucets with the pump. I ran the faucets until I got a nice stream of pink. There is an anode on the hot water tank which was never replaced. I plan on replacing that in the spring. Hy
 
The domestic water side of mine gets blown out with the rest of the system. Then I bypass the heater and run pink through the domestic side. I bypass the heater because I don't want to waste 6 gallons of AF.
The raw water side gets the pink stuff when the rest of the engine gets it because I have it hooked up to one of my motors so I can get hot water away from the dock. I can't imagine the raw water side suffering from the pink stuff.
Going through a repower now and still undecided if I'm going to hook the water heater up to the motor again. I've used it two or three times to take a shower after a swim when out on the hook which was kind of nice, but I don't know if I use it enough to justify having the extra hoses and clamps. I always think of any hose and clamp as a possible point of failure. It probably never will fail, but I'd hate for one of those hoses to give out on me when I'm cruising around and then be kicking myself for setting it up that way.
Anyway, since the new motors will be Fresh Water Cooled there will be regular AF running through the heater if I hook it up to run off the motor and I wouldn't think there would be a problem with that either.
 
quote:
Originally posted by JimPend

Ok somebody will ask, why do you want to heat hot water, might as well be me......
Click to expand...


simple....to keep it hot! Other than the first cycle of heating cool/cold water, the unit spends it's life heating hot water.
 
quote:
Originally posted by Prospective

Assuming you have a raw water take-off from your engine which heats the house water then all you need to do is winterize the engine, the rest will take care of its self. Antifreeze will flow in there. There is no corrision issue, antifreeze inhibits corrosion.

On the house water side of the heater (fresh water), you don't want run pink thru it. Mainly because it will take forever to displace the fresh water since it fills from the top. You'd need a ton of pink stuff. So just disconntect the cold-in and hot-out and connect them toghether. I use a lenght of tubing and two hose clamps to connect them. Open the valve on the heater and drain the fresh water out. No need for anti freeze as the water heater will be empty.

Now when you pump pink thru your house water system, it will flow thru the cold and hot lines and bypass the heater its self.

Some here will advocate blowing out the system with air. I've never done this so will leave it to them.

Click to expand...
+1.

Assuming similar water heater/connections as in my posted pic, correct? The black hose (bottom left) appears to be connected to the drain, it's not, the picture angle is deceiving. The fresh water lines have been disconnected from the water heater and connected together with a tube/clamps after this picture was taken.

Greg

398857208.jpg
 
quote:
Originally posted by boatcomfort

Water heaters I do this way for only 20 years I drain the heater thru the drain valve an open the relief valve disconnect the intake (cold) and out (hot)and install a bypass and run the pink thru the water pump to the all outlets after done remove the bypass and reconnect hot and cold.The heater exchanger from the engine will be winterized when you run the pink trhu the engine,.

Click to expand...


I do the same but don't use any antifreeze.
I drain the hot water heater, blow out the fresh water system with a compressor, go back to the hot water heater and drain any residual water.
I too have a heat exchanger from the port motor that heats the water, winterizing the port motor covers the heat exchanger.

I don't use any pink stuff on the fresh water side.
 
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