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View Poll Results: Would you have any interest in a cabin heating system?
Yes! Tell me all about it, and when can I order one? 32 35.16%
Hmm. Sounds interesting. 39 42.86%
I doubt it. 15 16.48%
No way. 5 5.49%
Voters: 91. You may not vote on this poll

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  #1   IP: 70.208.25.177
Old 10-01-2009, 07:24 AM
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Cabin Heating System

Is there any interest in a cabin heating system fed by hot water from the A4?
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  #2   IP: 72.71.240.60
Old 10-01-2009, 08:43 AM
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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
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  #3   IP: 69.162.193.43
Old 10-01-2009, 12:12 PM
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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
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  #4   IP: 206.125.176.3
Old 10-01-2009, 03:57 PM
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My cabin heating system is to take the cushion & board off the top of the motor...
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"Holiday" - '89 Alura 35 #109
"Twice Around" - '77 C-30, #511 with original A-4 & MMI manifold - SOLD! (no longer a two boat owner!!)
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  #5   IP: 71.118.13.238
Old 10-01-2009, 04:52 PM
Dave Neptune Dave Neptune is online now
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Thumbs up 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
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  #6   IP: 75.5.232.168
Old 10-01-2009, 05:17 PM
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Yes, in Michigan we can certainly use a little heat.
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  #7   IP: 173.79.222.18
Old 10-01-2009, 05:49 PM
Jesse Delanoy Jesse Delanoy is offline
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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
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Pasadena/Baltimore
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  #8   IP: 138.88.80.7
Old 10-01-2009, 09:17 PM
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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!
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"Holiday" - '89 Alura 35 #109
"Twice Around" - '77 C-30, #511 with original A-4 & MMI manifold - SOLD! (no longer a two boat owner!!)
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Last edited by sastanley; 10-01-2009 at 09:26 PM.
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  #9   IP: 75.199.60.248
Old 10-01-2009, 09:47 PM
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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
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  #10   IP: 138.88.80.7
Old 10-01-2009, 10:28 PM
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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!!"
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"Holiday" - '89 Alura 35 #109
"Twice Around" - '77 C-30, #511 with original A-4 & MMI manifold - SOLD! (no longer a two boat owner!!)
http://www.moyermarine.com/forums/signaturepics/sigpic3231_6.gif

Last edited by sastanley; 10-01-2009 at 10:48 PM. Reason: typos
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  #11   IP: 24.20.192.248
Old 10-01-2009, 10:51 PM
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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
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  #12   IP: 69.162.193.217
Old 10-02-2009, 03:22 AM
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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
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Last edited by lat 64; 10-02-2009 at 05:57 PM. Reason: I'm
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  #13   IP: 206.125.176.3
Old 10-02-2009, 09:46 AM
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Nice work Russ. Do you have a fan I assume to force air thru the heater core?
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"Holiday" - '89 Alura 35 #109
"Twice Around" - '77 C-30, #511 with original A-4 & MMI manifold - SOLD! (no longer a two boat owner!!)
http://www.moyermarine.com/forums/signaturepics/sigpic3231_6.gif
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  #14   IP: 69.162.192.144
Old 10-02-2009, 11:53 AM
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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.
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"Since when is napping doing nothing?"
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  #15   IP: 199.246.2.9
Old 10-03-2009, 08:44 AM
alberg alberg is offline
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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

Last edited by alberg; 10-03-2009 at 08:51 AM.
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Old 10-03-2009, 12:34 PM
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alberg,
I find the same so far...lifting the cushions, etc.. to cool her off after a heard day is SOP. However, my and the wife are planning to spend the night on the boat this evening...the coolest we'll have had here all summer,we may enjoy that 'free' heat tonight

A good place to mount the heater core in my boat is where I want to put a second water tank.
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"Holiday" - '89 Alura 35 #109
"Twice Around" - '77 C-30, #511 with original A-4 & MMI manifold - SOLD! (no longer a two boat owner!!)
http://www.moyermarine.com/forums/signaturepics/sigpic3231_6.gif
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  #17   IP: 68.198.4.140
Old 10-05-2009, 06:53 AM
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Cabin Heating System

Yes, I would be very interested. I sail in the northeast and it would be very handy to have a cabin heater on those chilly Spring and Fall evenings. I've read about boat owners retrofitting bus heaters, which run off engine hot water, so why not one that is more suitable for the Atomic 4?

