Water heater replacement project - 270 DA

b_arrington

Well-Known Member
GOLD Sponsor
Feb 21, 2007
3,469
Setauket, NY
Boat Info
Back Cove 37
AB Ventus 9VL
Engines
Cummins QSC 8.3 600
I'm taking over a bunch of maintenance on my inlaw's 1998 270 DA. One of the project's I'm tackling for the spring is replacement of their hot water heater. I thought I'd share some pics of the project along the way.

To start, I noticed during winterization that there was a ton of corrosion in the corner of the heater. I wasn't sure if the tank itself was leaking, but it looked bad. Also, their water system has a horrendous smell that I'm trying to rectify and I figured getting rid of the ancient tank would be a start.

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The tank was original, and looked like it was melting away. As it turns out, it was installed directly on the shelf there, and water from years of cleaning had gotten under there and taken it's toll.

Here's a pic of the back side of the tank. You can see the corrosion there too, plus all the dirt and grime of 24 years of operation. I wanted to clean that up too.

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Now it was time to try to remove the tank. I opened the front to clip the 120VAC wires easily, removed the 15 MM pex hoses from the elbows, and got the overflow hose cut off. Easy so far. It was fastened by 2 screws each in 2 attachment feet. The front ones came our surprisingly easy. The back ones - were hidden and really hard to get at. So I tried to just pull it out. No dice.

But what happened is the case of the heater basically crumbled. The aluminum bottom was totally gone, and the back panel had gaping corrosion holed in it. As the cover came off sopping wet and stinking fiberglass insulation fell off. You can see it falling in the bilge below. This boat suffered a near sinking last year, and I'm sure that was mostly responsible for the wet insulation.

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Once the cover was out of the way along with wads of the insulation, and the main tank was visible. Turns out it's round under that square case. The mounting bracket is actually attached to the tank itself, not the thin frame. Eventually I moved enough of the wiring and hoses to engage the screws with help of a long extension on a cordless driver. After that the tank came out easily.

Here's a pic of it on my workbench with most of the fittings removed.
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Once out, I was left with a puddle of goo and insulation. I'm in the process of cleaning that up along with the rest of the bilge, but a need a hose and warmer weather to do it.

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In the mean time, I've got all the fittings attached to the new Kuuma 5 gallon tank. The dimensions are almost the same in every respect. The Kuuma tank comes with no fittings, so I was able to clean up are reuse all the old fittings. One difference is the pressure relief value needs a 3/4" threaded to 1/2" barb fitting vs. a 1/2" threaded to 1/2" barb. A trip to Ace took care of that.

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Note the areas circled in red. These are nipples for engine heat exchanger heating. This boat is raw water cooled so doesn't have a heat exchanger function. The nipples on the old tank were severely corroded and the loop had gunk it it, so I just clipped them short and pinched them closed.

I also fabricated some spacer blocks to keep the tank a bit elevated. I used some spare 1/2 Starboard I had laying around. I made spaces for under each mounting bracket, plus under the center for support. The center ones will he held in place with a stainless screw, and the bracket ones just with the mounting screws.

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That's it for now until I can hose things down.

I'm also working on replacing the batteries, the dead battery charger, and all the dash panels with a Flounder Pounder dash panel kit.
 
Good job! You rightly noted that the PEX tubing is 15MM. I did not realize that when I changed my water heater and couldn't figure out why the ½" PEX I got at Home Depot wouldn't seal, although it seemed to fit.
Yep, I looked at the stamp on the fitting. Notably my 2006 Sea Ray used 1/2” PEX.
 
Note the areas circled in red. These are nipples for engine heat exchanger heating. This boat is raw water cooled so doesn't have a heat exchanger function. The nipples on the old tank were severely corroded and the loop had gunk it it, so I just clipped them short and pinched them closed.

Can you elaborate on that? My boat is RWC and had the heat exchanger function ... at least originally. Mine was already bypassed when I got it due to the heat exchanger in/out being rotted away on the heater, so the in/out on the engine was plugged.
 
Can you elaborate on that? My boat is RWC and had the heat exchanger function ... at least originally. Mine was already bypassed when I got it due to the heat exchanger in/out being rotted away on the heater, so the in/out on the engine was plugged.

The boat doesn’t have the plumbing for the hot water loop from the engine. Kuuma doesn’t make a tank in the configuration I needed without the fittings for engine based heating.

I didn’t want to leave it open so I cut off the excess of the aluminum barb with a oscillating tool. Then used a giant set of pliers to crimp it closed.

This is the corroded fitting on the old tank.
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The boat doesn’t have the plumbing for the hot water loop from the engine. Kuuma doesn’t make a tank in the configuration I needed without the fittings for engine based heating.

I didn’t want to leave it open so I cut off the excess of the aluminum barb with a oscillating tool. Then used a giant set of pliers to crimp it closed.

Gotcha ... just surprised that the engine have any plugs where you could add barbs to plumb in the heat exchanger.

That said -- I don't know that I'd ever use that feature if I had it.
 
Gotcha ... just surprised that the engine have any plugs where you could add barbs to plumb in the heat exchanger.

