Final winterization

[tparrent]

YouTube lies. Let’s just start off with that.

I watched a bunch of videos that purported to show how to add a hot water heater bypass for winterization. The video magicians appear to have employed two tried and true mechanical engineer tricks.



First, most of the videos I watched had the presenter doing the installation on a work bench. I don’t know about your boat but mine does not have the hot water heater sitting on a workbench.

Second, there’s a key point in each video where they employ a card magician’s trick of distracting your eye (well, my eye anyway) at a crucial point when they reconnect hoses. Magic? I say criminal malfeasance!

Of course, part of the joy of boating is learning something new every day. Let’s see what I learned.

1. Plastic plumbing fittings should be illegal. In fact, I’m thinking of running for Congress on that single issue.
2. Design engineers are either sadists or have never had to actually work with the things they engineer.
3. If there’s a way to place things so that you have to take the darn thing apart, those engineers will do it.
4. Water, fire and electricity don’t mix. Actually, the do mix when I’m around but they shouldn’t. I became slightly concerned when the Danger: High Voltage sign became immersed in water.
5. There’s a right tool for every job – and I don’t own that tool.
6. Water heater manufacturers should really design a system with the bypass already installed. SO much easier to do it in the factory rather than the bilge.

The adventure started when I attempted the simple task of unscrewing the hoses. Not happening. Get a wrench. Get vice grips. Get a lighter. Get bruised and scorched knuckles. Get a KNIFE. Get bandages.

Once the upper hose was off, I attempted the even simpler task of unscrewing the plastic elbow. Right before I crushed it with pliers, I had a moment of clarity and inserted a screwdriver into instead for leverage. Turned nicely – for a quarter revolution before it slammed into the electrical box. Take off the electrical box. Think about how that ball bearing that fell out must b=not be too important because if it was, they would have secured it better. Swear at engineers and work benches while trying to reach the bottom screw.

With the elbow off, I sat and pondered awhile. The elbow is threaded on the outside, a male connection. The C Brats approved bypass kit from Camco is also threaded on the outside, a male connection. I’m a progressive guy. I see nothing wrong with two males doing whatever they want but I didn’t think this was going to work for plumbing. It’s connecting those two ends where the YouTubers pull their card trick shenanigans. I went off to search for a female/female coupling to solve the problem. Found one at the third hardware. Back at the boat I found that it was the wrong size. Well, fiddlesticks.



Rather than going back to the hardware (it would have been my fifth trip on this little maintenance task), I decided to remove the bottom elbow as well to see if it held any surprises for me. Did it ever! I was able to pull the hose off with a bit more skill than I had used on the upper hose because I had experience. Darn that experience! Hose came off and water starting spouting out of the elbow!

Now I had drained the tank using the spigot so I don’t know where this water was coming from (the pump was off) but it kept coming so I did the only thing I could think off – I stuck my finger in the hole.

So there I am playing little Dutch boy with my finger in the dike, laid out uncomfortably on the floor and wondering what I’m going to do next. Clearances are way too tight get a bucket in there so I need to find something else – except I can’t get up to look for anything because of the old finger in the dike problem. I spent a good ten minutes pondering my next move before it dawns on me that pulling the hose off caused the problem so perhaps putting it back on will solve it – at least temporarily. I’m a little slow when it comes to mechanical stuff.

With hose reattached, I have time for an epiphany. I have a small transfer pump in the truck. What if I hook it up to the spigot and pump all the water out? Brilliant. A mere hour later I have the pump set up and primed and chugging away. Not a drop of water comes out. Guess the tank is empty. Guessed wrong. Yes, the spigot is open. Yes, the pump is primed. No, it’s not working.

I finally decide to go old school and I get a sponge and a bucket. I open the spigot over the sponge for a few seconds. Close it. Wring out sponge. Repeat.

Do you know how long it takes to empty ten gallons from a six gallon tank into a sponge? Wrong – longer than that.

Eventually the tank is empty and it’s time to figure out what to do with the mismatched connections. I head over to Lowe’s (again) to search through bins of strange looking bits of plumbing. As I’m sorting through the bins, I have to keep moving this little section of faucet hose out of the way. Some inconsiderate plumber wannabe just tossed it in there where it’s in the way…wait a minute. I pick up the hose and notice it has two female ends AND 12 inches of flexible hose. It was going to be tough reconnecting the hoses once I put the bypass in because of tight clearances but this might do the trick. I run off and find another faucet hose and am skipping my way towards the checkout when I think about the plastic fittings and how difficult it is going to be reconnecting the hoses (especially since someone, and I’m not naming names, mangled the ends of the hoses).



I make the only wise decision in a week. I pick up a heat gun on the way out.
Back at the boat, I channel my inner octopus and start connecting all manner of hoses, fittings and various pieces that I can’t identify. Good thing I got those faucet hoses because there was no way the original hoses would have magically fit into the new bypass configuration without divine intervention. That heat gun made quick work of reconnecting the plastic hoses too. Would have been quicker if I had not melted a couple of inches off the first one.

