Boat air conditioning

I have a cruiser with air, I believe a cuise air system, last time we had it out first time in season, I turned on the air and it appeared to be working for a while. After about an hour, the air just felt like the blower was working and not the compressor. The system is discharging water, however, there is no way I can tell if it is a adequate amount. I shut off the unit and then turned it back on. I heard the compressor kick on and then off about 5 seconds later. Any ideas. I am thinking we picked something up in the lake and it is disrupting water flow

Thanks in advance

Re: Boat air conditioning

You may be on to it, if the condenser does not get enough water flow it will trip the high pressure limit switch.

Re: Boat air conditioning

There are a few things to check when making sure your A/C is moving enough water.

1) Thouroughly clean the raw water strainer for maximum water flow. Close your seacock first!
2) When putting the strainer back together, fill the vacant portion with bleach, then seal it up. Open the seacock!
3) Turn on the A/C, allowing the bleach to run through the system and discharge. Watch the amount of crap that gets expelled.
4) Go back to step 1 and repeat, but fill the vacant portion with liquid dishsoap now. Flush.
5) Looking at the coils on the condensing unit, you will see a dircetion of water flow. Remove the 'outgoing' 5/8" water line.
6) Place a garden hose with pressure nozzle on the opening, blast water (backflushing) through the coil. This helps remove gunk lining the coils.
7) Put the unit back together. Turn on the A/C and put the temp at leasy 10 degrees lower than the room temp.

The water will flow even if the A/C is not is cool mode if the water pump is wired to the A/C control box. it's a safety feature. Also, some A/C systems have a dehumidify mode, and yours may be cycling into that. Make sure it is in straight cool mode.

Re: Boat air conditioning

Thanks to both of you for your responses. We had a mechanic look at the system last week, we live several hours away, and he says the water was restricted. He unclogged the system and the unit still did not work. We have about 1 hour of labor. It does not seem like he could have taken your steps in just an hour. Usually walking to the boat seems to take an hour when I get the bill. He said that he has to pull the compresser to see what the problem is and that it is either the compresser or the mother board. This will take 3 hours.

What would you do? I want to try your steps this weekend. Does pulling the compresser seem right? It seems that if he did found resctricted water flow and corrected the problem, it should work. Two unrelated problems does not seem right to me? I know two things can break/happen at one time, but I got to think it is rare.

Thanks for your resposnses

Re: Boat air conditioning

Follow the steps listed first. I can clean an A/C unit as noted in less than an hour. It really doesn't take that long. Do it yourself first and get more detailed info on your particular system from the CruiseAire web site. The biggest problem is lake/river gunk leaving a slim coating on the inside of the compressor coils. The water will flow, but it will not dissipate heat. When the unit is in cool mode, put your hand on the compressor coil (where the water flows thru). If it's hot (uncomfortably), then it's not cooling properly. If it's warm, you have other problems that aren't associated with the water flow issue.

Also, cycle it into heat mode also. They have reversing valves that need to be exercised as well.

Re: Boat air conditioning

Great thanks, will try this weekend and let you know if it works!!! Also one last question. Beginning last year, the control panel, cooler button stopped working. It is actually frozen at 55 degrees and will not go up. After searching forums last year I learned that the membrane on the pads are susceptable to problems and this is a frequent problem. The fix is to replace the control panel. As the cabin never really got too cool on 100+ degree days last year, I never fixed the control panel but the air always worked fine and actually we turned it off at night because it could freeze us out. My intention was to replace the control this year, which I know there are some sites that offer after market panels for around $140.

question-After a year of working fine with it stuck at the low temp. I am assuming todays problem probably has nothing to do with the control panel issue. Would you agree with this?

Thanks for all of your help. If I can get it working you will really have saved me some money and better yet given me the ability to fix and know my boat a little better.

Re: Boat air conditioning

The control panel not responding to a signal wouldn't cause the problem you're having, but it needs to be repaired/replaced any way. You don't want the AC running nonstop in your boat anymore than you would in your home. Like I said, they also need to go into dehumidify mode as well, so get a new control panel for it. Make sure you have the correct panel as they do make changes after a certain number of years. Although the front may be the same, the pin connector on the back may be different.

If you're taking the control panel out to replace it, try opening the key display up and see if the little button that got pushed in just went in to far. It may just be stuck in the pressed in position. You might get away with just popping it back out. You were going to replace it anyway, right? What's the harm?

Re: Boat air conditioning

Thanks for your help. We did the steps you provided and it still did not work. We called in an expert and it was a burned wire at the compressor.

Re: Boat air conditioning

Glad you got your trouble straightened out. At least you still got the unit cleaned out for the summer.

Re: Boat air conditioning

Always good to keep that strainer clean. During a trip to St. Michaels I sucked up a bunch of Jelly Fish that caused my unit to freeze up like a block of ice. Still happens from time to time, so I'm always look out for debris in the strainer.