Running the A/C at the Dock

At Ease

At Ease

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Oct 28, 2007
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I have seen several boats at my dock that are running the A/C while no one is on the boat. Is it acceptable to leave it running while not on board for several days? It would be nice to arrive at the boat with a nice cool cabin.
 
Yes, many boaters do. The system can be set for a dehumidifying role which limits the amount of time the system is running. I don't find the need myself yet. The cabin seems well insulated and we're usually in the cockpit with the cabin door open anyway.
 
Thanks for the quick reply!
 
I turned off the A/C on our boat for a week and the interior refrigerator died. I turn the temp up to 76 and let it run when we are not there. I was thinking that it would keep the moister down and the spiders happy. You have to have happy spiders!
 
I'm in the restaurant business and deal w/ refridgeration a lot. Your refridgerator has a compressor on it, and if you leave the fridge on at the dock when you are away, you better leave the air on as well. I know it gets really hot here in the south and that compressor will burn out if the cabin isn't kept cool. Compressors are expensive and don't seem very easy to replace.

In short, yes leave your air on. Besides it's nice to have a cool cabin after you unload the car for a weekend spent on the boat.
 
TimC said:
I'm in the restaurant business and deal w/ refridgeration a lot. Your refridgerator has a compressor on it, and if you leave the fridge on at the dock when you are away, you better leave the air on as well. I know it gets really hot here in the south and that compressor will burn out if the cabin isn't kept cool. Compressors are expensive and don't seem very easy to replace.

In short, yes leave your air on. Besides it's nice to have a cool cabin after you unload the car for a weekend spent on the boat.
Click to expand...

So, should I not keep my cockpit fridge on here in N Fl 24/7? I do. Man, that's a luxury I think I'll just pay for. Jump on the boat after a long day at work for a nice, cool beer.
 
leaving ac on unattended give me the willies. if a hose lets go you'll be pumping a LOT of water into the unattended boat. same goes for leaving dockside water connected. we had one numb-nut at our marina with a big (38'?) Mainship aft cabin sink at the dock - it wasnt that he left his air condx on but the hose off the thru hull (for the ac) failed. the insurance company scuttled the boat and he got out of boating (which is probably best for him and all the other boaters). funny thing is that boat is now for sale at a marina in toms river, NJ! guess there's on carfax for boats.

anyway, i'm probably paranoid but if i'm gone for a week i aint leaving the air on.
 
You calling him a "numb nut" because he left his AC on?

I leave mine on all the time... I would bet the HVAC on my boat runs 8 months out of 12. I have two Sub-Zero appliances (fridge and freeze) and they are always stocked with food. The boat is like a second home and it is treated that way. The air inside the boat has to stay cool (or warm) or things go bad, smell, mildew, and break.

Hey... I have a better idea. Maintain the boat so hoses don't just fail. I've now replaced all my 1" hoses because some of them showed some cracking. Much better idea than waiting till they fail and then replacing them. I understand not leaving dockside water on when you leave (I never use dockside water like that anyway) as plumbing systems are fragile and hidden behind walls but hoses for raw water and their associated fittings are a different story. They are out in the open for inspection.

So I agree... if a boat is in a condition and operation mode where the owner generally waits for things to fail before they are maintained, I would not leave the AC on either.
 
gary
1. i said he was a numb-nut, i also said but he did NOT leave his ac on (read again above)
2. if you must know, he was a numb-nut because he did not EVER do ANY maintanance on the boat and would brag/joke about it that all the time.

hose clamps can fail without warning. a bit of rust can occur at any time (see your raw water tube posting). when a bit or rust affects the slots on a hose clamp, the worm gear can strip the slot and the hose will pop - if this happens and you are not around the results can be disastrous. that's all i'm saying. most people get to their boat maybe once a week and they should be aware that something like this could happen, and if it does, you can be sure the insurance company will question why the ac was on in an unattended boat.
 
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It also depends on the systems. All my hoses are double clamped below the water line. Additionally, the hoses are all fastened/tied down up to the through hull so even if both clamps fail, it's not like the hose is going to pop off the fitting and start gushing water. The modern smaller boats have the same systems my boat has (the 480 just has more of them) and I would just find it unreasonable to have to empty out the fridge/freezer/ice makers if I leave for a week.

The times I worry about through hulls and hoses coming apart is in the dead of winter and I do shut my sea cocks during that time and have electric heat in the bilge and cabin. If the electric goes out and the water freezes, that can blow a hose open and sink a boat.

