ptallen
New Member
- Feb 17, 2012
- 49
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- 06 Bayliner 265 SB - sold
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- 5.0L Mercruiser MPI w/ Bravo III
Hooked up dockside water today. When I turned on the water it came out of the side hull AC discharge? Any thoughts?
Dockside Water Coming out of AC Discharge
- Thread starter ptallen
- Start date
Mike Blake
Active Member
- Jan 27, 2012
- 2,413
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- 89 340 Sundance all Raymarine.
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- Gas hogs 454X2.
It can't be. Unless some one hooked it up that way. I would check that out !!!!
Hellman Huddle
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- Nov 6, 2009
- 510
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- 2005 260 Sundancer
2000 F-350 Diesel
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- 350 Mercruiser Bravo III
Sounds like the pump went out and they jury rigged it!
TexasHookNUp
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- Apr 16, 2012
- 10
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- 290 Amberjack 2007, Westerbeke 5.0 BCG
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- Mercrusier 350 Mag MPI horizon, Bravo IIIs
Huh ? Sure your AC didn't trigger on by coincidence ?
Does your AC run while you are underway? If so, then it must be getting seawater in.
If someone jury rigged it, start off in the bilge at the seawater strainer and see if you are even connected, then go to the AC pump (mine's in bilge under genset, yours may be under V-berth). Something very obvious would be at one of those points if they plumbed the AC to run off shore water.
Now...mine picks up so much gunk sitting in the brackish water that running it off shore water might be a cool fix !
Does your AC run while you are underway? If so, then it must be getting seawater in.
If someone jury rigged it, start off in the bilge at the seawater strainer and see if you are even connected, then go to the AC pump (mine's in bilge under genset, yours may be under V-berth). Something very obvious would be at one of those points if they plumbed the AC to run off shore water.
Now...mine picks up so much gunk sitting in the brackish water that running it off shore water might be a cool fix !
Arthamon
New Member
glad i saw this post!i also have fresh water in the bilge, and will check the ac (mine is inder v berth) connection. i have not run the ac at all, so dont understand where so much fresh water came from! both bilge compartments inside were half full!
TexasHookNUp
New Member
- Apr 16, 2012
- 10
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- 290 Amberjack 2007, Westerbeke 5.0 BCG
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- Mercrusier 350 Mag MPI horizon, Bravo IIIs
Make sure those float switches are working ! We just got pounded with rain down here on the coast and I'm down to the marina to be sure i'm still high and dry.
AKBASSKING
Active Member
- Apr 13, 2008
- 4,649
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- 1988 Yacht Fisher
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That doesn't sound right. The dockside water should be seperate from the A/C system. The A/C pulls water with a pump from a sea-cock. mmmm Disconnect the dock water and run your A/C. Got water discharge? If so, sounds like either rigged or there is a check valve in line to take the pump out of the system when hooked to dock water, but I have never heard about any such system....
Carver370
Well-Known Member
- Mar 30, 2007
- 1,928
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- 2000 Sea Ray 400 Sundancer - Diesel
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- T-3116 CAT - 350 HP
I'd love to know what the the previous owners water bill was if he hooked up the AC to the dockside water!
dpmulvey
Active Member
- Dec 19, 2007
- 4,188
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- 1999/2007 330 Sundancer Hardtop.
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- 6.2 Merc Horixons
1.5:1 Velvet Drives
--I was thinking coincidence as well.
--Agree on the possibility of a bypass, however I would hesitate to run it off marina shore water. A fellow did that at one of my former marina's when his pump failed. The mamagement was not too pleased a few months later when their normal few hundred dollar water bill came in for $6000.00. :smt089:smt013 It wasn't pretty.
--WRT the silt, there is a workaround I may be able to help with if the strainer issue gets to be too much of a PIA.
TexasHookNUp
New Member
- Apr 16, 2012
- 10
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- 290 Amberjack 2007, Westerbeke 5.0 BCG
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- Mercrusier 350 Mag MPI horizon, Bravo IIIs
Dock water def. not a "set it and forget it" solution ! Strainer is a 1x per week "gotta do it" PIA now....but I'll be up in a lift pretty soon so wont be running AC at all. Hoping the Texas heat doesn't trash the interior too much. Interested in the solution though...my mechanic doen't like my idea of copper coil or chlorine tabs BTW !
dpmulvey
Active Member
- Dec 19, 2007
- 4,188
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- 1999/2007 330 Sundancer Hardtop.
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- 6.2 Merc Horixons
1.5:1 Velvet Drives
On a lift actually opens up another solution, albeit a Rube Goldberg one!
