AC Question

[william dieffen]

Hi, I have a 34 mainship trawler mark three with a single perkins diesel.

I installed a mermaid marine 16000 btu ac in the bow area of my boat.

My question is the unit has a drip pan , and never has there been any water in it since I have installed the ac two years ago.

The admiral complains the boat is to hot , i am wondering if it is possible there is not enough freon in the system.

The water pump is working properly as far as I can tell.

Any ideas ?

Thanks, Bill

[skipmac]

Some hard data would help, too hot being quite subjective.

Have you put a thermometer at the output of the AC unit to check the temp? What about the temp in the cabin?

Where are you located and what is the outside temp like? What is the boat hull color (makes a BIG difference).

For example if you have a black hulled boat with no insulation parked on the equator in the direct sun then maybe the AC is too small.

Or it could be low on freon if you are in a white hulled boat in a more temperate area.

[Seaduction]

Mermaid does provide some online troubleshooting ideas. Their customer service dept. may be helpful if you phone them also.



Troubleshooting / Support / Home - Mermaid Manufacturing - Home of Mermaid Marine Air Conditioning

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Bill.

[gonesail]

maybe the condensate ran out of the drip pan and into the bildge? a 16K ac should produce a lot of water .. unless the inside of your boat is zero percent humidity which i doubt.

[william dieffen]

Hi Fellows,

Thanks for all your replies concerning my ac.
I live and boat on long island new york, it gets pretty hot in the summer.
A lot of heat came thru the windshield so last year we had white covers made that helps a little. We also draw the curtains on the sunny side when its real hot. My old mainship is an off white color, we once owned a landfall 43 that had a dark blue hull. The heat could be felt coming thru the hull on the teak lined foward cabin walls.
We also have a white cockpit cover to help block some of the sun from getting into the saloon doors.
I have called the mermaid people in the past but was not to happy with
the help I recieved. The boat is not that dry inside during hot humid weather, so I can not understand why there is never any water in the drip pan. The local ac repair people are very expensive to have them come to the boat and check out the system. If the admiral is not happy this summer I may have to bite the bullet and call them to check it out.

Bill

[william dieffen]

Hi,
Just wanted to update my question after my call to mermaid marine.
The fellow I talked to was very helpful and pleasant to talk to.
What he told me was after the boat is launched this spring to do the following test. Pull off the air manifold while the ac is running and measure the temperature of the output air. then measure the temperature of the input air , call him with the info. When I pressed him as to why the ac is not making water in the drip pan, he said it is possible the unit is low on freon. That is exactly what I have been thinking , it makes sense because the unit is not realy producing cold air. Mermaid has a five year waranty, so I may have to ship the unit back to florida for them to leak test it.

Bill

[Seaduction]

Originally Posted by william dieffen

Hi,
Just wanted to update my question after my call to mermaid marine.
The fellow I talked to was very helpful and pleasant to talk to.
What he told me was after the boat is launched this spring to do the following test. Pull off the air manifold while the ac is running and measure the temperature of the output air. then measure the temperature of the input air , call him with the info. When I pressed him as to why the ac is not making water in the drip pan, he said it is possible the unit is low on freon. That is exactly what I have been thinking , it makes sense because the unit is not realy producing cold air. Mermaid has a five year waranty, so I may have to ship the unit back to florida for them to leak test it.

Bill

I also found Dennis to be very helpful.