Air Condition power trip problem

[cpoint]

Hi all,

New issue. on July 4th problem occurred with power to AC (first time this happened). Both power panels were live and working. All of a sudden Air Condition power panel died. went out to dock side and noticed the fuse box was flipped. Turned it back on went back in no AC. Played around with power line, switch around the 2 lines, etc. and AC came back on but other AC power panel did not come back on. I checked the back and the boat side fuse was not tripped. After more trouble shooting, I hooked up to next empty power box on the doc and it was all fine. So I had the Air Condition line on my power box, and the other AC panel on the 2nd power box, and that worked fine. Today I had the kids on the boat and they said it kept tripping of the other box on the dock. I already called on electrician, who will show up Monday. I was not at the boat myself today, so not sure kids tried the correct way or not, hard to tell. I will re-check Saturday when I get to it. But they said the AC power panel was warm to touch while it was working. I had never noticed it before. I will check what behind it over the weekend, but before than I was curious if anyone had similar incident and have any comments about this? Also weather has been extremely hot, but I eliminated the cable as it seems to work until it gets tripped at power source. Are there anything behind the power panel inside that I may need to check or replace? When it works it does give cold air (both units). The back cabin one gets very cold as it is smaller area. The main cabin one takes a long time to cool when it is extremely hot though. But it does cool when it works.

[g36]

do you have clean filter and good water and air flow for the ac unit? all can cause high head presssures on the compressor, which will make it work harder. the power panel might be warm to touch because the ac unit is pulling more amps than normal and this will be heat, and the dock breaker is tripping before yours on the boat, you didnt say what brand ac units you have .some have 5 minute time delay when power issues before restarting to protect the compressor , a safety feature. what kind of amps is it pulling on your meter on the boat? you might unplug from shorepower access your electrical panel and just make sure your wiring is tight on the breaker screw for the air condtioner.

[km1125]

If the panel is getting warm that would concern me. You could have a poor connection in there which would cause the A/C unit to draw more current which would then pop a breaker somewhere along the way. Also, as g36 noted, on that rear unit make sure you have clean filters, strainers and good water flow to make sure that unit is running at it's optimum. Block any of the three and you have higher head pressures which causes current draw to increase too.

[cpoint]

g36, by clean filter, do you mean seacock? is there another filter somewhere? I have 30 amp fuse on dock, but I think the kids yesterday hooked up to a 20amp dock power source. Sounds like that may have been the case and problem yesterday. But the day I experienced it, it was tripping the dock breaker that was 30 amp. So I will open the electrical panel in the cabin and check the wiring behind it. Thanks
km1125, I will check the seacock and see if there is a filter on AC unit. Water flow seemed to be fine though when AC was working. Both front and rear was outputting normal water flow though when I checked.

[Midnightsun]

I would check 2 things. Wiring connection at the panel from the inlet and more importantly the connection behind the inlet. I suggest you remove the wires, cut an inch off, strip and reset properly. The connection behind the inlet is usually the culprit over time. Another overlooked area is the shore power plug that connects to the boat, these move and bend as the boat sways when tied up and do wear out causing a poor connection. If you see any black charring around the plug, discard and get a new shore power cable.

[g36]

at dock power not sure how you can hook up to a 20 amp without making a change on your electircal cord those plugs are set up to run to the proper sized circuit breaker would not be able to plug a 30amp into a 20 amp.
by filter i mean at the return for the air condtioner there may be a metal screen or filter inside of the louvered air return. (wont really be exactly like your home but its the way most boats have) open that louvered panel. also on the ac unit itself there maybe a foam filter on the evaporator coil (the radiator looking thing on the ac unit itself). may not be the easiest to get too but whichever you have. they need to be clean .one or both of these will get dust, hair and other airborne items accumulate on them and will reduce the air flow on the coil. increasing pressures. just like at your house you should check and clean and replace your filters.

[cpoint]

g36, thanks. I will check the unit. I think it is an easy get to one. The front one is under the seat by kitchen table. The seat has an opening for air, but no filter on it. Maybe I should find a filter and put one there. Not sure it came with one, when I got the boat, there was no filter on the seat that it is under, just an opening. Dock power source I had to get an electrician 3 years ago and convert the single 50 amp to 2 x 30 amp outlets with their own 30 amp switch. due to this problem, I was using the next one over for one of the cables (as it is an empty slip) and breaker said 20amp. But plug has same type as my 30 amp cable. They never renewed the power ports on dock. they all have random head. few people had it switched to 30 amp as I did. So I am assuming pulling 30 amp AC from 20 amp may have caused that want to trip. Again going back to my power outlet, I will have an electrician check it out Monday. But I will do the suggestions you guys provided, checking filters if any, check wires behind the panel in cabin, etc. and post back here on the weekend the results.

[AaHubb]

One other possible issue could be a brown out situation at your marina. On a hot day with a lot of boats running AC your voltage may have dropped too low for the air conditioner to run proper and draw more current, causing the overload.

..Aaron

[cpoint]

Picture shows where the main cabin AC unit is. back one is under bed, and there are no openings for that one to the cabin as the under bed is probably big enough for it to get air, so no dust, hair, etc should get to the back one. But I will check both to make sure if there are filters on the unit themselves, I will clean up or replace.

Aaron, thats a possibility, although not too many using power of the dock, small marina. I though of that also, but seemed to work july 4th after splitting the cables to 2 different dock powers.

[bud37]

Source of the post Aaron, thats a possibility, although not too many using power of the dock, small marina. I though of that also, but seemed to work july 4th after splitting the cables to 2 different dock powers.

That seems to be telling you something, if all worked well after splitting maybe a check of the power on the dock as has been suggested.....try to avoid assumptions, they can lead one astray.....