I guess this isn't "ask a Hunter owner", since I'm not asking anything, but here's some info others might find useful. We bought a 2005 H306 last September, and after having some problems winterizing the fresh water system (I think we had an airlock in the water pump), the dealer had it done for us. Interesting item #1: When it was done, we noticed the mechanic had pulled the "hot water out" and the "cold water in" lines from the water heater, and plugged one into the other, thus making it unnecessary to put antifreeze into the water heater. The heater was drained into the bilge and left empty over the winter, while the cold water tank only took about 3 gallons of non-toxic antifreeze to pump through the rest of the system. Interesting item #2: When we re-commissioned the water system a few weeks ago, we again had a problem with the pump not seeming to work. (This was the same problem we had when we initially tried to winterize it, after we apparently pumped water out until we allowed air to enter the pipe from the water tank.) It seems that the problem was, in fact, an airlock in the pump. When I unscrewed the water tube exiting the pump, which allowed water to flow out of the pump, it seems that this "re-primed" the pump. After hooking it up again, the pump worked fine. I guess the lesson is: beware the airlock. Interesting item #3: We had a devil of a time "un-bypassing" the water heater at first, because we couldn't get the plastic water tubes apart where the mechanic had joined them to complete the bypass. The type of tubes I'm talking about are plastic, with blue tubing used for cold and red for hot, and black plastic for the elbows and couplers where the tubes join one another. They must be the same type used on all new Hunters, I'm guessing, so this is probably relevant to lots of folks. After talking to the mechanic, here's the secret: to undo a coupling, you push the tube or fitting _into_ the other fitting, and then there's a thin black plastic sleeve which is part of the coupling. This has to slide one way or the other, and then you pull the pieces apart. They come off easily then. The mildly complicated part is figuring out which of the 2 sides the thin plastic sleeve is a permanent part of. Once we knew the secret, it was reasonably easy. By the way, the bypass was; 1) pull the red "hot" tube (and its black 90 degree elbow) off of the "hot out" fitting on the water heater, 2) pull the black plastic T fitting (which is connected to 2 cold water lines) off the "cold in" fitting on the water heater, 3) plug one of these into the other, completing the bypass We had to unscrew one of the cold water lines (this one was a hand-only plastic screw fitting) from the water pump body (nearby) to gain enough clearance to move the T fitting far enough to do the bypass. You also may have to undo one of the clamps which holds all the plastic water tubes against the bulkhead in the locker, again to gain clearance to move things. Anyway, this is all easy once you've done it once, but very non-intuitive...
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Or you could make a manifold
And avoid having to fool with doing the by-pass everyfall and undoing it in the spring. That is simple and all you'll need are 3 ball-cock valves and a few T's for the pipes. ! ballcock goes in the inlet, one one the outlet, and the 3rd goes in the line which you will T between the inlet and oulet. Normal summer position: inlet and outlet balcocks opened, T-line ballcock shut off. Winterizing: Shut both inlet and outlet ballcocks, and open T-line. Open drain valve and empty water heater. Run your pink anti-freeze though the system. nothing goes in water heater. If interested, I am going to the boat tomorrow and can take a picture. Have a nice season.
And avoid having to fool with doing the by-pass everyfall and undoing it in the spring. That is simple and all you'll need are 3 ball-cock valves and a few T's for the pipes. ! ballcock goes in the inlet, one one the outlet, and the 3rd goes in the line which you will T between the inlet and oulet. Normal summer position: inlet and outlet balcocks opened, T-line ballcock shut off. Winterizing: Shut both inlet and outlet ballcocks, and open T-line. Open drain valve and empty water heater. Run your pink anti-freeze though the system. nothing goes in water heater. If interested, I am going to the boat tomorrow and can take a picture. Have a nice season.
Air lock
When you have drained the water tanks either for winterizing or just run out of water,all you need to do is open a faucet and this will allow the air to be pushed out. If you don't open a faucet the pump will just run and pump no water due to the air in the pump, these pumps are self priming and its very easy to open a faucet somewhere.
When you have drained the water tanks either for winterizing or just run out of water,all you need to do is open a faucet and this will allow the air to be pushed out. If you don't open a faucet the pump will just run and pump no water due to the air in the pump, these pumps are self priming and its very easy to open a faucet somewhere.
Water heater bypass
Claud L." The H 306 has no room for a bypass to be installed in the area of the water heater. We purchased a bypass kit and tried to install it, but way too little room. The message here is that Hunter went so far as to install neat and effective instant disconnects in the boat (and I assume other recent Hunter boats) but left the owner with absolutely no instructions for their use. How dumb is that?
Claud L." The H 306 has no room for a bypass to be installed in the area of the water heater. We purchased a bypass kit and tried to install it, but way too little room. The message here is that Hunter went so far as to install neat and effective instant disconnects in the boat (and I assume other recent Hunter boats) but left the owner with absolutely no instructions for their use. How dumb is that?
Flexible hose
I like the idea of a manifold as described below and perhaps I will install one next year. I had the same winterizing problem last fall on my newly acquired 2000 H340. What I did was disconnect the cold-in and hot-out lines from the water heater and install hose barbs on each line and on the heater. I then installed a piece of flexible hose between the lines to short circuit the heater. The water system was then flushed with antifreeze without having to fill the heater. I drained the heater and flushed it with a gallon of pink antifreeze. This spring, flushed the entire water system of antifreeze before plumbing the lines back into the heater. I used short lengths of flexible hose to re-connect the lines to the heater. Once you get all the hoses and barbs in place it makes it easy to change the system around when you need to winterize.
