Air Conditioning replacement

[rangerscott275]

Out of my 4 a/c units, 2 of them are original 1969 units and until now, have always worked fine. recently, I've started having some problems with the AC and am down to only one working unit. I think it may be time to put in some new ones and was wondering 1) where people have found good deals on cruiseair units, 2) did you replace blowers (in the rooms themselves) and lines as well as the main units when you did, and, 3) what size btu do you recommend for (on a 53 MY) the one unit that blows into the salon only (not the one that blows into salon and galley with diverter) and what size btu for the one that blows into salon & galley combined? Actually, while I'm asking...if I ened up having to replace the one going to my main stateroom as well, what size should I use there (btus)? any & all advice appreciated! thanks & best,
Scott

 

[Boatsb]

Size matters. especially if you are using the existing blowers. They must match btu wise.

I have a neighbor with a 43DC who is an AC guy and he has been a great help. Find a local guy who can help.

 

[thoward]

There are not good deals on these units. I think I have a 12,000btu in the master and a 20,000btu in the saloon/galley of a SF. On the old blue ones I would match the size you have and only replace the primary unit(condenser) as a whole.

 

[Pascal]

mines are all 16k. they were replaced by the previous owner with Ocean Breeze, they left the existing air handler and i've had to replace two, with a 3rd one needing a blower... one (in the master) was the wrong size, apparently too small (for a 12k ) and with an oddly rigged external fan switch. usually you can jsut replace the blowers, the evap rarely go bad.

i still have a problem with the 16k unit in the master, despite clean lines, good flow (air and water) I can barely get the temp below 75... i suspect the condensing units suffered from running with an undesized air handler... when i had it serviced they overcharged it causing it not to restart after T stat cycling... i had to bleed a little bit of pressure to get it to restart without waiting for an hour...

Ocean breeze seem well built and cheaper than cruisairs. it's a small company in stuart FL and they're helpful on the phone. they do not offer reverse cycle though, claiming an electric element is better than running compressor and pump... at first i had doubts about their quality but the AC guy was hoping to sell me a new cruisair condenser...

 

[67hat34c]

I have been happy with the Ocean Breeze unit. They are simple units with good safety features. parts are replaceable by anyone in the controll panel. he uses panasonic or copeland compressors. copeland makes the scroll so you will pay a little more for it.

They will custom build you anything you want and do it for less than off the shelf cruise air.

the chassis are stainless, condensors are cupronickle and the evaporator is copper.

He will give you a 5y warranty on the system if he builds condensor and evaporator, he did not require the lines to be new. you can use old ones if your ac guy says so. ours charged the lines with nitrogen and let them sit for a couple of days to ck for leaks.

one component that he sells that i would not recommend is the Cal-Pump fresh water pumps, they suck. stay with the March pumps or what ever you like.

Now, Joe can build you a very high efficiency unit and save watts used by your gen, this is simply done the same way as a high efficiency home ac system . use smaller compressor, larger evaporator and larger condensor. only down side is the blower will have to move alot of air to prevent the evapoator from freezing up, can be noisy depending on application. I did the research on this by looking up panasonic compressors and looking at all the spec and performance sheets and by calling them to confirm, did a sort of self tought ac course and now understand it fairly well. found it is possible in a marine application to get up to 24k btus from a 16k btu compressor of course ambient water temp may have something to do with the overall efficiency. anyhow Joe built us a 20k btu single condensing unit with 2 evaporators, we did this to save power (running watts is about 1500 watts) as we only have a 4kw gen and to save some money and we did not have to cut any holes or alter the interior. original cruiseair was a 8btu and a 12k btu.
Joe does not like reverse cycle for heat, prefers to use coil in the evaporator, however in our case due to small gen he went with reverse cycle, like I said he will make you what ever you want and suit it for your particular needs.

anyhow they have a web site, call them up and let them know what you have and what you want.