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water heater died

luckydave215

luckydave215

Legendary Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2005
Messages
1,619
Status
  1. OWNER - I own a Hatteras Yacht
Hatteras Model
60' CONV -Series I (1978 - 1986)
Well, after god-only-knows-how-many years, my Rheem water heater started drooling on the pump room deck. I suspect it's original equipment.
No problem, just buy a new one right? Yeah, except the engine room to pump room door is only 20-1/2" wide, the forward pump room access is 21-1/2" wide, and all commonly available 30 gallon water heaters are 22+" in diameter.
However, Torrid Marine makes (in the USA!) one that's 20" in diameter, so I guess I won't have to rip up the galley parquet after all to install it.
It's glass lined with a stainless housing, and offered with 240V and 4500 watts just like the one that's coming out.
The only painful part is the $1063 price, but I'd rather pay that than tear up my freshly varnished galley.
 
I think you should rip up the parquet--and send it to me! :-)

Do you have a picture of the new varnish? I am trying to decide if I want that look or not, and am on the fence.

Thanks for the info on Torrid...

DAN
 
Do you need a thirty gallon water heater? You might look in the Defender Marine catalog. There are some horizontal ones that might go in there more easily, but I don't think they are that big. Good luck on this, it IS a pain.
 
jim rosenthal said:
Do you need a thirty gallon water heater? You might look in the Defender Marine catalog. There are some horizontal ones that might go in there more easily, but I don't think they are that big. Good luck on this, it IS a pain.
Click to expand...
Well, sometimes after fishing all three showers are going at the same time and it's worked perfectly up till now with 30 gallons and a 240V 4500 watt heater element
I see no reason to change.
 
luckydave215 said:
Well, sometimes after fishing all three showers are going at the same time and it's worked perfectly up till now with 30 gallons and a 240V 4500 watt heater element
I see no reason to change.
Click to expand...

I have found numerous 18" diameter water heaters when looking for one under 16. Sears, lowes, home cheep all had them and might have been up to 50 gallons and 4 or 5 ft tall.

If I remember they were $3-400.
 
Don't know what your height limitation is, but....
Click to expand...
There's a 240V breaker panel behind the water heater that would be blocked by a taller heater.
Shorter, fatter (heavy too) water heaters are more durable rolling around on a sport fisher running 20 knots into seas than a tall household model would be, and the flimsy sheet metal housings are poor choices to bolt bracing to.
I'll stick with a heavy duty marine design with proper bolt pads built into the design. I don't want to be afraid of rough water because I cheaped out on the water heater.
 
HoKay. I suppose it depends on how one wants to mount it. As for rusting out, the 10 year old one on my boat was in perfect condition, and strapped in 10 ways from Sunday with thick aluminum bolted to the bulkheads and feet bolted to a 3/4" plywood platform . We took it through some pretty sporty stuff, albeit not at 20 knots. Still, Godzilla could have picked the boat up and shaken it like he was making James Bond a martini and that sucker was going nowhere. But I would never discourage anyone from stepping up and buying the best solution, so no argument here on your choice, that's for sure.
 
I had the same problem with the replacement heater I preferred being too large to fit the opening. I removed the new heater's outer shell and insulation. The tank itself fit through the opening. I re-insulated with water heater blanket intend to add extra insulation to a heater. It has worked fine.

If you prefer, once disassembled you could squeeze the new heaters outer shell into an oval to get it through the door, then reassemble the heater inside the pump room.
 
We removed the 30 gallon with a sawzall to get the outer covering off and then after repainting the platform installed a 20 gallon so if we had to replace it again it would exchange out easily. Also replaced hoses with stainless mesh hoses. I can't speak to 3 showers going at once after your big fishing trips but two of us showered every day as liveaboards and never had a problem with being out of hot water. Also in the summer spending 2 months on the mooring we also showered on swimstep after swimming. The hot water heater we got was about $400 and reheated very fast as the water was being used. There was an aluminum piece in the shape of the tank that bolted to the bulkhead and it just need to be cut down a little to fit around the 20. Ross
 
