Another Cruise-air carry on question

[kito]

I will need ac on my H30 and was just curious about the carry-on hatch ac units. How would the 5000 btu unit do in my H30? Not sure I want the expense and loss of space installing a central unit. It would seem a pain to haul that thing to the deck though. It would be stored in the useless aft cabin area. Just need to keep the Admiral cool when at the dock on those hot and humid evenings.

 

[Dunlookin]

I had someone give me a cruiseair. It does a good job on my 33' lowering the cabin temp. It does not make the boat ice-cold...but, you can't beat the price.

It is a royal pain pulling it from the quarter berth to take throught the hatch and put in place. It would be so much better to have installed air conditioning (even with the associated expense of purchace and install.)

I have so many other things that need to be done BEFORE I can even consider the time/expense of the install.

For the time-being it is a great option. I usually put it out, run a cable around the mast and through the handle and keep it on.

 

[Sailgunner]

I had one years ago on my 30T. I called it the "lugable." I hated it. It did not cool well and was a royal pita to install/put away. I had to install a room A/C in the companion way to help cool the boat. One of the best things I did was install central air in that boat.

 

[John A12737]

I have one. When using it on a hot day, it didn't cool the front berth any. I even put a blanket up, to isolate the bow area. Finally when the outside temps dropped (2:00am), it started to make a little difference.

 

[Benny17441]

How well it will cool depends on the sunlight, ambient temperature and humidity. The sun beating on the fiberglass deck can elevate temperature inside the cabin well above the ambient. A boom tent and hatch covers can go a long ways to keep the cabin cooler. Another trick is to spray the deck with water and allow the evaporation effect to cool it down. We used one such unit on an h34 for some time and it worked adequately at night to go to sleep but barely kept the boat cool during sunny days in humid 90 degree weather. We found out it was easier to lower and raise the unit through the bow hatch into the v-berth for storage when underway. make sure you get the adequate angle to prevent condensation from dripping down inside the cabin. The unit provides limited unidirectional air flow so you will need auxiliary fans to circulate air to different compartments. The difference between them and a built in system is mostly the set up convenience and the fact that the duct work takes care of the air circulation. As far as maintaining temperature both units will struggle in hot days. The portable units work well with gas powered generators to operate to have cooling on the hook. I would think such unit would work well for you as we were pleased with its performance. Do make sure the unit is in good working order as had experience with one unit that was low on Freon and worked very poorly.

 

[Bill Roosa]

Had one on a 37.5 legend and hated it. Heavy, no place to put it when underway for use at the next stop, and while it did blow out cold air it only kept the vee birth cool due to the way the air is ducted.
I've had better luck using sun shades over the fore and salon decks. on a 100 degree day it lowered the temp inside down to 85. also lets you keep the ports open when it is raining. made mine out of 2 oz sail cloth. It ain't air conditioning but add the breeze when at anchor or a 12 volt fan during calm nights and it is pretty passable. Works at anchor too.

 

[kito]

Lots of good feedback. The lugging around and storing the carry-on sounds like a pita but running it at anchor off a small generator sounds good. The central unit sounds like the best option but would be around $1600. I don't like the window unit mounted in the companion way either.

 

[kito]

I think I may have found a better option than the carry-on. I am considering a portable unit that would fit nicely in the starboard bulkhead cubby hole with some minor mods on my H30. Exhaust hose can be rigged to exit the hanging locker portlight. At 8000 btu it should be good enough to keep the humidity down and comfortable. Anyone else use these portable units? http://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-MF0...7&keywords=honeywell+portable+air+conditioner

 

[FredV]

Don't know anything about the Honeywell unit, but I bought a portable a/c unit (Soleus Air 8,000-BTU 250-sq ft 115-Volt Portable Air Conditioner - $269) last summer and was more than just a little disappointed with it. It never came close to cooling my H37C during 90+ degree days, as it constantly cut off the compressor due to I don't know what - 3 minutes of cool air, then 3 minutes of fan-only warm air, then cool, warm, cool, warm...! Water drained out through a small hose into the bilge, and exhaust went through aft cabin hatch, so I'm guessing it kept cycling to fan-only mode because the insides were freezing up. Whatever the cause, it proved to be a miserable failure!

If you get the Honeywell unit and it works fine, please, please, please let me know! And if anyone wants the Soleus unit for REAL cheap, PM me!

 

[Amos Cape]

We got a LG unit 12000 btu and it would freeze you out. It has a drain I run to the bilge too. Got it from Home Depot for $349.00.

 

[Pat]

For awhile we had an 8000 btu suitcase airconditioner that was water cooled and disposed
of the water back overboard in two separate hoses...It really cooled our O'day 272 but was noisy and occasionally, it would leak water at the hose attachment point...to take care of the occ. leak, I had the quarterberth cushion recovered in vinyl, but it was still a bit of a pain....but it did cool our boat well., esp. at night...better than the 12,000 btu mermaid we installed maybe 5 years ago.....any boat being air-conditioned needs good
hatch covers, shades, etc....bimini, to reduce the sun coming into the boat. Pat

 

[kito]

Don't know anything about the Honeywell unit, but I bought a portable a/c unit (Soleus Air 8,000-BTU 250-sq ft 115-Volt Portable Air Conditioner - $269) last summer and was more than just a little disappointed with it. It never came close to cooling my H37C during 90+ degree days, as it constantly cut off the compressor due to I don't know what - 3 minutes of cool air, then 3 minutes of fan-only warm air, then cool, warm, cool, warm...! Water drained out through a small hose into the bilge, and exhaust went through aft cabin hatch, so I'm guessing it kept cycling to fan-only mode because the insides were freezing up. Whatever the cause, it proved to be a miserable failure!

If you get the Honeywell unit and it works fine, please, please, please let me know! And if anyone wants the Soleus unit for REAL cheap, PM me!

Yeah, I kind of ruled out the Soleus units. Not that great of reviews out on them. The Honeywells seem to have good reviews plus they are not supposed to need a drain. I will check out the LG units as well. Not sure if I want or need 12K btu's. The 8K Honeywell's have been sucessfully powered by small generators too.

 

[Amos Cape]

I had a 8000btu unit too and it couldn't keep up when it got over. 90*. The new LG doesn't need a drain till you put it on dehumidifier.

 

[kito]

I had a 8000btu unit too and it couldn't keep up when it got over. 90*. The new LG doesn't need a drain till you put it on dehumidifier.

Thanks for the heads up. I will look into the 10k or 12k units then.