Hot Water Heater

[Joe Mascari]

I inherited a new Model S600 water heater. The instructions show the unit connecting directly to the engine water system as a closed loop system. The implication is that the heat exchanger resident in the heater for heating the water will somehow cool the engine. This seems pretty much impossible to me because no raw water is used to carry off the excess heat. I've called the manufacturer and I am hoping they get back to me this year. Until then has anyone had experience with this heater/heat exchanger? Am I missing something regarding thermal dynamics? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks - Joe M.

 

[Pete Vente]

Heat Exchange

It all depends. The heat-exchange water heaters that I have seen use the exhaust side of the raw water system to circulate through the heater, and then it spits it back into the exhaust. It's feasible (I'm guessing here) to use the freshwater side in a closed loop system. Just because it's in a closed loop doesn't preclude the normal heat exchange used by freshwater cooled engines (raw water cooling off the closed freshwater system). Are you saying your engine doesn't use raw water to cool it off ?

 

[Peggie Hall/Head Mistress]

Not familiar with who makes the S600, but

There's a drawing of a heat exchanger installtion on the Raritan website at: http://www.raritaneng.com/Products/Water_Heater/water_heater.htmlMost water heaters install the way, so tt should give you an idea of how it's supposed to work.

 

[Steve Dion]

Probably Seaward

Joe:I think that this is a Seaward unit (not sure), may also be a Attwood.The only thing that I can think of here is that if your engine is HOT (normal operating temp) the water that is circulating from your engine heat exchanger is going to circulate thru the water heater which is going to absorb heat (that is how the water in the heater heats up). The water should be going from the HOT side of your engine, thru the water heater (absorbing engine heat) and then thru the heater exchanger (cooling the loop water) and then back into the engine. So this may be the implication that the water heater is going to also lower the water temp. This is the same technique that you use when a car is over heating, turn on the heater to help dump some heat! DOES THIS MAKE SENSE?

 

[Jim McCue]

Its a pre-heater approach

One hose taps into the hot side of the engine/antifreeze (closed system) colletor hoses just before the engine heat exchanger and circulates that hot antifreeze to the house waterheater as a jump start to any temp boost you are getting from the "electric side" of the fresh water heater. After running thru the house H2O heater it returns to the engine to toast up again.JiM

 

[Joe M]

Got the Answer

Seaward, has in fact answered my question quickly. i don't know much about Seaward but they just got some points for a quick response.The input to the heat exchanger is from the hot side of the engine through the heat exchanger to the riser. This makes sense to me! What they did not specify in the instructions was this is an alternative to a fresh water coolin system.Thanks to everyone for the help.Joe M.