hot water tank replacement

[Tom Glennon]

Happy New Year to all!

As one of my winter projects, I just replaced the rusting Raritan hot water heater w/heat exchanger on my 1987 (354) catalina.

After having reconnected the heat exchanger hoses, it occured to me that I probably need to bleed the system.... has anyone else done this swapout? Any comments or suggestions?

[Ran139]

Tom this is on my "to-do" list. Did you replace with the same unit or a different mfg?
   Can you give me any insights to this project?

   Ran

[Tom Glennon]

Ran: I replaced the old Raritan water heater with the new model.

The newer one was modified slightly, in that the heat exchanger hookups are two separate pipe connections, rather than the original equipment, which had a rather bulky brass one-piece fitting which then had the hose connections.

Upon my disassembly of this I discovered that one of the connections wasn't fitted tightly, and was weeping.  The new tank is a much better design.

On my boat, the wood below is all gloss-varnished with the screws to the draw frame "bunged".  After removing the frame, I replaced the screws with bolts, rebunged the holes, and refinished with 3 coats of varnish.  This way, if I need to remove the frame in the future, all I need to do is unscrew the nuts from the back of the fiberglass wall.

While I have the sink out, I deceided to retrofit the drains with the modification described in the "projects" section.  I have all pieces ready to reassemble ... I hope it all works as good as it looks!!