Beneteau 373 Survey and Air Conditioner

[Dadawada]

Participated as the potential buyer in part 1 of the survey of a 373 I'm looking at. In general, things went well. However we were never able to get the air conditioner to operate. It would come on but it would never draw water into the condenser. I appeared to be the water pump under the left Seatie. What are we missing?

I did a search but to be honest the answers were even more confusing. People taking about piping locations in places not on this boat. It's a 2007, and it appears the seacock was under the sink. Is there a good resource for "As Built" vs the "Manual" things like plumbing etc.? It appears things are under the sink (water plumbing for the AC) but there is nothing on the panel for the AC I could find. Are we missing a switch somewhere that powers the water pump for the AC?

 

[kappykaplan]

People taking about piping locations in places not on this boat. It's a 2007, and it appears the seacock was under the sink. Is there a good resource for "As Built" vs the "Manual" things like plumbing etc.? It appears things are under the sink (water plumbing for the AC)

Best way to figure this out is to chase every hose by hand.

 

[Dadawada]

Thanks for the suggestion. Is that even possible? The tight spaces like under the sink it all disappears into sections of the boat there is little access. If somewhere there was a photo of say under the sink with the plumbing labeled it would so helpful.

 

[heritage]

Typically, the water pump doesn't have it's own power source. It is powered from the main a/c unit. The pumps are notorious for developing air locks. They are not self priming.

 

[Dadawada]

We connected a water pipe and had water circulating through the loop to remove air, but the pump never ran on its own.

 

[BigEasy]

Don’t know what the factory configuration is on the 373; however that isn’t critical. All of them share the same components. Make sure that the pump doesn’t have a separate circuit breaker. Some Beneteaus have a separate AC circuit breaker panel that have specific breakers for the condenser & separate breaker for the pump. Check that the thru hull valve is open & not blocked. Also check the water intake strainer & ensure that it isn’t clogged. You have already checked for an airlock; however, my experience with air locks is the pump will run, but then shutdown. Could be a malfunctioning circuit board in the air conditioner control box; usually get power from the circuit board to the pump, so check voltage at the pump. If you’re getting power to the pump, you likely have a bad pump. If you don’t have power to the pump, probably a bad circuit board. Hope this helps; let us know the outcome. Hope it all works out; the 373 is a nice one.