A/C in a HUNTER 30 1978

[steve rainey]

Anyone put a window A/C unit inside the cabin of a sailboat? I don't want to deal with a deck hatch type, and the inboard water cooled type is expensive to buy and also for service calls. I have a area in the salon which has a area that will allow a 500K BTU unit to side into. I plan to set it in a starboard tray and run a drain line to the bilge. Behind this area is a closet which I instend to put a fan in and a vent above thru the deck. Units cost under $100. how can you beat that? Think it will work? I've called a few A/C dealships and they think it would work. Maybe this is being done more than I've heard of? I've heard some say they think I would have a corosion problems. I had window units in use at an appartment building right by the river in Jaxs last 4-5 years or more. The main and only problem I see is being sure its vented enough. Any thoughts?

 

[Alger]

5000 btu will work easily on a boat your size

and Maytag is offering a 5 year warranty on their small ac units.

 

[Royce]

Getting rid of the heat?

I'm not sure your idea will work. You'll be using cabin airconditioned air to cool your condenser and vent to the outside. This air will be drawn in from outside to the cabin. You will loose alot of effeciency thru this. I'm not sure where your located. I'm in South Texas and have a 76 h30. I started with a 5000 btu window unit that I installed in the galley venting to the lazarette and just opened up when I ran the unit. It didn't work very well at all. I had a 7500 BTU unit and it worked great at night, but would not so great during the heat of the day. I now have a 11000 unit and it works much better. I have access to alot of help in this area and actually built both of my units from old window units. One thing you might consider if it doesn't work is bying the window unit, getting a Cuppernickle water cooled condenser from an AC supply store and have an AC guy change out the air cooled condenser with the water cooled one. My coil was about $110. You'll then need a mag drive H2O pump (available from Grainger $83) to pump the sea water to the AC. Hope this helps.