Air Conditioners

[Garrette (belle)]

Looking to have an air conditioner installed in my sailboat. Can anyone give me a direction on the do's and don't. What's a good brand, whats not. Anything I should look out for or even if I need a custom made air conditioner to fit with my boat. I have a 2001 51 Beneteau. Thank you for your replies.

 

[Blue Bird]

Air Conditioning

Hi Garrette,I have a unique idea. Have you considered this? Instead of getting a coolant based air conditioner with a compressor, instead have a system made for much much less. Here is what you do. And you don't need freon (Sp?) or like coolant.Get an old air conditioner or radiator system. Drain any fluid that is found in it. Clean it. Then mount a fan to the rear of it. And then attach two tubes to it; one to the intake and one to the exhaust of the system. The intake will go to a threw hole fitting in the hull and will take in plain old water out of the lake or ocean. The exhaust tube will spit it right back out to the lake or ocean. Some place in the intake, put a pump. So, here is what you will end up having. You will continuously pump in fresh water. The water will run through the radiator and the fan will blow on the radiator. This will give a constant source of cool air at the price of running a fan and a small pump. This is a much cheaper alternative than running a condenser. Also, building a system like this would only cost you a couple hundred or so. Tell me what you think. It might not be what you are interested in. But I just thought I would mention it so you could consider it.Blue Bird

 

[Jim Rushing]

Two A/C's

In a boat that big you will find that it is necessary to use two units. As for just running water through the coils in the boat, that would work in Texas only on cold days in the winter. And of course you don't need A/C then. For a 51 foot boat, expect to pay between $10k to $15k for the system.

 

[d j]

Mermaid or Marine Air Systems

Biggest issue is adequate size for your square footage.A friend of mine installed a Mermaid 16,000 BTU heat/cool unit in his 34 Catalina last year and liked it. I have done the same in my 340 Hunter but not tried it out this year yet. I know the 16,000 work well in 100 plus degree days in 34 footers, but don't know how well they would work in a 51 footer. Seems like 16,000 would be undersized.Look fo the Mermaid or the Marine Air Systems in West Marine and Boat US, or on the web. I may be wrong, but I think 16,000 is the max they use.Good luck.

 

[Peter Moran]

Rotary aire

I have a 16k rotary aire unit works great. On a larger boat you should consider installing 2 units