Bridging hot water heater during winterization

[svaron]

For the last six years I have been bridging the hot water heater (prior to winterization) by undoing the in and out of the hot water heater and using a hose so that the input turns right around and goes through the out.

I am looking for some suggestions on how to put a permanent bridge with ball valves.

I have a 1990 54ED with a 40 gallon hot water heater.

Thanks,


Sam

 

[jim rosenthal]

I did this, about a week ago. I can post a photo if you like, but it would be hard to get back in there to shoot it because my boat is rather small and things are cramped in there. But, basically what I did was to plumb in a bypass across the inlet and outlet of the water heater. I used two ball valves to do it.

The first ball valve, which is just after the hot and cold water pipes split coming out of the fresh water pump, is essentially a Y valve, although it is a right angle valve. It directs pressurized fresh water either through the water heater or through the bypass bridge. The second valve just closes off the output of the water heater, so that water coming through the bypass doesn't flow backwards into the water heater through its' outlet.

I haven't winterized using this system yet, but what I plan to do is to empty the water tank completely, then drain the heater completely using its' built-in drain (it should do this with the faucets cracked so that it doesn't airlock, at least that's the plan) and then set the valves so that I can put pink stuff in the water tank and pump it through the whole system. The heater should stay empty if I've done this right. We'll see.

You could do the same thing with three on-off valves, it seems to me. One in the bridge itself, one to close off the heater output for the reasons above, and one in the heater inlet line to make sure that the water flow went through the bridge. You'd need two tees as well, as the bridge would be tee'd across the inlet and outlet lines.

Good luck on this. I will be winterizing all too soon, so I'll let everyone know..

 

[Glory]

I have a three ball valve, sone prevents the water from by passing heater and the other 2 prevent the water from entering the heater.

One word of advise, ball valves that are full of water will possibily freze and crack, even likely crack.

After the winterizing of the water systen is done the pressuer should be released to static and the valves swung to release the pressure in the valve to prevent damage.

When installing the valves some bleed ports would be a good idea.

JM

 

[jim rosenthal]

I agree. If water is trapped in them, they will freeze and break. After I winterize the mains and genset I do the same thing, so they aren't full of water with nowhere to go.

 

[svaron]

Thanks for your input...that's similar to what we had in mind. We were going to use 3 ball valves; one that shuts the water off to the tank, another that shuts the return from the tank and plumb connecting pipe between the in and out pipe with a ball valve. My concern was that once I shut off the in and the out valves, any water that is trapped in the pipe between the ball valve and the heater (since it is vertical run) will not be treated with antifreeze. I suppose that once the system has been winterized I could open the ball valves at that time (with the water pump off) and let the remaining water in that pipe back into the system which should then be diluted with antifreeze.

 

[31FlyCruzr]

My system has a three position valve at the top for the heater tank inlet, off, bypass and into tank.

The bottom tank out line has a Tee with a drain valve to empty the the tank for winterization.

For winterization I close the line into the water heater tank, open the bypass valve, and drain the water heater, then close the drain valve.

Now when the pink antifreeze is pumped, it can go into the water heater from the bottom and pressurize the air trapped in the tank and add antifreeze to the water in the tank. Most of the pink will be able to pushed back out by the air pressure in the tank. I drain the extra antifreeze from the water system from the faucets and use it for the head.

 

[jim rosenthal]

That's clever. I didn't think of that. We'll see how my system works, this winter.

 

[Blaine Thorpe]

I did the same thing as Jim R. several years ago, and it works fine. I used three ball valves from the HD or Lowes.

The system looks kind of bulky. I have since seen a water heater by-pass kit at a one of the local RV/camping stores. I am thinking about removing the larger ball valves and installing one of the kits. It does exactly the same thing.

If you have an RV store near you, see if they have them in stock. If I remember right, it was less expensive than the three ball valves I purchased.

Blaine