Anyone want to fix my boat air conditioner.

[Paul B]

My boat has a small water cooled AC unit that uses R12. It don't work and it is not easy to get R12 any more. It is connected to an electronic panel so the unit is a pain to remove so I want to just add some freon which is probably all it needs. The boat is not in the water yet this year.
Of course I will pay for the recharge.

 

[edd]

hi paul, i have r12 but your kind of far. if you don't get any other response we will see if we can work something out. you sure it only needs freon? and you need to run it, so boat should be in water. unless you can supply cooling water. don't know much about that system, i worked on car a/c.

 

[Paul B]

Edd, yes the boat must be in the water which it is not right now, it is on dry dock. It was working but just barely. The last time I had some R 12 I added some and it ran for a short while, like a month but I don't have guages any more so I don't even know how much I added. It is a 120 volt unit so only works dockside. It is connected to an electronic panel and of course all the plumbing so it is a pain to remove the entire unit and tiny boat ACs are almost $2,000.00. It would cool a room maybe 10'X10'.

Maybe in the summer we can work out something. If you are married maybe we can go out for dinner or something with the wives by boat.

 

[masterswimmer]

Maybe in the summer we can work out something. If you are married maybe we can go out for dinner or something with the wives by boat.

Paul, you hitting on his wife in a public forum? :thrash: Dude, you're my hero. lol

Russ

 

[Paul B]

Paul, you hitting on his wife in a public forum? :thrash: Dude, you're my hero. lol

Well I guess he can come along also, after all, he has the freon for my AC :lovestory

 

[skene]

Paul can you not put a conversion kit onto the AC system to run the R134?

 

[Paul B]

I don't know, I would imagine a boat unit is the same as a house unit. The only difference is that it is water cooled instead of air cooled. I can probably also fit a room AC there and just build a water jacket around the condenser to cool it but first I would rather just try to get what I have running. It may just be a freon issue and now you can get freon with a sealer in it so I want to try that first. I have a lot of options.

 

[edd]

paul you can convert it to 134a but it won't be as cold. r12 and 134a are designed to run at different pressures. i never had any luck with sealants. i don't think a sealer will hold 150- 300psi. if you can't fix it, and its only for dock side, then like you said just use a window unit. its fan cooled, no need to water cool it. its kind of common practice for dock side use.

 

[Paul B]

In my boat it would have to be water cooled. It is down in the cabin and there are no windows, just small portholes. It fits under the dining table and there would be no place else to put it. There are a couple of ducts from it that go into the sleeping compartments so I would like to get it in the same place.
Even if the freon leaked out every season, thats not a big problem as long as that is the problem and I can recharge it every year.
I used to be a mechanic for GM many years ago and recharged a lot of car ACs but since then I don't have guages any more. This is more like a very small home AC. There also could be something else wrong with it, I don't know, but it does run and the compressor kicks on but not for very long.

 

[edd]

nice boat. sounds like it needs freon. i will see you at the swap hopefully.

 

[Paul B]

I am hoping to be there if all goes well.