28TE - where is water heater drain

[Nancy]

We took a quick look today for the hot water heater drain, and it's nowhere to be found. I hate to think it's on the back side of the tank. I didn't think to take a good photo, but found this one in my collection. Maybe it's enough that someone here will recognize it and be able to give me direction. In addition to the three fittings shown, there are two more in plain view for the heat exchanger.

water heater-1600.jpg

[RobS]

If there is no drain fitting on the body of the water heater tank it is supposed to be added in-line at the cold water (lower) supply line.

[kjg1951]

I sure hope you dont have to replace your hot water heater !!!!!!!!!! Good luck

[Nancy]

Thanks, Rob. We'll look for that. Even if it's there, the cold water supply appears to be 2-3" above the bottom of the tank. How do you get the rest of the water out?

And do you have suggestions for rigging a bypass on the Pek (can't remember if that's exactly the right name) tubing? We'd really rather not have antifreeze in the tank.

KJG, everything is marginally easier to access if we move the batteries out of the way. Such fun!

[RobS]

Blowing it out with air pressure would be the only way to get any residual water out. If there is some water remaining and it freezes but has room to expand it should not be a problem but it's a risky chance to take based on what a PITA it would be to have to change the tank. You could pour a gallon of pink in the tank and just be sure to be very thorough in flushing it out in the spring before heating up the water heater with the electrode or heat exchanger, whichever comes first. You don't have to install an in-line drain if it's not there, just remove one of the cold water line connections near the tank and let it run out and disconnect the hot line too to facilitate draining.

You mean Pex Plumbing, right? Pex is 1/2", what you have is "likely" the 15mm Whale plumbing. They sell "tees" and shut off valves if you want to put a drain setup in. I would not bother adding one and would just go with discoonecting the cold water line at the lowest point if a drain is not already there.

[Nancy]

Thanks, Rob. Yes, Pex is the name I was groping for. I'll have to check with my husband on what's in there or wait until I get back to the boat. I know when we installed the new fresh water pump this past spring, we couldn't easily find the right fittings and had to cannibalize some tubing from the exterior shower.

[RobS]

Just took a look at a photo depicting my water heater drain, you can see that it is not at the very bottom, it's right above one of the heat exchanger connections. For winterizing I open the drain, let it run out and then leave the drain open until the spring. I don't add pink to the tank (I disconnect the hold and cold lines from the tank and connect them to one another before I run pink through the domestic water system). So whatever water is left in the water heater tank is not an issue. This is how I have done it since '07 without issue. The black hose on the drain spigot is just a cutoff washing machine hose that I lay down towards the center of the blige when I drain the tank. It's tucked up on the ledge in this picture..

[Nancy]

Wow, what a gorgeous bilge! lol! And with all the fresh water tubing color coded! Nice.

[jms02050]

I'm jealous of that bilge as well.

Nancy, I see that your batteries appear on the standard side of the boat along with the water heater. Where's your holding tank? I'm asking because I've had thoughts of moving the batteries to that shelf aft of the hot water tank and placing a nice, BIG, holding tank where the batteries currently reside on my boat. They are currently on center when looking down into the bilge from the center hatch.

[Nancy]

Jim, aft of the hot water heater is the centrifugal bilge pump. The holding tank is aft of that. It butts up to the engine bulkhead and is toward the starboard side of the hull. I can post some photos if you want.

We briefly considered putting a holding tank in the center space you're referring to, but there would be no place to stand in that bilge to service everything under the helm station.

[Serenity]

I personnally saw Rob's (Toy-Rific) bilge on Friday. The bilge is beyond clean and no water at all. I certainly am led to believe that Mr. Clean lives down there.

[Nancy]

Rob's bilge is legendary.

[Froggy]

I've been wondering about this issue myself. I've been:

Emptying the water tank
Disconnecting the grey piping by the water pump, blowing out the system with air, reconnecting pipes
Dumping 1.5 gallons pink stuff into the water tank and pumping it through (use the other half gallon or so for the head and shower)
Leaving all valves open

So far has worked fine....only issue is flushing out the hot water tank which takes a bit of time in the spring.