Making the New Water Heater Last

On a boat, particularly in a salt water environment, a lot of corrosion occurs. We usually do what we can on a boat to prevent, or at least delay, the corrosion.  We use materials that are resistant to corrosion, we paint things, and we even use replaceable sacrificial metals to protect other metals.  Well...most of the time anyway...

If you recall in January when I returned to the boat, one of the items I had to replace was the water heater as it had developed a leak.  Well, I ordered one and did the replacement and have to say I've been happy with the results.  Hot running water is a nice thing to have...particularly for washing dishes and taking showers.  And I hadn't really thought of it much until a discussion on the longevity, or lack thereof, of boat water heaters occurred on the Leopard owners Facebook group.  The original poster was wondering...or complaining...about how he was only getting a couple years out of replacement water heaters.  And, of course, the heater he mentioned was the same one that I had just installed.  The usual types of replies about favorite brands and/or how nothing was made well anymore occurred, and then there was one reply that made me think...well duh, why hadn't I thought of that.

A sacrificial anode for the water heater. that
is made by the same company

Even cheap residential water heaters at the local big-box hardware stores come with sacrificial anodes installed.  Why on earth doesn't the boat water heater have one.  We have sacrificial zincs on propellers and propeller shafts, in engine cooling systems, on outboard motors, and just about any other piece of metal that touches the water.  But unlike every house on land, these water heaters don't seem to come with a sacrificial anode.  I guess that is why the boat water heater has a one year warranty when, for about the same price, a residential water heater comes with a 6 year warranty.  Well, as it turns out, you can actually buy a sacrificial anode rod for a boat water heater.  So, not wanting to go through replacing the water heater again in a couple years, I did.

Out with the old...

Since the boat water heater doesn't have a dedicated mounting location for the anode, they are designed to replace the existing drain valve on the water heater.  It was a bit of a pain to remove the plastic drain valve (it would have been much easier if I had known to do this before I installed the water heater...which is why I'm telling you about it now) as there is limited clearance with all the connections on the front.  Installing the anode with the integrated drain valve is easier.

...in with the new.

While it may look like the drain valve is much smaller now, the actual opening inside that plastic valve is not much, if any, larger than on the replacement petcock. So I'm sure it will drain equally as slow either way.  Hopefully this $16 addition will extend the life of my new water heater by a few years.

Fixin' Things

Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't have called this blog "Fixing my boat in every location" as I think the majority of my posts deal with boat maintenance and repair.  And this one will be no different.

Having been unable to get out to the boat for almost two years left the boat gremlins plenty of time to break things.  I was actually fairly surprised that I haven't found more problems, but still have more than enough to keep me busy.  Fortunately one of my crew, Doug, joined me a week ago and he has been a great help as we tick things off the list.

As previously mentioned, one of the bigger items I found during my initial inspection of the boat was a leaking water heater.  Doug picked up a new one while en route to the boat, saving both shipping time and cost.  A few days ago we removed the old water heater and installed the new one.  A quick pressure test and....oops, forgot one hose clamp.  A second pressure test with the hose clamp installed and all is well in the fresh water system again. 

Of course, the leaking hot water heater did do us a bit of a favor by showing us that the electric bilge pump in the engine room was not working.  We discovered the float switch had broken free of its mount and was...well...floating.  After pumping about 14 gallons of water out of the bilge, my crew member was gracious enough to volunteer to work on that project (and having spent a lot of time in that engine room, I was happy to take him up on the offer).  He diagnosed that the problem with the system was that the float switch was not working as well as needing a new mount.  We decided to construct a new mount that would allow for easier maintenance, similar to the mount in the port engine room.  The new switch is now held securely in a new mount behind the engine where it belongs.

Mid "MacGuyver-ing" the new float switch mount.
No, the final version uses bolts and not electrical tape

I would like to say we gave the old water heater a fond send-off...but this thing has now tried to burn down my boat and sink it.

Mr. Broken Heater, meet Mr Dumpster.

Another maintenance item related to fresh water system was to clean and sanitize the fresh water tanks and lines.  This is a relatively simple, if not time consuming process of pumping the existing water out of the fresh water tanks, filling them up with new water, adding a little extra bleach to the mix, and running that solution through all the pipes.  Over the course of the past week and a half that was done (211 gallons is quite a bit of bleached water) and, after obtaining a new water filter for the under sink filter, the water on board is deemed once again safe.

We have had some wins in the maintenance department as well.  Another bilge pump, the main one in the port hull was inoperative but after disassembly and cleaning, we were able to get it running once again.  The raw water pump for the main reverse cycle air conditioning unit was also not working, but after removing the pump head, cleaning it and giving the motor a few spins by hand to free it, it is again among the working systems on the boat (a good thing too...as it is 28 degrees F outside as I type this but much warmer in the boat with the unit running in heat mode).  I even found a good deal on the replacement float switch.

So, things are coming along and the boat is getting back into proper shape.  Due to the cramped spaces and difficulty sourcing parts the projects always seem to take longer than you think it should, but definite progress is being made.

How Are You Heating That Water, Mr. Heater?

In a previous post I mentioned that after the engine work, I noticed that the water heater was no longer working using shore power.  I thought maybe the mechanics had tripped a breaker or knocked something while they were down in the engine room where the heater is located.  Well, what I found was far more disturbing.  It seems the water heater was trying to heat water with fire...

Note the burned and corroded wires and char marks.

Definitely not a good thing on a boat. From what I can tell, apparently whoever installed the water heater didn't find much of a need to secure the power cable.  The result is the 120v wires rubbed against the metal casing of the water heater until the wire sheath was compromised.  Then the combination of corrosion and the chafing likely caused heating and arcing of the wires which resulted in the extensive char marks on the inside of the electrical cover and casing around the electrical connections.  Basically, the start of an electrical fire.  It is fortunate that the wires played like a fuse and cut the power before a full on fire developed.

I cut away the burned and corroded wire, connected the wires back together according to the wiring diagram using marine grade heat-shrink crimp connectors.  To help prevent further issues of this sort, I also used some electrical tape as added anti-chafe protection, added a rubber grommet to the bare metal hole the power wire runs through, and secured the wire so it should not move around and chafe in the future.  I tested the heater and it is once again working just fine.  After a couple heating cycles, I went back and checked the connections just to verify that the heater wasn't pulling too much current and melting the wires and I found no damage.

So, once again, I have hot water on board that works with shore power.  And in a complete surprise, I didn't even find another problem to fix while I was working on the heater...so maybe I can start making a dent in "the list".