That said -- I don't know that I'd ever use that feature if I had it.
I wound not want to use that function with a RWC engine in salt water like this boat. It would be sending salt water through the aluminum heating loop - seems like a bad idea.

On the other hand, my 270 AJ had a Horizon engine. That used antifreeze coolant in the hot water tank loop. I used that a lot to heat the water as I didn’t have a generator.
 
I had a similar issue a few years ago. Had a stainless plate made with “feet” so water would flow under. 4F4EBA7F-611D-41EF-90C1-11F54941332A.jpeg7306E3E1-4D2D-44DF-BE15-9D2785C19ACE.jpeg526E42F4-C19A-4FA1-A0BC-82F6AEF84474.jpeg1E3806A1-EBC2-4DFF-8736-3D5CD7E53DEF.jpeg87B1E7DF-B5F4-4ACD-A72E-4C6F897A84D1.jpeg1E481289-16B9-447C-AF87-FB8C9408EFFA.jpeg
 

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Man I thought you bought that sweet Back Cove so you could stop with all these crazy maintenance projects! ha.

I assume you're also planning to bleach the water system? I do it annually. Definitely helps with any odors...
 
Did some work on the new dash panels today. Wind was howling in the boat yard - but not bad under the shrink wrap.

This is the before pic of the gauge panel - no semblance of the wood grain left, just all black.
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The gauges are old school, no plug and play. Took about and hour and a half to transfer the gauges to the new panel one by one.
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And finished. Needed to file down one edge of the panel for a good fit. Also finished one of the switch panels and most of another. Still have the mid panel and some other bits on the dash.
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Man I thought you bought that sweet Back Cove so you could stop with all these crazy maintenance projects! ha.

I assume you're also planning to bleach the water system? I do it annually. Definitely helps with any odors...
Man, I wish. I’m doing this because I love my wife. I have some cool projects planned for the Back Cove and I need these out of the way so I can get to those.

I have to shock treat the water system in the spring. There’s a lot of black gunk in there. It’s probably going to take a few cycles.
 
I gotta replace the water heater in my 1996 Sea Ray 270 Sundancer that I recently picked up too. Mine is raw water cooled too and the hoses were on the water heater for the heat exchanger function but the previous owner disconnected them from the engine because of a leak in the heater. My plan is to swap it out with the Kuuma one from West Marine just like you did. As I understand it there is an anode in these that needs replacement from time to time so that it is safe to use with salt water. I’m curious though my manual doesn’t show a diagram or how it’s supposed to be plumbed into the cooling system. Does anyone have a diagram for this or could they describe well enough where the hoses for the heat exchanger system should run to the engine?
 
I gotta replace the water heater in my 1996 Sea Ray 270 Sundancer that I recently picked up too. Mine is raw water cooled too and the hoses were on the water heater for the heat exchanger function but the previous owner disconnected them from the engine because of a leak in the heater. My plan is to swap it out with the Kuuma one from West Marine just like you did. As I understand it there is an anode in these that needs replacement from time to time so that it is safe to use with salt water. I’m curious though my manual doesn’t show a diagram or how it’s supposed to be plumbed into the cooling system. Does anyone have a diagram for this or could they describe well enough where the hoses for the heat exchanger system should run to the engine?
If the PO just disconnected the hoses are they not still on the engine?
 
Finished up the dash panels today. The toggle switch for the windlass self destructed then I removed it so a new one was installed. Have a new VHF on order so will finished the mid panel when that comes in. My in-laws are thrilled - they said it looks like a new boat.


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Also wired in a new battery charger. Installed all new wire rings since the old ones looked pretty crummy.

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If the PO just disconnected the hoses are they not still on the engine?

The hoses were just hanging off the water heater and laid into the bilge under the engine. I don't see an obvious place that they would connect to, and my cooling system doesn't appear to be leaking and works as far as I can tell as intended. Although I'm sure there is something in it that has been improperly maintained by the previous owner. Everything else is all janky why not the cooling system too.
 
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Much progress today. The bilge in the engine space got a thorough scrubbing in preparation for the new water heater. It was pretty gross sure was needed. Got the water heater installed, wired up, and everything put back together. Powered up the AC power and confirmed the new battery charger is working.

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Unfortunately one of the PEX water line connectors broke so a new one is on order. It’s always something.

Tomorrow I pick up a new set of batteries.
 
Nice progress - and they can't beat the labor rate :).
When you put the batteries back in make sure you double check that small single red wire has a good end on it. If I remember correctly it connects to the Mercathode and needs to be live all the time. For some reason I remember having to install a new waterproof inline fuse there because of a terrible connection.
Also, not to beat the battery discussion to death, but I used Walmarts batteries for years and usally got 5 years out of them for under a $100 on my boat.
Too bad the water lines were not there. I can tell you that in 17 years of owning that boat I never turned the power on the heater. If we went to the beach 1 mile away, the motor heated that water so hot it lasted all day.
Dash looks great too!
Hopefully the boat I have on deposit passes survey in a few weeks and I'll see you in pj.
 

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