Tyler was inquiring about a DIY job installing Marine A/C on a 30 foot sailboat, and then running the Marine Air Conditioner on an inverter when he was away from shore power.
His question asked about wattage draw of a 8,000 BTU Cruisair self contained Turbo AC unit & if I thought the 8,000 BTU marine ac unit would be large enough for his 30′ Irwin
December 9, 2011 By
DIY Question about Marine A/C Wattage Draw & Operating on DC Inverter Power
November 8, 2010 By
5 Critical Things You Need to Know BEFORE Buying a Marine Air Conditioning System:
Some Good Info Here Folks in this 16 page PDF…What to Look For and What to Avoid, plus additional products to improve an existing system.
November 5, 2010 By
Marine Air Conditioning System Maintenance
Without water flow….You have NO cooling !
Service people on the docks (at least the better ones) can walk down the dock during the summer and tell which boats they are likely to be getting a call from next just by the flow of water (or lack of) going overboard on each boat….Lack of seawater flow can cause other problems besides loss of cooling…
July 16, 2010 By
A/C System Ices Up
I notice from the Google searches…That A/C System Icing is a search done often.. Though there can be many reasons for system icing…There are a few that the DIY boater can rule out before calling the service guy ( I can discuss other reasons in the forum but here are a few of the basic answers) Direct Expansion [...]
March 24, 2010 By
Free Marine A/C & Refrigeration Troubleshooting
Greetings All… This is just a note to confirm that I offer FREE Troubleshooting help for your Marine A/C & Refrigeration issues…But I ONLY do this in the FORUM section…If you can’t take the time to register & ask in the FORUM…I usually won’t respond…(this section is not setup for dialog/discussion…it’s only setup for comments) My only request [...]
March 15, 2010 By
Cold Plate/Hold Over Refrigeration
For many years Hold Over/Cold plate refrigeration was the way to go for long distance cruising yachts, and over the road refrigerated trucks…The function is Just as the Phrase Implies…Hold Over…For extended periods with a minimum of refrigeration system run time.
The Advantages, and Disadvantages of a Hold Over system are similar to a block of ice because that is essentially what is done…
February 22, 2010 By
Marine A/C Cabin Controls
Since they are not like home A/C controls…Sometimes marine A/C controls are misunderstood…Hope this can clear up some misconceptions…
They do provide the same function as in home systems as they are designed to keep the temperature in the cabin/room at a selected temp within a few degrees…
But different than Home…They can (and most do nowadays) offer more/different features than we use at home depending on the type of marine control that is installed…We can cover some of those features here but first we need to define which type of control is installed…Although there have been and are many types and models of controls with several variations…
January 27, 2010 By
Marine A/C & New Refrigerant Regulations
Due to new 2010 EPA regulations regarding the phase out of our long used R-22 A/C refrigerant systems…
Here’s what I can share at this point from the Cruisair/Marine Air perspective & what I have been told.
January 23, 2010 By
Marine A/C Icing in Heat
I have been experiencing an a/c problem also but on the heat mode side. I have 4 A/C system with one giving me a icing problem on the compressor unit. Starting on the suction side and loop tubing of the remote unit is freezing up with heavy ice. The compressor is hot to touch. Check air handling unit… High fan, clean filter giving out warm air. Water flow thru compressor unit and 3 other unit’s has a high flow rate. Water temp is around low 50′s.
January 6, 2010 By
AC Filters, Coils & Pump Systems Maintenance & Checkup
If you can get a good look at the aluminum fins…Check to see that they are not also clogged…If they are…That’s another story, and it’s probably time to call you’re A/C guy to clean them because he has access to cleaning solutions that work real well for this…and also likely has the equipment to do the job right…With less mess…
January 5, 2010 By
To 2010 Boat/Yacht A/C Owners
Hello All…A New Year again…Hopefully yours was good…. I started this site last year to “put my feelers out” about what owners and captains may want to learn and share about marine a/c. The support has been more than I ever expected… So… My New Year resolution to you is expand the site we created…Because of your feedback I am [...]
September 2, 2009 By
More on Pumps, Flow & Maintence…Larger Pump ?
The problem with this is the water runs are now much further than when the “Central” type systems were installed all in one location close to the pump…Back then we had very little growth problems (just scale buildup in condensers that was easy to remove) and flow was much easier to plan & maintain…
August 24, 2009 By
Backflush A/C ? & Marine Growth
Copy of recent e-mail to Marine AC.com… Hi Steve, love your web site – lots of great info. ! Our company does a lot of yacht maintenance / mechanical preventive maintenance type stuff here in Wilmington, N.C. – my question is, do you have an opinion concerning back flushing the sea water lines on marine [...]
August 24, 2009 By
More on Hold Over/Cold Plates
In another forum I visit…I answered a post http://www.boatered.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=130856 from a gentleman that was considering replacing his 12v standard plate system with a like system utilizing a Hold Over/Cold Plate in his factory (boat builder) built top loading box…The system he was considering is one of the package type systems offered today, and below is a copy [...]
August 10, 2009 By
Pumps & High Pressure…With Manual Controls & Hi Pressure Switch
Recently I was on a boating message board and came across a discussion about pumps and some troubles folks had experienced. The original poster had a March magnetic drive pump that would not pump water, and after the usual back flush & priming sugguestions he could still not get it to pump water…Just before I read [...]
August 7, 2009 By
Marine A/C Pumps and Pump Relays
We have touched on seawater cooling and lack of…Now what about if you have a intermittent problem, or the pump won’t start at all ?
In boats with multiple systems running on one seawater pump there is most likely a Pump Relay to receive a signal from each system to tell the pump it needs to run…That is unless it has been bypassed and the pump runs 24/7 from the breaker ( I see this done fairly often)
Lets start with the breaker in the main panel…Most are labeled A/C pump or similar…Some boats may have the pump breaker tied in with one of the A/C system breakers (Ocean Yachts for one used to connect the pump to the Main Salon A/C Breaker) but most should have a stand alone breaker…
August 7, 2009 By
Chilled / Tempered Water Marine Air Conditioning A/C
Dometic (Cruisair & Marine Air) tempered water systems are built for larger yachts and commercial craft.
These two-stage systems use circulated water as a heat transfer medium. The warmed or cooled fluid is piped through a closed loop from the tempering unit in the engine room to any number of air handling units throughout the boat.
Dometic’s unique reverse-cycle design provides very efficient heating, even in relatively cold seawater temperatures, in many cases eliminating the need for separate heating systems.
July 6, 2009 By
Innovative System Cools Boaters on Deck with Directional Jets of Chilled Air
Dometic has unveiled a new type of air conditioning system designed to provide cool relief for boat passengers in open spaces above decks. Developed through innovative engineering, this high-efficiency system blows chilled air through high-velocity directional jets aimed at people in the helm station, outdoor salon, fishing area or other locations. Just when rising temperatures [...]
March 13, 2009 By
New “Forum” Section
Thanks to my webmaster brother Capt Scott…We now have a forum section…Whoo Hoo !!! Everyone can access it, but registration is required to post…I don’t share that info…You can find the link at the top of any of Marine -AC.com’s pages…Just click on “Forum”…Or you can click on this http://marine-ac.com/forum/ We are slowly growing, and I seem to notice from the searches what folks do [...]
January 2, 2009 By
Happy 2009 To Boat Owners
Here’s to hoping your New Year is Prosperous…and Regardless of the present status of the economy…I’m sure that most all of us are feeling the same pinch ! I’d like to offer that in the past economic downturns…I have noticed that Service of older systems/boats seems Much more prevalent than the purchase of new…And that [...]