kulas44
Guru
Ok it's cold here today (in oklahoma, 21 degrees) and I'm doing some plumbing in the boat in my yard, a 50 foot trawler, biggest boat in Comanche county. I needed to move a couple of ac units out of the way to get to the areas that I needed to run the PEX. That got me to thinking about the marine ac units. They are a PITA. no way around it. They are , I'm sure, more efficient than air to air units but I wonder where the pay out is. I can buy a 13,500 btu rv unit for less than $750. A similar marine unit would be at least $2500. The marine unit needs a pump and associated plumbing. This boat has 5 ac units ranging from 5000 btu to 22,500 btu. One for each space. I could replace these with 3 15,000 btu roof mounted units and not have the plumbing. On the flip side, the current units are fairly new, the 22.5 has never been used. But, I really dont like the watercooled units, mostly because I cannot make myself leave the boat unattended with them running. Dometic is making a "marine" roof top unit that is supposed to be more corrosion resistant but I have seen the work boats in the gulf that run just standard rv units for years with very few problems. When this boat goes back in the water it will be cruising and I would like not to be messin around with ac pumps and such. But, if watercooled units are enough better and enough more efficient I would be willing to put up with it. As always, your thoughts are appreciated.