Heater Craft Install

[stoked 1,039]

Hi all, thought I'd share my notes on a DIY Heater Craft Install. Their instructions leave a lot to be desired...

 

My Specs:

 

1 2007 Avalanche

1 Marine Heater - 300 Pro - All Inclusive System [ 3-Outlet ]

1 4-inch Hole Saw

6 Beers

random tools

1 Wife that doesn't understand why we need a heater (yet is always cold on the boat)

 

First of all, remove the captains chair and the wife, this makes getting under the dash and around the boat 80 times better.

 

The layout

If you plan on something different than this setup, like moving a hot tube further down the port side, you're going to need more heater hose. With this setup and what they sent me, if the hose was 2 inches shorter I would not have had enough.

I chose to put the heater up under the dash, because really there was no where else to put it. My amps are on the opposite side in the ski locker, if it wasn't for those, I would have definitely put it there as there would have been a whole lot more room.

The air intake from the dash and the hose for the fuel make this very very tight

 

The nice thing is that having it on this side, there is no need to drill holes for the water hoses, you have a straight shot to the walkthrough, then from there across to where the pumps are and on to the engine. Double plus is that all of the water hook-ups are on the starboard side

So first thing I did was connect the hoses to the heater and run them to the engine compartment, I figured it would be a massive pain to try and connect these after the heater was installed given my lack of space.

On the starboard side, remove the plug on the side of the thermostat, this guy:

The thermostat is the guy with the belt diagram on him on my boat. If anything but water comes out when you remove him, put the plug back in and try again.

Install a brass barb that came with the heater kit. I used teflon tape, there's no reason not to. Connect one of the hoses, it doesn't matter which one.

Now, it's good to note that you may opt to install a ball valve here in case of a failure in the heater system. I did not. The space was a little tight and I was in no mode to fight with it (only 1 beer in at this point). Plus, I threw the removed plug in my tool bag. If there is ever a failure, I'll shut her down, have a beer while she cools and replace the barb with the plug.

 

Test the system, put the unconnected hose over the side of the boat and connect your water source. Water should come out of the hose, if it does not, your barb is in the wrong hole.

The kit came with the "Y" fitting for the return. This fitting goes between the hull and the pump of the intake line

This was a pretty heavy duty line, it also had a wire looping through the hose. The clamps that Heater Craft included were too small of this hose. I could just barely get them on with the clamp on the last thread, but the "Y" pipe wouldn't fit in because they were too tight. So I had to make an emergency run to the local hardware store to get some that did fit.

Install the "Y" pipe so that the smaller "Y" piece points to the side of the hull intake. We're creating a venturi effect here, where the water passing through the hull causes a suction on the smaller pipe, thus pulling the water through the heater. Fluid Dynamics baby!!

Run the water again. In my system the flush kit is installed after the filter, so seeing water run through the filter with no leaks means we've got a working system!

So that was the easy part, I'd say that took about a beer and a half, maybe 2 beers worth of time. Now install the heater and the hoses.

For the fixed louver I decided to put it next to the drink holder. My days as a teen making over-sized subwoofer boxes for my tiny car told me that you DO NOT want to open a hole through a sealed subwoofer box. Even if I sealed it, I wouldn't let myself do it. So I removed the panel and drilled through the backside just enough to get through the plastic, I cut the vinyle with a razor

I cut the heater hose to this length and connected it to heater unit now, because I could tell by the look of things it would have been a massive pain to do so after the heater was installed. Time to install the heater.

This was the hardest part for me. I'm a giant oaf, it was not easy getting my body turned the right way to get under the dash to get to the screw holes

Next I drilled the the center hole that is on the walkthrough. Be very careful not to drill this hole too high (like I did). There is a 1/2inch piece of some alien material under the step, if you go too high you have to cut a piece of it out. Install the hose for this guy

You can now put the side panel back on.

I cut the hole for the hot tube that goes under the ski locker hatch. I chose to run the hose for this one behind the cooler because a) my hole saw sucked and I didn't want to cut anymore holes 2)it was pretty crowded already with the other two hoses coming up beside the subwoofer. There was just enough hose to go this way, I had to stretch it out pretty tight.

Lastly I wired up the switch. I have three blanks on my dash next to the hours meter. So I knocked one of them out and put the switch here. It was a tight fit, but the switch eventually pushed through under my oafish strength. I already had a spot on my fuse box for the heater, with a wire that ran to no where. So I re routed this and put it on a center barb on the switch (doesn't matter which side). I then put the yellow wire (High) on the top and the red wire (Medium) on the bottom. I did not connect the orange low speed, I tested it, it was a pretty useless speed. Then finally I connected the black wire to the fuse box and test the fans to make sure we were all set

 

So project finished! Start up the boat and let her run for a bit and make sure you get hot air! Finish your last beer, clean up your mess, and pat your self on the back!

 

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[Bongo Fury 640]

Awesome!!! I wish I had those kind of skills! Super nice job and great write up.....thanks for posting!

[duramat 462]

Awesome!!! I wish I had those kind of skills! Super nice job and great write up.....thanks for posting!

 

X2!! Love it

 

Are all heaters installed in this fashion (Venturi effect)? I'd like to add one but my concern is I don't have alot of room (if any) installing that "y" fitting on the intake hose between the hull and the v-drive since installing the "Super's shutoff valve". I guess it could go in after the Vdrive.

 

How much room does it take to mount it under the helm? Does it just rest on the floor?