I like the idea of a manifold as described below and perhaps I will install one next year. I had the same winterizing problem last fall on my newly acquired 2000 H340. What I did was disconnect the cold-in and hot-out lines from the water heater and install hose barbs on each line and on the heater. I then installed a piece of flexible hose between the lines to short circuit the heater. The water system was then flushed with antifreeze without having to fill the heater. I drained the heater and flushed it with a gallon of pink antifreeze. This spring, flushed the entire water system of antifreeze before plumbing the lines back into the heater. I used short lengths of flexible hose to re-connect the lines to the heater. Once you get all the hoses and barbs in place it makes it easy to change the system around when you need to winterize.
Clarification needed...
You said, "the heater was drained into the bilge and left empty over the winter..." Was the water just left to sit in the bilge? 'Cuz bilges should be left as dry as possible any time the boat is to sit. And btw, all faucets should be left open once the system has been winterized. Before turning on the pump again in the spring, fill the tank at least 1/3...'cuz ya gotta have enough water in it to prime the pump and start the flow through the plumbing, or the pump will just pull air into the plumbing again. After reconnecting the plumbing to the water heater, recommission the fresh water system.
You said, "the heater was drained into the bilge and left empty over the winter..." Was the water just left to sit in the bilge? 'Cuz bilges should be left as dry as possible any time the boat is to sit. And btw, all faucets should be left open once the system has been winterized. Before turning on the pump again in the spring, fill the tank at least 1/3...'cuz ya gotta have enough water in it to prime the pump and start the flow through the plumbing, or the pump will just pull air into the plumbing again. After reconnecting the plumbing to the water heater, recommission the fresh water system.
Water Heater Manifold
Very simple to make and almost no space needed. As usual, Peggy is right, and all 3 ballcocks should be left in the opened position once the heater has been drained and winterizing is completed. The picture shows the handles in the "summer position", with both the inlet and outlet opened, and the T-line shut off. Parts needed can be seen on picture: 3 ballcocks, 2 Ts and connectors. My winterizing is short and sweet even though I live in an area that sees -30. Simply close inlet and outlet and open T. Drain heater. Empty fresh water tanks and put a couple of gallons of antifreeze in each. Run antifreeze through the system from both tanks until it comes out of each faucet. Shut DC from system. Open all faucets and ballcocks. When on a cruise, one main advantage of this system is that if you run in a problem with the water heater itself, you can immediately bypass it and still have water onboard, and do not have to abort cruise plans to make repairs immediately!
Very simple to make and almost no space needed. As usual, Peggy is right, and all 3 ballcocks should be left in the opened position once the heater has been drained and winterizing is completed. The picture shows the handles in the "summer position", with both the inlet and outlet opened, and the T-line shut off. Parts needed can be seen on picture: 3 ballcocks, 2 Ts and connectors. My winterizing is short and sweet even though I live in an area that sees -30. Simply close inlet and outlet and open T. Drain heater. Empty fresh water tanks and put a couple of gallons of antifreeze in each. Run antifreeze through the system from both tanks until it comes out of each faucet. Shut DC from system. Open all faucets and ballcocks. When on a cruise, one main advantage of this system is that if you run in a problem with the water heater itself, you can immediately bypass it and still have water onboard, and do not have to abort cruise plans to make repairs immediately!
Replies
Sorry to take so long to get back to this... To Peggie: no, we didn't leave water in the bilge. What the bilge pump didn't pump out was sponged dry. We probably did leave the faucets closed, though. To Claude L: your bypass looks like a fine idea, and easy to use. For the 306 though, I think the point is, first of all, that there isn't even close to enough room to put that all in there. Maybe 5 inches between the water heater and the bulkhead. But most importantly, as wjssr said, the type of plastic water lines that Hunter is putting on its new boats (or at least on the 2005 H306) seem to be all quick disconnects. So once you know how they work, you pull the hot and the cold off the tank and join them together, and you're done. This is ignoring the tight clearances, which makes it just a little bit harder than that. But not much harder. Unless you don't know how the whole thing works, which was the point of my posting. As for the airlock: we had the faucets open and the pump was on and pumping, but nothing was happening. We let this go on for as long as we dared: we were worried about burning out the pump. But then unscrewing the water outlet from the pump (which is down lower than the tank) allowed water to flow out, and seemed to have primed the pump again. At least that's all I can figure as to what happened. Well, whatever happend, it's working fine now! Maybe next fall we'll get confused again... Regards, and thanks for the discussion. Jay
Sorry to take so long to get back to this... To Peggie: no, we didn't leave water in the bilge. What the bilge pump didn't pump out was sponged dry. We probably did leave the faucets closed, though. To Claude L: your bypass looks like a fine idea, and easy to use. For the 306 though, I think the point is, first of all, that there isn't even close to enough room to put that all in there. Maybe 5 inches between the water heater and the bulkhead. But most importantly, as wjssr said, the type of plastic water lines that Hunter is putting on its new boats (or at least on the 2005 H306) seem to be all quick disconnects. So once you know how they work, you pull the hot and the cold off the tank and join them together, and you're done. This is ignoring the tight clearances, which makes it just a little bit harder than that. But not much harder. Unless you don't know how the whole thing works, which was the point of my posting. As for the airlock: we had the faucets open and the pump was on and pumping, but nothing was happening. We let this go on for as long as we dared: we were worried about burning out the pump. But then unscrewing the water outlet from the pump (which is down lower than the tank) allowed water to flow out, and seemed to have primed the pump again. At least that's all I can figure as to what happened. Well, whatever happend, it's working fine now! Maybe next fall we'll get confused again... Regards, and thanks for the discussion. Jay
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