Finally, everything was reassembled. I had carefully used pipe tape on the metal to metal connections and hand tightened the plastic to plastic connections. I punted on the plastic to metal connections and taped half of them and left the other half bare. I told myself to make sure that the bypass valve was on bypass. I then remembered to actually put some antifreeze in the water tank.

The moment of truth had arrived. I turned on the water pump and was greeted with a beautiful Vegas style fountain show. Pink antifreeze artistically sprayed from every single connection. Lovely.

I reassessed what “hand tight” means and took a wrench to everything. Turned the pump on. No fountain show. No antifreeze coming out of faucet either. Oops. Turn on faucet. Still nothing. Hmmmm.

Telling myself to make sure the valve was on bypass and actually doing it are apparently different things. Flipped the valve. Pink antifreeze coughed out of the faucet and all over the counter and helm chair that I had just deep cleaned.

Success! It only took three days and five trips to the hardware but I now have the coolest custom bypass system ever installed.



And with that, I learned my final lesson: I should have bought the six gallons of antifreeze and filled the tank with it instead of doing such a fun and simple project.

(Of course there’s no freezing weather in the 14 day forecast)

[tparrent]

Obvious solution to all of this winterization nonsense finally dawned on me. Put a simple electric heater with thermostat in the cabin and leave it on. I've got dock power.

Doh!

[gulfcoast john]

Tom,
Terrific writeup!

I use this one in the dry slip, it has an automatic feature that turns on at 38 degrees. Open all cabinet doors and use a couple of other fans. Yes it’s $80 but solid and has a 5 year warranty. You likely spent $80 at Lowes. And your labor is worth $15/hour by law.

https://www.wholesalemarine.com/true-north-cabin-heater.html

I knew you had dock power, but I thought you’d have a funny story about your project and I didn’t want to spoil your fun.

Many disagree with me on this, but I think the water heater is the most useless thing on the boat. You can’t use it without shorepower (or a generator). You only have shorepower when you’re docked at a nice marina with a huge free shower with unlimited amounts of hot water, not 6 gallons. Would you rather sit naked crammed into the head with a leaky door and a hand held shower while pumping gallons of dirty sudsy water out the side of your boat into this nice marina while your dockmates cast quizzical glances your way?

You would?
OK.

The good news is it’s easy to remove the heater, block off the plumbing and power, and you’ll have a new cabinet for storage and (most important for us) an additional 110v outlet behind the helm chair. You still of course have to use 110v power management to stay under 30A including air conditioning. Marina AC in the South is WAY more important than hot water when at a marina. As medics, we can take a ‘sponge bath’ with hot water heated on a propane stove when anchored out and be clean and happy.

After all is said and done, you will have that anchor light fixed for under a Boat Unit.

Cheers!
John

[thataway]

[colbysmith]

I enjoyed your write up, and laughed thru it. Been there, done that, and I consider myself mechanically inclined. lol. And this time I agree with most of what John says! Again, LOL! I pulled my water heater, but did replace it with a small 2g under the sink unit. Wife wants hot water for doing the dishes. Well, she only gets it if we're on shore power, or I have the generator and feel like firing it up. I've found the 5 gal shower bags on the roof work great for showering! Well except in really cold or cloudy weather. In which case, we just stick with the baby wipes... And if it's that cool and cloudy out, we're not sweating much...
In the end, looks like you did a great job. But you're right, you could probably have bought a lot of pink antifreeze for the price and time you spent putting in the bypass! BTW, leaving a heater on in the cabin might be a great idea. Unless of course the CB trips on the shore power and then everything freezes up. No thanks. I'd just as soon make sure the boat can take a freeze without having to worry about trusting electricity to stay on! Colby

[smckean (Tosca)]

tparrent,

You are a riot! You could do stand up (maybe you once did ). What a pleasure to read. I laughed out loud on several occasions. BTW, I've been there, and done that for quite a few of your experiences.....including with my water heater. (Luckily, I was bestowed a gem of wisdom from our illustrious Dr Bob.......he suggested that I use a shop vac suck up water as it spilled from every orifice on the hot water heater!)

[hardee]

Oh Man, My sides hurt. Yah, and still and more. Sure glad you got that one fixed. I am really looking forward to the Anchor light now. I know nothing about pluming, and what I know about YouTube is that if you look at a thousand YouTubes videos, you learn you can do it just about any old way, because they don't all do it the same, or there wouldn't be a thousand videos.

What a hoot, keep fixin and writin, we all need that.

Harvey
SleepyC

[Desert Dory]

Great write up Tom, and way to stay after it!

Just one thing. Would you mind giving a heads up next time you're going to attempt something like this? I'd like to buy some Lowe's stock before you head over there again.

[smckean (Tosca)]