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Edited April 19, 2014 by duramat

[shawndoggy 49]

X2!! Love it Are all heaters installed in this fashion (Venturi effect)? I'd like to add one but my concern is I don't have alot of room (if any) installing that "y" fitting on the intake hose between the hull and the v-drive since installing the "Super's shutoff valve". I guess it could go in after the Vdrive. How much room does it take to mount it under the helm? Does it just rest on the floor? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

After the vdrive is fine, it just needs to be before the raw water pump.

[shawndoggy 49]

Excellent work. I've found that even medium is pretty useless. I've wired mine to work on full blast only, partly because I decided to use a pump to move water through the system rather than the Y (venturi) fitting, and my pump turns on with the heater on full.

 

Actually I've still got the Y fitting installed, but was never all that happy with its low speed performance.

Edited April 19, 2014 by shawndoggy

[duramat 462]

Thanx Shawn! Is yours on the floor?

 

 

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Edited April 19, 2014 by duramat

[shawndoggy 49]

Is my what on the floor?

 

I've got two heaters. One port (two vent, with two hot tubes), one starboard (three vent, two hot tubes and a single euro vent). The heaters are daisy chained with each other, and I've got a pump pushing water through.

 

My port heater is mounted high in my observer's compartment, and the starboard heater is mounted under the seats behind the driver.

 

Portside, one hot tube comes out of the observer's side dash, the other comes out the kick panel (seat base) about 1/3 of the way down. Starboard, one hot tube in passenger seat base behind driver, and then hot tube and euro vent for the driver under the dash.

[duramat 462]

My bad on clarity. I meant the heater fan/blower assembly unit. Do some mount on the floor or is it possible to mount on that back wall under the dash? Is there board to screw/mount too generally? (Backside of the bow seating)

 

A pump system sounds like a good idea, where did you mount yours?

 

 

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[shawndoggy 49]

I don't have a centurion (MB wb 23) so keep that in mind. Generally speaking, yes, the core can be mounted to a wall/floor/ceiling in any orientation. The core mounts with supplied L brackets, so you just need to mount the brackets in the desired location and then mount the core to the brackets (sometimes easier said than done when mounting in tight quarters, but it's doable).

 

You could definitely even mount to the side of your hull if you did something akin to the standoffs people glue/glass in for amp racks.

 

my pump is mounted in under the rear seat, over the vdrive, on the portside wall. Mine is actually a re-purposed shower pump.

 

 

Here you can see how I "hung" my starboard heater core under the seats:

 

Edited April 19, 2014 by shawndoggy

[duramat 462]

Awesome. Think Ill go climb under the dash and take a better look at some options.

 

Stoked, your right...PITA crawling in/out from under there

 

 

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[stoked 1,039]

X2!! Love it Are all heaters installed in this fashion (Venturi effect)? I'd like to add one but my concern is I don't have alot of room (if any) installing that "y" fitting on the intake hose between the hull and the v-drive since installing the "Super's shutoff valve". I guess it could go in after the Vdrive. How much room does it take to mount it under the helm? Does it just rest on the floor? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Assuming you're talking about the heater itself, I suppose you could mount it to the floor if you had the leg room. I put mine is above the sub-woofer out of view and out of my foot area. I have size 15s and need every inch of space under there I can get...

 

The "Y" pipe is just for better heat when idling. Most of the kits come with them these days.

[RVR-RAT 269]

Awesome write up STOKED! Thanks for taking the time to post up with pics

[stoked 1,039]

Awesome write up STOKED! Thanks for taking the time to post up with pics

[stoked 1,039]

For those that are actually going to follow this, I forgot to add a 3-inch hole saw. The fixed louver (the vent by my feet) only needs a 3 inch hole. So don't go cutting a hole that is too big, it's hard to come back from that one...

[surf moocher 127]

Awesome write up Stoked, I've started my install, about half way through.

 

One note, if anyone needs just a few inches (or even a foot) of vent hose to reach the heater, you can actually open up the hot tube (2 screws) and just move or adjust the vent hose so that a little less vent hose comes out of the hot tube vent and more goes to the back end to the heater.

 

You can actually do the opposite as well up to about a foot to lengthen the amount of tube that comes out of the hot tube vent. However, you are limited by how much vent hose will fit in the actual hot tube. If you try to add too much, the vent won't clip into the hot tube.

Edited April 21, 2014 by surf moocher

[surf moocher 127]

Assuming you're talking about the heater itself, I suppose you could mount it to the floor if you had the leg room. I put mine is above the sub-woofer out of view and out of my foot area. I have size 15s and need every inch of space under there I can get...

 

The "Y" pipe is just for better heat when idling. Most of the kits come with them these days.

 

Question, and please pardon my ignorance and lack of understanding. So how does and why does the Y pipe work for idling? My kit didn't come with one but I'm planning to install one.

 

I will say that we don't spend much time idling except when filling the ballast, or pumping up an inflatable.

 

 

Also, I agree Stoked, the instructions are so weak!! Not impressed with Heatercraft.

Edited April 21, 2014 by surf moocher

[stoked 1,039]

Question, and please pardon my ignorance and lack of understanding. So how does and why does the Y pipe work for idling? My kit didn't come with one but I'm planning to install one.

 

I will say that we don't spend much time idling except when filling the ballast, or pumping up an inflatable.

 

 

Also, I agree Stoked, the instructions are so weak!! Not impressed with Heatercraft.

 

Check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venturi_effect

[chenige 84]

Does the heater use a SPST switch? I want to replace my old 3 speed switch and put it in a switch bank.

http://www.heatercraft.com/4-position-rotary-switch-switch-only/

[stoked 1,039]

I think it was a DPDT. But I'm not a 100% on that. My new boat has the switch you want to use with a heatercraft