2003 - 270 Air Conditioner icing up

Stingrayjim

Hello All - I have "lurked" here for years and am always amazed at the breadth and wealth of knowledge as well as the generosity displayed on this site.  So thank you for all of past information and an advance thanks for any thoughts on my question. 

My AC blows great for an hour or so. Then this occurs. And the air flow is cut off.  I had a marine HVAC tech check it and it was low on R22 he added 4OZ and told me it should hold 12 OZ's total.  This pic is after the R22 add by the way The AC is very lightly used but the boat ain't no "spring chcken".  The exit vent under the steps blows great, the water pumps out of the side strong (like a garden hose) and the heat works great and thermostat is fine. Two questions - any thoughts on the icing of the intake vent/fins ? And I am hoping access is gained via a panel in the aft berth starboard side. There are upholstry buttons in each corner. I assume if those are popped out there are screws and the panel pulls away? 

Appreciate all thoghts and comments! 

MarkB

Well, I think it still means gas is low. Did he use a sniffer to check for leaks?

Stingrayjim

Mark - thanks for the quick reply. I dont think he did. When he comes back I think he will pressure test for leaks now that he knows the amount was that was in there last week. 

Ian

Where are you located? High humidity and low air flow through the condenser will cause ice up, here I need to take the fan off auto at times and suck a lot of air through to stop slow humid air  solidifying.

Stingrayjim

I am on the Chesapeake Bay in maryland. I ran it Sunday evening in a low humidty, lower temp envoirnment (had the fan on 6 highest think) as a test and got my snowball maker results -haha Thanks 

Dream_Inn

Jim, welcome to the forum.  I agree with probably a slow leak of freon.  I will say, if it was high humidity, then you could try a setting that will actually cycle into heat mode for a short time at a scheduled period that keeps from frosting.  

Stingrayjim

Gents - thanks for the replies.  Any thoughts on the access to my snowball machine? My HVAC guy is coming back in a few days.  I will be on board tomorrow fixing zippers (waaaaay fun) so I can take a look.  Just curious at this point.  Thanks so much! 

raybo3

Did you try to go from 90* straight down to say 65*? You need to "step" down. Also you should program the controller to de-icing mode..... just say'n 

Stingrayjim

Ray - thanks I will try to step it down next time. 

Handymans342

Only 2 reasons for ice. Low Freon or dirty coil/low air flow. In a 12 oz system, a loss of 2 oz will cause ice. R22 is fairly cheap now. Proper charge is critical in these low capacity systems. 

rasbury

fortunately since they are way down inside a boat I assume they really don't get very dirty?

Dream_Inn

rasbury said:

fortunately since they are way down inside a boat I assume they really don't get very dirty?

You have airflow thru it that definitely gets the filters dirty.

YYZRC

The air filter in my boat was disgusting.

rasbury

I got mine out and it was fine..I'm sure the po did know where it was..

Handymans342

I’ve seen fan motors cut out on thermal overload, cool off enough and start back up over and over 

Ian

Low air flow - as I noted above the auto fan control that throttles back the fan can create a low flow and with a combination of humidity, low gas and maybe a dirty filter can create an ice up. I get it too with the humidity - yes, it can get humid up here in July/August - I turn up the fan off Auto mode.

rasbury

sounds like you have some sound a/c experience Handy!

Handymans342

rasbury said:

sounds like you have some sound a/c experience Handy!

Certified

rasbury

well we know your certifiable....I'm saying I think you know a lot about A/C!

Just kidding....somehow I thought you were in banking or something? That explains how you afforded those diesels!

Handymans342

I work for Suncoast Credit Union. Largest in Florida and in the top ten in USA. I am a Senior Facility Technician. I fix it all Rasberry. Lol

rasbury

Ah...we use suncoast for financing...

Handymans342

Thanks Ras. We had a deal to buy some banks in Miami but the virus took that down 

Stingrayjim

Thanks for all the comments. It seems most of the replies actually did hit on the multiple issues. So here is what was happening in the aft cabin bilge area there were 2 water hoses to/from the head Rinker ran OVER the AC duct/tube thus crushing it and breaking the material open. So the vast majority of air flow was being pumped into the bilge area.
So, of course the cabin was not cooling efficently and the compresser is going 24/7. The fix was (already topped off R22 first visit) to run the hoses under the duct and the duct was repaired. The tech also programmed the defrost mode in to give a quick melt should the compressor run more than 1 hour with out the cabin temp lowering more than 1 degree.  I ran it this weekend for several hours the flow, as you can imagine was waaaay higher and no icing at all.  So I believe this is issue is solved and on to some sticky zippers and isinglass cleaning thanks again for all of the input!! 

Jim 


 

Handymans342

Great!!

aero3113

Great news @Stingrayjim !

Dream_Inn

Thanks for the update Jim & glad you got it fixed!

rasbury

problems are solved on this forum!