Water heater by pass

[Jeff Kaplan]

I have finally decided to install a water heater by pass system on my 1986, will save money as 6 gallons of antifreeze will no longer be needed.  Bought Camco kit with 2 valves and 8" hose. Pretty straight forward, except I am asking where the drain plug is located on the heater, or, will all the water be released when I remove the bottom cold water line. Boat is coming out in 3 weeks, so I want to get my plan in order. Looks like I will need some more brass fittings to complete the job. All suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks.

[Stu Jackson]

This is the front of the Seaward heater.

[Jeff Kaplan]

Stu,  I have the original water heater, looks nothing like yours.

[KWKloeber]

A pic, Jeff?

The 5 gal Seaward WH is a cylinder laying on its side -- the heating element is at the lowest point (invert) in the cylinder, the drain cock being a little higher.  If you unbolted and tipped the WH you could get out a little more, but it doesn't matter -- a little water lying in the bottom of a 5-gal cylinder is meaningless when it comes to that freezing. Some other brands like isotherm are the same but the cube box surrounding it.   Or like Raritan are a vertical cylinder.

If yours (brand?) has the hose at (or near) the bottom then draining there you should be doing the same as if you had a drain cock.

[Ron Hill]

Jeff : You have the "round" hot water heater. 
There is a petcock valve for the drain which I would open, but I would recommend that you take off the old hoses for the inlet (cold) water and outlet (hot) water.  Then pressurize the inlet and make sure that all of the internal water is forced out!!

You might even think about removing that water heater and gain some more storage!! Look in the Mainsheet tech notes and you'll find a number of ways of a larger drawer or opening doors (with pictures)!!   

A few thoughts

[Jeff Kaplan]

The water heater is the round style Ron mentioned. I plan to remove the hoses, hot&cold, but I did not see a petcock to open. I'll be back on board this weekend and will take a pic.

[Stu Jackson]

Stu,  I have the original water heater, looks nothing like yours.

Jeff, absent anything in your original post about what heater you have, that's why I said "Seaward" in my picture post.
Good luck.

[Ed Shankle]

Hi Jeff,
We probably have the same model. Not sure how well it will drain with your new setup, but it will drain. I've found I need to remove both hoses for it to drain quickly from the lower one. The other letting air in. But as Ron noted, there is still water in there, 1 gallon +/-.  Putting a shop vac set to blow, or using a foot pump, will allow you to push out the remainder. I then connect the two hoses with a 2 sided barbed connector to bypass. Not the most elegant, but it works.

Regards,
Ed

[Ken Juul]

Maybe I'm missing something, but if you have decided to not have the engine heat the hot water tank, why don't you just use a short piece of hose to connect (or just plug) the in/out water heater hose connections on the engine.  No need for valves etc.

[Roland Gendreau]

I am wondering the utility of installing a bypass kit if a hose still needs to be removed to blow out the water heater.  I remove the hoses to blow out the lines, and then I connect the 2 hoses together for the winter.  In thinking about it now I see no need to connect the hoses together because once the heater is bypassed and the lines are blown out, I don't use the water system at all till the spring. 
Since I use compressed air to blow all the lines out and do not put any antifreeze into the system, spring commissioning of the water system is much easier

[Jeff Kaplan]

Guys, I am planning to use the water heater, the by pass is only when winterizing, so I can save up to 6 gallons of anti freeze. I will drain the water heater, then by pass it so only the water hoses are filled with anti freeze. My only question is, where is the petcock located on the water heater, so I can fully drain it, plan to remove hoses to drain, but there will probably be some residual water left at the bottom, where by opening the petcock will let that water drain out.

[Ron Hill]

Jeff : if this is just for winter?  Then just connect the two HW fresh water hoses together and then blow out the heater itself!!  That simple!

A thought

[Geoffreykwright]

"Then just connect the two HW fresh water hoses together and then blow out the heater itself!!"

This is what I've been doing for years - works great!

[Bobg]

for 15 years wintering in 30 below weather, all I do is remove the hot and cold connections from the hotwater heater,  connect them together (bypass) with a double ended barb, and open the petcock on the heater, yes may be a little left in there but plenty of room for ice expansion, sometimes, after bypass, I install a hose from the pump to a gallon of pink stuff and run pump till the faucets show pink,
sometimes I get lazy and open the front water tank, vacuum whatever water is left in the tank, put a couple gallons of pink stuff in the forward tank, pump it till pink stuff comes out all the faucets, then vacuum out residual pink stuff from the tank, done,,
aft tank I simply remove  the hose from the valve under the counter and let it drain, no pink stuff needed for the aft tank, one year I pumped vodka through the lines, one year I used compressed air, very simple system to winterize,
I toyed with the idea of installing bypass valves but removing and connecting the hoses is so fast and easy i talk myself out of it.  I have never pumped pink stuff into the hot water heater, soooo easy to bypass, I have stubborn friends who still fill the entire hot water tank with the pink stuff, I just think, what a waste.

I had a year that after pump out, I left the holding tank through hull open while in the water, as they were going to pull boat that afternoon and i had to leave , in the spring I noticed the holding tank was completely full of water, must have filled up from the lake before they pulled the boat, froze during the winter and it didn't hurt a thing,  lucky im thinking, I know all the thru hulls should be open during winter storage, wasn't thinking the holding tank would fill while in the water.  I know now

[Jeff Kaplan]

I did install a by pass system last weekend. This hater heater does not have a drain valve, so I ordered a 1/2" ball valve with a drain port, that will be installed on the cold water hose before the check valve.  I will take a picture of the set up next weekend when all is finally done. Yes, I could have just disconnected the hot and cold and hook together, but next spring, I will only have to flip 2 levers and the water heater will be filled. Easy job, but working in such a small space with the coolant hoses right in the way posed a bit of a  challenge.