I bypassed the hot water heater and pumped the pink anti throughout the entire fresh water system. I would rather not put the anti in the hot water heater as I've been doing the last two years. When I bought the boat, the fellow from the dealer suggested I isolate the heater then pump the anti directly into it until pink comes out the cold water hose. This causes a problem in the spring. Trying to empty all the anti from the heater is a real pain. I gather from this forum all I really need to do is isolate the heater and then drain the hot water heater. This year, I did this and drained most of the fresh water in the tank. My concern is I cannot seem to drain all the water from the tank. I tried blowing into the hot water hose and did get water expelling from the cold water hose. However, this was exhausting and in no way is the heater completely drained. Do I need to be concerned with the residual amount of fresh water in the tank? Winters here are brutal.
Winterizing the hot water heater
- Thread starter insamji1
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I am an Rv mechanic in Alberta where the temp gets to -25 c for months on end and we always just drain the water heaters and flush the remainder of the system with RV anti freeze ( do not forget the city water intake if you have one or wash down system) No antifreeze in hot water heater and in all my 40 years in this business no cracked tanks
almost empty is fine - there is plenty of room for expansion of whatever small amount remains and it will not cause any damage.
I've noticed that when I bypass my hot water heater, the tank doesn't drain well until I pull the inlet and outlet hoses off the tank, then it drains OK. This is even with the hot and cold faucets open at the sink. Another good reason to bypass the heater is that you are not filling the tank with 6 gallons or so of anti-freeze, at $5 a pop.
I also bypass the hot water tank and drain it. The next problem is how to get rid of the water you drain out. This year I used a short hose to drain it into a bucket. I put an electric water pump in the bucket and put the hose through the port locker hatch above to drain out the rear of the boat.
I use a $6.00 drill pump from Wal*Mart... Don't forget to open the pressure relief valve....
By-passing the tank is easy but may be different depending upon your plumbing. It takes me about 30 seconds to insert that brass nipple...
I installed a couple of tee valves with a connecting line at the hot water heater inlet/outlet. When the heater is in use the valves open the inbound/outbound water lines and shut off the cross line. To winterize, I switch the valves prior to antifreeze addition, open the hot water drain line and crack open the ventilation valve (pressure relief). I've done this for the past 5 years and have not had problems. My first year of ownership I pumped several gallons of antifreeze in the hot water heater and it took most of the season to purge the tank. The bypass system came as a kit.
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