[C320-list] Hot water tank woes

[Chris Holt]

Thanks for the tips Allan!

Chris

----- Original Message -----
From: <allan.field at comcast.net>
To: "C320-List" <c320-list at catalina320.com>
Sent: Saturday, July 07, 2007 11:22 AM
Subject: Re: [C320-list] Hot water tank woes

> Chris - One other thing I forgot to mention.  If you have to remove the 
> tank, you will need to have a pice of stratight pipe to join the 2 hoses 
> coming from the engine to the heater.  If you put hose clamps on the end 
> of each hose over the pipe, you can run the eingine with the tank out of 
> the boat - my tank was out for about 3 weeks and I still went out during 
> that period. - Allan
>
> -------------- Original message -------------- 
> From: "Robert E. Sloat" <resloat at comcast.net>
>
>> I had a similar problem with the pressure relief valve the first time 
>> this
>> season I used the AC mode to fire up the hot water heater. It turned out
>> the
>> pressure relief valve was leaking a few ounces/hour of water into the 
>> bottle
>> that I stick the pressure relief valve hose into to monitor it. The 
>> pressure
>> relief valve does not leak when the engine is used to heat water.
>>
>> My fix was to leave the water pump on and release and reseat the pressure
>> relief valve about 10 times. This apparently helped seal the relief valve
>> surfaces to
>> mate better. After this, there
>> has been no leaking from the pressure relief valve with 5 straight days 
>> of
>> AC water heating.
>>
>> I also rotated the lever that releases the relief valve when releasing 
>> the
>> relief valve thinking that this may also rotate the seal connected to the
>> valve stem. I don't know if this is the case after checking the pressure
>> relief valve on my hot water heater at home.
>>
>> To get to the pressure relief valve and rotate it I had to lay down on 
>> the
>> cabin floor and work my arm up to the pressure relief valve.
>>
>> I have a 2002 C320 Hull 894 with the Seaward hot water heater.
>>
>> Bob Sloat
>> Savannah
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Chris Holt"
>> To: "c320"
>> Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2007 3:31 PM
>> Subject: [C320-list] Hot water tank woes
>>
>>
>> I just came back from a 4 day vacation on the boat and we had a bit of
>> trouble with the hot water tank. With 4 girls (wife and three kids) hot
>> water is a must.
>> There were a couple of strange things that happened but to save on typing
>> and you reading I'll talk about the main one. On the third day we were on 
>> a
>> dock in Kennebunkport, ME and we turned on the AC water heater. After
>> taking showers we forgot to shut it off and went for a walk in town. When 
>> I
>> got back I could hear the water pump running and figured we must have run
>> out of water and I didn't hear it before leaving. When I flipped the tank
>> over the system pressurized and then the pump would kick on about every 
>> 30
>> seconds for a short burst. After thinking about this I remembered we 
>> didn't
>> shut off the water heater. When I checked under the sink it was very hot
>> under there and sure enough there was water in there.
>>
>> First question: Isn't there a thermostat in there that should not allow 
>> the
>> water to get that hot?
>>
>> In any case, I'm assuming the water was too hot and the pressure relief
>> valve keep shooting out water to let off steam.
>> So I ran the hot water for awhile to cool the water down in the tank and
>> sure enough the water pump stopped kicking on.
>> Now, when we left Kennebunkport and got to our destination I heard the 
>> water
>> pump doing the same thing. The engine now caused the water to get too 
>> hot.
>>
>> 2nd question: If the answer to the first question is yes does the 
>> thermostat
>> work for engine heating and AC heating?
>> 3rd question: Because of this incident do you think my pressure release
>> valve is no longer good? It seemed I had to cool the water down quite a 
>> lot
>> in the tank before it stopped causing the pump to turn on.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Chris
>> #447
>>
>>
>