MARINE A/C RECOMMENDATIONS

[nelsonsmoody]

I'M THINKING OF INSTALLING 1 A/C UNIT FOR THE AFT MATER CABIN & SALON. I KNOW MY VESSEL CALLS FOR 2 UNITS, SO FOR NOW I'LL START W/JUST 1 16,000 BTUs. ANY RECOMMENDATIONS ON BRAND/MODEL? (I DON'T NEED HEAT).
ps
size is issue must be small.

[ssullivan]

I can't add much to this, other than the fact that we have CruisAir ACs in our boat. They are closing in on 20 years old and still work flawlessly. They haven't corroded and they look new still.

We don't use them though... I'm thinking of taking them out and putting them up for sale. Come to think of it... you're in CT? I'm in Jersey. If you want to talk about taking one of ours that might make sense? PM me if you're interested. They are only 10K BTU each, but the one in our very large aft stateroom puts out a silly amount of cold for such a small space.

EDIT: Looking at your website, we have a very similar size aft cabin.

[btrayfors]

About 3 years ago I installed two A/C units on my 42' sloop. After much research, I settled on the same units the USCG and Canadian CG use. These are from Flagship Marine: Marine Air Conditioning Systems - water, air and keel cooled.

I installed a 16,500 BTU unit under the berth in the aft cabin, which cools the aft cabin, the head/shower, and the main cabin. A 12,000 BTU unit was installed under the V-berth forward which cools the forward cabin and the main cabin.

Most moderately hot days, the smaller unit is effective in cooling the whole boat. The larger unit, by itself, will cool the whole boat on pretty hot days. It's very, very rare that both units are needed; haven't really seen one yet, even the 100 degree dog days.

These units have been flawless. They make a low profile model which might be of interest to you.

One of the principal reasons I went with these units was because I wanted some heating capability, too, and DID NOT want to do it via the usual reverse-cycle route (a la CruisAire), with pumps which run all the time and which are inefficient when the water temp goes toward freezing. The Flagship units have an inexpensive heating option consisting of a large diameter heating element. This draws about 2,000 watts. Just one of these -- either unit -- keeps my boat warm on all but the very coldest days of winter. For those, or while cruising in cold weather, I have an Espar D-5L diesel heater.

So....a strong vote for Flagship Marine A/C units!

Bill
S/V Born Free

[btrayfors]

Geez....Windows' CTRL-V got me again :-)

The intended link is: Marine Air Conditioning Systems - water, air and keel cooled.

[nelsonsmoody]

Sean,
I think & correct me if wrong cruiair is portable.
wife not going to like it.
thanks was a good thought.

[nelsonsmoody]

About 3 years ago I installed two A/C units on my 42' sloop. After much research, I settled on the same units the USCG and Canadian CG use. These are from Flagship Marine: Marine Air Conditioning Systems - water, air and keel cooled.

thank you for the info.
going to check out.
PS
I also have Espar D-5L diesel heater the best for heat.

[Jon D]

We have a 16,000 btu unit with two remote air handlers, this let's us use one unit to cool a boat they say should have two. It's from Marine Air.

Marine Air Systems - Marine Air Conditioning&Refrigeration Systems - Dometic Corporation

here is the link to the central systems as well

Central Systems

The unit is a reverse cycle one as well so it does provide heat as long as water temp is over 40 degrees or so.

[ssullivan]

Originally Posted by nelsonsmoody

Sean,
I think & correct me if wrong cruiair is portable.
wife not going to like it.
thanks was a good thought.

Well, you asked me to...

The Cruisair is not portable. It's an installed unit that lives under the master berth in our case. It uses a thru-hull and circulates raw water through the condensor. It has fans and air handlers built in and the air comes out of a nice vent in the wall. All completely out of sight. They also do reverse cycle heat, which as posted above is not useful as the water temp starting getting too cold. It's really just for dockside use until about this time of year. You had mentioned you didn't care about reverse cycle heat, so this probably isn't a concern.

Here is a link to a website with info on the CruisAir

Cruisair Marine Air Conditioning

Ours is most similar to the Stowaway models listed on this link.

[nelsonsmoody]

hey thats y I ask.

do have the model number??
am concerned w/sizes.
thanks.

[Pblais]

I think & correct me if wrong cruiair is portable.
wife not going to like it.

I have one each on two boats. They are all pretty well self contained and you just run the ducts and plumb the raw water. The reverse cycle heat is great until the water starts getting to less than 40 F when it's poor. Use a March circulating pump as they are the best and have a replacement nylon pump head.

They also do make a portable but it's not what you want. You may get buy with 16,000 BTU but they go up to 24,000 or as low as 7,000 if you wanted two units or a really big one. The SXR units have the better controls and are worth the little bit extra. Installing the ducts is the tricky part. be sure you add extra insulation on them and consider getting the allergy hose that prevents mold from growing in the ducts - it can!

[nelsonsmoody]

thanks Paul, something to research and do.

[BambooSailor]

I like Glacier Bay Micro HPS concept. You share compressor with fridge/freezer plate, but since it takes about an hour to freeze the plate (twice a day), the rest of the cycles can be used for airconditioning using their Arctic Air blower. May not have enough capacity for your needs though. If you install two units, one of them can serve as backup for fridge/freezer while it can be used as AC if main unit is not sufficient. That way you have redudancy/backup without too much waste. And I do not have any first hand experience with them, yet.

[Pblais]

I like Glacier Bay Micro HPS concept.

Sounds like a very nice route if you wanted two small A/C units on a boat that could not use just one A/C.

[WHIZBANG]

I looked at Glacier Bay Micro HPS website. They posit 400A for 9 hrs AC. It looks perfect for bigtime boat with 800A battery bank. Regrettably, my project is far more modest. Building 34' Golden Hind in steel with 7' x 8' pilothouse. I would like AC[ for pilothouse only] with lowest possible battery draw.
Any ideas for max efficient / small cu ft system??????

[Pblais]

I would like AC[ for pilothouse only] with lowest possible battery draw.

A/C on a battery bank just isn't going to work. You won't cool enough to be cool and it takes a lot of power to make that much cold air. If you had that much battery bank it would not be easy to charhe it back up either.

If you want to have it only when connected to shore power then of course the options become a lot less limiting.

My next door neighbot had a Golden Hind 31. Sailed around the Atlantic at least twice. He had no fridge.