Access to Reverse Air unit

[mgernes]

Last fall I noticed a foul odor coming from the vent in the forward cabin of our 1973 53MY. It is a chemical smell, almost toxic. This is the vent that is controlled by the Mid-stateroom reverse air unit. There is no odor coming from the vent in the mid-stateroom that is controlled by that same reverse air unit so I assume that has something to do with the forward unit that is above the washer/dryer.

Two questions come to mind. What the heck would cause that odor, and how do I gain access to the unit in the forward cabin so that I can check to see if there is something nasty growing in their to cause the odor. The odor is so heavy that I can not run that reverse air unit at all.

Thanks for any thoughts.

 

[Captned]

I cant tell you exactly but I can tell you that you can get at it. You might have to cut, remove and go through a lot of trouble, but keep looking at it till you figure it out. My Main cabin air handler on my sportfish gave me hell, but I finally figured it out. My foreward one is mounted in a box in the anchor locker. I crawled in there and had to remove 50-60 screws and then pry the box apart from the back. pita to be sure, but you can figure it out. Probalby is a lot of mold. Not good....

Good luck!

Captned

 

[Brian Degulis]

Our 61 MY had a foul smell in the port guest stateroom when we ran the boat. This is my daughters room and the smell was bad enough that we would not let her use it. What caused it was that the flexable duct leading to the return air vent had broken in a spot that was imposable to see without removing some panels. So what was happening was the AC unit was sucking air from the bilge and port engine space instead of the stateroom. I guess it wasn't noticable with no movment of bilge water and no engines running.

Now that I'm thinking about it this probably explains why my cousin was so dam sleepy all the time when we brought the boat home from lauderdale. That was his room for that trip and he probably was getting some C02 poisioning? Oh well he's not really college material anyway.

Brian

 

[Angela]

Look for an access panel over the forward dinette seat. That's where mine is. It may not be quite so obvious meaning there may be a teak trim strip all the way across from the edge of the wall to the hullside, but if you unbutton that, the whole upper panel of the wall may come off. My intake vent is above the washer/dryer. Look there too. Yours may be facing a different direction and that may be the way you get at it. But there has to be an access to it, short of having to cut a new hole. If not...get out the jigsaw. We just did that in the forward closet - the access hole was only enough to put your hands in there to clamp the dryer hose and wasn't big enough for a person to go through the wall to get behind the washer/dryer, so we just made the access we wanted to have and now we can stand back there and work on old stuff.

 

[Nonchalant1]

Could easily be a clogged drain tube in either of the two drip pans. Then it fills with water and critters create their own little universe right there in the pan.

My 1978 53MY actually has two drip pans because there's a second evaporater coil and fan there for the mid stateroom A/C to supply air to the galley, and a separate A/C behind that for the forward stateroom.

There are access panels on the side of the cabinet above the washer/dryer and another on the bulkhead of the forward galley wall. Both are trimmed with teak strips, as shown in the picture above the pottery fish. If yours are not there, you may have to cut access panels and then trim when you reinstall, however after all these years, somebody has surely gotten into there before, so keep looking before you do any cutting.

Doug Shuman

 

[yachtsmanbill]

Look for an access panel over the forward dinette seat. That's where mine is. It may not be quite so obvious meaning there may be a teak trim strip all the way across from the edge of the wall to the hullside, but if you unbutton that, the whole upper panel of the wall may come off. My intake vent is above the washer/dryer. Look there too. Yours may be facing a different direction and that may be the way you get at it. But there has to be an access to it, short of having to cut a new hole. If not...get out the jigsaw. We just did that in the forward closet - the access hole was only enough to put your hands in there to clamp the dryer hose and wasn't big enough for a person to go through the wall to get behind the washer/dryer, so we just made the access we wanted to have and now we can stand back there and work on old stuff.

Hey Ange... all I can say is "You da' man!!!" ;-)) That sure beats struggling doesnt it? ws