Replacing dead HVAC units on a 370 Aft Cabin

[gmwalley]

I had one A/C unit die in the aft cabin and the one in the forward v-berth is failing so started the replacement project. Started in the Aft cabin first - what a flail!!!! You have to drain / disconnect / remove 70 gallon freshwater tank and unbolt and shift the water heater to make room to remove the A/C unit!!! Shudder to think what the repair yard would have charged. Went back with a Webasto FCF9000, seems to be working great now. V-berth is out, next weekend for install
A couple of notes:
1) No where in the install instructions does it tell you anything about the return air sensor, left it coiled up inside the electronics box and you could hang meat in the cabin after a hour or so. Manufacturer is adding notes in the manual for future. Of course after talking to vendor and looking for the sensor - duh! everything is working fine now.
2) On my boat the freshwater tank is plumbed to the flush water supply inlet to both toilets! Boat documentations says there are thru-hulls, but not on my boat. Always wondered why we ran low on freshwater so quickly. Good news is since toilets are flushed with potable water - no river stink!
3) It takes a heat gun to soften the hoses to pull them off the hose barbs (and to put them back on).
4) New unit raw water fittings are 3/4" and boat hose is 5/8". Webasto provides cheesy plastic adapters (no hose clamps) that I had trouble getting to seal up with no leaks. I went to a hydraulic hose shop here in town and built some adapters out of good brass fittings. Flows better and no leaks!
5) Be prepared to fabricate adapter flanges to mate to the existing conditioned air manifold - of course flange doesn't match the old Marineair unit.

[Killin time]

If you are not a professional installer, you could be!

[RGrew176]

Boats are just not made to be easily worked on.