Air conditioning

Ocean Breeze has its own thermostat,,, which is a major PITA. It just has to many features. But, they will tell you straight up to just replace it with any thermostat you like, from Home Depot, Lowes etc. The best thing about Ocean Breeze is if you can send Joe a Pic of what you need he can do it. Absolutely plug and play.

kulas44 said:

Ocean Breeze has its own thermostat,,, which is a major PITA. It just has to many features. But, they will tell you straight up to just replace it with any thermostat you like, from Home Depot, Lowes etc. The best thing about Ocean Breeze is if you can send Joe a Pic of what you need he can do it. Absolutely plug and play.

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I asked for a credit and got one when I deleted their supplied thermostats, the wire colors are standard and any normal heat pump or standard t-stat will wire right up color to color.

kulas44 said:

Ocean Breeze has its own thermostat,,, which is a major PITA. It just has to many features. But, they will tell you straight up to just replace it with any thermostat you like, from Home Depot, Lowes etc. The best thing about Ocean Breeze is if you can send Joe a Pic of what you need he can do it. Absolutely plug and play.

Click to expand...

I asked for a credit and got one when I deleted their supplied thermostats, the wire colors are standard and any normal heat pump or standard t-stat will wire right up color to color.

Not a PC board or computer chip to be found only standard relays in a control box (stainless) controlling the units.

kody said:

Reminds me of a dock mate that advised another to put JB Weld on a leaking genset exhaust elbow. Sheesh!

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Thems are fightin' words! Shouldn't criticize JB Weld - the best invention since Wonderbread

You're probably right!�� Some swear by it for a cure all. I know I've used it in the past as a temporary repair, just not where it might hurt me.��

kody said:

What ever you do, don't use stop leak. The previous owner of my last boat did instead of properly finding the leak and correcting. It only ended up costing
9k to replace two units. Sigh...

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+++++1
DO Not let a technician put stop leak in one of these systems. It's the same analogy as radiator stop leak, transmission stop leak..... it just doesn't work.

If the unit is more than 10-15 years old, more than likely it will have a leak in the coil. Depending on how much it is ran when it's low on refrigerant, compressor life would be suspect. This is due to the fact that when the refrigerant leaks, so does the oil that lubricates the compressor. The refrigerant also helps to keep the compressor cool. Once that is gone, compressor life is greatly depleted. I service and repair these units quite often. Normally I explain this up front to the customer. I will not be the "refrigerant delivery guy" as mentioned earlier. I will attempt to locate any leaks and repair, which usually ends up in the $400-$600 range, depending on what needs to be repaired. Since most of the units only have a 2 year warranty, a 10 year life is a good life.

On another note, (Some But not all) HVAC guys can work on the units. choose them wisely. Ask them to explain the process they would go through for any repairs. If they recover and re-weigh in the refrigerant, This will be someone who more than likely knows how to service the units properly.

My $.02

Well, Good News. The previous owner had the unit repaired! Something about a water line being off. I'll look it over when I check out the boat, but it sure is good knowing I can take this off the list. ted

Agree with Ski (#30) regarding Mermaid. Used to use their small units (5-6000 btu?) on a couple of small (25-30') sailboats I owned. Operate with a Honda eu1000i. Good equipment, reasonable, excellent service after sale. Had a mysterious problem with one unit about 18 months after install - after several tweaks per their service guys, no fix - they told me they'd send a custom crate for me to return my unit and they'd repair. The crate showed up several days later - with a new replacement unit inside, and a note with an apology and asking me to return the defective unit "at my convenience". Good people - worth a look.