Inlet AC water

[Gordon B]

Hi to all,
Our aft ac unit just quit and when I checked there was no water coming in. I tried to suck the inlet hose with a shop vac and got it to trickle but the ac won't run with so little water.
Do you think I could run a snake down the hose to unblock? I don't have access to an air compressor at this time.

My co captain (wife) won't let me dive on it because of a bad heart and with some of my lung gone.
Can't get the divers here for a while.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks
Gordo

 

[boathealer]

Hi to all,
Our aft ac unit just quit and when I checked there was no water coming in. I tried to suck the inlet hose with a shop vac and got it to trickle but the ac won't run with so little water.
Do you think I could run a snake down the hose to unblock? I don't have access to an air compressor at this time.

My co captain (wife) won't let me dive on it because of a bad heart and with some of my lung gone.
Can't get the divers here for a while.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks
Gordo

Does your vacuum have the ability to put the hose on the exhaust side (really weak air compressor)?

 

[Duvie]

Garden hose

Use a garden hose with a valve on it so you can regulate the flow in reverse. Used to clear the pickup on my launch water supply this way to clear weeds.

 

[DavidM]

Your external strainer is probably fouled. Pull of the hose to the thru hull seacock and put a garden hose inside. Open the sea cock and the garden hose and push it down while holding your hands around it to limit water back flush. That will probably clear the obstruction.

A snake will probably not get the sea growth off of the strainer, but the back flow from the garden hose probably will.

David

 

[OldDan1943]

Your external strainer is probably fouled.

David

Dive the boat or get a diver to check this and all other hull openings.

 

[OldDan1943]

Use a garden hose with a valve on it so you can regulate the flow in reverse. Used to clear the pickup on my launch water supply this way to clear weeds.

Get an extra strainer cap, drill and thread the cap for a garden hose adapter. Close hull valve, remove the existing valve cap, install the cap with the adapter, turn the flushing water supply, open hull valve and back flush to your hearts content (couple of minutes ought to do it). Shut off the flushing water supply, close hull valve, remove adapter, install the original strainer cap, open the hull valve. 90% of the time, things improve. I have an adapter for the 2 different sizes of my strainers. A/C and generator then, one for the main engine strainer.
I discourage you from leaving the adapter installed. If the hose adapter fails, you have about a one inch stream of water flooding the engine room.

I always carry spare baskets..... saltwater likes to eat the baskets.

I have a picture of the adapter but, I can get it to load even if I reduce the size and reduce the pixels.

 

[Gordon B]

Thanks to everyone

 

[Larry M]

....I always carry spare baskets..... saltwater likes to eat the baskets...

If you have a Groco strainer, you can buy plastic or monel to replace the factory stainless ones. We've replaced everything with plastic maybe five years ago and they're doing great. I haven tried the monel due to cost.