Heat not blowing hot air

MajorAppeal

davidbrooks said:

Had to do this this past weekend.  The steps I took was to 1) make sure the seacock was open under the aft bed and then turn on the AC.  You should be able to put your hand on the raw water pump and feel it running and pumping water.  Then went up to the bow and noticed the condenser coils were icing up.  This meant water was running through them.  Water goes in the bottom and out the top of the condenser. 2) Follow the hose to the hull.  Mine is Starboard.  Unclamped it from the hull and gave it a few good sucks.  (no comment).  Successfully didn't get any antifreeze in my mouth.  Soon as water made its way to the hose I popped it back on the hull fitting and tighten it up.  Worked like a champ all weekend. 

I'm pretty certain my pump is not moving water. I haven't made it back since yesterday but it was very lightly vibrating and got warm but there definitely was no water moving through the lines...

MajorAppeal

frodo13056 said:

I just use a clean manual oil extractor to create a vacuum on the discharge side of the compressor unit - this pulls water into the line /  compressor unit when the seacock is open. The manual extractors I have are something like this:
https://www.menards.com/main/plumbing/rough-plumbing/pipe-tubing-hoses-fittings-accessories/hoses-tubing/vinyl-tubing/c-8584.htm  

I went to Menards and bought a bunch of different diameter / wall thickness clear flexible tubing and made adapters for the extractors so that I can use them for pretty much anything where I need to draw a vacuum:
 https://www.menards.com/main/plumbing/rough-plumbing/pipe-tubing-hoses-fittings-accessories/hoses-tubing/vinyl-tubing/c-8584.htm

I use the manual extractors to change the oil in my Rinker 320 engines and generator in the fall and clean them up when done. I also use the extractor to draw antifreeze through the AC unit by placing a hose into a gallon of antifreeze and drawing the vacuum with the extractor (you have to disconnect the suction and discharge of the AC unit hoses). I use the same method in the spring to draw lake water into the AC system to ensure I have a good prime.

Could you repost the link for the manual extractor? Only the tubing link came through twice.

frodo13056

@MajorAppeal - oops..... I edited my post to reflect the type of oil extractor I use.....

MajorAppeal

frodo13056 said:

@MajorAppeal - oops..... I edited my post to reflect the type of oil extractor I use.....

Thank you, when you say compressor unit in your original post, is that the same thing as the raw water pump or are you referring to something else?

frodo13056

@MajorAppeal - On my 03 270, the AC unit was located on the starboard side of the aft cabin - you'll see the compressor and coils there along with the blower motor to push air around. The raw water pump pushes water thru the compressor and coils.
What I do is disconnect the outlet of the compressor / coils where the raw water exits the boat, connect the extractor to the hose , then make sure that the seacock is open then just draw a vacuum on the system. This will draw water through the hoses, coils, etc. and into the extractor and once you get a steady stream, reconnect the AC unit discharge hose (should be a double ring clamp on that hose) and then start the unit and verify your boat is peeing. I also saw that someone asked if you were getting an error code on the controller - I didn't see what year your 270 is but if you have the Marine Air system you should be getting an error code on the controller - indicating that there is no raw water flow. If that happens, the unit will only run for a few minutes then shut down and flash the HPF error code indicating that you have a High Pressure Fault which means that you have low raw water flow which usually (as already noted) means that you have some type of blockage going on.
FYI - the Marine Air systems have a "reversing valve" that is used to either cool or heat your cabin. The reversing valve is located on the compressor unit - you can google it to see what it looks like. If the reversing valve hangs up, you won't get heat - your unit will run just fine but will not go into heat mode. A simple tap or two on the valve usually will free it up. As a general rule of thumb, you should put your unit into heat mode at least once a month during the season to ensure that the reversing valve stays unstuck.
Also, another FYI - on my 2003 270, the cold air would often "short circuit" from where the blower exhaust was (under the steps) back to the air intake on the AC unit and turn it into a chunk of ice. I'd have to shut down the unit to let it thaw then restart it. I tried changing the defrost time on the controller but that didn't work so my fix was to place a 12v fan in front of the cold air discharge under the steps to force the cold air further into the cabin - this prevented the cold air from flowing right back to the air intake on the unit which kept the coils from freezing up. 

frodo13056

Dream_Inn

I'm telling you from someone that keeps the boat on the lift and has done it many times, loosening those 3 screws while in the water takes maybe 2 minutes.  You hear the hiss, then it goes away.  That means water made it to the pump.  Voila!  Tighten back up. You are golden.  Probably only need to slightly loosen two screws.  Now, you could have blockage in the compressor as I stated early as well.  Easiest way to check that is removing the hoses on the unit and blow air thru the unit (where water usually flows thru from sea water pump and overboard discharge hoses).

Handymans342

I have seen Mud Dauber wasps make their mud nests in the thru hulls before.

pearson57842

I have a small shop vac on the boat.  When mine loses prime shop vac on the discharge outlet works great at getting prime back.

rasbury

I trailer our boat and never have tho issue- there must be more to this problem...

