Air Condtioner Flushing Frequency

[a64pilot]

I thought you found a Marina.
Anyway you can anchor right beside of the old City Marina on it’s left as you come in from the Gulf, there is a beach 100’ away where you can leave the dinghy, locking it may be an issue though, and there is a trolley stop 100 yards away by the Municipal Center.
Then just to the right of the Old City Marina is Massolina Bayou. It’s extremely well protected and there are a couple of anchorages there, many stay quite a while. I’m sure you can find dinghy access, probably at Bayou Joes right there, might cost you a meal though. This isn’t S Fl there are no Mega Yachts and gated communities, at least not downtown. Bridge to Massilina Bayou is on demand I believe 364 days a year, it’s closed for Fourth of July or used to be, but open all other days. They used to shoot the fireworks from a barge in front of the City Marina, but now it’s dead I don’t know, doesn’t matter as its past the fourth anyway.

If your into solitude and I don’t think you are but Smack Bayou is just across the bay.

[Exile]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

People put vinegar on salad and then ......................... eat it. It isn't dissolving any barnacle shells in your life time.

I think you're probably right. Other effective uses for vinegar perhaps, but not this.

Didn't realize you & a64 also sailed the gulf coast, so Panama City . . . got it now.

[pkhines]

I’ve been putting some copper screen/mesh in our AC raw water strainer for over a year now (east coast of Florida). We run the ACs most of the year. This has worked great to kill/prevent bio in the lines.

Paul
S/V Petrel

[ASLIII54]

I just purchased a 1984 Defever trawler. Would like to flush the AC raw water system but no idea how to access the plumbing for the flush. Has a perko sea steainer. Any suggestions please? ASL

[wingless]

Originally Posted by wingless

My boat has two air conditioners sharing a single seacock, strainer and pump.

Every couple of months during extended usage the water stream exiting the hull is not as perfect as desired, w/ some dribbling from the mushroom through hull.

My solution is to use a small garden hose fixed jet nozzle attached to my Salt Away mixer. I use boat wash soap in that mixer, shut off the seacock, so water forced into one exits the other.

The jet nozzle is jammed into the mushroom through hull and soapy water cleans the raw water circuit. I alternate between the two through hulls, forcing soapy water in both directions through the raw water circuit.

This method has been used w/ success for 17 years.

Originally Posted by ASLIII54

I just purchased a 1984 Defever trawler. Would like to flush the AC raw water system but no idea how to access the plumbing for the flush. Has a perko sea steainer. Any suggestions please? ASL

Welcome to the forum.

That is a great yacht w/ plenty of space in the engine room.

It may be effective to try my method of forced back flush through the above waterline through hull.

Others change the engine room plumbing to force the flush at that location.

[ASLIII54]

Thanks for the quick reply. So, if I understand you correctly, you are flushing retrograde through each AC raw water discharge port so the flush exits the other AC discharge thru-hull?

[wingless]

Originally Posted by ASLIII54

Thanks for the quick reply. So, if I understand you correctly, you are flushing retrograde through each AC raw water discharge port so the flush exits the other AC discharge thru-hull?

My boat is configured w/ a single raw water through hull, seacock, strainer and pump for the AC. There is a tee on the pump outlet.

When I am flushing from the exterior hull, I first shut off both AC units and close the seacock.

On my boat, I jam the nozzle into one outlet and watch the water exit the other outlet, with nothing going backwards through the pump, strainer, seacock and through hull.

This method works best for my boat, maximizing flow back and forth through both AC evaporator heat exchangers.

[sailorboy1]

Well I acid flushed my aft system the other day due to the low flow it seemed to have. But I have a feeling the dirt, slime in the hoses and sediment is more a problem than scale.

[a64pilot]

The dirt and slime etc you can usually blast out by connecting a water hose past the pump on the AC. Don’t do it before the pump as you will blow out the little water cooling lines on a March pump, trust me .

If that doesn’t fix it, it’s time for an acid flush, I connect a 5 gl bucket to the pump and put water in the bucket and start a siphon to get the water to the pump, then connect a hose from the AC outlet to the bucket so it flows around in a circle.
Start the AC and ensure you have water flowing with the bucket about half full. Then I add the whole gallon of muratic acid and after a few seconds turn the AC off, you should see bubbling coming out of the line, run the AC for a few seconds to get water flowing then off, keep this cycle up. Too many bubbles and the pump will lose prime, so keep running it in short runs or turn it to heat when the water in the bucket starts to get hot.
You can’t run the AC continuously as it heats the water and will soon shut down when the water is too hot, but you can run it in heat mode.
Anyway in five minutes or less I bet there are no more bubbles when you turn it off, indicating the scale has all been eaten up by the acid.
Disconnect the hose from the pump with the AC running to get as much acid out of the hose you can.
Turn AC off, connect hose to pump to the thru hull and turn AC on for a few seconds to flush acid out of the system, stop before the bucket is full.
Now you can safely disconnect the hose without getting acid all over you.

If there are no bubbles right at first, then there is no scale, the scale is like barnacles, it reacts quite readily with a strong acid bath.

I use a strong solution for a short tie, interval, you can of course go weaker and longer

[sailorboy1]

Had to hook up dock water the other day and blast out the slime and dirt. I found that barnacles are growing inside my inlet strainer (the cleanable one inside the boat) so there is another acid flush in the future.

Seems like a lot of work, but having the air conditioning is priceless

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

The dirt and slime etc you can usually blast out by connecting a water hose past the pump on the AC. Don’t do it before the pump as you will blow out the little water cooling lines on a March pump, trust me .

Well I didn't see this. But I've been connecting the dock hose to the pump inlet side now for 3 months without a problem.