On a Hunter 40. We have a Cruisair with the digital controls. Everything works fine, sucks water, blows cold air, but after about a minute it trips the breaker. Only problem we could find when inspecting the system was there was no strainer in the water filter housing. We haven't pulled the blower motor or anything yet, my guess would that either the blower is old and pulling too much power, or the lack of strainer clogged up the water pump and its pulling too much power. Anybody know what could be the problem before we call an AC guy out?
AC keeps tripping breaker
- Thread starter bigburb
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If the breaker is more than a couple of years old, it could be going bad. Find a friend with an ammeter if ya don't have one and verify that the unit is drawing high current before calling in the cavalry. Definitely do clean out the raw water side because that can make the compressor draw more amperes .. You may have collapsed the strainer and made a partially blocked raw water side. Make sure that you have good water flow through the unit.. There should be a strainer on the raw water side, but you may just have a lot of "growies" in the condenser heat exchanger. BUT first verify the current..
Chances are good that you've got something clogging the water pump. You really should have a strainer in the intake line, at a minimum.
A clog should not normally cause the current draw to increase. Claude got it right - breakers often go bad. alternatively, make sure all connections are clean and tight as a bad connection can also cause excessive current draw.
Right, Don.. I neglected the electrical connections which may be more likely.. Quick one on current draw.. If the water flow gets restricted, the raw water pump will typically draw less current but because the condenser temperature rises, the compressor will see a higher discharge pressure and it will draw more current since it is pumping across a higher pressure differential.
I would suggest you first disconnect the ac and run a line right to it from the a protected shore power circuit, You will need a clamp type amp meter, the kind that senses the draw around the wire. there should be a name plate with the amp ratings, FL = full load, when running most compressors never read FL, LR = locked rotor, if the comp is 120 volt as it most likely is, you may have a bad capacitor, or need a "hard start" piggy back capacitor (sold in hvac stores) the bad news is you may have a bad comp. good luck!
Right, we'll check the breaker, connections, air filter first I guess. The AC and refridgeration run on their own AC panel and have their own 30 amp shore power plug. I did notice a lot of corrosion on the connections when trying to figure out all the wiring, which is probably why the refridgeration isn't working at all.
Had a similar problem once and come to find out the culprit was a piece of plastic from a discarded ice bag. The cause was not immediately evident as the plastic acted as a flap and would only block water flow when there was suction on the system. Your problem is blockage on the water flow and due to the lack of a strainer mesh you probably have have sea weeds blocking proper flow in your line. Backflow your line with a hose and clean the pump inlet. We keep strainer mesh filters on hand and have to replace them more often that we would like. One time we even sucked up a jelly fish, "aghuff"
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