aquacraft hot waterheater expected temp.

[Jeff Kaplan]

well, # 219, sedona sunset,  is almost ready to launch. another miserable weekend up here in the n.e. so we're postponed till after memorial day. got diesel started today. had heat exchanger worked on and had air block so engine overheated but resolved that problem by adding more antifreeze, twice. runs great now, but my question is about the hot water temp. out of the faucet when the engine is running. after about 20 minutes of running to make sure all was ok, i stated the water pressure system and opened up the hot water  faucet but  the water was anything but hot. it was much warmer than the cold water, but not hot at all. as this is my first experience with hot water on board, my c27 didn't have a water heater, i don't know what to expect. i'm sure when under shorepower, the water should get hot,  by the way i turned up the setting on the heater to over 150, what temp. should i expect to get just on coolant going thru the water heater? all comments will be greatly appreciated. i can't wait to get my boat finally into the water to enjoy my first full season.

[Randy Stolze]

Jeff,

     The engine will only heat the hot water heater to 160 degrees after about an half hour of working under load. The 25XP has a 160 thermostat. I don't think I could get my engine to 160 in neutral at the dock.

 Regards!

 Randy

[David Sanner]

Jeff, what Randy says sounds about right for my 25XP.

If you really curious you could make sure your boat is tied down
well and put it in gear and run it for awhile.

One note, if the engine isn't getting up to temp neither will
the faucet water.  I recently replaced my thermostat because
my engine wasn't even getting up to 160 ... and it took a long
time just to get above 120.  (I was concerned about carbon
build up at lower operating temps)   Now the engine temp warms
much quicker and I have hot water not just warm water at the faucet.

[Ron Hill]

Jeff : As mentioned, you'll need to get the operating temperature of the engine up to 160degrees  and usually hold it there(under load) for about 30 min.  Then you have warm, not hot water.

Another BIG factor is the temperature of the raw (outside) cooling water that flows thru the heat exchanger.  I had to dive under the boat last week and the water in the Chesapeake is 60 degrees - COOL.  Further up in the NE the water is only 50 degrees.  So factor that in when you're trying to get hot water!  

[Stu Jackson]

Try: http://www.c34ia.org/faq-pages/faq-water-heater.html

This is one take on the subject, but what you'll continue to find is that many of the questions may have already been covered on the FAQ section of the main C34 website.  Between that, Projects and the search engine here on the message board, there's lots of information.

Jeff, with your older boat (#219), I would urge you to read the FAQs completely.  The reason is that those were the first questions asked when the boats were first built, and are a tremendous source of information for those of you (us ) with "good old boats."

Any heat exchanger type of process takes some time to work, so the hot water heater is NOT instantaneous.  BTW, the electric heater side will do the trick in about 15 minutes.  We turn ours on, then make sure it's off after 5 minutes, or else the water becomes dangerously scalding.