Cabin Heating System

[Administrator]

Is there any interest in a cabin heating system fed by hot water from the A4?

[David Masury]

It might be very interesting here in the Northeast, I certainly would like to be able to turn it off and on. It would be especially nice to use with a fresh water cooling system.

David

[lat 64]

A subject dear to my heart

I just installed a cabin heater in my old Columbia 36 this summer.
I can chronicle the story later. It works well.

Is MMI thinking of a kit?

Russ

[sastanley]

My cabin heating system is to take the cushion & board off the top of the motor...

[Dave Neptune]

Great Idea

Good idea, only it's warm out here in So. Cal. most of the year. When it gets cold we bake cookies and make Hot-butterd Rum's.

Very interesting
Dave Neptune

[marthur]

Yes, in Michigan we can certainly use a little heat.

[Jesse Delanoy]

I'd be happy if I could get my raw water cooled A4 to heat my hot water tank!

Couple of weeks back I had to motor from Solomons to Rhode River for about 10 hours against the weather, starting with a tank full of hot water (having been on shore power for days), and it cooled the water down, much to my surprise next morning.

Jesse Delanoy
s/v Off the Grid
Pasadena/Baltimore

[sastanley]

Jesse, I have a RWC A-4 too, and I am thinking about hot fresh water some day to make the wife happy.

I think I'd probably go to FWC & a heat exchanger to get hot fresh water at the same time???

You should have alerted me you were in Solomons...My home port is there!! I live 5 minutes on the other side of the bridge!

[Administrator]

Shawn:

We were down your way 3 or 4 weeks ago. Spent one nite in Mill Creek (upstream of the bridge) and a couple of days at Spring Cove Marina, where my wife had a great time doing laps in that 83 degree pool.

We had planned to go up to Vera's, just to see how much the place had changed since she passed away, but we learned the restaurant was only open Thursday thru Sunday.

We would have loved some local knowledge about where to eat. Stoney's was a bust, and we never got to the CD Cafe, which we had heard was very good.

It looked like the fishing was tremendous. We saw guys pulling them in all over the place.

Great boating area!

Bill

[sastanley]

local knowledge!

Bill (& anyone else passing thru Solomons!!!!!),
Send a message anytime!!!

As a local, I would agree that Stoney's has gone a little commercial for the traditionalists. It is always a good standby but not the best stop (they also now own Solomons Pier)

I was at Vera's this summer when we anchored in St. Leonard's Creek for a weekend...I worked there (Vera's) as a teenager (20+ years ago) - Now they have live bands and dancing on the weekends. I think the piano is gone, but it hasn't changed too much. I used to plant the banana trees & cut the grass, & pump gas back in the day.

The owner of Spring Cove is a Laser sailing buddy of mine and where I haul the boat when I need work. GREAT MARINA. Next time, check out the Naughty Gull restaurant (at Spring Cove)...service isn't always great, but the food is good! - You can't go wrong at CD Cafe either! - Another good place within walking distance of Spring Cove is "Captain's Table" @ the Beacon Inn. Again, it is an old building, & close to the water for the landlubbers, but the food is good!

One of our favorite "we just need to get on the boat this weekend" places is Mill Creek (above the bridge) - we may even get there this weekend!

Twice Around is moored on the Solomons' "Mill Creek" - technically on 'Old House Cove' at a friends' house. I live on the south side of the Pax River bridge (to the left as you pass under it) and the boat is only a 15 minute drive away on the north side.

By the way - I voted - "Sounds Interesting!!"

[rjm]

I have a fresh water cooled A4 with a Redot heater it works great.. came of the hottest part of the engine and has a ball vale to turn it off in the summer

[lat 64]

My version of heater

Here's a drawing of my heater install this summer.
I spent two full days cutting, drilling and climbing around in the lockers and such.
Many trips to the Gear Shed and about two hundred bucks for hose, valves, clamps, glycol, switch, wire, tees, grill, band-aids, and beer.

I put the heater in the locker under the dining settee. It blows out across your feet. I highly recommend that location. It took 20 feet of hose (x2) to reach there.
I made it bleed off a little of the warm air into the locker itself and it makes it nice and dry in there now. I just installed the heater loose against the fiberglass so it would leak some warm air off sideways in the locker.
The heater was donated from an old old truck or something, no one knows what for sure. I rebuilt the broken plastic heater case with aluminum, then cleaned it and tested it before installing it.

I finished the job with a rectangular grill to cover the hole I cut in the seat locker. I just used a house-style light switch for now, but A marine-grade switch should be in the future. I did use good wire and the expensive crimp ends with heat-shrink sleeves—they are so very awesome.

At the engine I teed off at the water coming from the manifold. I put a valve at both sides so I can throttle back either the heater or the heat exchanger to manage the flow just where I want it. I tested the cooling effectiveness of the heater without the heat exchanger and it works! I now have a spare cooler for the engine. The heater probably won't keep up at high work loads but I like having the option.
The heater return water is just teed into the fresh-water return to the engine. A valve here also so I can isolate the heater for any reason.

I'm usually pretty cheap when I do stuff like this but I can see a heater install could Push $700-$800 for a pure check-writing boat owner. I'm sure this figure may be low

Stay warm,

Russell

[sastanley]

Nice work Russ. Do you have a fan I assume to force air thru the heater core?

[lat 64]

Shawn,
Yea, it's a little unit heater just like the red dots with a propellor style fan.
If a cheepo person like me was to get a heater out of a junk yard, they'd be better off getting generic style like from a road maintenance tractor or the like. Auto heaters are so integral with the dash/AC that you'd be all week just modifying it to fit. I must have six or eight hours just playing with my old heater—only cost effective if you like messing about in boats.

I have come to realize that there is lots of benefit of air blowing around down in the nether regions of the hull. The air in my boat is drawn up from the bilge between the hull and hull liner and then into the seat locker where it is heated and blown out across the floor. Out with the bad air, in with the good.

r.

[alberg]

I had a cabin heater run from the engine but removed because I was not comfortable having long water lines in the cabin. Also for it to work the engine has to be running and this alone will produce enough heat for my needs.
Alberg