A/C not cold...I have questions

Trashman

my 2004 270fv has one a/c-heat unit and it seems like it's not getting cold .  It wasn't very impressive earlier in the season but it's been extremely hot lately here in philly and I feel it isn't working to specs.  
1: what should the temp be at the vent?
2:can it be charged?
3:  if it needs a charge, can that be done while unit is in the boat?
4: are there any filters or serviceable parts I should look at first?

jme097

your air typically should be between 55-60 degrees. Yes it can be charged with some refrigeration hoses via the valves. You can check the strainer to see if that is restricting flow first but thats it really. I am going to check mine this weekend as well so I was just thinking the same thing. Good thing I work in the HVAC field and can do it myself. lol

Trashman

Just to clarify...Are you referencing the water strainer on the circulating pump? I do have a good stream of water exiting the boat but I will doublecheck

jmichels

The other thing to check is see if the coil is frozen up. If it is it will get warmer air coming out and not be efficient. If its frozen up its because there is a restriction somewhere . Trying cleaning the coil real good . You can be specific coil cleaner spray at home depot or any HVAC supply house. Be sure to get coil cleaner because its designed to stick on there and break down dirt. Then I took a water bottle and cut a little slit in the cap with a razor blade and squeezed the bottle to shoot out the water and clean it so I didnt make a mess. The water will drain to the bilge and you should be good. Also check filter on return vent. 

jmichels

If the coil gets frozen u can reverse heat and will defrost in 2 seconds and then put back to cool

Trashman

Hmm....  Now that you bring up a restriction.  I did clean out the shower bilge an move things around in there. You may be on to why I'm having a problem.  I do have coil cleaner and will clean, maybe tonight. I did clean the return grate at the beginning of the year.  I'm assuming the entire padded panel in the aft berth removes, correct? 

jmichels

ya pop off the snap buttons with a screw driver and the screws are right behind them. just 2 of them

Liberty44140

along with the sea water strainer which is probably under your rear bed, you also have air filters. Probably two air filters, one at the vent in the cabin that you see and another on the unit itself that slides in and out. Good idea to vacuum them out a couple of times a season at the very least.

jmichels

2 filters? Where is the second one on the unit?? never seen that one before.

Liberty44140

On mine there is a thin dark filter on the intake unit. Around the size of an 8" x 11" piece of paper. Slides in and out. 

skennelly

2 weekends ago I noticed the A/C wasn't working like normal.  Fan was making a strange noise and wasn't cooling.  I went down in the mid berth and took a look at the A/C unit.  The duct pipe had come off and it was blowing into the unused cavity.  I fixed up the vent hose and bam....the A/C started kicking a$$ again.  Just thought I would share.

Michael T

Also, do you have a remote sensor? It looks like an SS bullet on a wire that leads back to the PCB on your AC unit. The wire plugs into the board. If you have this I have another suggestion to accompany the great advice already posted.         
@jmichaels, you'll appreciate this. I ' m staying in an ocean front condo in Estero Beach Fla. right now. Very hot and humid (which I Like) ....about 2 hours ago had to defrost he condo HVAC by initiating the reversing valve LOL! Yes, that works great  :-) 

MarkB

Do you have water flow coming out of your through hull on the startboard side of the boat, under the captain's seat??  If not you have either lost prime on the pump or the strainer is blocked.  Both are easy to fix.

If you do have good water flow then I'd say either a system problem (you need to reset things to factor settings) or low coolant pressure.

Trashman

UPDATE: I have good water flow and strainer is clean. I have one mesh metal filter on the return, clean. I noticed when i lifted the hinged metal return grate the square foam gasket between the unit and the grate had a gap so i removed the panel (two screws). I noticed that the entire unit had slid away from the panel.  I pulled unit toward the filter grate panel and tightened the ss steel clips that screw drain pan down( entire unit is mounted to a drain pan). I noticed air flow around the fan discharge housing on the rear of the unit so i re- attached the duct and taped up any gaps with gorilla duct tape. I lifted the shower sump panel under aft bed and noticed air flow there also.  The entire bottom of the duct was detached.  I removed the hard plastic discharge vent under step, pulled it out, and re attached the duct and taped it up.  Im now getting TWICE the air flow.  As far as temp, i haven't run it long enough to see much of a change in temp.  Im still thinking i need a slight charge but ill have to run a few hours to see. MT, i did see a silver cylinder( same diameter as a cigarette about 3 in long attached to what looked like grey telephone wire.  It was clipped onto the front side of the coil where the filter grate is. Clip had come loose and wasn't attached properly.   Thank you all for the good advise.  Ill update again my findings as soon as i get to the boat again. 

