Heater Craft -- Give-Aways Coming Soon!

[NautiqueJeff]

Jeff,

Where were you going to mount the shower head and controls on your G23? I was thinking of putting on in the back cooler.

That's a great spot, and I considered doing that. The only reason I didn't was because I didn't want to render the rear cooler useless for the next owner of the boat. I ended up mounting it to the lip inside the starboard rear compartment. If the new owner wants to move it, it will be easy enough (2 screws), and the holes can easily be filled or covered.

[bradw]

My buddy had a factory shower on his malibu which had closed cooling it was pretty much useless. I believe it picked up the water exiting the heat exchanger.

He ended up getting it to work but i think he had to put a heat exchanger to tap into the coolant to get the shower water to a warm temp.

[shag]

So are there still contests for the give away's? Sure could use a heater for the 91 BF.....

[ericchile]

Also thinking of adding a heater. I have a 409 on a Sante 230. Anyone have a how to on this? I believe there are connections already in place...

[NautiqueJeff]

So are there still contests for the give away's? Sure could use a heater for the 91 BF.....

I have two more to give away. Keep watching...

[Orlandoguy82]

My 1997 has a heatercraft heater in it. Still works well. If you're installing one know that the cores fail. My did and flooded the boat with 160 degree water. You can buy the heatercraft replacement core for $169 or go to NAPA and buy a 6603100 core for $40. The box needs some very slight modification to fit but works great. Do yourself a favor and instal a brass valve to be able to shut off water to it when it cracks. Its going to crack.

[LakePowellMan]

I actually didn't get the hot side hooked up before the boat had to go to the new owner, unfortunately. Finding a hot source on the closed-cooled XS-550 proved difficult. Everywhere I tried to tap (even the heater lines) were anti-freeze! I never got a definite answer from PCM on the best place to tap, so instead of risk possible damage, I decided to let White Lake or the new owner of the boat tap into the hot side.

The cold side is easy enough though.

Has anyone found a good way to install a hot shower on a G23 w/ the 550? This is the last thread that I've been able to find on this topic. THanks so much.

[pSchwade]

Has anyone found a good way to install a hot shower on a G23 w/ the 550? This is the last thread that I've been able to find on this topic. THanks so much.

you'll probably have to use a hot water tank with its own heat exchanger that pulls heat from the hot side before it enters the main exchanger. The problem is that the raw water in the main exchanger doesnt get hot enough before it is cycled out, so you would have to either slow that down (and risk damaging the engine from overheating) or use another exchanger with a lower flow rate. This would be a pretty big task to get right - you'd need a thermostat and mixing valves to regulate the temperature along with a pump, water tank, and additional heat exchanger.

[LakePowellMan]

oh boy....while I'd like a hot water shower...I don't think I want one that much. What a bummer! Thanks for the details.

[beach]

I looked into adding a shower to my 210, which has a closed cooled 330, and I actually found a company in Australia that manufacturers heat exchangers for marine showers.

http://www.glind.com.au/store/heat-e...heat-exchanger

I haven't ordered it yet, because the engine bay is crowded enough with a 330 and the stock heat exchanger and I'm not sure if I want to make maintenance even harder than it already is.

[pSchwade]

I dont think that type of heat exchanger would be the best one to use, really all you need are some coils in a water tank... that type is designed for continuous flow (usually to remove heat from the hot side) so it would only increase the cold water temp by a small amount. the idea behind the water tank is that the cold water has a much longer time to heat up (like in a hot water tank).

[beach]

I dont think that type of heat exchanger would be the best one to use, really all you need are some coils in a water tank... that type is designed for continuous flow (usually to remove heat from the hot side) so it would only increase the cold water temp by a small amount. the idea behind the water tank is that the cold water has a much longer time to heat up (like in a hot water tank).

That type I linked to is designed for showers on a boat with a closed cooled engine. This heat exchanger is just a bunch of tubes of hot fluid surrounded by another fluid (aka in a tank). If it's a double pipe then it is probably not that efficient, but for $200 it's probably a shell and tube type heat exchanger. See the wiki link to see what the look like inside.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_exchanger

At the end of the day, the rate of heat transfer for continuous flow(how much your water temp will increase) is going to depend of the heat of your coolant/lake water, rate of your coolant/lake water flow, and the amount of surface area of the tubes containing the hot fluid. I'm not sure how many degrees this one can raise your water temp (maybe ask the manufacturer), but installing a hot water tank like you're talking about on an onboard tow boat is going to take up a lot of room. You can buy a marine hot water tank, even an electric one that saves you the trouble of running coolant, but I don't think you're going to want to give up that much storage space since they are mainly installed on cruisers.

[pSchwade]

This heat exchanger is designed to use a shower than pulls from an on board water storage tank which could be much warmer than the raw water temp that a ski boat would use. All I am saying is that you need a system that continuously heats a hot water reservoir and mixes it with the raw water to give a "warm" shower temp. Depending on the hot side temp you would probably only need a gallon or two to give you a couple of min run time.