I don't know... I would bet that boats that sink at the dock in the summer due to hoses going bad are probably not well maintained to begin with... but I stereo type...
 
your stereotype is probably correct in most cases, as evidenced by the story of Dave's Mainship. i leave my fridge on all the time, as well as my icemaker - and both are stuffed to the gills. i wasnt aware of the role that heat plays in the the demise of compressors. to make matters worse, my boat is "galley up," and when i arrive on the weekend, the salon is probably 25 degrees hotter than the lower level. so if anyone is going to fry a compressor, it's me.

btw, ABYC and NMMA requires that all hoses below the waterline be double clamped and even my ancient searay is NMMA certified (there's a sticker somewhere on there that says that). regardless, the USCG auxiliarymen that do my safety inspection every year ask me about that. they dont look but if they did, they'd be satisfied.
 
I run mine on de-humidify mode. Runs very little, keeps the cabin cool, dry etc... I'm more concerned about sucking something into my intake than a funky hose so I feel better about the cycling mode, I'm in the land of floating garbage.

I'm too embarrassed to relay my adventure last sunday in NY harbor.
 
Hampton said:
So, should I not keep my cockpit fridge on here in N Fl 24/7? I do. Man, that's a luxury I think I'll just pay for. Jump on the boat after a long day at work for a nice, cool beer.
Click to expand...

John,

You make a good point. I too have a cockpit frig and even though I keep the AC in Dehumidify mode when away which keeps the cabin cool, the cockpit can get really hot here in south Florida.

Sounds like maybe we should move our beer into the cabin frig to spare the cockpit frig compressor????

Comments anyone?

Mike
 
TimC said:
I'm in the restaurant business and deal w/ refridgeration a lot. Your refridgerator has a compressor on it, and if you leave the fridge on at the dock when you are away, you better leave the air on as well. I know it gets really hot here in the south and that compressor will burn out if the cabin isn't kept cool. Compressors are expensive and don't seem very easy to replace.

In short, yes leave your air on. Besides it's nice to have a cool cabin after you unload the car for a weekend spent on the boat.
Click to expand...

For what it is worth, the Norcold refrigerator on my boat has a safety device to protect the compressor from overheating. If the ambient air temp. exceeds 110 deg. F, it will shut down the compressor and make intermitent beeping sounds until you reset it. I believe most of the newer models have this feature to protect the compressor. But... you are SOL if you have any food in the fridge that could spoil.
 
I recently completed my survey on an '05 340 DA. During our "debrief", the surveyor suggested that we indeed leave the AC on in the cabin while away. His position, and it has been re-enforced in this discussion, is that it keeps the humidity under control. This is definitely an issue here in Georgia.

It was also recommended that we keep the fridge below decks running, but, NOT the fridge in the cockpit. Same reasons as mentioned earlier. The boat can get awfully hot and can over work the unit. We cut it off and leave the door open in order to keep the odor down.

Just my two cents...
 
I'd like to leave a/c running while I'm away, but I don't feel comfortable leaving things unattended for a week. What happense if a/c sea strainer gets clogged while you're away?

Alex.
 
If the AC strainer gets clogged, the system will shut down and give a PS/HI error code. When I'm away in the summer, I do crank the temp up to about 85 before I leave. It does keep the boat interior nice.

There was a brand new 52 DB down in Virginia Beach that started to list and a beaver/muskrat type of animal had gotten up in the exhaust and chewed a hole in the fiberglass tube below the water line. A lot of things can go wrong... So goes boating. Let me tell you about the leaking hydraulic lines on my swim platform I discovered yesterday.
 
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Gary, does the shutdown event accurs by some kind of protective sensor preventing any damages to the a/c system? Does it mean that procedure as simple as cleaning the strainer and turn the unit back on?

Man, what the odds of this happening......I guess that boat was used as a condo, not as a boat. If the owner at least started the engines (not to mention take it for a ride once in a while) it could of help descovering some issues. But when bad luck hits you, you just have to take it and deal with it.

I totally hear your point, but in meanwhile I still think that alot is driven by the way we do things. My 320 is the first boat with build-in a/c system and we've managed ok with 240 not having an option of running a/c while we're away. That left no room for any issue in that department. So, for now I'll treat it a luxury that has a risk. Until I learn more of the potential things that can go wrong with a/c system and knowing exactly how to react to a problem I'll keep it off. But, we do get spoiled very fast :))

Alex.
 
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