Steve
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  #18   IP: 173.66.178.163
Old 10-05-2009, 03:28 PM
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Under cabin sole radiant please.
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  #19   IP: 138.88.80.7
Old 10-05-2009, 08:00 PM
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yeah!

now we're talking there, keelcooler!

The floor was a little chilly this weekend, and it was 55 degrees when we woke up
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"Holiday" - '89 Alura 35 #109
"Twice Around" - '77 C-30, #511 with original A-4 & MMI manifold - SOLD! (no longer a two boat owner!!)
http://www.moyermarine.com/forums/signaturepics/sigpic3231_6.gif
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  #20   IP: 69.162.193.190
Old 10-06-2009, 12:03 AM
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Keelcooler,
I seriously thought long and hard about how I could do that.
I've put a couple of those systems in houses over the years and that type of system would be terrific in a boat.
I think this would be best left to new construction though. It would be so easy to put in while the boat is being built. Imagine padding around in bare feet on the cooler evenings. And the bilge would dry out and corrosion would be reduced. and...and...and...
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  #21   IP: 173.79.222.18
Old 10-08-2009, 04:01 PM
Jesse Delanoy Jesse Delanoy is offline
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Shawn,

I would have contacted you, but had no way to do so! We anchored in Mill Creek on a Sunday evening (across from the tugboat facility, and just a little farther up the creek), expecting to move farther south on Monday (Labor Day). Went out and it was so rough we came back in - had a water in the gas tank issue (someone who shall remain nameless forgot to put the gas cap on after fueling that morning, and we took a LOT of splash over the deck), so we tied up at Zahnisers, had Billy pull the water out of the tank next morning (never having had any engine trouble from the water - not enough water to get sucked up the pickup tube), and due to forecasts of gale winds and five foot seas, stayed on the pier until Saturday, then headed home. On a nine day trip, we sailed about one and a half days.
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Old 01-19-2010, 03:47 PM
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Yep, interested - how much?
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Old 01-19-2010, 04:03 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jesse Delanoy View Post
Shawn,

I would have contacted you, but had no way to do so! We anchored in Mill Creek on a Sunday evening (across from the tugboat facility, and just a little farther up the creek), expecting to move farther south on Monday (Labor Day). Went out and it was so rough we came back in - had a water in the gas tank issue (someone who shall remain nameless forgot to put the gas cap on after fueling that morning, and we took a LOT of splash over the deck), so we tied up at Zahnisers, had Billy pull the water out of the tank next morning (never having had any engine trouble from the water - not enough water to get sucked up the pickup tube), and due to forecasts of gale winds and five foot seas, stayed on the pier until Saturday, then headed home. On a nine day trip, we sailed about one and a half days.
Hi Jesse! Just saw this post...don't know how I missed it before. I think that October weekend we were in the "other" Mill Creek north of the Solomons Bridge, although your anchorage by the tug boat hangout is the final stretch on my way to the dock. I seem to recall from my 'boat notes' that I pulled the stick the next weekend.

Billy is on the "Good Guy" list here at Moyer and apparently the local resident A-4 professional if I ever need him. The dockmaster as Zahniser's is a friend of mine, she could have found me, except she works M-F.
We'll have to coordinate better next time. I remember working on my radio that weekend too, I might even have had the VHF on.
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"Holiday" - '89 Alura 35 #109
"Twice Around" - '77 C-30, #511 with original A-4 & MMI manifold - SOLD! (no longer a two boat owner!!)
http://www.moyermarine.com/forums/signaturepics/sigpic3231_6.gif
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  #24   IP: 71.232.145.132
Old 01-19-2010, 04:43 PM
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I would think most boats get more than enough heat from the engine
itself. In my case, a Classic Tartan 34C sloop has the engine in the
middle of the main saloon which provides (sometimes) more heat than
one would ever desire or wish for.
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Old 01-19-2010, 05:48 PM
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Heater

What do you have in mind?

I currently have the Force 10 Diesel heater in my CAL 29, it is finniky and cloges up after a lot of use. Other than that, it will warm up the cabin and maybe the V berth on a 36 degree evening. I have one of those fans from Cabellas that as it gets hot it circulates the hot air.

It runs off a pressurized tank, you can not run it all night long. It will run out of pressure and soot up.
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