leaking water heater

[garethreeves]

The hot water heater on 375 has rusted through. I'm fine with bypassing it or replacing it at the moment, whatever gets me up and running again asap.

1) Has anyone replaced. What did you use?
2) Can I just bypass it?

I thought i was good to go by capping the supply to the tank out of the pump but then I also had water coming out of the hot water return (supply to the faucets) (I assume this is happening from where the single faucets mix hot and cold water and the cold water is just making its way back down the hot supply line). I think I can cap this as well. But then I realized that those big hoses running back towards the engine are for a heat exchanger.

Can I just cap the supply and return to the faucets and leave the heat exchanger running as is with an empty tank until I get a replacement tank?

Thanks for any and all help.

Gareth

 

[Jackdaw]

You can bypass it using the same hoses that you use when you winterize the heater/water system. If you don't have one you can put one up at an RV shop.

It's OK for warm engine water to run through it. Just make sure you do not turn on the 110V heating element.

 

[garethreeves]

I see - that makes more sense. Let me check I have this straight...

I unscrew the line from the water pump to the heater (cold) and unscrew the line from the faucets to the heater (hot). Then I connect them together. Now the pump supplies cold water to both the hot and cold water lines.

That makes tons of sense. Thanks!

 

[Steve Dion]

You can probably pick up a direct replacement at your local West Marine or other marine outlets.

I would think the biggest issue would be burping the lines whether it is bypassing or replacing the unit.

 

[garethreeves]

So I finally replaced the tank last night. I assume that I know have air in the coolant system (I lost some when switching out the tank and had to top up the coolant).

Can anyone point me towards what I need to do for bleeding the air out of the system?

Thanks