AC issue

[workingonadream]

Hello all! I have two cruiseair systems on the boat, but the one for the salon won't turn on, but the air handler does. There's a dedicated breaker in the salon for each unit and in the engine room, there's one cruiseair breaker for both That then goes to a relay box where each AC and the pump have wires going into. Any thoughts where I should check first, do those relays fail??
Thank you

 

[q240z]

The 50yo Cruisair split systems that I had on my Chris Craft Commander didn't work when I bought the boat, though the fans and water pump would turn on. I had an AC tech come out and recharge the R-12 and the compressors kicked on and ran great...for two days. The AC tech came out again and found the R-12 had discharged again. He tracked the problem to the Schrader valves used to charge the system. After a full discharge, he installed new Schrader valve cores, vacuumed and recharged the systems, and they both worked for the full 10 years that we owned the boat.

 

[MadHatter53]

Relays triggers triac all weak links. Then you have capacitors that start and run the compressor. My ac for the vip/guest stateroom is down. The compressor won’t run even after i replaced both capacitors. Been waiting on ac tech for a month.

 

[q240z]

See? Chris Crafts are better! lol

 

[cww]

Ya'll get a set of those $49.95 manifold gauges from harbor freight and check the refrigerant pressures, it's super easy. You can buy a jug of R-22 (it's 22 not 12, same stuff as in your home a/c) off eBay for like $150 that will last you forever with the smallish quantities a boat a/c carries. Then you won't be waiting on a tech for weeks. Charging old cruisairs is the easiest thing in the world, you want the base of the compressor cool and the top of the compressor warm. If the top is too hot to keep your fingers on, add a little more until it's not. Then you're done. You can just do it by feel. Sure it's better to have a guy come out with a sniffer and find the leak, but this gets you up and running until that happens. Also almost every boat I've had has had one a/c unit where you have to top it up once every year or two, that's not abnormal.