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Old 05-06-2021, 17:49   #1
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Zero Breeze Mark 2 air conditioner

I thought long and hard and then pulled the trigger on one of these + two batteries. It arrived this week and I used it for the first time today.
https://www.zerobreeze.com/products/zero-breeze-mark-2

It seems everyone who wants air conditioning on their boat focuses on adding more generator, more solar, more batteries. I decided to go the other way, focus on an a/c unit that uses as little power as possible. As far as I can find, Zero Breeze is the only battery powered air conditioner there is. Not a swamp cooler, but a true a/c unit. It's not cheap, although still significantly cheaper than installing a normal marine a/c unit. It was designed for people going camping but I figured it would work on boats. It was easy to set up and use, even without reading the instructions first.

It works as advertised, but there are strengths and weaknesses. It was designed for a tent or a cabin. It won't cool down a large yacht. My boat is 36' and it handles that alright, but a single cabin would be better. It was also bigger and heavier than I expected. The photos on their site show people carrying around while camping, but it weighs almost 30lbs together with battery.

Unlike marine a/c systems, it doesn't use a water intake & exhaust, instead it does it through the air. Which means you have to set it up for the exhaust to go through one of your portlights. That's a little awkward, and I'm still trying to find out the best place to place it on my boat. But the good news is that it comes with several foam templates that you can easily cut to fit a window. I attached a photo of my first attempt setting it up, letting the water drain into the sink (it comes with a little hose so you can drain it where you want). I could instead put the unit outside in the cockpit and run a hose blowing cold air into the inside, but it would have to be protected from rain.

You can plug it into 120v shore power outlet, but if you want to plug it into a 12v outlet, you need to buy a separate adapter for $99, which sucks. But then again it's a 24v system, so people who set up their boat on 24v might be able to rig it directly. On batteries, it's supposed to run from 3-5 hours. For me it ran about 3 hours on maximum cool setting. The batteries are expensive but substantial, and have USB ports to charge other devices (24v 35Ah/840Wh)

One pleasant surprise is that it pulls moisture from the air so it drains the water out the back. In other words, it's also functions as a low power water maker in humid environments. It made me about a coffee mug full of water per hour.

Pros:
  • It quickly cools
  • Easy to use
  • It creates fresh water
  • Runs very quietly
  • The batteries are useful to charge other things

Cons:
  • No heat, just a/c
  • Works in a limited area
  • Awkward to set up in a boat
  • If you want to plug it into 12v you need to buy an adapter
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Old 07-06-2021, 05:23   #2
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Re: Zero Breeze Mark 2 air conditioner

Very interesting, thanks for the review.
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Old 10-06-2021, 20:20   #3
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Re: Zero Breeze Mark 2 air conditioner

would be great just to cool one cabin down, just for sleeping. I wonder if it could it be run off a 12V house bank, to maybe have it run all night?
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Old 10-06-2021, 22:52   #4
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Re: Zero Breeze Mark 2 air conditioner

How good is the cooling? What was the temperature outside and inside the boat when you tried it?
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Old 11-06-2021, 02:26   #5
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Re: Zero Breeze Mark 2 air conditioner

I’m pleased to read that you’re fairly satisfied with this unit.
I expect the de-humidification function is one of it’s chief benefits, as you note.
I wouldn't drink the condensate ['fresh' water], though.

Based upon it's 2300 BTU/H cooling capacity, I would only expect* this unit to fully cool about ±153 cubic feet of space, in a tropical setting [±200 cu ft in temperate conditions].
But, on a warm/hot day, every little bit helps!

* A “rule of thumb” recommendation for sizing (Tropical) marine air-conditioning is about ± 14-to- 15 BTU/Hr per cubic foot of cabin volume.

See ➥ https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...tml#post822698
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Old 11-06-2021, 03:34   #6
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Re: Zero Breeze Mark 2 air conditioner

How many watts is this thing rated for? Looks to be the perfect cabin cooler for getting to sleep on sticky nights.

You could even dump the waste heat into a locker or the main cabin used that way.

