Carver Owners Forum

I'm looking to find out what kind of Air conditioning manufacture was used in the Carver Mariner 350 (generation 2 1997-2002). The reason for my question is can I add a wifi thermostat to the system to remote control AC when I'm not on the boat.

Has anyone added a wifi thermostat to their boat? My marina has wifi and thought it would be cool.

I would never leave the ac on without being at the boat.
That cooling pump moves lots of water. If something in that system were to fail, the boat would be toast.

I agree with Waybomb. When I leave the boat I turn the A/C off. It really does not take that long to cool off when I get to the boat. I do see a few boats at my marina who do run their A/C 24/7 but not me.

Now if your intent is to turn on the A/C wirelessly as you are travelling to the boat prior to boarding then that is a nifty idea.

Most likely it's a Marine Air AC unit. U will have to know what voltage thermostat u have and don't see why it wouldn't work! Mike

I've never tried incorporating a household t-stat retrofit in a marine application but a couple of things come to mind; marine controllers are powered through the AC unit where home units are battery operated so you'd have to overcome that somehow. Except for the older 2-3 knob type, newer builds incorporate a telephone cable with telephone cable ends. Unless the household unit has the same and incorporates the same control voltages, it'll be a challenge to retrofit but anything is possible if you have an understanding of electricity and electric/electronic component operation, know how to read schematics, have a little imagination, and aren't afraid to change things at board level.

My 1998 355 has Marine Airr units. I would like to add wifi stats so I could turn on the a/c on the way to the marina. I did not yet find a stat that can support the multiple fans speeds of the marine unit.

Keep in mind that a lot of marine units display fault codes. You would lose this feature by converting to anything else not designed to emulate the original control's ability to display this function.

HVAC Tech to the rescue
Well, here is my first post since becoming a new member of this forum. I have yet to purchase our new to us 53 carver voyager but the time is nearing.
I have been an HVAC tech and business owner for many years. So I have experience with non marine systems. All refrigeration systems have one thing in common. Weather in a boat, comfort cooling in you home or refrigeration in coolers and freezers. Heat is removed from one area and placed in another. That said, there are common components to all systems. There are common electrical controls and power requirements. The big twist in the equation is, heating and cooling engineers have to specialize the systems in order to obtain the performance necessary for proper function. That means, that while there are many similarities there are just as many unique electrical and mechanical components to every system. As was stated in an earlier reply; if you are going to troubleshoot your HVAC system yourself you must have a good working knowledge of schematics. You cannot just look at components and know what is what. The schematics and tech data are requisites. If you would like to modifly your system with wifi control or enhance or alter system performance, first get all the data for the entire system. Do your mods, keeping in mind that there are differences between "digital' controls and 'analog' controls.
If this seems like a bigger mountain than you feel comfortable climbing, it is better money spent on a good tech, then frying a bunch of circuits and having to replace expensive components. Like doing mods on most things knowledge and experience are king. Enjoy the learning journey and always keep yourself "grounded".

Most systems cannot be controlled through standard household unit as the electronics are proprietary with exception to Flagship Marine. Had one of these on a previous boat and could install any thermostat for home use. They pride themselves as having no proprietary electronic boards where everything can be fixed with common relays off the self. Scroll down this page and see what I mean. http://www.flagshipmarine.com/selfcontained.html

I think the bigger question is; why the need to turn on something such as an AC unit before you get to the boat? I mean it can be done with the right understanding and hardware but it takes very little time to heat or cool the cabin of a boat once you're already there. On really hot days, the first thing I do when we board is turn on the AC then unload the vehicle. By the time we're settled in, temps are comfortable. We're only talking about 10 minutes or so. That said, I'm not out in the open or in Florida where temps might be more extreme but nothing a few more minutes wouldn't cure or at least get it to a temp where you're not sweating simply by mixing a drink