Air conditioning is the system owners tolerate being broken for longest, and the one that ruins a weekend fastest. In South Florida it is not a comfort item. A boat that sits closed up without working air develops humidity, then odour, then mould, and mould is expensive to put right.
We manage marine air conditioning through specialists we use regularly, coordinating the work and documenting it. The specialist carries out and stands behind their own work.
What we do
The first job is working out what the fault actually is. A unit that short cycles, freezes up, runs without cooling or will not start at all is pointing at four different problems, and the diagnosis matters more than the part.
More often than not it is not the air conditioner. It is the raw water side, pumps, strainers, hoses and through hulls, and water flow is the cheap end of the problem. Condensate is the other common one: a blocked drain or pan puts water where it should not be, so if your bilge pump is cycling more than it used to, that is one of the first places we look.
Beyond fault finding, servicing is coils cleaned, filters replaced and refrigerant checked, which matters because performance falls off gradually enough that owners stop noticing until it is properly bad. When repair stops making sense we coordinate replacement, sized properly for the space rather than for whatever happened to be there before.
What you would notice first
Air that is moving but not cold. A unit that runs constantly and never satisfies. Water on the sole near a locker. A musty smell when you first open her up. Ice forming on a line.
Common questions
Why does it work at the dock but not underway?
Usually water flow. Underway the boat draws differently, and a partially blocked strainer or a tired pump shows up when it did not at rest.
Is it worth repairing an older unit?
Sometimes. We would rather give you the honest comparison between repair cost and replacement cost than sell you a new unit by default.
Will running the air conditioning stop mould?
It helps, but only if condensate is draining properly and the boat is not taking on humidity elsewhere. Dehumidifying a boat that is leaking is a losing battle.
