What brand of Air Conditioners?

[ksanders]

For those of you in hot weather climates, what brand of Air Conditioners did you go with?
and... What size?

I need three units. One for the cabins, one for the salon, and one for the pilothouse.

These will replace the Wallas furnaces I currently have and use the same ducting.

[jmoultray]

Marinaire, replaced the master stateroom with one about 5 years ago, was GREAT, much quieter than the marine air from dometic that it replaced.

[tom]

From Bayliner, our 4788 came with Marine Aire units. Salon and stateroom units = 16,000 BTU. Pilot House = 12,000 BTU. As others have suggested and noted, tinting the windows helps significantly. All 3 units work from one water circulating pump. The pick up is forward of the port engine and the pump is just port of that towards the hull. It feeds up into a manifold to supply all 3 units. I think the hose routing is on one of the manuals. If I remember correctly, Marine Air is out of business now or changed names. Friends of ours installed a Dometic unit with very good results.

Tom

[smitty477]

All of the 45's and 47's we have owned and been in have had factory AC - same as above in that they were 16/16/12K BTU units (3 units).
Starting from scratch there are a few things that will need to be decided/worked out whether you lean towards factory or other solutions.
- where to place the units
- split units or self-contained
- all the ones I have seen are also have reverse cycle heat
- decide on which units to plan the control boards, hoses, ducts, wiring, and vents
- a power inlet to the boat to accommodate the new units
- a large enough genset if you want them used underway
- sufficient wiring sizes between the incoming power and the genset to the units
- breakers for each unit, the pump(s) and the relay if used
- new suitable thru hull with seacock and strainer
- manifold to distribute raw water to 3 units
- individual water outlets for 3 units
- sufficient vents ducking and returns to avoid 'icing' of the units in humid areas
- routing of all hoses, wiring, control wiring, ducts, vents, returns, condensate ,etc

I think that getting eyes on a current 47 which is AC equipped might be a very good step in the process.

[BL2859]

On my second year with MarinAire, so far I love it. Cold and quiet!

[Destiny_4588]

We have factory marine air units 3 but a friend just switch on his boat to 12V AC he is in Florida and likes that he run with out generator
https://mabrustore.com/products/mps-...ng-and-cooling

[MidnightSun]

Already had the MarinAire on the Avanti and now have the same on the Carver. 3 units to be exact, 16,000 salon, 11,000 salon and forward stateroom and a 9,000 in the aft cabin. All of the previous units on both boats were Marine Air but were swapped out for MarinAire. Just all around great units and highly recommended. Careful on the name though, Marine Air and MarinAire are 2 completely different brands and are easily confused. https://www.marinaire.com/ Call them, someone will actually answer the phone and give you all the info you need.

[ksanders]

Already had the MarinAire on the Avanti and now have the same on the Carver. 3 units to be exact, 16,000 salon, 11,000 salon and forward stateroom and a 9,000 in the aft cabin. All of the previous units on both boats were Marine Air but were swapped out for MarinAire. Just all around great units and highly recommended. Careful on the name though, Marine Air and MarinAire are 2 completely different brands and are easily confused. https://www.marinaire.com/ Call them, someone will actually answer the phone and give you all the info you need.

They are all over the internet when you do a google search.

They only sell factory direct with no middle man, and they answered their phone when I called.

I asked the person who answered some questions, and they seemed to know what they were doing. They also provide in house support and parts shipments world wide.

[MidnightSun]

"they answered their phone when I called"
Isn"t that incredible in todays world? I know I sound like a broken record but these units are good. They use Toshiba compressors which are arguably the best there is. The compressors are dead quiet too.

[Mortenti]

I think you’re the kind of guy that enjoys big projects, BUT if you prefer to so sometime different with your time and money, buy yourself one (1) self evaporating portable AC unit from a Big Box store, and give it a try. I think you might be very impressed with its cooling ability. Best yet, they’re remote controlled. I had one (1) in a 5788 in Florida for humidity control, and accidentally discovered it cooled the complete lower deck. I bet one in the salon, and one in the master stateroom would keep you cold-even in Mexico. The best is that since they are air cooled, you don’t have to worry about thru hulls sucking up plastic bags, and you can use them when hauled out of the water.

[ksanders]

I think you’re the kind of guy that enjoys big projects, BUT if you prefer to so sometime different with your time and money, buy yourself one (1) self evaporating portable AC unit from a Big Box store, and give it a try. I think you might be very impressed with its cooling ability. Best yet, they’re remote controlled. I had one (1) in a 5788 in Florida for humidity control, and accidentally discovered it cooled the complete lower deck. I bet one in the salon, and one in the master stateroom would keep you cold-even in Mexico. The best is that since they are air cooled, you don’t have to worry about thru hulls sucking up plastic bags, and you can use them when hauled out of the water.

I have honestly thought about them, having seen them in use in peoples houses.

[jmoultray]

I have honestly thought about them, having seen them in use in peoples houses.

