Air conditioning was tripping breaker - Problem now solved

[craig9309]

I have been viewing this board for a while as a guest and I thought I would contribute my problem and solution in case someone else experiences this:

The ac on the boat was working, but only for about 5 minutes or so, then it would trip the breaker. The strainer was clean and the flow seemed okay. The electrical/wiring wasn't the issue because I put it on another breaker and I had the same issue.

I called around and was recommended to do an acid flush of the air condition raw water lines. The theory was that barnacles have grown inside of the AC coils blocking the flow and forcing the compressor to draw more amps.

So I bought a pump that attaches to my drill and all of the necessary fittings. I purchased Barnacle Buster for around $25 (instead of the the 25% acid that other people also use).
I ran the Barnacle Buster circulating through the lines for 4 hours. Then I circulated some fresh water. Then I put everything back to normal and everything worked fine.

I live in South Florida so I was relieved when the AC was working again.
I did notice the flow was a little stronger.

I hope this helps someone else with this same problem. To an experienced boater the symptom seems unrelated to the problem.

Good luck

[svHyLyte]

Originally Posted by craig9309

I have been viewing this board for a while as a guest and I thought I would contribute my problem and solution in case someone else experiences this:

The ac on the boat was working, but only for about 5 minutes or so, then it would trip the breaker. The strainer was clean and the flow seemed okay. The electrical/wiring wasn't the issue because I put it on another breaker and I had the same issue.

I called around and was recommended to do an acid flush of the air condition raw water lines. The theory was that barnacles have grown inside of the AC coils blocking the flow and forcing the compressor to draw more amps.

So I bought a pump that attaches to my drill and all of the necessary fittings. I purchased Barnacle Buster for around $25 (instead of the the 25% acid that other people also use).
I ran the Barnacle Buster circulating through the lines for 4 hours. Then I circulated some fresh water. Then I put everything back to normal and everything worked fine.

I live in South Florida so I was relieved when the AC was working again.
I did notice the flow was a little stronger.

I hope this helps someone else with this same problem. To an experienced boater the symptom seems unrelated to the problem.

Good luck

The accumulation of scale on the walls of the heat exchanger loop prevents the efficient transfer of the heat in the coolant to the seawater although the flow of sea water may not be reduced significantly. In the absence of cooling in the heat exchanger, the compressor over heats and shuts itself off. Back flushing and descaling our AC cooling loop in the manner you describe is an annual exercise here in southwest Florida to keep our equipment functioning well. In our case, we use a bucket with a RydLyme solution re-circulated with a small submersible bilge pump immersed in the bucket and counter flowing through our system.

FWIW...