Problem with my Ac and heat

N

Nevin Miller

New Member
Jan 16, 2014
10
SF Bay Area
Boat Info
2004 Sundancer 340
Engines
Twin 8.1's with v-drives
Hi All;

happy to be a member of this forum.

Hey - so we just bought a 2004 340 Sundancer.

Heater worked when we purchased her. A friend told me that water exiting under the part side amid ships meant that the heater was functioning.

Water came out when the heater was on.

Same friend told me that the AC worked the same way - water came out of the boat when the AC was functioning properly - with water being drawn in through the sump pump.

Now - neither works. Heater and AC both seem to go on - but there is NO water flow out the port side of the boat.

I have a good mechanic - and have rebooted the system many times. Would like to avoid paying a heater guy $100 an hour to fix this.

This is a little more complicated than I have explained - if you have experience I would love to chat.
 
Nevin Miller said:
Hi All;

happy to be a member of this forum.

Hey - so we just bought a 2004 340 Sundancer.

Heater worked when we purchased her. A friend told me that water exiting under the part side amid ships meant that the heater was functioning.

Water came out when the heater was on.

Same friend told me that the AC worked the same way - water came out of the boat when the AC was functioning properly - with water being drawn in through the sump pump.

Now - neither works. Heater and AC both seem to go on - but there is NO water flow out the port side of the boat.

I have a good mechanic - and have rebooted the system many times. Would like to avoid paying a heater guy $100 an hour to fix this.

This is a little more complicated than I have explained - if you have experience I would love to chat.
Click to expand...

Make sure the water pump breaker is turned on. There is an AC breaker and a water pump breaker and both need to be on. What marina are you in?
 
Make sure your thermostat is set low to call for A/C or high to call for heat or only the fan will run and not the pump.
 
Make sure your seacock is open. You might have air in the hose going to the pump, its not self priming. If this is the case you can disconnect the hose after the pump, turn the system on. Once you have water coming out of the pump reconnect the hose. Another thing you can do is take the boat out for a cruise, when on plane turn your ac or heat on this will push water through the pump.
 
If you do have water in your sea strainer and your seacock is open, you may have an air gap in the line.

This is can happen for a variety of reasons, but is easy to fix. I usually locate my AC water pump, loosen the screws on the plastic housing until you see water start to flow out. Let it do this for a few seconds and then tighten them back down so the water stops. This should eliminate any air gap between the seacock and the pump.

If water does not flow to the pump check to see if you have a clog. This is not uncommon, especially if you boat in a waterway with sea life and plant debris. Sometimes stuff gets caught between the seacock and the strainer and you have to remove the hose to fix it.

As CAMELLA suggested getting up on plane can usually fix this as well.
 
First thing is to tell us if the water pump itself is running. Do you hear it humming in the engine room? Or is it off and not running at all?
 
Has the boat been hauled out since you bought her? If so and the seacock was left open you lost prime. Either turn the AC on and stick a shop vac where the water exits the boat to prime it or take her out, run around 2000rpms or so and turn it on. It will prime either way.
 
Thanks to all for your answers - you guys are great.

So - I will try to prime it - but I don't think that's the answer.

Here's why. When I first got the boat (a month ago) - the heater did work - with water being pumped through the system and out the port side of the boat.

I did not try to use the AC until last weekend. When I tried the AC the water would not come out. I did make sure that the temperature was selected properly (below the temp in the room). I turned on the air - but no water came out. I did note that the panel where the controls are lit up as "Cooling" and I could hear the compressor come on - but no water.

Then - I showed the problem to my mechanic - and we couldn't get the heater to work either. Not sure if he did something that further complicated things.

So - I will see if it simply needs priming - but my mechanic (who doesn't understand this either) said that there is no power to the sump pump.

So - perhaps - as one of you indicated - the breaker got turned off. I know where the master switch for the AC is - where is the other breaker - if anyone knows?

Thanks again for any and all help!
 
Nevin Miller said:
Thanks to all for your answers - you guys are great.

So - I will try to prime it - but I don't think that's the answer.

Here's why. When I first got the boat (a month ago) - the heater did work - with water being pumped through the system and out the port side of the boat.

