Heating the Cabin - Reverse-Cycle AC/Heat

The fan on these units never turn off and that could be what you are experiencing. I noticed the same thing on my new 260DA and inquired of our HVAC tech at the Marina why my unit was constantly running. He showed me in his factory shop manual that the way they are designed. Once they are turned on at the thermostat, the fan will run whether the compressor runs or not. Therefore, if you are sure your system's water pump and A/C compressor is not running, then the unit is probably functioning OK. I was also told by the tech that these units are not very efficient once water temperature drops into the forties. He therefore recommended a seperate cabin heater to keep the cabin warm. I bought one of these http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wc...0/cabin heater/All_2/mode+matchallpartial/0/0

 

My fan runs in heating or cooling mode.

As far as the cabin heater goes, I plan to let mine run 24/7 to keep the cabin at 60-65 degrees. These are powerfull little units and they should be capable of doing that.

 

The fans always run on these units.

 

I'm not sure we have exactly the same unit, but on mine the fan can be set to run all the time or only when the unit is heating/cooling. On all the time is the default, and you can change this by following the programming options in the manual.

-CJ

 

CJ is correct on this one but there is one caveat.

By way of explanation, I never got my manual for my Cruisair System when my boat was delivered so I was relying strictly on what the Tech told me when I asked him the question on the fan. (The dealer has ordered the manual for me). So after reading CJ's comments, I did some research this morning and saw that the manual is available in pdf format on Cruisair's site so I downloaded it http://www.cruisair.com/sheets/L-2362.pdf and on page 10 they explain how to overide the "fan always on" condition. The "caveat" here is if you intend to have your fan turn off when the compressor does, they recommend relocating the Thermistor from the return air grille to a cabin wall where it can better sense the temperature.

 

CJ and DavesS are right, it's easy to change the mode so the fan only comes on when the unit is heating or cooling. But if you do it you will get weird operation due to the sensor location. On my boat the sensor is on the intake of the unit which is under the v-berth.

If heating, when the fan stops there is no air flow under there and there's a big compressor keeping it warm. It stays warm under there long after the cabin is cold.

When cooling the lack of airflow causes the cool sensor to get wet with condensed water and mess up the operation again.

I never thought or read about moving the sensor out into the cabin living space. That sounds like an easy wiring job, I'm going to try it next spring.

 

Dave: Thanks for the manual link! I didn't get any documentation with my boat either.

 

Have a 550 Sea Ray. Salon units compressors shut down & error message Low PS comes up. Have reset to factory settings & tried to start up. Goes thru start-up for 4 tries & then message appears. Think I may need freon. 2nd problem is how to access unit to check. How does curved sofa come out? Any ideas would be appreciated. :smt100

 

I had the same LO...PS message on mine last fall. It had low freon due to a leak in the coil. :grin:

 

If I recall correctly our unit has 3 settings; ac, heat or both. When on both it keeps the cabin at the temp you set using heat or ac.

 

Trigger!

read this...

http://clubsearay.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3687&highlight=trigger

 

It would help to know where you are located..Maybe the water is just too cold.

 

Located on Tenn. River in Decatur, AL.

 

In follow-up, boat is 1995 model. Looks as if I have low freon in both salon units (seems very unusual). Compressors do come on, run for 2 min., shut down 1 min. & water does flow. Looks like I have to access compressors. I am totally baffled as to how to remove L shaped sofa from salon as I have not been able to figure out how it's installed. Has anyone removed sofa?

 

Jerry. Whats the water temp and the cabin temp ?? LOW PS would not come from a bad trigger or no water flow . Leaks are very rare. 2 units doing same thing have to look at wahts common. So reply with temps and is the filter clean ???

Rob

 

"Has anyone removed sofa?"

You might be better served to start a separate, new, discussion on this part of your issue so you get more responses. Buried in here folks will not see this.

 

Oopss...I stand corrected....I had a HI PS when my trigger went bad.....good catch Rob...:thumbsup: