Water Heater ByPass, Catalina 34 MkII, Hull #1472,

[Stewartn]

Trying to connect the bypass on the Hot Water Heater. Cannot reach the cold water inlet plumbing. No room for a wrench and it's inches from the bulkhead and pointed down. Impossible even for midget hands. Anyone ever move the Hot Water Heater to re-do the plumbing fittings on the rear of the heater? If so please advise how. Have been advised by local "know it alls" just to put the by pass on the hoses going and out of the heater. Makes it an easy job, but still will have some residual water in the hose for the winter. Any help gladly appreciated, Thx.
Stewart Napoleon
Desiree, C34 Mk II, #1472
stewartn@optonline.net

[tonywright]

I think that you are attemting to remove the hoses going to and from the engine. No need to remove those for the winter, since they are filled with antifreeze already! Don't remove these or else the engine antifreeze will leak out.

For winterization, all you need to do is remove both of the tranaprent reinforced hoses at the back of the heater. One is the cold water inflow, and the other is the hot water outflow. The hot water outflow has the small black backflow preventer on it. Remove the hose clamps, and pull off both the inlet hose and the outlet hose and connect them via the backflow preventer.

Open up the drain valve, and when the flow of water stops, connect the dinghy pump to the cold inflow and pump until you get the last few pints of water out.

Hope this helps

Tony

[Stewartn]

Thanks for the info on the water heater. I am not looking at the heat exchanger hoses. I am looking at the clear hoses. Still can't get to the cold water intake fitting on the heater. No Room. You ever move the heater? Where is it bolted in the rear, under the sink?  BTW, that black ck valve is on my cold water line, not the hot. It's a plastic Shur Flo, etc. I always assumed it was there to keep any bad stuff in the heater from back flowing and contaminating the whole tank, i.e. the heat exchanger leaking and engine antifreeze in the heater. The black thing would keep that out of the water supply. Should it be on the HOT?

Used to own a Tanzer 26 and I remember seeing emails from Nepean Sailing Club. That you? If so say hello to the Tanzerites.

Thx/Rgds

[tonywright]

I could be wrong about which hose the backflow preventer is on. I was going from memory. Yes, we are a club strong in Tanzers! But recently more and more Catalinas.

I have never had to move the water heater, since there is just enough room to get at the hose clamp and hose to remove them. It is a bit of a tight squeeze. Maybe yours has been moved by the PO?

Tony

[Steve Sayian]

Stewart,

My backflow preventer is ion the input side of the line.

On my '99 MK II, the input and output hoses are very accessable.  The heater is mounted on the Stb dide under the dinette.  Both connections face forward and are easy to get to to remove hoses.  I just winterized my boat last weekend and had no trouble in getting in there.  Your boat is only ~30 boats newer than mine.  A picture might help if you can get one and point out the problem.

Steve

[tommyt]

My situation is the same as Steves on a 2004 MKII.

I disconnect the backflow  in the input and disconnect the outflow and combine them with an L fitting. That bypasses the hot water tank and I then charge the total system with RV water system antifreeze. Easy enought to get too and I then know with the HW heater drained and the lines charged that I am protected. In the spring I flush the system before reconnecting the HW heater.

[Momentum M]

Hi guys...the bypass on the hot water tank is a good idea if your gonna use RV antifreeze. 
My friend (Catalina 32) and I simply blow out our lines.
We open the drainage valve on the hot water tank (I've attached permanently a small piece of garden hose to direct the water in the bilge).
Then, with a small compressor we pressurized the lines and open each tap in succession.  First the galley's cold and hot tap, the head's and the outside shower head.  Then we do it again.  It takes a full 5 minutes to do the 2 cycles!!!
My friend do bring his pump home (he as installed quick disconnect on the hoses and spade terminals on the wires).
I leave mine on the boat but I've "T"ed off on both sides of the pump.  I've got a 14"-16" hose on both side of the pump.  On the "in" side...I dip the hose into a gallon of antifreeze and get the pump going.  On the out side, I recuperate the antifreeze.  I reinstall the caps at the end of my hoses and everthing is done.
When Spring come...I fill my fresh water tank with water.  On the out side of the pump I remove the cap (of the small pipe) and flush out the pink stuff.
Voilà!!!  System is ready to go...no smell or taste.
To each is own...but after the original modification to the pipes....the entire winterizing might take 10 minutes in the Fall and not even 5 in the Spring.

[reedbr]

Just sending my agreement on what was said plus a couple pics, '97 C34 MKII.

(1)  I just winterized yesterday.  I bypass from where the backflow preventer used to be on the cold line (I removed the backflow preventer after testing showed it wasn't preventing anything).  I connect it to the hot line on the tank which is easy to get to.  5/16 nut driver and 2 minutes time.  I blow out the tank by mouth.  Feeling...light...headed...

(2)  Yes, I have removed that hot water heater once.  It was a bear.  Removing the mounting screws, electrical connections, and hoses was bad but not awful.  Getting it out after it was loose was the frustrating part.  I finally trimmed the fiberglass opening a little and got it out and back in.  6 knuckle job.

(3)  Pics I forgot I posted of the loose tank several years ago: http://users.erols.com/reedbr/c34/index.htm

The longest part of the fresh water winterization for me is emptying the tanks.

[arthur]

I have a 34, 97 MKII, hull 1307.  I've winterized it three years now and I've never drained the hot water tank.  I pour gallons of antifreeze into each water tank (fore and aft tanks) and run hot and cold faucets until I see pink from all faucets.  This takes about 8 to 10 gallons of antifreeze.  I cut cost by collecting the used antifreeze.  This past spring I collected 5 gallons before it didn't look pink enough to me to reuse.  A fellow boater gave me this suggestion.

Sometimes I think I should try and drain the hot water tank as it takes quite a while to get pink from the hot water faucets, but I look at the valves and they look they have never been opened.

[tonywright]

Arthur, the problem with your approach is that even when the tanks are empty, there are still 6 gallons approx of water in the HW tank. So when you pump the antifreeze through, it is being mixed with and diluted by the water in the tank. So what you are collecting is already diluted and no longer gives you the rated level of protection.

That is why most of us remove the hoses from the inlet and outlet pipes, and drain the tank. Draining the tank is a two step process. You open the drain valve low down at the back of the tank and let it drain into the bilge. When this stops runnning, blow air through the cold water inlet (I use to dinghy pump to avoid that light-headed feeling). This will pump out the rest of the water.

You can then directly connect the inlet and outlet hoses together, either using the backflow preventer or a plastic connector from Home Depot. Then when you pump the antifreeze through, you will use far less of the product, and it will not be diluted.

Tony

[arthur]

I'll give that a try next year.  Thanks for the advice.