Michael T

@Trashman yes that SS bullet is attached to what looks like telephone wire and probably is clipped onto your PCB with a telephone type jack. From what you have posted I think you may have solved the issue. *****When I first got my 2014 EC 360 I had issues with both heating and cooling. The dealer tech tried many fixes. I called the manufacturer who went nuts when I told him the SS bullet was clipped near the compressor. He said located there it would react to the heating or cooling of the compressor and be erratic. He told me to move it to the inside of the fresh air grille - in the cabin about 6 feet away  from the compressor and equipment - of course this made sense. That way it would react to the cabin air temp and not be effected by the compressor ot HVAC  temp. I unplugged the remote SS sensor from the PCB and re-located it. After doing that the HVAC worked great.

Trashman

Ok. When I head over, I'll re route the sensor to a neutral area in the cabin away from the unit to see if there's a change in behavior. I will also inspect to see if the sensor is correctly attached to the board.  Maybe it was jarred loose.  It'll take all my patience, a mirror, dollar store cheaters and a tall glass of captain n coke to get back in there. I thought my engine compartment was tight, yikes!   I was happy to see the unit was clean and not rusty.  

Michael T

@Trashman. You might not have to unplug the jack for your remote to move the SS temperature "bullet sensor" . I had to as the wire was wound in and out of all kinds of things. If you have to remove the jack be careful when un clipping it and re inserting it as there are a lot of "parts" near the jack. Good luck!

rasbury

@Trashman  I have not read this thread but had similar sounding issue when I first purchased- I had to re calibrate the A/C control unit as the temperature was way off- it would burn you out when you set it to say 76 and would not get cold. Once I got that figured out it has worked like a charm. May have nothing to do with yours but just thought I'd throw it out there!

rasbury

PS- if someone was fiddling with the settings, it is not hard for that to get off!

Trashman

Ok, great input.  Im headed over to the boat shortly. Per MT, i will route the sensor a little further into the aft somewhere, specifically where there will be airflow back to the return.  Im gathering all my manuals on the units control panel soon.  Im assuming it would be a good idea to restore controller to factory defaults? Or is there something else? Thanks Ras. 
Ps: I have kids so it may have been monkeyed with.

Trashman

@rasbury. I have a quick reference card with info.  What should I be looking to do?

NavyCTRC

Trashman,

Others in my area have this problem every year, thinking there is something wrong with their AC unit.  It happens in August/September.  Luckily I was informed of this the first year I had my boat.  Out of curiosity what is the temp of the water body your boat is floating in?  There is a correlation between the water temp and how cold your unit is able to cool the cabin.  Here in Florida, around August, the water is in the mid to upper 80's, sometimes it can hit 90 degrees!  The A/C unit might not be able to get your cabin down to 68!  The air outside is in the high 70's, low 80's, but the boat hull is sitting in 88 degree water, that heat is also radiating through the hull.  The circulating water through the A/C unit is also 88 degrees, certain smaller A/C units may not be able to remove that amount of heat. 

Last weekend, it took at least 3 hours for my unit to cool the entire cabin to 70.  Just something to think about.

frenchship

You should try to get the operation manual, lot more Infos than the quick reference card specially for programming.
good luck

rasbury

I think I have a manual but it is of course on the boat...I'm sure you can find one online. It is setting the "actual room" temperature setting and it's in that program mode and I just can't remember...see if you can find the manual on line, if not let me know and I'll go down to the boat....need to check on it anyway. Once I set that room temperature correctly, it has worked very well. Perhaps with the 270 which probably has the same a/c systems as the next couple of sizes up, cool and heats it very well....and I've been in some hot water as Navy describes....it's more along the line of a heat pump  I'm told, not that it means much in my brain!

Trashman

Ok.  At the boat.  I have manual. no codes.     I went through the programming mode and everything is set to factory defaults. Inside cabin temp is 85°.  I set ac to 67°and temp dropped to 71°in 40mins. I have no history to compare.  Water temp is 82 and cloudy skies.  Air flow was def an issue with the air duct being sloppy at the cold air outlet.  I still need a thermometer to see how cold the air is.  Ive read through the manual and from what i gather everything is working.  Ambient temp sensor seem accurate.  Temp does rise when one adult and two children are present then slowly drops in a few mins.  
I moved sensor from coil face to outside of intake to prevent false reading (although the installation manual suggests mounting inside grate next to coil, where it was) 

im guessing an incorrect ambient temp sensor, depending on temp, would either prevent the start of compressor or keep it running.   The compressor cycles fine imo. 

Im guesing at the end of the day i need to check cold air temp( i think it should be colder) and maybe have an hvac guy put his gauges on the unit and check refrigerant level.... 

Handymans342

Good job

rasbury

In the setup are you able to see what the ambient temperature setting is? If that is off, and you would think the system would just sense it, it will never work correctly. It will not show a fault code, it is something you have to set and I can't remember the steps to do it.

Trashman

@rasbury I think this is what you are referring to....

rasbury

yep, did you reset with the P5 then? That's all I got if so!