"You're As Cold As Ice...PART II" Not even Close
Well I thought my AC problems were behind me, but unfortunately they were not. Each time we get to the boat the first thing I want to see when it is hot outside is a good stream of water coming from the AC. Last weekend in 95 deg. (feels like 105 deg) heat, the first Mate & I strolled to the boat only to see no stream! My worst nightmare had come true!. Our system is over 21 years old, was this the end?
Stepping inside the boat the fan was running, but neither the compressor nor the water pump were running and the thermostat posted 98 deg. "We ain't stayin' here tonight!"
We went to work to troubleshoot the system. First was the water pump. It gets it's direction from the main system. An AC pump can at times run continuously so my first thought was that it had failed. It is a 500 gph March submersible pump. These are pretty hardy magnetic type pumps and last virtually forever. I disconnected the pump and tested it. It was fine. That meant we had another issue. The compressor was not coming on. Was there a clog somewhere that had caused the high pressure switch to shut the unit down? We disconnected the inlet & outlet hoses to the AC unit & cycled some cleaning solution through it. The solution was about 10% Muratic Acid in 5 gallons of water. We let this pump through & circulate back to the bucket for awhile. It did clean out some crud but there didn't appear to be a clog & everything was clear before & after the unit.
We hooked everything back up hoping that the High Pressure switch would reset as it is supposed to after the unit is shut down for awhile. We turned it back on, the fan came on but no compressor or water pump. We then figured it must be a bad component on the board. Crap. At least now I have a recirculating system to clean the AC in the future.
Decision, buy a new $500 board & hope it works in a 21 year old system or....
I bit the bullet and bought a new unit. I didn't want to keep pouring money, time and energy into an older AC that quite frankly didn't seem to be cooling that great anyway, even with my repairs (See "You're As Cold As Ice...Not Really"). I did some research and found an AC unit in Miami from a company called Citimarine that was basically the same footprint and even used the same thermostat. It is made by CTM Marine. I ordered it on a Saturday & had it on the next Tuesday! Citimarine is an awesome company with great customer service. The salesman knew exactly what I needed. $1899.00 & not sure if my old thermostat would work I bought a new one $120.00.
I disconnected everything and pulled the old unit out. Not sure how they got that sucker in there but I had to remove the blower to make it come out.
The tray had some rusty condensation water in it so I shop vac'd that out.
I adhered the foam dampening to the bottom, installed the drain (there were 2 locations to choose from) plugged the other drain. The new unit was about 5 #'s lighter and a tad narrower so it slipped right in. After jockeying the unit around until I got what I thought was the best location, I screwed it down.
The old unit had a 1/2" piece of plywood in the front to tilt the unit rearward and help send the condensation water to the drain so I reused that piece.
With everything connected I mounted the new thermostat. The new thermostat looked basically the same as the old with a few modifications. In fact it is just the new model. It fit in the same hole & I was able to use the same 8 pin connector & not have to pull the new thermostat wire, a time saver for sure. Since they are the same the old thermostat should have worked but since I had a new one I installed it.
What I found nice about the new unit was the control box was not mounted to the unit like the old AC & afforded me more options to mount it for easy access..
Also the new unit had a plastic pan & not a metal pan that can rust.
The moment of truth. I flipped the power switch and viola! The thermostat came to life, the fan kicked on and about 10 seconds later the compressor and pump came on. I had flow & cold air!
The temperature came down steadily and by the time I left the boat it was within 5 degrees of the 75 deg. I had it set at. Not 100% sure but today was 97 deg. outside and the old unit would never get below 83 & I was at 80 deg! Even the air flow to the front berth felt a little more robust.
Now..."You're As Cold As Ice to Me!"
UPDATE: Three days after the install I traveled back down to the boat to see how the unit was performing & to do a couple of other non-related repair items. The thermostat was set for 75 degs and as the outside temperature got up to about 96 degs +/-, the cabin temperature stayed at 77 degs. Success!
I was able to locate the manual for the Dometic AH-Passport I/O thermostat. It details both models so my hunch was right, the old thermostat would have worked. The new thermostat is referred to as the "Compact" and the older version is the "Legacy".
The default setting for the fan is "continuous run". I am going to change it so that the fan runs only when the unit runs. There are other settings I may play around with like fan speed, etc., but if you don't have the manual it would be impossible to figure out.
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