www.iFourWinns.com

Hello everyone,
this morning I was very happy to see this website. I have been looking for advice more than once about how to fix some issues with my boats and found it difficult to do.
The Situation:
This week , as usual, I got my boat after it had been de-winterized by a small company that I used for years. As usual I was flushing out the antifreeze (pink liquid) from my water system. Water in, water out, from the kitchen, bathroom, and the rear shower. The Fresh water pump worked just fine, it ran for a couple minutes and stopped after a while. I filled up the reservoir twice and empty it.
The Issue:
While cold water work perfectly, I get absolutely nothing from the hot water. When I open the hot water, I get no noise, the fresh water pump does not even start, it is like nothing happen. Of course I did not start the water heather yet, thinking my hot water thank might be empty (and I am not sure). I have called the marina who did the work (now 200 miles away), and they did not understand why this would happen.
The Question: Why I do not have any running water from the hot tap only. How can I diagnose the issue... Is it because I never connect the water line directly with the boat, but only filled up the fresh water thank???
Thanks for any tip!
MT

_________________
Wawaron
Mario

Vista 318, 2007' with 2 x 5.7 volvo
Previous:
Vista 258, 2005
Nordic 245

Not sure why/how this could happen...almost seems like some sort of blockage. When you fill your fresh water tank, it automatically goes into the hot water heater. Whether or not you have connected to shore/city water directly has no bearing on that.

I do know that TxVista (has a 328 Vista) has an issue with LOW hot water pressure in his head, but its good elsewhere...sort of strange.

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Current Boat:
2004 Sea Ray 320 Sundancer "Nauti Luvin'"

Previous Boats:
1999 298 Vista "Seas The Day"
2008 H200SS "Nauti Luv"
2006 Tahoe Q4

I believe the hot water tank is filled from the city water connection. So if your city water connection had not been connected and turned on to force the air out of your hot water tank and replaced with water, this may be your problem?

I thought, if you add water thru your deck fitting for the fresh water tank that this deck fitting only fills the fresh water tank and not the hot water tank. But some boats may be different and I may be mistaken.........

Mike.

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Current Boat
- 2001 Four Winns 328 Vista "Hour Decision"
- 2010 310 Mercury Inflatable

Previous Boats
- 30' Doral Prestancia
- 25' Doral Citation

On my Vista, when you use either water source, the water heater fills up.

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Current Boat:
2004 Sea Ray 320 Sundancer "Nauti Luvin'"

Previous Boats:
1999 298 Vista "Seas The Day"
2008 H200SS "Nauti Luv"
2006 Tahoe Q4

I have never hooked mine up to city water and the hot water heater fills up just fine.

The dealer where I bought mine winterized it before I bought it and put the check valve on the inlet side of the water heater backwards. Same thing, if I just turned the hot water on nothing came out at all.

They bypassed the water heater so they didnt have to run 6 gallons of antifreeze through it when they winterized and somehow managed to reverse the check valve. The check valve was between the braided steel hose into the water heater and the plastic hose, thought it was just a connector until I took it off and seen it was a one way valve. I assumed the water heater was just clogged up at first until I talked to the previous owner and he said it worked fine when he traded it in. I took the hoses off and blew through the heater and it wasnt clogged,it was also full of water. If you look at the water routing in the owners manual you will see where the check valves are, its there to prevent hot water from being drawn back into the cold water hoses.

May not be the issue with yours but worth a look..

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2006 Vista 248 5.7DP - SOLD
2011 Crownline E6 - SOLD
2007 Sea Ray 260 Sundancer

check and see if the water heater is connected to the water line. When I winterize my boat i disconnect water supply to the hot water heater so i do not have to fill it will antifreeze. You can also open the drain valve on the water heater and see if there is water in the heater. My guess based on what you described is the water line is disconnected or if it was not winterized properly the supply line could have burst.

Even with the heater bypassed the hot water would still run. It shouldnt be to hard to figure out. Pull the seat base on the port side (that's where mine is) and pull the cold water inlet (blue line) and turn on the pump. You should get water running if you do. If that works put the blue one on and pull the red one and do the same thing. You should have water running out of the heater this time.

Too weird!

Good luck!


Edit

Im dyslexic, I meant to say the seat base on the starboard side! Sorry

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Jeff

'14 Cruisers 380 Express "Simon Sez"
Merc 8.2 Mag MPI 380
DTS B3X, (x2) Axius Premier


(SOLD)
'08 V318
Merc 350 Mag MPI 300
DTS Seacore, B3 (x2)

This site is fantastic. You have provided me enough to look for the issue. Weird I agree, this is a first. I will let you all know when I ind out. Thanks you all. Feel free if you think of something else...
Mario

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Wawaron
Mario

Vista 318, 2007' with 2 x 5.7 volvo
Previous:
Vista 258, 2005
Nordic 245

Tanks everyone for feedback, I believe I have found the issue. In discussion with my mechanics, he told me that this year he did not do the winterizing himself but had to hire someone else to get it done. Looking at it, we found that the connection to the water heather that had been done to de-winterizing, were inverses by mistake. Of course the flow of water could not get through.
That stopped the flow of water when I was running the hot water. Thx for the feedback.
Good to go now!
MT

_________________
Wawaron
Mario

Vista 318, 2007' with 2 x 5.7 volvo
Previous:
Vista 258, 2005
Nordic 245

If there wasn't water in the heater, make sure you didn't burn up the heating element (if you threw the breaker). Welcome to the site (family).

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-Tony
2016 Robalo R200 w/Yahama 200!

Previous boats:
2003 Four Winns 248 Vista - sold
1994 Sunbird Corsair 200 - sold
1980 Checkmate Predictor - sold

My boat has a brass check valve on the hot water heater which prevents hot water from back flowing into the cold side. When I winterize the hot water heater I remove the check valve to make sure all the water is drained from the heater. When summerizing the system I have brain farted by putting the check valve in backwards there by preventing any water from getting into the hot water heater. My suggestion is for you to verify that the check valve was reinstalled correctly.

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2014 Vista V435
2011 Glastron GT180
2013 Sea Doo RXT-260

My winterizing setup has one valve and a backflow preventer. The valve is on the cold water side. The backflow is on the hot water side. When winterizing I turn the valve so incoming water gets shunted over to the hot side. The backflow valve prevents it from going back into the tank. Under normal operations the valve allows the water to flow straight into the tank. I've seen other setups that use two valves (one in place of the backflow valve).

If your setup is the same as mine I don't see why you'd have to remove the backflow valve at all. When winterizing the antifreeze would circulate through the bypass. The tank itself would get drained using the valve on the tank itself AND by releasing the pressure valve. That lets air into the tank from the top and all the water drains out the bottom.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista