Raritan 1700 Series HW Heater

[svHyLyte]

For those of you that may have inherited a Raritan 1700 Series Water Heater from a previous owner:



If the yacht is older than 5 years; and, you are having difficulties with water quality--particularly water from the hot side of the water system, whether heated or not--you may want to take a look at Raritan's on-line tech support page.

We were having a problem with water quality aboard HyLyte, getting "gray", smelly, water from the hot water lines despite repeated flushings, cleaning of tanks etc. Our boat is fitted with this type heater, which I began to suspect after all other efforts with the system proved fruitless. Upon checking the Raritan site I discovered a reference to the need for periodically renewing the anode—which is part’n parcel of the hot water feed port. Upon checking the maintenance and repair log for our boat—now 22 years old—I found no entries concerning the water heater. So I contacted Raritan Tech Support and learned that the anode needs replacing at roughly 5 to 7 year intervals, or sooner if the water quality seems poor as described above. With this I ordered a replacement anode--$50+/- USD—which arrived the following day. The new anode is approximately 16 inches long, ¾” in diameter and is attached to a plastic fitting which is itself connected to a pipe fitting that matches a “thru-hull” fitting on the side of the hot water tank.

With the replacement anode in hand I disconnected the hot water system (which also involved temporarily removing the inverter/charger) and extracted the old hot water feed/anode which was completely wasted:



Leave it be said that cleaning out the water heater was a trial that required 10+ refill/flush cycles before I stopped finding a combination of horribly smelly black muck and red sandy like material in the extracted water. (I used a Shop-Vac to speed the extraction of water.) After doing so, however, and again flushing our lines and replacing our water filters, we now have fresh sweet water flowing from our taps which run much more quickly without the debris that previously obstructed the lines.

FWIW…

s/v HyLyte

[abouis]

This is an extremely helpful post. I had a similar problem of rusty hot water after just 3 years with the 12 gallon model. When I pulled my anodes they looked just like the ones in the photos above. Thanks to this post, knew exactly what to do!

[bighopper]

On my Pretorien 35, the Raritan is leaking from I think the bottom. Not from any of the connections. Not from the pressure valve. It might be 12 years old with minimal use.
It is completely squished between a shelf above the engine and the cockpit floor.
Is there a way to dismantle or saw it in pieces in order to remove it?
Or, and by the way, where is the anode? How can I inspect it?

[svHyLyte]

Originally Posted by bighopper

On my Pretorien 35, the Raritan is leaking from I think the bottom. Not from any of the connections. Not from the pressure valve. It might be 12 years old with minimal use.
It is completely squished between a shelf above the engine and the cockpit floor.
Is there a way to dismantle or saw it in pieces in order to remove it?
Or, and by the way, where is the anode? How can I inspect it?

The annode is part and parcel of the hot water discharge valve on the top of the unit in the general vicinity of the pressure relief valve. As for your leakage, I cannot speak to that although the pressure relief valves will leak after aging. That's an easy/inexpensive fix however.

I cannot visualize the installation you describe. The heaters are not very heavy once emptied of water but from your note even empty it will be a chore. You will have a hard time disassembling the heater in place as they are quite well built--particularly the tank itself. The outer shells are leightweight and can deteriorate but can be repaired or even replaced, if necessary. Deterioration is normally a result of aging valves leaking rather than leakage from the tank itself.

I regret that I cannot be more helpful.

FWIW...