our new boat has chillers rather than the older spilt systems. The salon is not cold enough and the staterooms are very cold. Any suggestions on getting the salon cooler? Boat has 2 chillers that can be operated together or one at a time ?
What air temps are blowing from the salon system? Lots of air blowing? Lots of windows and sunshine? Ensure the servo driven water valves are working at each station correctly with it's zone thermostat. I would not call them high maintenance but they do require an eye ball a couple of times a year. They do get stuck. The leading cause of issues. Very often if the chilled water is not treated. If the salon unit is the top (older) system, may (MAY) have air trapped in it's coils. There should be a bleed nut on the top of the coils. Ensure around 15PSI water charge. Crack the nut to ensure all water and no air comes out. Recharge the chilled water and pressure back to 15PSI or what the mfg spec states after the bleed.
Cruisair systems have servo valves to send chilled water thru the air handlers. If the air out of that handler isn't cold enough and you can feel that the evaporator isn't getting cold then chances are the valve isn't opening when ordered to by the tstat. They also have a little metal tab you can push to open it manually. Obviously make sure both chillers are coming on. Again it depends on the system you have Cruisair has a digital control panel installed near the chillers Which will show status and error codes. In cooler weather you can run on one chiller but not at this time of the year although sometimes with iffy shore power at night you can run on a single chiller. Such a better system than the splits. I installed a Flagship Marine two chiller system on my boat and love it.
My 65’ Pacific Mariner was built in Washington state and only has one chiller. It does the job for us, but later models were built with 2 chillers specifically for the Florida/Carribean market. My guess is that he can get cool enough with one unit depending on how much glass he has, and what type of shades he uses.
Assuming the system was set up with both chillers in parallel serving the whole boat in mild weather you don't need both. Or at night as I mentioned. Or if you re not using all the rooms. You can turn off some air handlers or keeping them at a high setting so the cooling power goes to the salon and whatever room is being used. The flexibility and redundancy is what make chillers a great set up
Until the raw water pump or circulating pump go bad or you lose a hose and you lose everything. Check temps at air handlers and try bleeding them a little and see if any air comes out of the line. Check temps at each air handler. You might have to install an additional air handler and the salon most likely is at ththe end of the loop. Measure loop temp at each unit.
You don't loose everything because you have valves to isolate various circuits. And it s a lot easier to fix a failed water hose than a leaking gas line ... Most split system share a water pump anyway... I always carry both circulation and raw water spares.
Negative Vibes, To many Negative Vibes. * Hoses come off the other A/C systems also. Pumps go bad also. Good boy scouts keep spares. I would hope the taller (more exposed) air handlers are first in the loop. * My Donald Sutherland gig for those that remember...
One of our fall / winter treats is looking up old fav movies. Yep, gona pull Kellys Heros back up this year. Shame they dont make entertaining movies any more.
We have two Aqua Air chillers...#2 chiller had low pressure about 8 weeks ago... turned breaker off because of bringing boat back from Stuart to the Fl panhandle. Last week the #2 chiller was checked and had a freon leak in the condenser. Got a estimate to replace #2 and the next day #1 had low pressure reading and had the same problem. The mfg'r says they were probably being cleaned with corrosive materials. The original chillers lasted nine years...the current chillers lasted seven years. Not good longevity... So, be careful to use the right solution is being used to clean system.
Not sure what is in our lines...we have owned this boat since May and other than filters and cleaning air handlers have not needed maintenance till now. They a/c tech will be taking old chillers out next week, so we should know then.
Your AC tech will recommend you to run 10% food grade Glycol in your chilled water loop and it's used not so much for freeze up but rather a better solution for thermal transfer from your chiller plates. Some Marine Glycols come with a fluoresced tracer dye for finding leaks which can come in handy. You'll be surprised to see how dirty "loop" water becomes after a few years especially if your chiller has immersion heater elements.
