Hot Water on floor under drivers seat...

[ck1105]

A buddy of mine has a 2002 Team Edition, recently there has been extremely hot water on the floor in front of the drivers seat. So hot we have had to move off of it. CC Dealer resolved the problem by disconnecting the Shower completely which also made the Heater not work.. anyone heard of this, or want to take a stab at a fix. Evedentaly there is a hose leaking for the shower but rather than ficing it they just turned it off....

[Flux]

RE: Hot Water on floor under drivers seat...

There is a hose loop for the heater that taps into the block. It may also be where the shower taps as well. My 2002 does not have a shower, but I know the heater hoses are that orange hose color.

Sounds to me like your heater core is cracked. Hot water at the drivers feet is either the hose connections failed or the core is cracked. Remove the kick panel and take a look. If the hoses are connected and are fine, then your core is shot. Call heatercraft and get a replacement. Or you can try to track one down at an autoparts store for less coin.

[NautiqueJeff]

RE: Hot Water on floor under drivers seat...

Yep, sounds like a cracked heater core almost for sure. The heater core is under the dash (behind the kick panel), and when they crack, they leak hot water all over the driver's floor.

[Luke]

RE: Hot Water on floor under drivers seat...

As mentioned above, it is either a cracked heater core or a loose connection. It doesn't take much of a freeze to crack the heater core. I lost one last year and it was leaking hot water all over under the driver's seat.

Call or email Heatercraft:
(208) 687-4400
info@heatercraft.com

They'll ask the type of boat, and how many blowers the heater has. I think my replacement 2 blower model (2 blowers, with a "Y" split for the defroster) was around $80 and took me about an hour to put the new one in.

[inboardsonly]

RE: Hot Water on floor under drivers seat...

You should install a set of ball valves on the block, so that if this happens, you can shut off the water to the heater.

Side benefit is that on hot days it can just circulate air instead of hot air with valves off.

I took the hot tube and installed it in the in-dash "cooler". Now I have hot towels,
and the hot tube is within easy reach for both passengers. 95 SN.

[Erik]

Bumping this old thread because I searched and found.

This is now happening to my boat. There's no way my boat froze, so I'm at a bit of a loss. The hot water and the red hoses under the floor, and toward the top-right of the belly cargo area are very hot. I am really wondering if I can get away with using the boat for the rest of the summer with it like this. My boat is a 2001 Super Air, and I do have a heater.

Any thoughts?

[bkhallpass]

Erik,

I have the same boat, live in California, and I've lost a heater core. I think it quite possible the core froze and cracked.

Yes, you can run it for the rest of the season no problem. I ran for a whole summer. You need to track down where the leak is. In my case, the leak was in the heater core, so I merely disconnected the two hoses from the core, used a short piece of pipe and two hose clamps and connected the hose ends together so the water would just loop through the hose and bypass the heater core. My core happens to be mounted under one of the bow seats so I didn't need to remove the kick panel to get to it. BKH

[jmo]

Hey Erik,

With the age of our boats its not uncommon for the heater core to go. Remember there is hot water cycling through the heater core regardless of whether your fan is on. I installed shutoff valves so I'm not cycling water through it in the summer and have the shut offs in case it does eventually go.

The shut off valves and clamps cost me like $12 from Lowe's and took 5 minutes install, let me know if you want some help with it...

jmo

[east tx skier]

So what is the longest someone has had a heater core go without cracking?

My local Nautique mechanic told me I could expect to replace it around every four years or so from what he'd seen. I'm sure there's probably someone out there that's been running the same core for 13 years or something. So who here has the core that's the exception that proves the rule (I hate that expression).

I opted not to get the heater. We don't usually ski in the cooler months and there aren't many of them here anyway. My amps are behind the kick panel, so I really don't want the chance of a bunch of water draining back there at random.

[slob02]

Had it happen to 2 different boats.............Crack heater core on both. I even blow out the lines before I add antifreeze in the winter????? I unhooked both fittings and put a brass fitting between the two hoses until I got it fixed.

[SquamInboards]

Seems like those heater cores should last longer, because they're not much different from car heater cores, are they? Those certainly last longer than 4 years on average... maybe running fresh water instead of coolant leads to faster corrosion and failure (even in fresh water)?

[AuMDLST]

In Florida we do not have the freeze/crack problem but the core is expected to be replaced every 2 to 3 years due to corrosion.

[WakeSlayer]

slob02 has the right idea. just bypass it. In my opinion it is because we are not running clear water in them like a car. Anything that gets past the screen goes in there. I have never had to replace one, but imagine I will someday. Pretty sure you can get them direct from Heatercraft and save a few bucks too. Also, a good idea for those in the north, mount it with your hose connections on the bottom of the heater. CC had installed one in a buddies boat with the fittings on top. you cannot get the water out that way, and his cracked over the winter.

[soaresfive]

Cracked heater core???

I guess I'll add one more to the list of those who have had hot water leaking a the feet of the dirver's seat...Through the guidance of this thread i removed the kick board and sure enough the red hoses were still in place but the box they went into was leaking bigtime.

My question is : Is the heater core inside the box as one piece or somehow am I suppose to remove the core from the box? What am I getting for $80..? Before I take it apart I would like to know. Incidently, after removing the hose clamps I still couldn't get the hoses off the "box." Does anyone know any tricks maybe WD40 or something..?

[AuMDLST]

RE: Cracked heater core???

The core is in the box. You may have to cut the hoses - the fittings go into the hose about an inch and a half.