Angela
06-20-2009, 08:06 AM
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
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