Update on the water heater...

[sailme88]

UPDATE....The old tank is out.. Large rust out hole in the bottom. I removed the sink to get access. The new tank arrived.. Aluminum and stainless and is a cube. Currently changing the plumbing. Here in Maine we need to treat for freezing. RV antifreeze is the preferred route. Old tank would get drained. The inlet and outlet lines would need to be released from the barbs ( always good for cuts and bruises) and then hooked together. Closing this loop, RV antifreeze is then run through all water lines. NOW the hoses will stay in place. A by-pass manifold with 3 ball valves will allow the same activity by simply turning valves..

 

[MitchM]

i winterized a isotemp stainless - steel top of the line cylindrical 6 G hot water heater with 'minus 50 undiluted pink stuff anitfreeze.' temps on the shore of erie got to minus 10. the OEM tank suffered severe freeze damage which deformed the bottom 1/2 of the elliptical stainless steel seal plate, thus creating a slow leak that caused water in the HWH to leak into the bilge when i turned on the HWH during spring startup. since my hwh has an antifreeze loop off the engine coolant system, to heat the water, when t here is insufficient h 2 0 in the water tank, the closed loop engine coolant circulating thru a 1/2 empty hwh tank got too hot, resulting in an engine overheat alarm . after fussing over why my HWH did n't work, and ordering extra parts , and blocking the engine hwh heat loop , i gave up. i spent at least 60 ours of time trying to engineer solutions to my problem.

i got an air compressor. now i drain the hwh , blow out the lines , and leave the cover plate off . the best mechanic at our marina said that he saw 'minus fifty' antifreeze in its bottles tun to slush in his unheated shop.

 

[Tally Ho]

i winterized a isotemp stainless - steel top of the line cylindrical 6 G hot water heater with 'minus 50 undiluted pink stuff anitfreeze.' temps on the shore of erie got to minus 10. the OEM tank suffered severe freeze damage which deformed the bottom 1/2 of the elliptical stainless steel seal plate, thus creating a slow leak that caused water in the HWH to leak into the bilge when i turned on the HWH during spring startup. since my hwh has an antifreeze loop off the engine coolant system, to heat the water, when t here is insufficient h 2 0 in the water tank, the closed loop engine coolant circulating thru a 1/2 empty hwh tank got too hot, resulting in an engine overheat alarm . after fussing over why my HWH did n't work, and ordering extra parts , and blocking the engine hwh heat loop , i gave up. i spent at least 60 ours of time trying to engineer solutions to my problem.

i got an air compressor. now i drain the hwh , blow out the lines , and leave the cover plate off . the best mechanic at our marina said that he saw 'minus fifty' antifreeze in its bottles tun to slush in his unheated shop.

I drain mine and bypass it. Then run pink stuff through the water lines.

i thought the pink stuff was supposed to turn slushy in extreme cold, just not freeze solid and expand.

Greg

 

[MitchM]

i think 'slushy' equals an expansion of volume. otherwise it would not have deformed the elliptical isotemp cover plates so much they would never seal gin...

 

[dziedzicmj]

i don't think you need to put AF into the water heater.

Use the bypass (two valve solution). Drain it and then, if you want to make sure nothing is left there, blow the water remnants out. Last fall, I found that in order to drain it completely (and quickly) I had to "open" one of the feed lines. Otherwise it was painfully slow draining.

I use AF only in the water lines (after engaging the bypass). I blow it out with pressured air after making sure it reached each faucet. This way, all lines are empty (or almost) for the winter.

 

[sailme88]

i don't think you need to put AF into the water heater.

Use the bypass (two valve solution). Drain it and then, if you want to make sure nothing is left there, blow the water remnants out. Last fall, I found that in order to drain it completely (and quickly) I had to "open" one of the feed lines. Otherwise it was painfully slow draining.

I use AF only in the water lines (after engaging the bypass). I blow it out with pressured air after making sure it reached each faucet. This way, all lines are empty (or almost) for the winter.

To break the air lock you are opening a FEED LINE... how about tripping open the PRV...? ( pressure relief valve)

 

[Captain Larry-DH]

i don't think you need to put AF into the water heater.

Use the bypass (two valve solution). Drain it and then, if you want to make sure nothing is left there, blow the water remnants out. Last fall, I found that in order to drain it completely (and quickly) I had to "open" one of the feed lines. Otherwise it was painfully slow draining.

I use AF only in the water lines (after engaging the bypass). I blow it out with pressured air after making sure it reached each faucet. This way, all lines are empty (or almost) for the winter.

What he said
Last year I did the same. By blowing out the pink stuff there is probably less foul growth in the lines, too.

 

[Tally Ho]

To break the air lock you are opening a FEED LINE... how about tripping open the PRV...? ( pressure relief valve)

That is the way I do it....and I put compressed air in through the TP valve to speed up the draining.

Greg