MajorAppeal

frodo13056 said:

@MajorAppeal - On my 03 270, the AC unit was located on the starboard side of the aft cabin - you'll see the compressor and coils there along with the blower motor to push air around. The raw water pump pushes water thru the compressor and coils.
What I do is disconnect the outlet of the compressor / coils where the raw water exits the boat, connect the extractor to the hose , then make sure that the seacock is open then just draw a vacuum on the system. This will draw water through the hoses, coils, etc. and into the extractor and once you get a steady stream, reconnect the AC unit discharge hose (should be a double ring clamp on that hose) and then start the unit and verify your boat is peeing. I also saw that someone asked if you were getting an error code on the controller - I didn't see what year your 270 is but if you have the Marine Air system you should be getting an error code on the controller - indicating that there is no raw water flow. If that happens, the unit will only run for a few minutes then shut down and flash the HPF error code indicating that you have a High Pressure Fault which means that you have low raw water flow which usually (as already noted) means that you have some type of blockage going on.
FYI - the Marine Air systems have a "reversing valve" that is used to either cool or heat your cabin. The reversing valve is located on the compressor unit - you can google it to see what it looks like. If the reversing valve hangs up, you won't get heat - your unit will run just fine but will not go into heat mode. A simple tap or two on the valve usually will free it up. As a general rule of thumb, you should put your unit into heat mode at least once a month during the season to ensure that the reversing valve stays unstuck.
Also, another FYI - on my 2003 270, the cold air would often "short circuit" from where the blower exhaust was (under the steps) back to the air intake on the AC unit and turn it into a chunk of ice. I'd have to shut down the unit to let it thaw then restart it. I tried changing the defrost time on the controller but that didn't work so my fix was to place a 12v fan in front of the cold air discharge under the steps to force the cold air further into the cabin - this prevented the cold air from flowing right back to the air intake on the unit which kept the coils from freezing up. 

I have an 06 270 with the marine air. It is not giving a code and not peeing water. It is running as if all is well, blowing air and all. I let it run for up to 30 minutes and still no code or water flow. I'll check for the reverse valve also.

MajorAppeal

Dream_Inn said:

I'm telling you from someone that keeps the boat on the lift and has done it many times, loosening those 3 screws while in the water takes maybe 2 minutes.  You hear the hiss, then it goes away.  That means water made it to the pump.  Voila!  Tighten back up. You are golden.  Probably only need to slightly loosen two screws.  Now, you could have blockage in the compressor as I stated early as well.  Easiest way to check that is removing the hoses on the unit and blow air thru the unit (where water usually flows thru from sea water pump and overboard discharge hoses).


I will definitely try this first. It seems the easiest fix but I have a feeling it won't work as I've had the boat out on plane and the water filter reservoir is full.

Dream_Inn

Second step for me would be to remove the hoses off the condenser and blow thru.  I've had mine get clogged a couple times.  Please post what you figure out.

MajorAppeal

Well, upon further inspection, it looks like the pump is not running. I tried to open the A/C unit for inspection and check lines going out to starboard. Couldn't find the thru hulls for outgoing water. Here's my set up, very tight..m

Liberty44140

sorry if this was already answered, but when you pull the output hose off of your pump, is it pumping out water? If no, then either you have a clog or a bad pump. Luckily pumps are fairly cheap in the grand scheme of boat HVAC. 

MarkB

Just unscrew the top two screws on the pump casing.  See picture above, you can see 2 of the 3 screws on the black casing. No need to remove the hose, you'll crack the casing and it will cost you to replace.  Crack it open and if necessary get a syringe or plastic cup and fill up the casing until it overflows. Then close it up and start the air con.  You know it works when the water is coming out the side of the boat, either on port or starboard around where your helm is situated.

MajorAppeal

Good news gents. I got it working. Here's how it went down... I started pulling the water filter on the seacock line in my first picture and giving it a good cleaning and rinse. Then lightly unscrewed the screws where the input line from the seacock goes into the pump. It filled the water filter and started flowing out from between the black plastic cover and the metal part of the pump. All which are in my first photo. Tried running A/C and still got nothing. So then I disconnected the line which connects to the outflow on the pump to the A/C unit. Water started pouring out so fast I had to close the seacock. After putting it back on I restarted A/C. Still no water flow. That's when I opened the compartment to the air unit and took the photos immediately above. I could do find lines going through hull in order to suck on them. I was at a loss. I went back to the pump and felt it was not running. That is when I made the above post assuming my pump was broken. I immediately began looking for a replacement pump but couldn't find any serial number readily available on the pump so I decided it would be best to disconnect and pull it out. So, I closed the seacock, pulled the filter (which gave me access to all three screws) and unscrewed the black cover to the pump which I bled earlier.  This immediately revealed a "fan" style blade. I tried turning it a few times with my finger and the spin felt a little gritty so I kept turning it until in smoothed out a bit. Then for kicks I started the unit and voila the fan blade on the pump was spinning. So, I reconnected everything and it started working perfectly. I'm very happy it got working again. 

MajorAppeal

On a side note, when I opened the hatch under the bed there was about an inch of water in there at the deepest point. Not enough to turn the pump on but close. There appears to be some brown staining around the area where the water line was from the sitting water so it appears the boat has had about the same amount of water sitting in this spot before. We had a really hard rain a few nights ago. Is this normal or should it be addressed?

Dream_Inn

Sounds like your impeller may have been stuck with some grit.  Good find!

As far as the water under the aft bed, you really shouldn't have any there.  Are you sure it wasn't water that flowed down from the ac you've been messing with?  I would just shop vac it dry and keep an eye on it.

frodo13056

Good news for sure! You now know a ton about your AC system - but more to learn :-)

Handymans342

Dream_Inn said:

Sounds like your impeller may have been stuck with some grit.  Good find!

As far as the water under the aft bed, you really shouldn't have any there.  Are you sure it wasn't water that flowed down from the ac you've been messing with?  I would just shop vac it dry and keep an eye on it.

I get water there every time I go out. Still cant figure it out. I think B_D said it was a thru hull with nothing attached. 

MajorAppeal

The water was in there before I started disconnecting the pump lines to release water but it was not in there yet after I had taken her out a few times. Only thing I can think of is the pump could have started a really slow unnoticeable leak (but I would think it would at least feel wet) or the hard rain got in somehow. I'm going to re seal all deck penetrations just in case.

J3ff

I also have water there all the time.