Air conditioner SMELL!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Gina Marie]

First let me wish all of us in the South Florida area and the east coast good look with the approaching storm , I spent all day running lines and removing as much equipment and odds and ends as possible.

My question:

I ran my AC today with dock side power. I have a distinct odor coming from the salon unit. I researched a little further and entered the engine compartment and no smell there. I also have a forward AC which cools the Master and forward berths. Vert slight odor there.

Does any one have any idea????????????????

Thanks Tom/Gina Marie

 

[Genesis]

What kind of smell? Moldy/musty? Check the drains from the drip pan and wherever they go.

 

[Gina Marie]

Hi Genesis, we have the same boats or shall I say Had. My 45c has a very strong odor I want to say like a sharp bunget ordor. I ask my wife also who has a very strong sense of smell, her make of it is not musty or mildew. It almost smells like something died. But this ordor does not exist in the engine room. Karl when I went on the boat today with the AC off no smell its only when I run the AC unit.

 

[Nick]

Hope you and our friends in the south get through the storm safely and with no damage.

Is it a sewage type odor, (sulfur or rotten egg). If so check your batteries and charger. The batteries could be generating sulfur gas and it is finding its way into the salon.

On the 37 there is an air vent for the refridge cabinet near the AC discharge and it occasional picks up and spreads bilge type odors.

Nick

 

[Genesis]

The master SR A/C drain on the mid 80s 45C is straight back from the pan to the bilge center water trap/drain area at the aft end of the ER.

Believe me when I tell 'ya - there's a LOT of foul smell that will come up through that hose, and that's a negative pressure area, so it'll be sucked up good! Any odor that hugs the floor in the ER will end up in your master SR with the AC unit on.

I put a "trap" in the hose and it mostly fixed this. The other thing to do is clean the coils, pan, and hose out real good on a regular basis.

Finally, under the master SR berth there is an access hatch. The air handler is not sealed from the access areas to those hatches. A bead of caulk around the space where the air handler is (at floor level) to seal the air handler space from the area above those hatches makes a BIG difference - pull the drawers under the berth and lift that hatch going into the bilge - if it stinks down there, and you haven't sealed that air handler's plenum it will suck the fumes up into the AC unit and then into the Master SR!

I fixed all of this on Gigabite and got rid of the smell problems.....

BTW that space (under the master SR) and the companion space on the other side under the galley floor are two of the worst nasty-water traps on the boat. They don't trap MUCH water, but it doesn't take much. They have communication with the bilge in the ER abaft the engines via a tube and once water gets in there it doesn't ALL dry out. Most of it runs out when on plane, but if there's any that can backwash into there, it will - and then sit and STINK. The fix for that is a bit of dishwashing detergent (powder) under those hatches whenver you notice that its all "washed out" - that'll kill the odor and if maintained regularly takes care of it. Also, put some in the forward bilge space under the forward SR floor and in the shower sump - those two spaces also accumulate small amounts of water and go rancid fast, especially the shower sump.

Any rancid water under the floor can communicate smell to the airbox plenum in the master stateroom.....

 

[Gina Marie]

Thanks for the info will look into the advice tomorrow and get back to you thanks again. Gina Marie/Tom