Hot Water Heater

Charlie & Jan Kepner · Post by **Charlie & Jan Kepner** » Jun 15th, '06, 09:22

It appears that the hot water heater on our 23-year old CD36 has finally "bitten the dust"! Question - is there a way to completely isolate the water heater temporarily so that we can still have cold pressure water? We have shut off the heater but the water pump continues to run which must mean that water is trying to get into the heater. Any suggestions so that we can at least use the boat this summer without having to immediately replace the heater

bottomscraper · Post by **bottomscraper** » Jun 15th, '06, 10:55

Sure you can. If you connect the input fresh water hose to the output fresh water hose and the input engine water hose to the output engine water hose you will be all set. You may need a few hose fittings and maybe hose clamps but it's no big deal. On Mahalo I do the fresh water part every year for winterizing so I don't need an extra 6 gallons of anti-freeze. For that I just needed one fitting from the hardware store, about $3.

Charlie & Jan Kepner · Post by **Charlie & Jan Kepner** » Jun 15th, '06, 11:03

Thanks for that info! Will give it a try!

David Sabourin · Post by **David Sabourin** » Jun 15th, '06, 11:24

Charlie & Jan,

I replaced my hot water heater two winters ago with a square stainless steel model with the same capacity....it saved some valuable space on the batt shelf....I can get the model name and number if you want.....or look for a link on the board. I think Jerry Axler did the same thing and used the same product this past year.

I still remember all the good times we had at the Yankee Dory get togethers.....

David Sabourin
Mad Hatter 11

Trawler Joe · Post by **Trawler Joe** » Jun 15th, '06, 15:08

You can get a bypass kit from West Marine. Once you hook up the bypass kit, you can switch over to just cold water, and when you're done fixing the water heater, just flip the switch to start using the heater again.

I'm about to take on the same project... I just bought one of these myself, but I haven't actually hooked it up yet.

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/st ... artial/0/0

Edit: Well I guess I don't quite know how to put in a link, but if you cut and paste the URL into your browser, I think you can find the item.

Joe

bottomscraper · Post by **bottomscraper** » Jun 15th, '06, 16:05

Joe Boater wrote:
http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/st ... artial/0/0

Edit: Well I guess I don't quite know how to put in a link, but if you cut and paste the URL into your browser, I think you can find the item.

Joe

The tag doesn't like spaces. You have a space after the last "/0". Took me a long tim to figure that out! This should work: http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/st ... artial/0/0

Russell · Post by **Russell** » Jun 15th, '06, 16:17

My 1984 CD36 has a valve in the engine compartment which when turned shuts of the flow of water into the hot water tank. Not sure if this is standard or a previous owner installed it. But when my hot water heater died flipping this valve kept the pressured water from going to the heater (and thus to the bilge).

Charlie & Jan Kepner · Post by **Charlie & Jan Kepner** » Jun 15th, '06, 19:28

Thanks so much for everyone's help/suggestions! Keep them coming! Dave, we remember all of the good times at the Yankee Dory get-to-gethers as well! Miss seeing all of you guys. Dennis & Suzi Robinett have sold their CD36 that they bought in the late '90's - she has gone to Toronto. Will try to use all of your suggestions & get us "up and running" for this summer at least! Hopefully, we can get the tank replaced before the season ends but....if not, then next fall for sure. We are thinking about putting Yankee Dory on the market - maybe fall of 2007. Don't really want to give up sailing but age is catching up with us & our energy for taking care of our beloved Cape Dory 36 and dealing with the sails is diminishing. Thus, being able to repair a few things will be nice! This message board has been most helpful. Thanks again everyone!

Charlie & Jan Kepner · Post by **Charlie & Jan Kepner** » Jun 19th, '06, 14:16

Just to let you all know - Charlie got the old Raritan water heater out of Yankee Dory today with no difficulty! He was pleasantly surprised at how easily it came out after taking the casing off! It came out through the engine access door in the quarter berth. The new heater is being shipped today. We ordered the Atlantic Marine that David Sabourin had suggested - although we decided to go with the T4e model rather than the T6e just because the smaller one will fit a bit better on the shelf, the cost was a bit heaper and we don't use a heck of a lot of hot water anyway (use sunshowers most of the time!). A new owner might not be happy with the smaller heater but....they can go for a bigger one if they wish! The bigger one will fit but will stick out off of the edge of the shelf more and might interfere with our CNG tank that sits in the same area. Hopefully, the putting in of the new heater will be as easy as taking out the old one! The new one will also have to go in through the quarterberth entry as our cockpit lockers are only 11" wide on the 1983 CD36 and the heater needs 12 5/8"! So...many thanks again for all of your help.

Jeff Barnes · Post by **Jeff Barnes** » Jun 19th, '06, 20:53

Charlie and Jan

You should enjoy your new T4E. I installed a T6E last year on my CD36 (after expanding the shelf a little bit in the port locker) and have had no problems. One suggestion to consider: instralling "Y" ball valves at both cold water inlet and hot water outlet ports, and permanently installing a by-pass line. Much easier for winterizing as all you have to do is turn two valves and you can bypass the tank for circulating your antifreeze.

Jeff

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