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Winter is the best time to explore the beauty of Australia’s seas and oceans surrounding it. If you are planning an extended cruise, there is one thing that you can’t afford to miss: a boat hot water heater. You need a hot shower, cleaning dishes and so on while cruising. In addition, hot water helps to maintain high hygiene on your boat.

The good news is that installing marine hot water systems is not as complicated as the household ones. Unlike the typical hot water heaters, boat hot water heaters system do not use pipes: instead, they use hoses. Therefore, you don’t need to be a plumbing specialist to install the appliance. You just need to set the water heater in its place, connect the horses, connect the electrical wires, and turn the water heater on. If you are wondering how to install a marine water heater, we have rounded up 5 tips on how to do it successfully.

Here are 5 tips on how to install a hot water heater on your boat

1. Install In The Lowest Part Of The Boat

One of the key factors that you need to consider is the stability of the boat. That is why you need to select carefully where the boat hot water heater should installed. Check the lowest part of the boat where the stability of the boat will not be compromised.

In most cases, manufacturers do provide a designated place where you can place your water heater. The manufacturer might also provide the perfect size of water heater that the boat can support. For your safety, do not exceed the recommended weight.

2. Screw The Inlet And Outlet Hose

Once you have placed the water heater, you can now start with connecting the hose pipes. Start with the inlet pipe. In most case, these pipes are a 1 to ½ inch in diameter to allow more water to enter the machine. They are screwed onto the machine. Connect the hose pipe onto the inlet port of the water heater and connect the other end to the below-deck extension of the portable water inlet connection on your boat’s deck. Use Teflon tape for both connections.

In addition, there are a few things that you need to look out for such as sea water backfilling into your water heater. We recommend that you get the water inlet on your deck fitted with an O-ring

seal to stop sea water washing over the boat deck from backfill into your water heater. That’s how you maintain a fresh water supply on the boat.

3. Wrap The Threaded Vent Port With Teflon Tape

To form a powerful joint at the water heater vent port and the hose, you need to wrap the threaded end of the boat hot water heater vent port with Teflon thread tape. Then screw one end of hose pipe on to the port- use a pipe wrench to tighten the connection to form a strong joint. The importance of this stage is to ensure that you don’t leak in the boat during the cruise. Teflon tape forms a powerful joint by filling the gaps where water could leak from.

However, the quality of the Teflon thread tape must be the best. The pipe wrench must also be used properly to tighten the joint. That is how you form strong and permanent joints.

4. Connect The End Of Your Outlet Hose To Your Boat’s
“House”

Once you are done with the boat water heater plumbing work, the last bit should be supplying hot water to your ‘boat’s house.’ This is pretty simple. By now, we assume that you have already done the plumbing work for your boat’s bathroom, kitchen, and gallery. So, the only remaining thing is connecting the hot water hose pipe to the house plumbing, and it is pretty simple. What you need is to wrap the threaded end of the hose coming from the water heater outlet to your boat’s house.

Like the rest of the joints, used Teflon thread tape for the water heater outlet connection and tightened it using a pipe wrench. That should be the last bit of the plumbing work on your boat.

5. Connect Water Heater To Power

With plumbing system done, the next thing is powering your water heater to get hot water supply. That is a very simple thing to do because all you need to do is to attach power cables to the circuit breaker in your boat. After completing the electrical wiring system, power on the machine and hot water should be supplied in the house.

Types of Marine Water Heater For Your Boat?

There are various types of water heaters you can stall your boat. Whether you are looking for marine tankless water heater, the market has everything for you.

Just look at marine hot water heater reviews if you are buying for the first time. We are going to look at the three best types of marine water heaters you can buy for your boat.

1) Immersion-Type Water Heater

Immersion-type water heaters are the same models we have in our homes. They require AC power to heat water. So you will need a generator on the boat to power it. For these models to
work efficiently, combine it with a calorifier in a single unit.

2) Gas Water Heater

Gas water heater perfect for those working on a small budget. However, we all know that they can be dangerous due to explosions. For your safety, need to install an automatic low gas pressure cut-off switch, and a flame failure device fitted. These devices help to improve the safety of the boat.

3) Hot Water From Sun

If you are sailing in warm, sunny conditions, you can invest solar water heating. Fortunately, summer in Australia is very hot, making it perfect for solar water heating. The time of water heating is very cheap in the long run and super-efficient. Depending on your boat, you have a vast solar water heater to choose from. If you are planning an extended cruise this summer, a boat hot water heater is a crucial component. You can fix it yourself or hire the many marine water heater experts in Australia. Your cruise experience will never be the same.

Now get out there while the marine parks are open and you can fish!