The problem with a portable unit is that it needs to vent the air outside, which ultimately means adapting a window port of some sort--not exactly an easy task.

A portable unit is also far less efficient--one of the great things of marine AC units is the efficiency of using water vs. air to exchange the heat.

Not to mention the fact that they are very large/heavy so you have the problem of stowing it and securing it. I have a dehumidifier about the same size that is a PITA to store/stow and I am only using it in the winter, not when I am actively cruising in the summer.

I will also confirm that with the standard AC on a 4788 being 16k in the salon and 12k in the pilothouse are insufficient to keep the boat cool on a hot day unless you also cover the windows. Of course it didn't help that the Marine Air (Not the marinaire) would freeze up consistently (requiring a change on the thermostat panel to have it switch to heating for 2 minutes every 30 minutes, essentially reducing the cooling capacity by ~15% considering it is not only not cooling for two minutes out of 30 but actually heating so you lose 4 minutes worth of cooling during the 2 minute heat cycle). I know if I was doing it from scratch I would buy a 20-24kbtu for the salon, 16-20k for the pilothouse, and 6-9k for the stateroom. I would also add a small amount of AC from the salon unit into a duct either into the guest stateroom or hallway--the hallway was always a little warm as was the guest bedroom (only a small vent from the master stateroom unit) and the guest bathroom--directing some airflow down would have been nice.

As FYI when we removed the master stateroom AC we took out the 16k and put in the 6k unit. I like it cool and I never thought it was undersized. It also had no problem heating in the winter.

Installing A/C is a major task to do it properly throughout the boat but incredibly worth it if you don't like to be warm.

I would also consider using 120v units but installing an autotransformer to balance loads. I never did that but I know I was always worried about balancing the loads on line 1/2 vs. line 3. I used a 50 125/250 cord that I then split into two 50/125 plugs, then plugged one into line 3 and one into line 1 which paralleled with line 2. That of course meant only 50 amps was available on each "half". It would have been nice while on shore power to be able to draw more than 50 on one half. I now know that I could have used a 50 125/250 source into an autotransformer and then simply separated out each line to each half of the panel, it would never actually be used for 240v service but would allow you to use up to 80 amps on either leg. Given the 120 generator setup and the possibility of encountering 30/125 service in other locations I would probably set the autotransformer up with a bypass switch so you would only need to enable it when plugging into opposite phased shorepower. While 50 amps was usually enough for either "half" of the panel it wasn't always (inverter/water heater/stove), running all the little electric heat and reverse cycle units at once to heat the boat, etc. The problem was of course much worse when on a 30amp dock--obviously without having the autotransformer we didn't care if they were opposite phased we were just limited to 30 amps but with the autotransformer in place you would be able to effectively have 60/125 total by running two opposite phased 30/125 sources into the autotransformer (and could even remove line 2 from the equation and give it a separate 30/125 cord further helping out the situation).

It's kind of fun what you can do when you use transformers!

Let us know what you wind up going with.

[Mortenti]

I had a self evaporating unit that required only a exhaust hose. I used a piece of foam core board (buy at Walmart or any hobby store) cut it the size of the screen that goes in the portlight, then cut a hole in it for the hose. Open the port light , snap in the foam core.. done. It sat on the guest bunk cushion. When we took the boat out, we would just un-snap the foam board, lay the unit on its back, then close the port. These ac units weigh less than a large dog, and are certainly less “wiggly”. If I was using one in a 4788, I would place it in the 3rd cabin, and just sit on the bunk, and use the portlight in that stateroom. In the pilothouse I would place it on the settee behind the helm, and vent it through the little sliding window with just a larger piece of foam core board. In the salon I would place the unit on one of the two free standing chairs, and vent it out one of the larger sliding windows, with just a larger piece of board. Use Starboard if you decide you want to keep the setup. Again, the ability to use them when the boat is hauled out is invaluable.
The key is only using the self evaporating units that have only one exhaust hose, PLUS you can power them with a Honda 2000 when your shorepower or gen goes out.

[smitty477]

Weather in La Paz Mexico...

La Paz Climate, Weather By Month, Average Temperature (Mexico) - Weather Spark

[Jeffw]

Another alternative for the pilot house would be an RV roof mount unit. They're 110 volt, no water connection, several sizes, and some are low profile.

[jmoultray]

Another alternative for the pilot house would be an RV roof mount unit. They're 110 volt, no water connection, several sizes, and some are low profile.

And absolutely not marinized. The salt water will destroy it in weeks. Not to mention you would have to cut a giant hole in the roof. If you actually wanted something similar they make ones designed to fit over the bedroom hatches, but they are meant to be used sporadically and removed when underway to protect from salt spray.

[kwb]

I know you are heading to warmer climates and I haven't looked at the specs on the recommendations but the reverse cycle heat is something I have enjoyed since getting a boat with AC units.

I am inclined to add diesel heat to be able to anchor and overnight with heat below decks at some point in the future but we don't do enough nights with cool weather at this point to worry too prioritize it on the project list.