PS: don’t use air conditioning runoff as drinking water. Aside from heavy metals present from the evaporator, it’ll have highly concentrated air contaminants such as mold spores, pollen, dust, chemicals, etc
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Old 11-06-2021, 11:10   #7
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Re: Zero Breeze Mark 2 air conditioner

We just purchased one the other day, has not arrived yet. Seems like a pretty good option to keep our Vberth cool on sticky nights.
Specs are pretty neat.
Variable speed compressor
120 or 24v
2300 btu
Looks like 160ish watts on boost mode.
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Old 16-06-2021, 04:45   #8
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Re: Zero Breeze Mark 2 air conditioner

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wilyum View Post
I wonder if it could it be run off a 12V house bank, to maybe have it run all night?
I just tried that as an experiment, running off one battery bank (of 2x AGMs). It worked just fine while the engines were running, while my voltage was 13v or higher. With the engine at rest, within 30 minutes it stopped intermittently with an error message in the window as the voltage dropped below 12.5.

I don't think you could run it all night off your house bank unless your battery bank was very robust, and preferably lithium batteries.
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Old 16-06-2021, 04:48   #9
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Re: Zero Breeze Mark 2 air conditioner

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anders View Post
How good is the cooling? What was the temperature outside and inside the boat when you tried it?
It varies by day, but for one example, on one day it was 90 outside, like 95 inside the boat and very humid. It cooled it down to 82, but cut down the humidity so much that it felt perfectly comfortable. Took about 30 minutes I guess to get to that point though.
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Old 03-09-2021, 13:43   #10
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Re: Zero Breeze Mark 2 air conditioner

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rohan View Post
It varies by day, but for one example, on one day it was 90 outside, like 95 inside the boat and very humid. It cooled it down to 82, but cut down the humidity so much that it felt perfectly comfortable. Took about 30 minutes I guess to get to that point though.
Any follow ups on this? Highly considering this for my boat. Is that cooling for the whole boat or one cabin?
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Old 04-09-2021, 21:47   #11
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Re: Zero Breeze Mark 2 air conditioner

It’s no hugely powerful, so you need to help it out. Close off unused cabins, setup sunshades for the deck, window coverings, ect.

I’m happy with it.

Draws around 18 amps @12v running off the inverter.
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Old 04-09-2021, 23:31   #12
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Re: Zero Breeze Mark 2 air conditioner

Quote:
Originally Posted by ABJ87 View Post
It’s no hugely powerful, so you need to help it out. Close off unused cabins, setup sunshades for the deck, window coverings, ect.

I’m happy with it.

Draws around 18 amps @12v running off the inverter.
We are just looking to use it to cool off the bedroom at night for the most part, which is the size of a king sized bed plus a foot at the top with very low volume. Sounds like we will give it a try.
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Old 22-10-2021, 14:13   #13
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Re: Zero Breeze Mark 2 air conditioner

I was wondering if there has been any further feedback on the use of zero breeze mark 2 in small berths at night. I just purchased a non battery mark 2 and will just plug it into inverter supplied AC power outlet connected to 630ah agm house battery bank.

Specs are 18amp draw so we should be fine to run this for 8 hours on sleep mode while we have our Reefers running.

Will only cool our one cabin berth area which is only a queen mattress and about 4 feet high. So maybe 35sft but half standard room CFt

I just don’t want to run the 6kw genny all night and burn $30 of diesel to cook the entire boat while we are just sleeping in our small closed door cabin

We have solar so batteries should recharge in one sunny day or I top off with genny.

I also am getting the free 12vdc to 24vdc power supply so I can plug it into tye cigarette lighter. Was wondering if it would be more efficient to power this unit off the inverter or use this adapter. Any ideas on that?

Will let you all know how that goes and also check the amp draw using both power options
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Old 12-01-2022, 09:13   #14
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Re: Zero Breeze Mark 2 air conditioner

Any updates guys? I am thinking about getting for the summers in Greece. I'd be very happy if it could drop the temperature by a few degrees in the saloon during the day.
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Old 13-01-2022, 05:23   #15
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Re: Zero Breeze Mark 2 air conditioner

Yes I gave purchased the unit and will install it in the next month or so. It’s cool enough in miami right now to sleep without ac.

I have decided to place the unit in the same compartment as one of our dometic 16kbtu units and plumb the cooling duct with a “y” duct and one way flaps into the existing 4” ducting so that positive cool air flow will be routed to our cabin and not allow back pressure out into the main ac.

I will then route the exhaust out through the small port light

I will let you know how that goes as well as battery draw overnight
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