Recommendation on Marine A/C - Heat / Cool Units?

[sailorgal]

Well our self-contained heat/cool unit finally died after 20 years. We are looking for a reliable replacement unit. There are a number of manufacturers out there and we've looked at Ocean Breeze, Cruisair, Dometic, Mermaid, Aqua Air, etc.

Any recommendations on manufactureres to concentrate on or ones to avoid?

We'll need a 20,000 BTU unit (heat and cool) for the forward cabin and galley of our motor vessel.

It's cold here in NW Florida today and luckily we are on shore power and have the main Salon A/C heat on and several space heaters going.

Thanks for any and all input.
Cheers and Happy New Year.

[Mule]

Look at star marine and defender. Many of the brands it seems are really made by domonic. I just bought a 16500 btu mermaid for $1600 drive out from star. Your unit looks to be 2k.
I just left Tarpon Springs and Tuesday it was damn cold, Wednesday was beautiful, did sea trials on my 34 Mainship. Drove back to Fort Worth on Thurs-Fri. I guess it is cold there again. Will be back for extended stay in about 2 weeks.

[markpj23]

FWIW, our boat originally had 2 CruisAir units. The aft unit was replaced by the PO with a Mermaid system that is also controlled by the original CruisAir SMX system. Although lesser capacity, the Mermaid unit seems to perform better than the older CruisAir.

If I had to replace the older unit, I'd not hesitate to go the Mermaid route... and save some $$ in the process.

Good luck with your replacement.

[gonesail]

i have a small mermaid that really puts out the heat on reverse cycle .. also Climma makes some nice looking products but only up to 16K.