Odd fresh water leak story

[sandspur1966]

For the past two weeks my Mach 5 fresh water pressure pump has been cycling and at first I thought I was just having trouble bleeding the air out (great pumps but prone to this problem.)

Watching a pressure gauge it became clear that there was a leak so next came the task of tracking it down. I went fore to aft, hatch to hatch checking every fitting I could see... nothing.

Was driving me NUTS! I spent last night aboard and had a meeting this morning where I needed a suit. I bent down to the back of the closet in the master to pick up a pair of shoes I have not worn in months and they were under another pair and they were damp and completely covered in green mold.

The weird part is there was a seam in the padding under the carpet 6 inches from the back of the closet that wicked the water from the damned leak in the hot water tank element along the back wall of the closet but the front row of shoes and carpeting were totally dry. The water was seeping down the seam and into the bilge and then down to the aft shower sump so it didn't register on my fancy new bilge pump counter... sheesh!

At least I got a few laughs from my fuzzy green feets.

It's always sumthin!

[davidwigler]

My water heater is original, 35 years old. The boat was built around it. It's working great but long past it's life expectancy and what a pain it will be when it goes....

If only appliances were built that well today.

[Jaxfishgyd]

The original 19 gal water heater on our boat went bad a few years back. Had to take it out in pieces . I ended up putting in a 12 gal heater as that was the biggest I could make fit without cutting a lot of stuff. But have had no problem with running out of hot water. And we're full time liveaboards

[sandspur1966]

Removed the element and used a lot of dope on the new one, appears to have worked. I am planning on replacing it with thi one

http://marinewaterheaters.com/index.php?cPath=4_16

It is all stainless 20 gal and has a heat exchanger so i can tie it in to my hydronic heating system in the winter and avoid heating house water electrically.

Also i bet if my webasto heater craps out in a pinch, i can circulate water through this and get at least enogh heat to avoid a freeze.

[GJH]

Shawn, I would be interested in how you end up plumbing the heat exchanger of that water heater. Is it just going to be in-line to the diesel heater? We chartered a Grand Banks once that had a combo diesel cabin and water heating system that was pretty slick. It was a Hurricane, I'm pretty sure.

Has anyone here plumbed one of these marine water heaters to a Detroit, such as an 8v92?
I haven't seen the need yet, but it's a nice feature.

[SKYCHENEY]

Shawn, I would be interested in how you end up plumbing the heat exchanger of that water heater. Is it just going to be in-line to the diesel heater? We chartered a Grand Banks once that had a combo diesel cabin and water heating system that was pretty slick. It was a Hurricane, I'm pretty sure.

Has anyone here plumbed one of these marine water heaters to a Detroit, such as an 8v92?
I haven't seen the need yet, but it's a nice feature.

I designed and built a system for a motorcoach. I used a Webasto for domestic hot water, interior heat, and as an engine pre-heater. When running, the 8v71 would then do the heating.

[sandspur1966]

Hi George-

As Sky mentioned RE his RV, I have a Webasto 105,000 BTU heater in my port engine room which runs off the house diesel and I have a manifold with three zones and heater hose home running on each zone to individual fan heaters in each stateroom and the Main Salon and aft deck each on its own thermostat. The whole deal is 12 volt and I run it off of a stand alone 50a Newmar inverter which pulls power from my 32v house bank.

I used the setup from the company at this link because their wiring board allows for unlimited zones.

http://www.suremarineservice.com/PriceLists/DBW2020.pdf

I cheaped out on the engine preheaters because the exhangers were pricey and went with wolverine block heaters instead (a choice I regret.)

I ran the heater hose on the aft zone past the water heater knowing that when my old one went, I would replace it with a heat exchanger model. That day has come but the function I miss is being able to run the hot water off the main engine while underway so I may end up springing for the exchangers now also.

I installed the system back in 2008 and it has been relatively trouble free. I was aboard full time in 08 and actually am again now and it was in the 20's last night and I was toasty. I ran the diesel down to the very bottom of the tank a year or so ago and picked up some sludge. Bruce Morrison and I had a bear of a time getting it to run smoothly again. We swapped out nozzles adjusted igniters etc... I ended up buying a new burner head as a spare and sending the old one to be rebuilt. Turns out there is a little inline screen filter that we didn't notice that was disrupting fuel flow. 10 minute fix.

The only other issue I had was a seal in the circulation pump letting go and dumping antifreeze in the bilge. I keep a spare pump now also.

Feel free to contact me if you plan on doing a system, I would have done a few things differently in hindsight that you may be able to benefit from.

[jim rosenthal]

The heat exchanger loop in my hot water heater is plumbed to the cooling system in my port engine. There are two shutoff valves. It works very well indeed- well enough that if I want a shower after I have been running the boat, I have to be careful about the hot water- which is at 180 degrees. OTOH, not much grows in the water heater tank, in season.....

I had this system with the previous engines, too. It might have been the only thing that did NOT give me trouble with the 3116s. Systems like this are often fitted to sailboats and trawlers. It seemed logical to me- why run the generator set just to heat water? Plus, the engine room stays warm long enough that the water in the 12 gallon tank stays hot for a day or two after the engines are turned off. And if need be, it doesn't take long to recover even on 120vac current.