38XX Stair Heater-gctid356583

[Guest]

This is a silly question but living in Los Angeles i do not need the heaters much. the admiral and I became live a boards about a year ago and love it. My three original electric heaters are enough for our weather conditions and they work great. Before we moved onto the boat I never had a need to use them.. The boat as you know is not insulated well and I have to use them in the evening now. I am curious about the heater located on the bottom step mid-ship with the on off switch located on the lower helm facing the stairwell. This heater has never worked and I assume it is a diesel heater? Does it feed off one of the tanks? I need crawl down there and see if this thing is even hooked up as this boat has always been in Southern Cal.. Anyone have any experience with this heater? any advise, as always it is greatly appreciated.

[Guest]

Bryan,

My wife and I moved onto our 38 this year and love it also.

We are slowly redoing everything inside and out.

One of those projects has been recarpeting the boat, so while doing the carpet we removed the stairs which we are replacing with new teak stairs without carpet. We live in the Bay Area and have no need for the stair heater, same as you.

The heater is connected to two rubber hoses that run from the heater back to your starboard engine.

Be careful when removing the lines because they are filled with coolant. I would suggest removing engine side first and drain then cap fittings. Easy to remove if you desire.

Good luck and if you need pictures I can post or send direct.

Bruce

[Uncle_Bob]

You have a switch somewhere to activate it. It works the same as a car heater so don't start pulling off hoses until you know if the switch will activate it.

[boatworkfl]

Yes, check the switch and fuse, if the motor does not work, fisheries supply has Heatercraft replacements, it uses much less power than the original.

[Guest]

Does the Heatercraft motor mount on the back of the Red-Dot...or does it need some kind of retrofit mubo-jumbo? (Bracket, etc?)

[boatworkfl]

SEA-KING wrote:
Does the Heatercraft motor mount on the back of the Red-Dot...or does it need some kind of retrofit mubo-jumbo? (Bracket, etc?)

Mine dropped right in, there are several sizes, measure the grate in front and match it up with the heatercraft, fisheriessupply has the info online. I think it is a heater craft 4H series, there are others.

[Guest]

Slightly off-thread, but...My heater has two fans, they work but are VERY noisy. Does the fisheries replacement run quieter?

As for the original thread question, what you have is a red-dot heater, using coolant from the stbd. engine, as earlier posted. It can be removed, but make sure to cap the lines to-from the engine.

[boatworkfl]

Yes much quieter, has 2 squirrel fans I believe. There still is the noise of moving air, but quieter.

I often use a pair of vice grips with 2 round dowels between the hose and vice grips.

Do not squeeze it too tight, just enough to stop the flow.

[LTCret]

Mine has a shut off valve in the line from the engine TO the heater. It is located on the bulkhead in front of the engine.

Good Luck