A/C stopped pumping water

[Ezsteps]

Question about my A/C. My a/c pumps water nonstop out of both the thru hulls which is different than the 310 I had that only pumped when the a/c kicked on. I got up last Sunday morning and was working around on the dock and noticed that I didn't have water coming out of the forward hole. I went to see if the forward air was on and it was. I shut it down because I didn't want to hurt anything if it wasn't already. My units are a Cruisair with reverse heat system 12000 btu. Any suggestions on why the water quit pumping? I'm going to check my strainers when I get to the boat Friday but I don't think that's it. I cleaned them not long ago. In my breaker panel I have a forward a/c breaker, aft a/c breaker and 1 a/c pump breaker all were still on when I checked them on that Sunday. Where is the a/c pump located? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

[bahamabreisus]

Do you still have water coming out of the the other hole. If so, the pump is still running. Then you have a blockage going to the front. I would recommend finding the joint where the 2 lines separate, Hook dock water to the line going to the front, and turn on dock water to flush. Another thing to check is the impeller on the pump. it is most likely magnetic drive, and they get slimey and dont pump as they should. Just remove and wipe the impeller and housing.

 

[Ezsteps]

Thanks for the quick reply bahama. The aft hole does have water coming out. I will try to check that out tomorrow evening when I go to the boat. If anyone can help with the location of the items bahama talked about on a 99' 400 Sundancer I would appreciate it. Thanks again

 

[MExcelsior]

Although I'm not familiar with your particular model, you should be able to follow your a/c thru hull pickup to the pump. (It will be below the waterline). The easiest explanation is that your pump might have lost prime. (Possibly when you cleaned the strainers). If you haven't already, this should be your first troubleshoot. Shut off your thru hull, remove hose from the strainer and attempt with a water hose (pressurized water supply) to test if it goes through pump and out through the a/c thru hull exit. If it does, then you just primed your pump and it might now work. If not, it might be either a blockage in your pickup to the strainer (easy to determine). Also check to see if your pump is getting power and at least vibrating. If the pump is vibrating and there is still no water, then you should shut off all pickups and see if you might have toasted your centrifugal pump impeller by removing from pump. Also, there have been instances where you can just clean the magnet surface around the impeller if it isn't broken.

Let us know how this turns out.

 

[sea hare]

there is usually only a single pump that will pump water to all the ac units, most likely located in the rear of the boat. I would think there is a clog somewhere between the rear and front ac unit

 

[fwebster]

I don't know it this is going to work or not, but here is a screen shot of your A/C cooling system layout:






Part # 13 if the salon A/C thru hull. On your boat, the salon unit has a seacock built into the thru hull. While you still have flow out of the salon unit, you can try closing t hat seacock. That will increase the pressure to the forward A/C and the added pressure may force the blockage out of the forward cooling system.

The forward and the salon units are "T" 'd together at the cooling pump. If you remove the cooling lines from the pump and connect a water hose to the lines on the boat, them close the salon seacock as mentioned above, you may be able to get 45#+ of pressure on the system to aid in flushing.

At some point, you will need to acid clean the system and here is a method for doing that:

http://clubsearay.com/showthread.php...850#post907850

 

[Ezsteps]

Thanks everyone for the replies so far. I am going to track this down tomorrow and get it figured out. I have all the manuals on the A/C system but as usual I left them in the boat when I left it Sunday. Thanks Frank for the acid clean tip. I just read that last night on another thread just below this one. Thanks again and I will let everyone know how it went and what was the cause.

 

[FeLizDream]

Something similar happens to me, salon AC unit was working fine, and the forward unit stopped flushing water, pump was working fine. I called my AC technician and he changed the relay solenoid in the forward unit, that was it, after that it started flushing water again in the forward unit, my forward unit is a Cruisair and It was recently changed for a new one like 6 months ago,
Apparently that is a very common issue with Cruisiair unit



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Mike Blake]

Frank's acid trick works great. I'm on a crappy river and have to flush 2 times a year.

 

[Ezsteps]

Well it was the easiest fix I've had but I'm not going to be any help to anyone else who might run into this problem. I got to the boat, went down and turned all the breakers on, went outside to see water flowing out of both holes. It must have been a block in the hose going to the forward A / C and when I hit the breaker to turn it on it broke free. Everything worked great all weekend. Sorry I don't have an exact fix, but I'm thankful it fixed itself. Didn't have time for the acid flush Frank but will be doing soon, the boat is coming out of the water on the 28th to have its winter rest. Dang I hate this part. Thanks everyone for all your help. This is a great site. Sponsor sticker well be next to my name soon.

 

[fwebster]

Freshwater algae turns rock hard when allowed to dry. If you need to clean your A/C's cooling circuit, please do it now while the boat is in the water. It gets a lot more difficult and will probably require harsher chemicals to clean the system if you wait until next spring after the fouling in the lines dries out.