Your situation very closely mirrors my
history with FB.
It took over 4 months of working directly with Rob ("FrigoboatInfo on this forum) to finally surrender to a technician. In the meantime, it deteriorated steadily. You can read my stories in this forum as well as to see the result of changing it out. Rob was as responsive and helpful as could be possibly expected; I have no complaints whatsoever in that regard.
You have my sympathies. If it were practical (it's not/wasn't on our boat), my best move would have been to start over, but with air and
keel cooler, in-line filter and filter-drier, and ducted
removal (as I have now, but with a SeaFrost totally enclosed unit) of heat by having built a case forcing all the cool air past the compressor on the way to the condenser,
cooling it as much as possible.
I can't comment on other systems, as the jury's not out on mine, but,
water around a condenser tube is a level of complexity and potential for catastrophic mischief of which I was never fond, as well as, you'd see in another thread of mine, a breeding ground for
barnacles and other tiny critters (when they START) which can impede
water flow.
YMMV about that if you move away from a
keel cooler, but my air-only system simply can't keep up with what my FB used to handle with a sneer, at about half or less the amps; I'm forced to use the water, which needs constant minding.
Sorry to steal your thread, but BTDT and not encouraged...
L8R
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