Hot Water Heater Leak

J

journey on

New member
Well, last weekend was a busy one. We launched at Huntington Hbr, and you can read about that elsewhere, stayed at Cabrillo Beach YC, to which we belong and, the message of this thread, flooded the inside of the boat with hot water. At 1 in the morn.

So, this topic discusses what happened and how to prevent it. It applies to all C-Dory 25's and Tomcats, since they all have hot water heaters.

On the hot water heater outlet, there is a black fitting which goes from the heater outlet to the hot water hose. This part is polyethylene and I have found out that material is prone to failure. Replace it now with a 1/2" brass elbow and a male pipe to 1/2" hose fitting. Or you'll do it later, when you don't want to. And the replacement parts aren't available. Like we did.

Judy woke me up at midnight, saying the inside of the boat was flooded and the water was warm. She turned off the water pressure and we went looking. It turns out that black elbow on the water heater outlet had failed and was spraying water all over the cabinet. Especially on the battery charger. So I turned off the charger power and prayed it wasn't shorted.

Clean up was done by moving the carpet outside and using towels and sponges for the water. And so back to bed. The next morn, we got a ride to a hardware store, bought a pvc cap, removed the broken fitting and capped it for the weekend so we would have water pressure.

I've had to replace polyethylene fittings in our home irrigation system(s) because they crack and let water run downhill instead of watering the plants. So I know that polyethylene is prone to failure and use pvc to replace it. I've ignored it on the boat, though the fitting is in plain sight and easy to change and I got my reward. I plan to use brass, from Home Depot, since it's certainly cheaper than West Marine. It's above waterline and fresh hot water, so I suppose nylon will work.

Just change it before it fails. The battery charger came back on line, so that saved a bunch of money.

A now dry Boris
 
journey on":dfj9qb1x said:
Well, last weekend was a busy one. We launched at Huntington Hbr, and you can read about that elsewhere, stayed at Cabrillo Beach YC, to which we belong and, the message of this thread, flooded the inside of the boat with hot water. At 1 in the morn.

So, this topic discusses what happened and how to prevent it. It applies to all C-Dory 25's and Tomcats, since they all have hot water heaters.

On the hot water heater outlet, there is a black fitting which goes from the heater outlet to the hot water hose. This part is polyethylene and I have found out that material is prone to failure. Replace it now with a 1/2" brass elbow and a male pipe to 1/2" hose fitting. Or you'll do it later, when you don't want to. And the replacement parts aren't available. Like we did.

Judy woke me up at midnight, saying the inside of the boat was flooded and the water was warm. She turned off the water pressure and we went looking. It turns out that black elbow on the water heater outlet had failed and was spraying water all over the cabinet. Especially on the battery charger. So I turned off the charger power and prayed it wasn't shorted.

Clean up was done by moving the carpet outside and using towels and sponges for the water. And so back to bed. The next morn, we got a ride to a hardware store, bought a pvc cap, removed the broken fitting and capped it for the weekend so we would have water pressure.

I've had to replace polyethylene fittings in our home irrigation system(s) because they crack and let water run downhill instead of watering the plants. So I know that polyethylene is prone to failure and use pvc to replace it. I've ignored it on the boat, though the fitting is in plain sight and easy to change and I got my reward. I plan to use brass, from Home Depot, since it's certainly cheaper than West Marine. It's above waterline and fresh hot water, so I suppose nylon will work.

Just change it before it fails. The battery charger came back on line, so that saved a bunch of money.

A now dry Boris
Click to expand...
I always turn off the water pressure pump when the system isn't in use. In addition to the water heater, there are many other location in the system that can easily come loose and if the pump is on, whatever you have in the fresh water tank will wind up inside the boat. I had a fitting that came loose under the sink and all the water wound up in the cabinet. So I would agree that one should replace the weak fitting but I'd additionally recommend that you only turn on the pump when you're using the fresh water system and then turn it off shortly thereafter. DEFINITELY turn it off when you're not on the boat.
 
CPVC should be able to handle the hot water, also. PE should never have been installed there. Nothing like metal for durability, though. Goood on ya, Boris!
 
We experienced the same parts failure as Boris.
Everything has now been replaced with brass.
Turning off the water pump when off the boat is a great practice.
Dan
 
Just looked. Cold "in" and hot "out" are both white plastic 90* elbows. There is a black plastic piece that goes from the over-pressure relief to the hose. Guess I'll change them all w/ brass.

:?
 
I'm going to throw out a more general bit of advice.
I was always taught to not use female plastic fittings of any material. They are much more likely to expand, crack, loosen and leak than male ones.
If you have any existing ones that you are worried about in the short term, you can use a hose clamp around them to maintain their integrity.
 
So I was able to piece together two brass 90* elbows for the hot & cold outlets. I could not find a brass coupler for the over-pressure outlet however due to the size of the hose used. I did find a nylon one however.
 
Just a little plumbers secret - when threading a male pipe thread brass fitting into a brass female fitting - use Teflon tape or liquid goop.

Yes I too was always taught that pipe threads sealed from the friction of the threads as the taper progressed and did not require tape or a sealant.
After leakage problems in the house with brass fittings I did a google search and learned that the friction of the dry brass on brass fittings is so great that the fitting cannot be threaded into the taper far enough for the threads to actually seal. The Teflon or goop is used to lubricate the threads so that the fittings can be tightened enough for the threads to seal as intended.

Regards, Rob
 
Well, the relief valve is plumbed directly to the shower sump, so there's no pressure there. Nylon should be good there.

Polypropylene is sneaky. In my irrigation system, there's pressure for only minutes, 3-4 times per week. Though it's at mains pressure, ~60 psi and ambient temperature, not below freezing. It just cold flows, regardless of the internal pressure. I can only find a bad fitting when I see water coming out of the ground. BTW, before someone suggests changing them beforehand, that's a couple of hundred risers.

So the message is, that if you have one, only one, in the boat, it's going to break regardless of turning the pressure off, etc. Replace it.

I'm using brass as several others on this site. However, I've never had a nylon fitting fail. And the inlet and relief valve fittings are running close to room temperature. In addition the shower and sink fittings are nylon. I'm not sure what the tubing is made of, but it also withstands hot water at the pumps pressure (15 psi?) nicely.

So, just get rid of any polyethylene fittings.

Boris
 
OK, here are the pics.

First, remove the black outlet tee. It was removed proir to these photos, but the first pic shows the outlet pipe and the hose. Using the heater drain, drain the water out of the heater. It'll be pumped overboard by the shower sump pump.

Next, I used the fittings shown, could have used nylon, but not PVC or polyethlene.

Finally the fittings installed, the hose attached AND the drain valve closed.


The problem:
Start_1.sized.jpg

Fittings used:
Parts_2.sized.jpg

At last, fini
Fini.sized.jpg

Boris
 
Back
Top