Cruisair AC stopped working

[scottinsydney]

The 110 volt AC in the twin cabin has suddenly stopped producing cold air. Trigger and water flow ok. Capacitors checked with meter and ok. Coils clean. Placing my hand on compressor has only a weak vibration and is hot after a few minutes. Uses a Honeywell thermostat which has always been problem free. Ideas?

[racclarkson@gmail.com]

The 110 volt AC in the twin cabin has suddenly stopped producing cold air. Trigger and water flow ok. Capacitors checked with meter and ok. Coils clean. Placing my hand on compressor has only a weak vibration and is hot after a few minutes. Uses a Honeywell thermostat which has always been problem free. Ideas?

Scott,Based on similar scenario, sounds like the compressor is locked up. You’d think it would trip the breaker but not always.

[Briankinley2004]

First I would check the pressures on the refrigerant lines to see if the compressor is doing anything. It could also be cutting out on low pressure and is low on refrigerant. Put an amp meter on the compressor leads and see how many amps it is pulling. If it is drawing current, especially a high amount, like Robert said it is probably locked up.

[madhatter1]

I just went through this. They die suddenly. Mine was grounded out on one leg and should have tripped the breaker but it did not. Just was popping on/off as the thermal overload on the compressor tripped and then reset.

Although I am knowlegable on controls and somewhat on HVAC I clearly only know enough to be dangerous. Get a tech in there that knows what they are doing. In boater bucks the compressor swap is only a few.

[racclarkson@gmail.com]

If it is the compressor and you wish to replace it, I found a Bristol for about half price. Dometic had issues delivering and it was hot. Bristol made it for Dometic. Wasn’t painted white, though.

[scottinsydney]

I should also have said that this is an old blue unit and 36 years old. I had it regassed about 4 months ago and its always worked perfectly the past 4 years of my ownership until now.

The big issue is that this unit's compressor is 110 volts and we are 220 volts in Australia.

I'm leaning to getting the service guy back to diagnose. If compressor is locked up we could swap the old compressor out. Hopefully I can find an HVAC guy to solder in the new compressor. Then replace it all in the boat. (There is no room for a new condensor unit footprint. Must be the same.)

Looks like Bristol Compressors has gone out of business in 2018. Any other suppliers?

I see 20 hours of labour and toil to get this sorted. It will play havoc with my OCD until its fixed. Of course the compressor is the furthest in the row and least accessible.

[rustybucket]

you should fairly easily be able to swap to a 220v compressor. Your tech should be able to source a replacement compressor. Be sure to tell him you don't care if the compressor is a dometic (just a relabeled compressor from a different mfg at 3x the cost). I didn't pickup what size your compressor is, but if you can swap an old reciprocating with a newer tech scroll compressor you will be very happy with the results, in both energy savings and noise level.

For example, the compressors I replaced last year were all tecumseh's, buying them through dometic was $600-$800/ea. I bought the same tecumseh's at local hvac shops for less than half that. Wish I had gone to scroll on my largest unit, but I didn't.