Carver Owners Forum

1983 Carver 3607 King air conditioning and furnace, King air has been working on my boat for 2 years now last night my wife had the furnace on and I could smell something burning when I got back to the boat she just shut the furnace off just before I got here. I smelled something burning like a fan belt. After
finding where the air conditioning is after taken the couch apart, there was a small flame burning . As in a fire! I was able to just blow it out. Luckily, after I could see a wire melted and it felt very warm, either the moret melted or if it was electric tape but it was hot enough to start the plywood on fire. We have owned the boat for 2 years now and never had a problem with the air conditioner or heat wondering why we have a problem like this now ?????? if I did not investigate where the smell was coming from I'm sure we would not have a boat right now. Thank you we love our boat.

If the issue was at the marrette then most likely just a bad connection that overheats. Vibration and time not to mention high amp draw will definitely take its toll if the connection was not properly done. In fact, marrettes are not to be used on boats just for this reason, should be a squeeze type connection. Botton line, sounds like the connection failed.

Really glad you were there to blow it out, close call to say the least. I think the timing is appropriate to buy a lotto ticket.

If it was a marrette or simply a taped connection, there's your answer! That type of connection is a no no on a boat. If you see that anywhere else, correct it before the same thing happens again.

Thanks for your info,, Boat is coming out of the water tomorrow, will be having someone to look at it for sure, only problem is the boat goes in indoor storage at our marina and will not get to work on it until next spring. I will be buying a lottery ticket. Forsure...

Take some pictures of what you saw. It could have been just a corroded connection that had high resistance and heated up. The compressors can take some pretty good current to run and over time they can heat up pretty good.

I'd also be interested in any pictures of your air conditioning and heating system. I also have a 3607 that never had heat or A/C so I'm retrofitting it.

Yikes! That was lucky, imagine if you turned on the furnace and then went to a restaurant for an hour or two. Get those connections redone. Easy, peasy, but time consuming. My underwater lights that draw .33 amps are connected with pinch connectors and heat shrink cover. Glad everything worked out! er

Yes I'm very grateful, if I was 15 minutes later getting back to the boat things could've been a lot different. I will have my marine mechanic look at this and figure it out. My wife and I live on the boat for 6 months of the year and in Thailand for 6 months of the year. So this is our house,we love it.