Best reverse cycle heat / airconditioner

[bstreep]

Having just gone thru this...

I bought 2 Aqua Air units this summer. The consensus from their competition is that they are the best units on the market. All Made in USA. The Dometic products, in my opinion, are much inferior (cruise air and marine air). They are, however, the market leaders, and they are easy to get. They are usually stocked locally, which is why everyone uses them.

We replaced a 25 year old Aqua Air, and a much newer Marine Air. It was easy to see why one lasted way longer than the other.

Btw, the self contained units are an easy install.




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[HopCar]

Bill, I'm glad to hear a good report on Aqua Air. It's a Miami company started by a fellow named J.D. Nall. He started in a very small shop across the river from my store. This was about forty years ago. He was a really nice guy. I saw him a few years ago at a boat show peddling his air conditioners. Don't know if he's still active in the business.

[bstreep]

His son DeWayne runs the business. Could not be happier with my experience. One system was a split system, and it went in well.


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[svHyLyte]

Further to my earlier post above, attached (I hope!) are some snaps of the Control Module as mounted on our boat.

[CAPTAINRONBVI]

Instead of going reverse cycle heat which adds extra parts, pumps + costs into the system, consider FLAGSHIP MARINE out of Florida.

their units are traditional AC with Electric Heat. The units are pretty much bullet proof. read their articles on the website as well. you'll gain some good insight.

www.flagshipmarine.com

speak with Chris Treppler. he was most helpful when i ordered 2 units for my Beneteau 50. a 9k BTU/1.7 kw electric heat unit for my forward cabin and crews quarters plus a 16k BTU/2.0 kw electric heat unit for the 2 aft cabins and saloon. Chris will answer all your questions and advise you properly.

Chris Treppler
Flagship Marine
772-283-1609 p.
772-283-4611 f.

cjt@flagshipmarine.com

good luck!

Captain Ron

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by CAPTAINRONBVI

Instead of going reverse cycle heat which adds extra parts, pumps + costs into the system, consider FLAGSHIP MARINE out of Florida.

their units are traditional AC with Electric Heat. The units are pretty much bullet proof. read their articles on the website as well. you'll gain some good insight.

www.flagshipmarine.com

Given an installed marine AC system in the first place, not sure there's too many more parts involved in a reverse cycle version.

Their link comparing reverse cycle to resistive heat is useful.

-Chris

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by ranger42c

Given an installed marine AC system in the first place, not sure there's too many more parts involved in a reverse cycle version.

Correct. To add reverse cycle heat to an air conditioner the main parts required are reversing valve in the refrigerant line, a solenoid to activate the valve and some additional refrigerant line.

I think a more relevant concern is where you will be using the heat as reverse cycle becomes much less efficient as the water temp drops. Of course you also have to have a source of AC electricity to feed it which would be the same with electric heat.

[xeon_tsd]

a64pilot

Did you ever make a decision???? Inquiring minds and all that.

[a64pilot]

I went with a Webasto for purely economic reasons.
I still sort of kick myself for not spending the extra money and going with a King, but at I think two or three times the price, I just couldn't do it, I see the AC as an every now and again thing hopefully, and honestly the Webasto is an awfully good little machine, and quiet too, and draws almost a third less current than my old AC did. But it was old and maybe being so old caused it to draw more power?

Now if I were planning on living in a Marina and running the AC continuously, then the King would have most probably been my choice

[HopCar]

A64 and I made the same decision. For some reason Webasto seem like a real bargain and I haven't found anything wrong with their product. That may change as right now I have very little time on it.

[BambooSailor]

...then the King would have most probably been my choice

May I ask why? I am planning on getting Webasto (did that for my previous boat) as they are quiet, efficient, affordable, do not require high start current (I ran 16k unit from 2000W inverter), so I would be curious about your reasoning.

[a64pilot]

My 16K Webasto does have a large inrush current, but I didn't know that until after I bought it, I put a Supco hard start cap on it and that helped, but my 3000W inverter still will not start it.
But, the King is US made, from US made parts, in the US, it's a small company, you call them and you talk directly to the owner, they are flexible and can make changes to the unit if you desire. I got the strong impression that if there were a problem getting parts etc wouldn't be an issue, the Webasto I see as a throw away unit, hopefully nothing breaks as if it does, I doubt getting parts etc is easy, I may be wrong there though.
The Thermostat is a "real" thermostat, as in temp readings are taken from it, the fan is variable speed based on cooling requirements, so once things cool off it ought to be very quiet indeed, most every other unit the fan run is continuous, the Webasto move a bunch of air, but it makes noise doing so, airflow is all I hear though, compressor is very quiet.
King offers both piston or rotary compressor, your choice.
I'm HVAC certified / licensed although I have never made my living from it, my belief is that the King is just a better quality unit, made from better quality parts.
But, you pay for what you get too, it's not cheap.

Webasto is not bad, I have two of them, a 5K in the fwd stateroom and a 16K in the Salon. I think they are excellent values, they are priced very well, think of them as the Chevrolet of AC's

[captjcook]

I have a Webasto FCF 12k. It works fine, however I have installed 3 Marine Air 16 k units for customers...hands down half the noise from the blower, mine is truly annoying. When mine goes, for sure Marine Air, probably the 16k...


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[RKsailsolo]

A64, what do you think of MarineAir?

[rwidman]

Originally Posted by CAPTAINRONBVI

Instead of going reverse cycle heat which adds extra parts, pumps + costs into the system, consider FLAGSHIP MARINE out of Florida.

their units are traditional AC with Electric Heat. The units are pretty much bullet proof. read their articles on the website as well. you'll gain some good insight.

www.flagshipmarine.com

speak with Chris Treppler. he was most helpful when i ordered 2 units for my Beneteau 50. a 9k BTU/1.7 kw electric heat unit for my forward cabin and crews quarters plus a 16k BTU/2.0 kw electric heat unit for the 2 aft cabins and saloon. Chris will answer all your questions and advise you properly.

Chris Treppler
Flagship Marine
772-283-1609 p.
772-283-4611 f.

cjt@flagshipmarine.com

good luck!

Captain Ron

That's what I did and I am very happy with the results. There are fewer parts and no reversing valve which is a part prone to failure. With electric heat, the compressor and other parts are idle, only the fan and heating element (a coil) are running so this reduces wear.

Electric heat is less efficient than a heat pump but if you pay a fixed rate for electricity, this doesn't matter. The only possible issue is the electric heat drawing more current than the reverse cycle model would in heat mode and this might tax the shore power system (you might not be able to run heat and a microwave at the same time). Do some calculations. There are options for the heat output of the coil so they can upsize or downsize the heat if necessary.