Air conditioners

It’s time to replace the 3 ACs on my GB 36. MarineAir, Webasto? Any suggestions or advice?

I have put Mermaids in 4 different boats and had great support from them.

Bryant said:

It’s time to replace the 3 ACs on my GB 36. MarineAir, Webasto? Any suggestions or advice?

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I replaced my 3 in 2015 with Webasto. Mostly happy with them. They do very well cooling and amazingly well heating down to about 36 degrees water temperature. The one problem I have is that the Span (differential between compressor cut in and out) is significantly larger than advertised. Setting the unit at 74 degrees in the pilothouse can occasionally have the unit reach 68 before it drops out. The problem is that the temperature control and sensor is part of the unit, not part of the wall control display. So sending the offending component back involves the whole unit, not a wall mounted thermostat. The pilothouse unit is the worst. The stateroom unit overshoots 2 or 3 degrees, and the saloon unit maybe 2 degrees. As with many things, the controls think in metric (Celsius) and convert to Farenheit which is part of the problem. I have a feeling that most of these units are headed toward measuring return air at the unit for temperature control. The goal would be eliminating the wall display for a hand held remote control only (think of a typical cable TV box).

Ted

There is great Webasto dealer in Stuart, call pickup he'll deal on three, better than any other price you'l find

MarineAir no longer makes air conditioners. It is now called Marin Air. Just bought one, 16,000 BYU’s for forward and galley. Love it. I have a cruiseAir in my aft cabin also 16,000 BTU’s that takes care of aft cabin and salon. I really love both of them and super easy to install.

I have never been as disappointed with a company as Webasto. Good price, but not worth 1/2 what you pay.

Donna said:

MarineAir no longer makes air conditioners. It is now called Marin Air. Just bought one, 16,000 BYU’s for forward and galley. Love it. I have a cruiseAir in my aft cabin also 16,000 BTU’s that takes care of aft cabin and salon. I really love both of them and super easy to install.

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MarinAir is a different brand. The older Marine Air units are still made in updated form by Dometic (re-branded after Dometic bought Marine Air and Cruiseair).

Personally, I have Marine Air units. They work well enough (having replaced much older versions of the same). But each one had issues requiring service within a few years of new (and 1 is currently down with a refrigerant leak). The temperature measurement is also in the control panel, not return air, so depending on control panel placement it's not always great for temperature control (but usually good enough).

I'm sold on Dometic Turbo DTU series marine air conditioners. Compact, quiet (especially with the optional sound shield) and no rust because of the composite pan. An inexpensive remote temperature sensor allows you to measure air temperature at the return air inlet, regardless of where the control is mounted. They're not the cheapest, but IMHO they are certainly one of the better systems you can buy.

I second Dominic Turbo unit. Comes with composite drip pan so never rust. Drains are counter sunk in the pan so less standing water. Has Dehumidifier Mode for moisture control and is super quite. I replaced one of my units with a 12,000 btu Dominic Turbo Unit. Love the little sucker. [emoji106]

We've recently replaced our original, working, 16K BTU MarineAirrrrr Vector Compact units with newer Dometic Turbo DTX, same size. First one in June, second one yesterday. Both quieter than our (17 year old) originals. More air flow. Composite drain pan. So far, so good.

But that's not a long-time track record.

The new control panel is a Passport IO, very similar to our earlier Passport Elite panels. Very slightly simplified programming mode. In our case, it's a smaller panel within a larger bezel to account for getting the siezes to match the cut-out we already had. Easy.

There was a period when these were named Marine Airrrr Vector Turbo units, I guess sometime in between when they started replacing the VCs and when Dometic acquired Marine Airrr.

-Chris

We have two 16k CruiseAir original in our 1988 42" sundeck. Will freeze you out of the boat, or will heat you up in cold weather. Had to put a bit of freon in front unit at Aqua last week, but very happy with them. Keep those filters clean!!!!!