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Winterizing Hot Water Tank and M25XP On E35-3

Mort Fligelman

Member III
I am looking for someone who has done this by the manual before!

Last fall when I winterized my boat for the brutal winter on the hard I got very involved with the winter cover, and winterizing the Air Conditioner, and really had not given the hot water heater much thought......Just figured to make it easy and pour enough anti freeze into the starboard fresh water tank and all would be fine.

To my chagrin......the hot water tank STINKS to high heaven, as running the engine heated the antifreeze, and in error the a/c breaker was turned on really heating up the witches brew......needless to say...it aint gonna happen again......it has taken all summer draining and refilling to get it clean......

In reading the downloaded manual it states that the coolant hoses have to be taken off of the hot water heater, and joined, as you can't run the engine without water in the water heater.........

I don't understand this, as I would be running 160 degree coolant through the captive system and this should not be hot enough to do any damage......BUT!!!!!! is there something I am missing.

My plan is to install a bypass Kit from W/M (Camco) on the water tank.......open the small petcock on the tank and drain the water down to where it cannot expand enough to do any damage.....I want to do this while the boat is still in the water, and the the engine will run aproximatly 20 to 30 minutes to get to the slip with the travel lift......

All advice will be appreciated.....

Thanks
 
Last edited:

u079721

Contributing Partner
I am looking for someone who has done this by the manual before!

Last fall when I winterized my boat for the brutal winter on the hard I got very involved with the winter cover, and winterizing the Air Conditioner, and really had not given the hot water heater much thought......Just figured to make it easy and pour enough anti freeze into the starboard fresh water tank and all would be fine.

To my chagrin......the hot water tank STINKS to high heaven, as running the engine heated the antifreeze, and in error the a/c breaker was turned on really heating up the witches brew......needless to say...it aint gonna happen again......it has taken all summer draining and refilling to get it clean......

In reading the downloaded manual it states that the coolant hoses have to be taken off of the hot water heater, and joined, as you can't run the engine without water in the water heater.........

I don't understand this, as I would be running 160 degree coolant through the captive system and this should not be hot enough to do any damage......BUT!!!!!! is there something I am missing.

My plan is to install a bypass Kit from W/M (Camco) on the water tank.......open the small petcock on the tank and drain the water down to where it cannot expand enough to do any damage.....I want to do this while the boat is still in the water, and the the engine will run aproximatly 20 to 30 minutes to get to the slip with the travel lift......

All advice will be appreciated.....

Thanks

Your plan sounds good, with one change.

I put together my own bypass kit from hardware store parts, and each fall I would install it prior to winterizing the water system with red pop propylene glycol "RV" antifreeze. I would then snake a narrow tube into the water heater and pump out all the water that I possibly could. But do not bother with disconnecting the coolant heater hoses. I don't know where they came up with the suggestion to never run the engine without water in the water heater, but it's just silly. The engine is not going to overheat that way.

On our boat we found that if we commissioned the water system and re-attached the water heater each spring, we tended to never use the hot water till our cruise each August. By then the water in the water heater had gone stale and skunky, and was a pain to clean out. One solution would be to run some fresh water through the water heater by running the hot water tap each time we used the boat, but we never remembered. So after a couple of seasons of this we tried NOT connecting the water heater at all to the water system and just left the bypass in place until just before our August cruise. It worked great, and the engine never overheated. We did it this way for about 10 years too.
 

joe-fran

Member II
winter hot water treatment

Mort

I try to empty the tanks before hauling. Then on the hard, after pouring some RV antifreeze into the tanks and circulating it, I disconect the the intake and out take fresh water hoses from the hot water tank and let them drain any residual water/antifreeze into the bilge. Reconnect in the spring and no issues.
One caveat - my tank is probably the original (1987) and on it's last legs but no matter the exterior looks of the tank, it keeps putting out plenty of hot water.
 

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mherrcat

Contributing Partner
...no matter the exterior looks of the tank, it keeps putting out plenty of hot water.

Ouch! If that's what the outside looks like, I would hate to see what the inside looks like. I'd be worried that if it failed, yeah, it would put out plenty of hot water, just where I didn't want it...
 

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Tanks for the Memories

Many years ago I replaced the factory hot water tank in our '88 model. It had a painted outer steel shell with copious rust. Inner tank was aluminum and was not leaking (yet).

This was in the late 90's, IIRC.

The original hoses were hardened and starting to distend at the fittings from the heat over the years. All were replaced.

The "ick" moment came when we got the old tank out on the dock and turned it such that the last of the water could drain out, and a little pile of aluminum oxide spilled out in a wet pile on the dock.

I replaced that old tank with an ss shell tank with ss inner tank. Atlantic brand, and I have not seen them advertised for some years no.

Nowadays I would go with an Isotemp, built with 316 SS.

Loren
 

Mort Fligelman

Member III
Tanks for the information!

Tanks Steve:

It feels good to know that if I am nuts in my interpretation of the manual I am in good company.....I am getting old and lazy, and where ever I can keep from bending these old bones again, the permanent bypass will keep me from having to do nothing more than turning one valve......granted, hardware store parts would be cheaper, and in all probability of better quality, but when I would add the cost of additional Ben Gay to the equation........nuff said!

I would have to agree with all of the other comments made......but until I get the hot water dumped in the bilge(since I know now that it will not damage my engine)and even then, I might just let it languish and leave its replacement to the next owner.....

Again......many TANKS
 

spencer

Member II
I just disconnect the inlet and outlet hoses, drain as much water as I can then take an air compressor and push out what is left. I do not like the red pop. Used it once and it was more problem than using an air compressor on the entire water system. The air compressor take a lot less time. It is also a lot less expensive plus you dont get any odor. The original owner of my boat kept her in Charlevoix, Mi and showed me this way when I bought her.
 
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