342 air conditioner breaker

brandonmayberry

I have a 2002 Rinker 342 fiesta vee. When I'm on shore power, the small breaker will trip when the air kicks on sometimes. Other times it will be fine and not trip at all. It's not the big double breaker up top, only the little one. I thought maybe there was too much power draw but it trips with everything else on or off, doesn't matter. Also never does it when running on the generator. 

I have times ones when I can leave for a week and the air will continue to run and be fine when I get back, and other times it will be off. Hoping to get this fixed before it gets real hot out. 

I have the dual cable set up and have swapped the cables around thinking it may be one of the cables but it still does it. 

I just replaced the shower power connection on my boat including the mounting plate that the locking portion of the cable connects. That did not fix it and is still acting up.

Not sure where to go next. 

I have attached a picture of my breaker panel.

Thanks 
 

Handymans342

Bad breaker or a wire is loose.

reneechris14

Maybe try to put a amp meter on the A/C to check the draw.If the draw is not near 15 amps probably just the breaker.2002 it is 15 year's old.

Black_Diamond

Working on memory here, I think that smaller breaker is for the A/C water pump. 

Handymans342

Feeds the control side as well as pump

brandonmayberry

It has seemed to trip more frequently so far this season than it did last season.

Any idea where  the best to buy a replacement breaker is and also how many amps the breaker is?

Thanks for the help so far guys!

brandonmayberry

Here is a picture of my boat just for entertainment purposes since most threads get boring without pictures.

raybo3

Why not swap the breaker with another one from the panel and see if the problem goes away........ just say'n

brandonmayberry

raybo3 said:

Why not swap the breaker with another one from the panel and see if the problem goes away........ just say'n

Thats actually a very logical thought! I hadnt thought of that solution here. Used the ole' switcharoo to figure out my distributor cap was bad a few weeks ago and it worked so ill give it a shot here.

brandonmayberry

Im actually on the boat right now, but after reading another thread about how difficult it is to remove the panel and do the work, it might be worth just paying the 25 bucks or so for a new breaker and replace it instead of doing the job twice.

Not sure thou. Ill have to ponder on it.

raybo3

Just leave the panel out if you need a new breaker. You most likely get it in a couple of days.

Handymans342

brandonmayberry said:

Im actually on the boat right now, but after reading another thread about how difficult it is to remove the panel and do the work, it might be worth just paying the 25 bucks or so for a new breaker and replace it instead of doing the job twice.

Not sure thou. Ill have to ponder on it.

Change the indicator lamps to LED while in there!

reneechris14

could be the pump drawing to much juice.
15 amp I believe.
Can you put your hand on the pump to see if it's hot. 

Handymans342

Why don't it trip on Gen power? Odd

brandonmayberry

reneechris14 said:

could be the pump drawing to much juice.
15 amp I believe.
Can you put your hand on the pump to see if it's hot. 

It wouldnt be hot because it does it as soon as it kick on after having not been on for days. As soon as the unit kicks on it will pop. If it doesn't pop it usually runs for many hours before any issues. It kicked off about 3am this morning but ran for about 10 hours before that without issues. 

brandonmayberry

Handymans342 said:

Why don't it trip on Gen power? Odd

That's what confuses me. That's why I thought maybe it was the connection at the boat but I replaced that with no luck. 

randy56

@brandonmayberry, off topic, I'm not going to make it down there this month as planned. Breakers do get weak. Not so sure if it ran 10 hours.

raybo3

I just saw that it only trips on shore power and not genny. Take a voltage reading on shore power then take a voltage reading from the genny. Maybe the shore voltage coming into the boat is a little too high causing the pump to draw too much current. 

Black_Diamond

Breakers are Blue Sea brand. 

brandonmayberry

I replaced the breaker. Wasnt as terrible of a job as i thought, but wasnt super easy. New breaker fixed the problem and all is well in that area now. Discovered my coupler on my port engine has gone out now. Its always something. BOAT