Hi guys, I am encountering an air conditioning problem on my 453 and being that everybody was so helpful with my last problem you're stuck with me again for a short while. I have 5 air conditioners on the boat well at least i thought i did. I in fact have 5 stations (Aft Stateroom ~ Main Salon ~ Flybridge/ Aft Deck ~ Galley ~ Mid Stateroom) and they have all worked beautifully until last week. It turns out that I have four seperate units because the Galley and Mid Stateroom appear run off of the same unit and this is the one having the troubles. When i turn the main switch on from the panel I get a clicking sound coming from the unit like a breaker clicking off and back on and although the A/C pumps plenty of water and everything works as it used too, the air is not cooled. The systems on my boat are Marine Air Systems and the boat is 8 years old and as before any help with this problem would be gratefuly appreciated before i call in the pro's for what appears to me to be simply a relay problem or who knows maybe even a bad compressor. thanks in advance, Doug.
Are you sure you have seperate A/C units and not air handlers and one compressor unit. I have a marine air chiller system with 4 handlers and 1 compressor. the difference will help figure out possible issues with individual units. S.
Hi, Do you have a number of things that look like the thing in the picture, particularly the thing (Compressor) with the pipes wound around it ( The Condensor)
Hi K1W1, yes, i beleieve that is exactly what i have.... With the exception of a huge unit in the Engine room and on the water side i have the A/C pump which goes into a manifold with five hoses leaving it. It is the unit above the ceiling in the walkway down the port side of the boat that feeds both the mid stateroom and the galley and they are the ones with the issue. You may have also read the problems that i was having with the shore power aboard the boat and that issue has been resolved but it seemed that this trouble started very close to the time so i disconnected the shore power and fired up the genset to be sure and i know for a fact that it worked that way. Doug.
Hi, Are you saying you have 5 of these each fed with Sea Water from the manifold in the engine room plus another large piece of AC Equipment in the Engine Room? Is it possible you can take some pics of the bits and post them here?
Hi K1W1, I have a large unit in the Engine room that feeds the Flybridge and Aft deck. I have a smaller unit under the bed in the Aft Stateroom which of course is for that room. I have a small unit in the back of the cabinet between the sofa's and Trash compactor which feeds the Main Salon. Then i have one unit that seems to serve the Galley and Mid Stateroom which is tough to get to as it is above the hallway but this one does kick on when either or both of those room units work but as stated it doesnt blow cold air. This is the unit which makes a loud click when turned on from the main panel. There are two seperate control panels, one in the Galley and one in the Mid Stateroom but they both share the same unit by the looks of things so there may be two units side by side up there that i'm not seeing. Of course it could be one unit and a couple of air handlers but for the most part i know that there are four units each with a compressor. I hope that this helps but i am sure that the four that i can see are seperate units all being fed with sea water, each with its own control panel and fans. regards, Doug.
chillers are usually found on larger boats, i really doubt silverton used such a system. a quick look at various 453s on Yacht World does show any condensing units in the engine room, and i dont see where they'd put 4 or 5 of them anyway. Most mass production builders dont' even use remote condensing units on boat that size anyway. anyway, If the compressor doens' t kick it could be either the compressor or the control itself. neither woudl be a quick DIY fix. doug, what others where trying to ask is whether or not you have remote condensors or all in one. Marine air cons have two main components: the condensor which is the part on the left side on K1W1's picture (a compressor with pipes all around) adn the air handler (also called evaporator) which is a blower and somethign with cooling fins (seen on the right side of that picture) typically on smaller boats, they are combined in a single unit, like the one pictured, located under a couch, bed or cabinetry. as boats gets bigger, usually aroudn 50', builders used remote condensors. like a split system. the noisy compressors are all installed in the ER and only the air handlers are located in living spaces. the downside is that you must run the copper tubing to and from each air handler to carry the gas. with all in ones, you just have to run a rubber water hose. so if you don't see a number of condensors in the ER, and if you hear the compressors in the cabins, you probably have all in one units.
