Record heat, no AC, yet still a happy ending

Thursday evening, around 8PM, the entire lower level (staterooms) AC goes out....again..... My "new" Cruisair system is the most unreliable system on the boat and it keeps me on pins and needles wondering if it's going to be running over the next few hours. Of course, it always craps out on the eve of folks arriving to the boat for an outing.

The last time the guy was out to recharge the system was just a month ago, and the prior recharge was six weeks before that. Cha-ching every time. Last time, however, I put a large dye pack in it. I have a known, very small, leak at a soldered joint (a birdshit weld done by the idiots that installed my new system...twice, because they put the wrong unit in the first time) on one of my solenoid valves. When I called my AC guy, he said he wouldn't work on my old stuff and that to re-do the solenoid valve manifolds, he recommended starting from scratch because you only get one shot at soldering those with a brazing torch...try to do it twice and the valves get damaged. I've heard that from several AC guys...the brazing torch is just too hot. And these valves and pipes are nearly 30 years old except for a couple that I've replaced.

Anyway....with record heat coming this weekend, there didn't appear to be much I could do at this point. I had to go find the real leak - the big one, and I'm not talking about the one at the solenoid valve - somewhere there was a puddle. I picked up a UV light at the auto parts store on Friday for $15. Ed found a spray of dye all over the condensing unit Friday night. A fitting had come loose on the new condensing unit at a pressure sensor/switch and let my gas go.

As we huddled on the dock with Pascal and a few others, it didn't look like there was going to be any AC joy for the weekend at the sandbar. For once, Pascal was "out-airconditioning" me. Usually, its the other way around. LOL

At that same time, my neighbor was coming home from a overseas trip. When he learned of my dilemma, he to come over with a bottle of refrigerant and his gauges. Cool! But then, we didn't have the proper tool to turn the top of the valve on the condensing unit. A neighbor had a good ole boy AC guy working on this boat....he almost got away in the darkness, but Ed and Pascal blocked his exit out of the gate and coerced him back down the dock to Sanctuary. We had everything hooked up and ready to go...just needed his tool. He turned the valve for us, gas flowed in, cool air out...just lovely.

My cost for this house call on a Friday night at 9:30 p.m. by a guy who had been working since 7AM that morning and had a flight to Costa Rica the next morning at 4AM: A bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label. Sometimes, the squirrel does find the nut.

So, we'll save the rebuilding of the valve system for another day... :D I stil plan to go through all of the evaporator units to make sure they aren't leaking too. They are almost 30 years old. Funny...that old, old stuff never worries me about failing. It's the new stuff that keeps me awake at nights...go figure.

....and by the time I went to bed, it was freezing in my stateroom...just the way I like it. :D

A bit of a different twist....

This weekend is to be the hottest in Jacksonville in 10 yrs, 100 today, 101 Sunday...
So what happens just over 3 hrs ago? The entire neighborhood loses power.....

The great thing about living on a Hatteras, I just cranked up my genset and am sitting in a cold salon with those crazy land lubbers are sweating.....

The one thing I have noticed though, my saloon unit puts out a LOT more air when on the genset than when on shore power.....

Sounds like the marina has a power problem. My dryer and ac would not work at the same time efficiently on shore power until changing marinas.
Had to replace the compessor on a 2 year old unit because of it. Everything always worked correctly on the genny.

We DO have power problem....

Seems they ran aluminium wiring down the dock when it was built.

The boats at far end who run 220v are lucky if they get 210.

The 60' Hatteras I captained in 2003 couldn't run all it's A/C units due to that. I moved it next door to Lambs Marina and it had zero problems...
.
At my end (the cheap end for small boats) didn't seem to have any problems, but looks like that's a lie now....

So here we sit at the beautiful Chicago skyline on the lake... its a blistering
77F and the water is 64 in Cal harbor. BTW... the genny is running perfectly and the air is on too... time to head back to un-reality!! ws

Special tool to turn the valve? Are you talking about the service valve?

If you got a bad braze, sometimes the only way to get it right is to start with new clean copper.

Man, I really feel sorry for you guys. You are right, as soon as you get a threat of record heat, the AC's immediately become suspect.

Up here in Ct, we don't worry about that (at least not this year). Record heat? RECORD HEAT?!?!?! What the hell is that?!?!

It's still March or April here. The good news is that my heats work perfectly.

