What are peoples thoughts on domestic vs. marine a/c? My own boat, a Seahorse 52 is fitted with domestic and I get a lot of boat owners with marine aircond systems telling me that domestic is superior to marine aircond. I live in Singapore so air-conditioning is an important element of boating here.

Their comments normally include low cost to purchase (24K BTU is less than USD4K), low cost to maintain (the guy who services the aircond in my apartment services the boat’s airconds once a year for USD150), can control temp in each cabin and more reliable.

I have never owned a marine aircond system so I can't knowledgeably compare the two.

My comments on domestic aircond are that it works fine and I have had no problem other than rust on metal covers / mounts on the units outside. These units are now five years old and the rust is not yet significant but I guess it will accelerate and I will need to replace in say two years or discard the metal covers and mounts and have a nice fiberglass box made up with say aluminum mounts. I have not fully investigated getting the fiberglass box made up but done right it would look a lot better than the current covers.

The newer Daikin inverter units would also be nice. Possibly the covers could be removed, the paint chemically stripped and painted with proper marine paint for a longer life at the point of installation.

Cheers
John

I have the new Daikin inverter units in my new house, but on a boat where do you put the big outside compressor unit, not to mention the size of the inside condenser. The marine units are compact, compressor is inside, some are water cooled (my DD is air to air)and as such easy to fit. Marine units usually can run in reverse cycle and provide limited heat.

Another alternative, more available in the States rather than here in Asia, is a self contained RV unit. Mount it on top of the pilothouse roof to avoid the worst of the salt water blasts. Now that I think about it, it might be an alternative to a pilothouse cooling on a 462 rather than another space eating, expensive marine unit.

I am going to look into this for my own boat, but would guess that the lifespan will be less than the marine unit due to the environment.

Hi Robert,

On a sedan the compressor would go on the saloon roof just behind the pilothouse. On a duck with a cockpit aft of the pilothouse I am unsure.

With a little planning there is enough room for the fancoil units inside the boat. I’m pretty sure that Bill has fitted domestic air to a 48' duck. With ducting etc marine air can take up a lot of space in critical areas.

Charter fishing / diving boats in Western Australia often use domestic fancoil units with compressors designed for tourist buses... don't know the pros and cons but it worked well.

Lots of cruising yachts come thru with RV aircond units. They mount them over a hatch when anchored or berthed and generally stow then when underway.

I will be interested to hear what you decide on.

John

Shocked... i thought this forum was almost dead... this topic has been up for 3 hours and there has been 12 views...

Yes, we did install a domestic Carrier unit on Niel's 48 with three air handlers. He will have to report on performance vrs price. It was less than 1/4 the price of marine air and no pumps or thruhulls to worry about.

On the 462 there is a large storage box at deck level against the transom that a domestic compressor unit could go in. But there is market resistance to domestic AC that is hard to overcome.