Brass fitting for new water heater?

[Christian Williams]

Installing WM/Kuuma 6 gallon water heater today.

My coolant hoses are 3/8. The ports on the heater are 1/2 push-on hose connectors.

I plan to add a piece of 1/2 hose to the 3/8 hose using a brass barb reducer coupling.

From what I read, brass is OK for fresh water/antifreeze applications.

Agreed?

 

[mkollerjr]

I believe I have brass fittings on my VW Westfalia coolant system, which has almost 200k miles on it.

 

[Maine Sail]

Brass is fine however why not just use 1/2" x 3/8" male adapter? Less places to leak. These water heaters used to have a 1/2" thread for the HX so you should be able to adapt, unless of course Kumha has changed them...

 

[Christian Williams]

The current Kuuma/WM has aluminum male 1/2" "slip fittings" (not sure what they're really called. Sort of a simplified barb fitting).

My existing engine/water heater connections are 3/8 hoses that terminate in 1/2" bronze NTP male for the old Raritan heater. .

The best advice I have so far is to just slip a piece of 3/4" heat exchanger hose (1/2" ID) over the Kuuma fittings, then over the existing threaded fitting on my hoses. With a hose clamp on it does seem secure.

Kind of a bush league solution which a big gold-plated boatyard came up with (after a lot of head scratching).