Oh yeah, the mold is growing quite well due to the 30 days of rain we've had all in a row!

If this keeps up, I'll make you a sweet deal on my AC units.

Global Warming???? Not in Ct.!!

K :(

I'm in Guam...it's very humid, but it hardly gets to 90deg.

Well we dont have a boat yet but it been a series of sizzlers here in Lower Alabama.Hotter than we can remember sence we got here in 91.Got us wondering about the Gulf water temps.If this Bahama high lasts could it lead to a larger cane season?Robby in Mobile

Ang,

Re brazing the small leak, I recall my father saying he had successfully repaired a freon leak in a refrigerator with epoxy. Something to consider here?

Bob

Capt K

i was in nantcket two weeks ago... the whole week i was there, temp never got to 60deg. I was running reverse cycle on the boat for a few hours every night!! record cold...

here, it's just nuts... must have been 100 yesterday... there was a nice breeze on the water so the saloon and aft deck were nice and cool while on the hook, even with the air off.

lost the master AC this week end though... pops the breaker when compressor tries starting... willl have to sleep in the VIP tonight... compressor (6 year old) has been acting up... will call the tech tomorrow to replace it.

[QUOTE=Pascal;132223]Capt K

i was in nantcket two weeks ago... the whole week i was there, temp never got to 60deg. I was running reverse cycle on the boat for a few hours every night!! record cold...

here, it's just nuts... must have been 100 yesterday... there was a nice breeze on the water so the saloon and aft deck were nice and cool while on the hook, even with the air off.

I knew someone, somewhere was using all of our spring heat! Now that's it's summer, can we at least have some of it back?

Thanks!

K

Ang, Just a few weeeks ago I went to charge the A/C for the master and should have just used the low side as usual. I decided to check the high side and sure enough when I applied some torque to the valve to open, it sprung a leak and leaked out the freon. At first my A/C guy didn't want to work on an old unit either, as Cruisair says if older than 8 yrs the unit should be replaced. YEAH RIGHT! LOL

Anyway, he told me the same thing about the heat possibly ruining the unit and he could not guarantee his work, but did it anyway. We just used a cold wet rag wrapped around the tubes just before soldering. We cleaned up the edges and flared the end again and soldered in a new valve. Now it works great! He charged me 3 hrs labor. I provided the new valve.

By the way, that special tool to open the valve is just a square drive and I have always used a small vice-grip to open and close mine when charging.

***FYI: Whenever you have to buy a new Cruisair unit, make sure to get the model number with a "R" in it, not an "F". They make all units both ways, but the "R" is the better one, old school like the Cruisair we all know and love from years past. The "R" is made in the old Cruisair plant in Richmond, VA (high quality/higher standards) and the units with the "F" are made in Florida, at the Marine Air plant which is not nearly as good. :)

I know..it's not really a special tool. I called the tool a "special tool" because I didn't have one; he did; and I needed it! :) The crescent wrench wasn't working for us. My valve was really stuck and it took several tries from different positions with the "special tool" to get it open.

My condensing unit is a "F", I believe. It was a special order - they don't make these unless someone asks for one. It's not one of their typical product lines. It's just for this particular system - these 58MYs for Hatteras, and a few USCG boats.

For now, I'm going to try some JB Weld on that joint...can't hurt at this point. I've fixed a lot of stuff with JB Weld, including the bronze pump head on my big AC pump.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Angela

I know..it's not really a special tool. I called the tool a "special tool" because I didn't have one; he did; and I needed it! :) The crescent wrench wasn't working for us. My valve was really stuck and it took several tries from different positions with the "special tool" to get it open.

My condensing unit is a "F", I believe. It was a special order - they don't make these unless someone asks for one. It's not one of their typical product lines. It's just for this particular system - these 58MYs for Hatteras, and a few USCG boats.

For now, I'm going to try some JB Weld on that joint...can't hurt at this point. I've fixed a lot of stuff with JB Weld, including the bronze pump head on my big AC pump.

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Sorry to hear that you have one of the "F" units made in FL @ Marine Air....always order an "R" for future reference. They make all units at both facilities, you just have to specify. Very few people know this. Cruisair does not want this to get out, but I assure you the "R" units made in Richmond are the higher quality.

Those valves are stiff. A really tight grip with vice grips does work well if you don't have the square drive ratchet handy.

JB weld should work! GOOD LUCK!!! :)