Hi Pascal, unfortunately this boat was custom built and does have leterally 5 seperate units and you are right they are a tad noisy. The unit in the ER is larger than the others I was told by the original owner because this is one of only two 354's that have hard tops on both the Aft deck and the flybridge and all hard glass in both area's with no eisenglass and he wanted to keep her cool and believe me it works great. I must also agree with you that this is most likely not a DIY project but i wanted to be sure that it wasnt a simple relay that i could change before calling in one of the AC guys down here in Southern California who are mostly crooks and take 4 - 5 hours to fix a small problem that could easily be done in 2 hours but thats just the way they are down here. In finishing this yacht was really put together nicely with fortunes being spent on things that i feel could have been done diferently but then again what do i know, i'm not a boat builder and i'm sure that they had their reasons... regards, Doug.
Silverton AC You would be surprised how simple the electrical system is on the central ciller units. There are several small modules in the main control unit with each being controlled from each room thermostate. To see if there is a defective unit interchange one for a zone that is working. Another problem is he solid state relay that controls the compressor could be defective if the compressor is not running. Just some thoughts.
It looks like this is going nowhere. Can you look at the unit and tell us what the model number is? What type or model of thermostat control is used, is it a 2-knob, 3-knob, digital display or ??? If it is digital does it give you a fault code? Without this kind of information, there is very little anyone can tell you that is of much value.
Hello again, I'm sorry that it took so long to reply to this but to be honest I had completely forgotten to post what I had found. Basically I had two Marine Air System's "Vector Compacts" above the passageway on the port side of the boat and they were both sitting in so much condensate water that they had rotted out, in fact I had to remove them in pieces they were so bad. They were sitting in a fiberglass tray which is plumbed into the forward shower sump so that the ceiling would not get damaged should there be a water leak and that was working fine. The two units were connected together so that they would drain out from one to the other and then off the boat but this is where the system failed to drain and electrolosis litterally ruined both units. Both of these small vector compacts found below are controlled by digital Passport II controls. http://www.mabrumarine.com/marine_a...ctor_compact/vcd_passport_io/?id_prod=1_69695 I am going to be replacing the units early next year with an udated version of the Vector Compact known as the "Vector Turbo" found below and hopefully I will plumb them better than Silverton did. I know I will !!! http://www.mabrumarine.com/marine_a...ned/vector_compact/turbo417a/?id_prod=1_73721 Finally, to clear up my original posts, I did in fact have four of the Vector Compact units and one larger central system in the ER that cools both the fly bridge and aft deck beautifully. best regards, Doug. ps. I did my homework on these new units and found the best place to buy them from in Florida with great savings and fantastic staff that have helped me along the way.
Final update. Hello again, I finally got round to ordering and installing the two new A/C units on my boat and i couldnt be happier. Firstly i upgraded from the Vector compacts to the Turbo DX units which are not only quieter but have increased capacity... Found here for the best prices and service... http://www.mabrumarine.com/marine_a...ned/vector_compact/turbo417a/?id_prod=1_73721 The only setback that i had after installing each unit in about an hour was that my old passport 2 digital control panels didnt jive with the new units so i had to replace them with a new model. A complete surprise to me after i was told that my control units would work with the new A/C, however Nicolas at mabrumarine gave a me a great deal as he did on the A/C units themselves and once these were plugged in the two units fired up. A note here to anyone working with Dometic, they have three "Passport" panels that look exactly like each other. The latest panel has a large Penguin facing to the left after the word AIRRRRRRRRRR and mine of course had a smaller Penguin facing to the right. There is also a panel without the Penguin and although they all look and work alike they must have a small difference inside just to make us spend over $200.00 a panel. Thank's to all that got involved in this project, i know i'll be chatting to you all again one day.. best regards, Douh.
