Yet another Air Conditioning Thread

[Chasemixon]

Kermit, what did you end up doing for A/C, I am finding myself reconsidering my A/C... getting to be too much trouble moving it in and out! I have two options, buy a unit and put in the aft outside settie, cut wholes to inside the cabin for cool air, and cut small port for exhaust, this solution is more expensive but less mods to the boat. option 2 take my window unit and cut an opening under the hatchway to slide the window unit into the cabin area. What do you guys think?

 

[Dave O.]

I use a krusing kool portable (mounted in sampsonite suitcase) 7k btu that I found on craigslist. I have it mounted all the way forward sitting on the shelf under the forward hatch. I have the water cooling hoses run down under the seats to under the sink in the head with an additional above water thru hull there. to run the ac simply place the pump in the water, pass hose thru the thru hull under the sink, connect to hoses from unit, and turn on the ac. freezes the cabin out!
I also have a honda eu2000 generator so I can use this on the hook. works great

Dave

 

[Chasemixon]

Dave O I would love to see some pics of that?

 

[Dave O.]

This is the only photo I have of it installed. It is held in place with a nylon webbing strap and as I said, the two water hoses(feed and discharge) and electrical cord run straight down from the unit, under the bunks to a thru hull under the lav sink. Thats where I connect the feed pump (I screw a cap on the inside of thethru hull when not in use) and have the discharge line feeding into the sink drain. I also ran an electrical cords to give power to the unit and pump. There are photos of the unit on google images.
I dont use the forward vberth area because of this. I cut a 3/4" piece of plywood the size of the table and place it in the notches in the seats which makes a very large berth in the cabin. I use the back cushions as the extra cushions and made 2 additional ones to fill in the gaps. I store the plywood under the aft berth cushion.
Hope this helps

 

[Chasemixon]

interesting!!!

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

Dave O.

I thought those were no longer made. It has been a while but they really never took off.

 

[twdevore]

We have been using a portable like DJN51 and it's adequate here in Chicago. If you go with one of these units you will need to wrap the exhaust hose as above. It helps alot. Also, there are two kinds of these units. The one that I would recommend has two hoses. One for intake and one for exhaust. If you just have the exhaust all the air needed to go through the unit will have to come in from outside. That's what we have. Bought it on Craigslist. The last thread about this subject had pictures of a guy that built his into one of the closets and cut a hole for the cool air to vent. A couple hundred is better than a couple thousand...can't wait to fire up the Webasto though. Also, my unit is supposed to exhaust the condensation by dripping on the compressor and vaporizing out the exhaust. It doesn't work so good there.

 

[CCrane2299]

I put a $100 5000 BTU in the companionway...we've all seen it done. I bought a piece of 1/2 plywood and cut out a new one piece companionway door. Then, I cut out a rectangle in the new door the size of the a/c unit. I left about an inch or so on one side and had about 6 or 7 inches on the other. I put an old, dense piece of foam I found on the boat under the rear of the a/c, and just sat it in the companionway door. Then, I'd just slip my new door over the a/c and in the slot and it was done. There was plenty of room to walk past it on one side. It was very easy to remove the one piece plywood door and enter/exit the boat. It works so well that I stained the plywood. I took a battery powered skil saw and jig saw to the boat and had it made in 20 minutes. It was also "water proof" the a/c unit was tilted slightly down and the new door went behind a bracket on the a/c.

I did this on my last boat...O'day 25. I was really thinking about cutting a hole over the counter top into the bulkhead that was in front of a cockpit locker. I think it would have worked fine with the locker door open. I just didn't ever come up with a plan for rain with the cockpit locker door open.

 

[twdevore]

There was a Samsonite model on Chicago Craiglist for $1000. I'd never seen one before.

 

[earlfixit]

I actually like my portable AC because I have it mounted near the hatch on my H22.I cut a access hole for the exhaust so it does not blow on me in the cockpit and is not in my way exiting the boat. I cut the cover over the locker in half and mounted it to it with a 1x4 frame so it can not move and a webbing strap. Used in Pensacola for 10 days this past June and it worked well.

 

[Gene Neill]

Having very little (okay, NO) real experience at this, I gotta ask: why do so many people mount these window-shaker AC's in the companionway - which requires a good bit of engineering, and essentially blocks the companionway off - instead of just setting the unit on the foredeck, aimed into the hatch?

I set a 5K window unit up like that on my C22 (sitting in the yard on the trailer, not out in the "real" world) and it worked like a champ! I let the hatch rest on the top of the AC, and used some heavy plastic tarp to seal it all up. It was just a "beta test", but it passed with flying colors. The unit is small enough to lower down through the hatch, and stow up in the V berth.

Am I missing something, or is it just that my boat is smaller than most "smaller boats"?

 

[earlfixit]

I did that for 10 years, starting with one in the companion way and then moving it to the V-birth hatch. Both work but I could not lower it through my hatch on the H22. Shen it's already in the 90's it was a pain to get it moved and setup and was hotter after setting it up than I was before till things cooled off. I love only having to move an exhaust hose now.