Thanks cool air. I've emailed Mermaid and will see what they suggest. It would be a great convenience to have a built in unit. Also their web site says the 5000 and 6500 btu units will run on a Honda eu1000. If this is true it would be great for overnight on the hook.
That's good ....hopefully they can help fix you up. When you get them on the phone ask if they have any new refurbished units on hand.
The three units I have were refurbished units from them. The larger unit 16500btu had been traded back to them and was about two years old when I bought it They had totally rebuilt the unit back factory new. I have had it for about 5 years and no problems. The other two 5200btus were basically new and one was only used for a very short time maybe a few months the other was never used and just got sent back to factory were they were checked out and made new. I found one they had just listed on eBay and got it for almost 1/2 price. The others not so much but still a deal.
When you do the install go to home depot get a few 2" rolls of butyl foam rubber insulation tape. This is not the same tape that is used as a bedding compound. Us this stuff to insulate the pan and sides of coils to keep the stainless steel pan from sweating. Set unit on some folded over reinforce bilge hose. Modify mounting bracket hold downs with rubber bushings. Think engine mount design. This will cut on down vibrations. Especially if unit is mounted under your bunk.
I learned this lesson back when I first installed a unit under the v-berth of my old M-26 about 12-15 years ago.
Get the largest unit you can to deal with this Texas heat. Or go two smaller units that can be ran in depended of each other. In the heat of summer I use all three units. At night or when the boat is cooled down really good they will start to cycle on and off.
The rest of the year when the heat is less intense. I have the option of which units I need to run sometimes its only the two smaller units and sometimes it the big unit with one of the smaller units and then again sometimes its only one unit that is need. For me it started with the factory installed cruise air dying an early death. But just before it died I had found a really good deal on a 5200btu which I installed under the v-berth in forward cabin and ducted it to main saloon as well as forward cabin. I got it installed just in time too. A month later the cruise air died. I did another search and wound up calling them and they had the 16500btu and that they also had another 5200btu so they struck me a deal if I got both.
BTW....Recomemnd...Do the cool only model ...Forget the optional reverse cycle heat models. I have had problems with the compressor getting to hot while in heat mode. Same with cruise air model. Now if you have room in the a/c compartment location. Get a fan set it on high and let it blow across compressor. In fact I discovered even back when I had the cruise air that if I place an extra fan on the compressor I could pick an extra 5 to 7 degrees of cooling out the ducts.
I do not use the heat function any more. I found for winter a couple of low profile marine cabin heaters from west marine work much better.
