No ventilation in second head equals mildew!

[Captned]

Greetings all.

With the stormy humid weather here in South Florida, I am having a problem. I have two heads on boat, one off the master cabin to port and one past the galley on the starboard side. The master cabins heads door stays open all the time and is always nicely ventilated. However, the starboard head (which I use a storage area since I'm a live aboard) gets no air and the doors leading to it; (two doors) recently have begun to sweat on the inside. (I have the ac units onboard set to COLD all the time, hence the problem) I remember a year or so ago I didn’t check inside there for a while and when I did I had a mildew problem. I can’t leave the doors open because I’m always going to the forward cabin for clothes, tools, etc..... The doors are the traditional solid hard doors, so I am hesitant to cut ventilation holes. I currently have a hanging "Damp rid" bag and a "Damp rid cup" inside the head which usually takes care of the problem, but this time of year I'm having a problem. And I dont see any way to pump in AC because of the design of my air handlers..... The head does have a port hole and an exhaust fan.

What should I do? Run a fan? But the exhaust fan on a timer? (Just thought of that) Cut vent holes in the doors? Dehumidifier? Take the door off? (naw don't want to do that.) Has anyone got a suggestion?

Thanks in advance,

Captned
MBMM

 

[Angela]

I had a similar problem, sort of. Problem is cold air on one side of the door and hot/humid air on the other which causes it to sweat on the hot/humid side.

I had the same scenario on a cabinet that houses one of my air handlers in the salon. It would sweat on the warm side which was the exterior of the cabinet where you could see it messing up the finish, and other other side which was the exterior wall to the aft deck behind the bar which rotted the back side of the original bar cabinet. I simply lined the air handler chute with styrofoam and problem solved. It was the cheapest fix to a headache I ever did.

This may not be feasible for you - lining the inside of the door with styrofoam - but if it's a "closet" (the way you're using it), you may not care about having a long piece of styrofoam taped on the inside just for those months you need it. Unless you are going to ventilate with air conditioned air, circulating hot humid air in that head I don't think will cut it. I've got a another spot on the exterior of my boat along the side that sweats, grows mold and moss out there. It's where the other salon air handler chute is. Think of all that "ventilation" and it still sweats. I've got more styrofoam with that air handler's name all over it.

 

[MikeP]

Does this happen even if you leave the porthole open for ventilation? When we are not around, we leave all the ports in the heads open to ventilate the entire boat. Seems to work very well. But it's not as hot/damp here as in FL.

 

[rwetherington]

What type of yacht is it? I designed a/c systems for Hatteras for years and may be able to suggest some answers but I need to know the type and footage.

 

[Captned]

Thanks guys,

Roger its a 1978 46 Convertible, galley down. It has two compressors and three air handlers. One in the salon, one in the master cabin and one in the forward cabin. No insulated cold air tubes anywhere in system. The air just blows out the air handlers.

Thanks Ang, the problem is it just gets to stuffy in there... Maybe I'll try to leave the port hole open, but with the rain we get around here, it would probably blow right in......

Captned

 

[Angela]

What type of yacht is it? I designed a/c systems for Hatteras for years and may be able to suggest some answers but I need to know the type and footage.

Did you design that system that uses the solenoid valves to dispense refrigerant to four evaporators/air handlers off of one condensing unit that is found on the Series I 58 MY?

Reason I ask is that I'm going to build new valve manifolds. Someone told me that they later figured out only one manifold was needed instead of two. If that's right, then I don't want to waste time and money building two thereby having twice as many valves to maintain or go bad. That lets all my gas out!

 

[rwetherington]

sorry that it has taken me so long to answer your questions.

Captned,
Crusair make a small 1K unit that you could install in the head that would just connect into the bow s/r unit that would take care of your problem. I would contact your local AC guy to get him to install and if he has any problem please feel free to have him call me or if you are go south by North Carolina call and I will give you a quote to have us at Jarrett bay do the work.

Angela,
your question about not installing a second manifold. The system was designed to have it. The new system do not have it because they are cool only. The new system has all the soleniolds at the blower unit where the old unit had them at the compressor. The system that you have is very hard to get the gas charged correctly soo make sure that you send some time doing it. You can also do away with that system and install a compressor for each blower unit.

If I can be of any help to either of you please feel free to call me. sometimes I do not get all of my thoughts together on email. My brain and my fingers do not talk to each other, but I have been told that my mouth is want works best. (not sure what they meant by that?)

 

[Angela]

Roger, the heat/cool and dual manifold makes sense now. The technician who told me that we don't need both manifolds anymore is also the one who installed the wrong condensing unit that was cool only and told me that Cruisair didn't make the heat/cool unit anymore, which was WRONG. They ended up having to take that new (but wrong) unit out when I pointed out they the correct unit was available.

I have often contemplated getting rid of the whole thing, but adding a compressor for each blower would put seven compressors on my boat. Seems to me that amperage (not to mention the space I'd need to find to locate all of this) would be a serious issue.

Looks like I'll be building two new manifolds afterall.

 

[bobk]

I use an oversized hook to hold the doors open about two inches. It doesn't impede passage, but allows all the air flow necessary to keep the heads comfortable and as dry as the rest of the boat.

Bob