Reverse cycle AC cleaning???

Hello all, my AC’s have been working great until this last trip. I still had water flow and they were cooling, just not well. I cleaned the strainer which was really dirty. It helped but they still aren’t blowing the cold air they should be. Is there a 2nd filter or a way to clean the units themselves?

Thanks
Steve

Steve91T said:

Hello all, my AC’s have been working great until this last trip. I still had water flow and they were cooling, just not well. I cleaned the strainer which was really dirty. It helped but they still aren’t blowing the cold air they should be. Is there a 2nd filter or a way to clean the units themselves?

Thanks
Steve

Click to expand...

Almost every time I have seen this it is the airflow - can you confirm that the air filters are clean? And the fins on the compressor coils behind the filters?
Have you restricted the airflow by any chance? By placing items in front of the intakes or the discharge grates?

You can clean the intake screens, and you can clean the fins. We also flush the raw water system from time to time with something like Barnacle Buster or Rydlyme.

-Chris

There is usually a thin foam filter on the units return air. Also second using Barnacle Buster occasionally on the cooling water hoses.

As noted above, first check the air filters for plugging.

If you think the raw water system is fouled do the following:

Make up a gallon of Barnacle Buster diluted 3:1. Then remove the hose from the raw water strainer, elevate the hose and put a funnel in, then start the A/C and pour in the BB solution until it comes out the side of the boat. Let it set an hour, reconnect and run for a few minutes to get all of the BB out and do it again if necessary.

David

I second all of the above, but especially cleaning the cooling fins at the compressor. My dock neighbor came in Friday night and AC wasn't working... that was the problem.

To clean your cooling coil/Fins:
Never use any kind of brush.
That will damage the fins.
Always use a can of spray foam cleaner. Then rinse off using an open end water hose. No pressure spray.
I’ve had good result with this product:
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/273757679911

AC and Reefer cooling fins - I have had good results using compressed air at 30-40# with an airgun head. You can also use a large wetvac on the other side to 'collect' most of what you blow out - don't spin the fan fast by mistake.
One place where eye protection is a good idea.

With the water cooling side I really try to avoid acid washed unless the temp drop from coil in to coil out has become very poor - for us that usually took 10-12 seasons or more.

Awesome thanks guys. That’s exactly what I was looking for. I was really worried that this would be an expensive fix.

Pgitug said:

To clean your cooling coil/Fins:
Never use any kind of brush.
That will damage the fins.
Always use a can of spray foam cleaner. Then rinse off using an open end water hose. No pressure spray.
I’ve had good result with this product:
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/273757679911

Click to expand...

Cleaning our coils/fins, as described above, made our A/C cool like brand new. I used a shop vac to keep sucking water/dirt/etc. off as I cleaned them.

I had to have a system re-charged a few years ago. It worked great for the following 2 seasons following before we sold her.

I'll add in for barnacle buster to clean the internal cooling, and for cleaning the fins and air flow.

I'd also check whether you are icing up. Sometimes if we ran ours too hard it would ice up. when this happened it also wouldn't cool properly.

Shrew said:

I had to have a system re-charged a few years ago. It worked great for the following 2 seasons following before we sold her.

I'll add in for barnacle buster to clean the internal cooling, and for cleaning the fins and air flow.

I'd also check whether you are icing up. Sometimes if we ran ours too hard it would ice up. when this happened it also wouldn't cool properly.

Click to expand...

"I'd also check whether you are icing up. Sometimes if we ran ours too hard it would ice up. when this happened it also wouldn't cool properly."

Icing usually means lack of airflow, blocked airflow anything with the volume of airflow.
The other thing it can mean is the charge is low and the system is running constantly with no or little downtime.

Hello everyone. Thanks to your help we are making progress with the AC! So the aft and saloon AC are cooling much better. The filters were clogged and the foam filter was disintegrated.

For some reason the mermaid front AC compressor won’t kick on even though the water pump is running with lots of flow. Any recommendations? I’m afraid it might need a recharge.