luckydave215 said:
Well, after god-only-knows-how-many years, my Rheem water heater started drooling on the pump room deck. I suspect it's original equipment.
No problem, just buy a new one right? Yeah, except the engine room to pump room door is only 20-1/2" wide, the forward pump room access is 21-1/2" wide, and all commonly available 30 gallon water heaters are 22+" in diameter.
However, Torrid Marine makes (in the USA!) one that's 20" in diameter, so I guess I won't have to rip up the galley parquet after all to install it.
It's glass lined with a stainless housing, and offered with 240V and 4500 watts just like the one that's coming out.
The only painful part is the $1063 price, but I'd rather pay that than tear up my freshly varnished galley.
Click to expand...
I believe if you take the stairs and the grabrail off the entrance to the pump room will be 24". That's how you get the freezer and washer/dryer in and out of mine.
 
saltshaker said:
I believe if you take the stairs and the grabrail off the entrance to the pump room will be 24". That's how you get the freezer and washer/dryer in and out of mine.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but I have a sliding rear salon door, and the heater won't fit through it, so that means removing the aft salon window.
I'd rather keep the can of worms as small as possible.
 
luckydave215 said:
Yeah, but I have a sliding rear salon door, and the heater won't fit through it, so that means removing the aft salon window.
I'd rather keep the can of worms as small as possible.
Click to expand...
Is that custom and does it come out easily? Hatt put most equipment in areas that had adequate egress without too much surgery. What about through the salon windows that open? They should be big enough.
 
Ross Macdonald said:
We removed the 30 gallon with a sawzall to get the outer covering off and then after repainting the platform installed a 20 gallon so if we had to replace it again it would exchange out easily. Also replaced hoses with stainless mesh hoses. I can't speak to 3 showers going at once after your big fishing trips but two of us showered every day as liveaboards and never had a problem with being out of hot water. Also in the summer spending 2 months on the mooring we also showered on swimstep after swimming. The hot water heater we got was about $400 and reheated very fast as the water was being used. There was an aluminum piece in the shape of the tank that bolted to the bulkhead and it just need to be cut down a little to fit around the 20. Ross
Click to expand...

I had the same problem with a 40 gal. heater springing a leak. Had to strip off the skin and insulation to squeeze it out of the ER. Replace with a 12 gallon apartment heater from Lowes for about $120. The 2 of us stagger our showers and the use of the washing machine and dishwasher with no problems. I was afraid that 12 gal would be too small, and sometimes my wife will mention that she finished just as the hot ran out, but my plans to find a larger unit that would fit through the door, or to add a second 12 gal in line don't seem to be needed now. A plus of this little heater is that is 110 , not 220 volt.
 
saltshaker said:
Is that custom and does it come out easily? Hatt put most equipment in areas that had adequate egress without too much surgery. What about through the salon windows that open? They should be big enough.
Click to expand...
The sliding door is OEM and only comes out with surgery.
Sure the side windows are big enough, but I would have to build some scaffolding to stand on beside the boat, or make a trip to the yard to get the damn thing out without wrecking anything, and like I said, smaller cans-"o-worms are better.
Besides, I like the bitchin stainless water heater.
 
I would have never expected the salon door to be a limiting factor. Never saw a 60C with a slider. Which unit did you decide on?
 
I gotta tell ya, when mine on the 52C died, we measured and fretted and finally tried one of those square west marine 11 gal 110 units which works great. We considered how often we shower, etc. and have never missed a beat. We had to sawzall the old one in two, destroying a dozen blades in a day and removed coolant tank up front to sneak the new one in the space. Cost was less that 150 bucks as I recall.
 
Well, that was fun.....NOT.
I slit the sheet metal covering off the old one and tore off the foam insulation to get it out. I had to slide it around a million times to work on each side, wrecking the gloss white paint in the area and making a huge mess.
So, I painted out the area nice and new and let it dry for a week.
To get the new one in place I had to carry it down the engine room ladder and through to the pump room, plus disconnect the washer/dryer and wrestle it out of the way which left no room to move around and work. To add to the fun my engine room entry is beautifully varnished and the clearance is 1/8". Definitely a two man job, so I had to get a helper for that part.
And of course all the connections on the new heater are in completely different places than the old one so I had the pleasure of re-doing all the plumbing and electrical.
Typical boat stuff......
 
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