Hot water and water heater

rasbury

I don't winterize anything...even plants. Just foes not get that cold anymore.

PickleRick

We have to bring our key lime tree and a patio full of tropicals in for the winter starting every October.  The only palms that withstand our winters are the dwarf palmettos and windmills.  There are homes around me that have huge beautiful sagos and pindos 10 ft tall but I can't make either survive a winter. 

rasbury

YYZRC said:

Next time your boat is in the water, start the engine and, with the freshwater pump turned off and the engine running, open a faucet (hot or cold). If water comes out, you have a rotten heat exchanger in the water heater. 

I had a thought on this- don't i have coolant going through that heat exchanger ? So would i not be leaking coolant? How do I test that valve? I'd eliminate it but sounds like a safety feature...could the valve have gone bad? Where else can go wrong? It was an all of a sudden type problem.

Grahamu

If the heat exchanger was leaking your coolant level on that engine would drop assuming the engine is closed cooling. I doubt there is a problem with the valve. Are all other faucets/shower working properly?. When you replaced the faucet what color was the tubing?

rasbury

Thanks @Grahamu, to clarify if the heat exchanger were leaking and the coolant was going in there, it would obviously lower the coolant level and would also come through the facuet which neither seem to be happening.  That sink behind the helm only has a blue cold line to it. I can't say for sure I tested other faucets but assumed it's all the same feed line. I will check next run but would have to assume they would act the same. That valve is the only thing sticking out to me unless there is some other internal check valve? And I am closed cooling..

PickleRick

If you want to easily rule out your antifreeze leaking into the heater you could probably run down to your local auto parts store and grab a heater core bypass kit, it's located in the aisle where the radiator hose clamps are.  

It's a 5/8 barb fitting, double sided.   Pull the hoses off of your water heater and connect them together. 

rasbury

Thanks @PickleRick- that is on the list. For as hot as the water is coming out if that was leaking then I'd think I could smell it or their would be residue. I will have to look things over again- makes no sense as there was only one supply line involved. I must be missing something. The coolant level does not seem like it is going down.

YYZRC

Presumably the water heater is full of water - that water (plus coolant?) has nowhere to go until you open a faucet. Therefore your coolant level would not drop. 

As always, several pics of the entire setup (engine and water system) would help considerably. 

rasbury

That's what l meant- I let the water run for a bit and nothing happened other than a lot of hot water. I will get more pictures of the hoses from the motor- i just fail to
 see what i screwed up! I

Grahamu

The problem is that hot water is getting into the cold water pipes. To me it doesn't make sense that the tank is the problem, In order for hot water to come out of it cold has to go in under pressure and it's not possible to have hot and cold water running in different directions in the blue pipe feeding the hot water tank. I'm now thinking it could be at the shower heads. If the valves are open at the transom shower and the shower head valve is closed it would allow mixing of hot and cold water. Just a thought but I would be checking all faucets and showers are working correctly first. With the helm faucet open you could also feel the blue pipe feeding the tank to see if it's hot.

rasbury

Interesting. Before I pulled my few remaining hairs out i will test the function with all the shower heads off at the handles as well . I would not put the kids in the boat like this- it will be be next week before I can get back in the water...