311 Hot Water Heater
- Thread starter Bob Cowan
- Start date
I've drained my water system before, not specifically the tank, and not had to do anything crazy to get it filled again. Mine is located under the wood shelf inside the cockpit locker, and you can get down to a valve on it if you need to by removing the panels. Takes a bit...
Worst case you'll get air in the line while it fills. I would definitely not turn it on until you purge things and show good flow from the hot water side.
I would flush it before I turned-it on. You shouldn't run the hot water AC heating element unless their is water in the tank or you'll just burn it out.
Nothing special about filling it with fresh water should be necessary; however, did the previous owner drain out anything other than fresh water (e.g., the coolant out of the engine)?
Nothing special about filling it with fresh water should be necessary; however, did the previous owner drain out anything other than fresh water (e.g., the coolant out of the engine)?
It seems most people do not join SBO until they have a problem. People should join as soon as they have a boat, then read Q&A even though they do not have a problem at first. You'd have seen the following reply to a post a few days ago:::
My Attwood owners manual says : to set the internal air "gap", open the hot faucet closest to the water heater. Have all water at its normal "cold" temperature(not heated). Open the pressure/temp valve handle to straight out. Let water drain as much as it will to be level with valve opening. Push valve handle so that it snaps shut. A few drips from the valve does not mean it is defective, and might be normal when the water is heated.
My Attwood owners manual says : to set the internal air "gap", open the hot faucet closest to the water heater. Have all water at its normal "cold" temperature(not heated). Open the pressure/temp valve handle to straight out. Let water drain as much as it will to be level with valve opening. Push valve handle so that it snaps shut. A few drips from the valve does not mean it is defective, and might be normal when the water is heated.
I've never heard of that being an issue, Ron. Is the "air gap" to deal with the air hammer for hard piped systems? If so, I wouldn't worry because you have pretty flexible pipes on a sailboat, the pressure water almost always builds "behind" the shut-off of the valve; and, the underlying pressures are lower in psi.
You will have a hard time actually filling the tank and hoses completely in the real course of events anyway. When you run-out of water (before you refill or switch tanks) you'll be just filling it from the tanks.
You will have a hard time actually filling the tank and hoses completely in the real course of events anyway. When you run-out of water (before you refill or switch tanks) you'll be just filling it from the tanks.
As suggested earlier its possible in addition to draining the heater the last owner isolated it from the engine and drained the coolant from the internal coil too. Re filling the heater is simple, the coil is more complicated - See my last post, I had to install a completely new heater.