I'm assuming when you say lift, you mean at the dock and not dry stack. I'm also assuming there is power at the dock.
If you were starting from scratch, I would recommend the following.
"T" into the A/C cooling water supply just after the existing strainer. Insert the following fittings in the following order in the cooling water supply line; ball valve / "T" fitting / ball valve. These are not pressure fittings so Marelon will work fine.
Add a dock side water fitting to the boat.
Connect a hose from the dockside water fitting to the "T" fitting in the cooling system.
Purchase a water pump like this at homedepotlowes for about $50.
Custom cut a piece of garden hose to allow the pump to hang 1/2 the depth of the water at the dock at mean low tide. Put a LARGE strainer somewhere in line of that garden hose.
Attach one end of the hose to the pump.
Attach the other end of the pump to the new dockside water fitting.
Plug in the pump.
The reason for the 2 valves is this. I had my Regal in drystack and it was a VLPITA to prime the A/C system every time I went in the water. (I'll get back to that.) When you get up on the lift with the water on via the pump, shut the ball valve furthest from the strainer. Depending on your strainer, it should backflush a lot of silt out of the strainer and out the through hull. Open the forward ball valve and close the aft ball valve. This will force the water through the cooling system allowing you to run the A/C with the boat on the lift.
WRT the A/C losing prime. When you lower the boat into the water, close the forward ball valve and open the aft ball valve to get the air out of the system. Open the front ball valve and disconnect the system from the boat.
Shut off the pump.
Go boating.
This is very basic, but hopefully it gives you a picture. I've seen it done with PVC as a more permanent arrangement to a private dock, etc.....
HTH.
Copper coil?
I'm assuming when you say lift, you mean at the dock and not dry stack. I'm also assuming there is power at the dock.
If you were starting from scratch, I would recommend the following.
"T" into the A/C cooling water supply just after the existing strainer. Insert the following fittings in the following order in the cooling water supply line; ball valve / "T" fitting / ball valve. These are not pressure fittings so Marelon will work fine.
Add a dock side water fitting to the boat.
Connect a hose from the dockside water fitting to the "T" fitting in the cooling system.
Purchase a water pump like this at homedepotlowes for about $50.
Custom cut a piece of garden hose to allow the pump to hang 1/2 the depth of the water at the dock at mean low tide. Put a LARGE strainer somewhere in line of that garden hose.
Attach one end of the hose to the pump.
Attach the other end of the pump to the new dockside water fitting.
Plug in the pump.
The reason for the 2 valves is this. I had my Regal in drystack and it was a VLPITA to prime the A/C system every time I went in the water. (I'll get back to that.) When you get up on the lift with the water on via the pump, shut the ball valve furthest from the strainer. Depending on your strainer, it should backflush a lot of silt out of the strainer and out the through hull. Open the forward ball valve and close the aft ball valve. This will force the water through the cooling system allowing you to run the A/C with the boat on the lift.
WRT the A/C losing prime. When you lower the boat into the water, close the forward ball valve and open the aft ball valve to get the air out of the system. Open the front ball valve and disconnect the system from the boat.
Shut off the pump.
Go boating.
This is very basic, but hopefully it gives you a picture. I've seen it done with PVC as a more permanent arrangement to a private dock, etc.....
HTH.
Copper coil?
dicor
New Member
- Feb 19, 2011
- 835
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- 270 DA 1998
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- 7.4 Merc w/Bravo III Drive
This is just a wild guess but maybe the PO thought that his AC was not cooling properly because the raw water used to encase the condenser was too warm and decided to inject cool water courtesy of the Marina Owner. Pure speculation.
ptallen
New Member
- Feb 17, 2012
- 49
- Boat Info
- 06 Bayliner 265 SB - sold
- Engines
- 5.0L Mercruiser MPI w/ Bravo III
OK. The answer is that the pump was burnt out and needs to be replaced. I missed that during the inspection - didn't look to see the water was being discharged. She has a dockside water line with a ball joint installed that allows that water to run through the AC. That explains the dockside water coming out of the AC discharge. The ball joint was 1/2 open and the reason for the discharge. I closed it. The previous owner did everything top notch - with a book of service records. I am assuming that it was installed so they didn't have to replace the motor - but the cost isn't necessarily outrageous to replace a pump and he wasn't a hands-on guy - so I guess it could have been installed to make winterization easier.
Hellman Huddle
New Member
- Nov 6, 2009
- 510
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- 2005 260 Sundancer
2000 F-350 Diesel
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- 350 Mercruiser Bravo III