I did not try to use the AC until last weekend. When I tried the AC the water would not come out. I did make sure that the temperature was selected properly (below the temp in the room). I turned on the air - but no water came out. I did note that the panel where the controls are lit up as "Cooling" and I could hear the compressor come on - but no water.

Then - I showed the problem to my mechanic - and we couldn't get the heater to work either. Not sure if he did something that further complicated things.

So - I will see if it simply needs priming - but my mechanic (who doesn't understand this either) said that there is no power to the sump pump.

So - perhaps - as one of you indicated - the breaker got turned off. I know where the master switch for the AC is - where is the other breaker - if anyone knows?

Thanks again for any and all help!
Click to expand...

There is no breaker for the AC water pump (it is not a sump pump). The AC water pump is in the engine room and will make noise if it is running. Did you mechanic confirm AC power is not going into the water pump vs the sump pump (which is DC powered btw). Have someone power-up the AC, hit the down arrow to make sure it turns on, and do this while you are in the ER listening for the whirring of the pump. If we confirm that the pump is not working/running, then we can reconfirm availability of voltage to the pump, or a bad pump. If you do hear it running, and no water exiting side of boat, it's a air bubble/prime issue or possibly blocked line or bad pump.

(Aside: I'm kind of surprised your mechanic couldn't help you further. The AC system on most of our boats is really not that complicated unless you have multi-zones. If it were me, I would keep that point in mind for any future advice he may give me.)
 
gerryb said:
There is no breaker for the AC water pump (it is not a sump pump). The AC water pump is in the engine room and will make noise if it is running. Did you mechanic confirm AC power is not going into the water pump vs the sump pump (which is DC powered btw). Have someone power-up the AC, hit the down arrow to make sure it turns on, and do this while you are in the ER listening for the whirring of the pump. If we confirm that the pump is not working/running, then we can reconfirm availability of voltage to the pump, or a bad pump. If you do hear it running, and no water exiting side of boat, it's a air bubble/prime issue or possibly blocked line or bad pump.

(Aside: I'm kind of surprised your mechanic couldn't help you further. The AC system on most of our boats is really not that complicated unless you have multi-zones. If it were me, I would keep that point in mind for any future advice he may give me.)
Click to expand...

Jerry

Best advice yet. I'll do that on the weekend. Can't get to the boat until then.

Thanks again!
 
Nevin, when the compressor kicks on regardless if heat or A/C is being used ( should be under the front berth, you will hear a clicking sound) the pump in the bilge should kick on. If the pump in bilge does not kick on; you more than likely need a new pump or the AC power is interrupted (check with meter if compressor kicks on). If pump in bilge goes on, but no water flow at bow of boat, then you are more than likely air locked or you have a blockage in sea strainer or input to pump. As previously stated in earlier posts; take output off of pump and wait to see water, reconnect and you should be good to go. Lastly, if you continue to run system with no water flow, it will shut down and a code will flash on your thermostat. The reason you may not have seen it is that you didn't wait for system to over heat, eventually it will shut off and throw the code (which escapes me right now) . This just happened to me this past weekend; it turned out to be air locked; much better than buying 140 $ pump. Let us know how you make out.
 
sdleo26 said:
Nevin, when the compressor kicks on regardless if heat or A/C is being used ( should be under the front berth, you will hear a clicking sound) the pump in the bilge should kick on. If the pump in bilge does not kick on; you more than likely need a new pump or the AC power is interrupted (check with meter if compressor kicks on). If pump in bilge goes on, but no water flow at bow of boat, then you are more than likely air locked or you have a blockage in sea strainer or input to pump. As previously stated in earlier posts; take output off of pump and wait to see water, reconnect and you should be good to go. Lastly, if you continue to run system with no water flow, it will shut down and a code will flash on your thermostat. The reason you may not have seen it is that you didn't wait for system to over heat, eventually it will shut off and throw the code (which escapes me right now) . This just happened to me this past weekend; it turned out to be air locked; much better than buying 140 $ pump. Let us know how you make out.
Click to expand...

Ok - thanks. Lots to go check out. I'm off the grid until Friday - thanks to all for their posts.
 
I had the same thing happen. I had an air lock in the system - and cleared it by simply flushing water backwards through the system - by putting a fast running hose up against the water outlet (the through-hull outlet) until the water started to blowback. Started the system and It worked like a charm.


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