Carver Owners Forum

Good afternoon all. I have a 1999 450 Voyager and now that summer is coming, I want to be sure that the A/C is working well. This may be a dumb question, but here goes.

Other than inspecting the system and cleaning the sea strainer for maintenance, does the system have filters for the return air? If not, how do we keep the coils clean? I have searched the forums, but have not seen anything about this. I searched the manuals and it appears that there may not be any.

Thanks all and happy cruising.

Have a good look at all your cabin return air vents......there is usually a screen/filter of some sort in behind them.....generally the vent covers just swing down or pop off easily.....they can be quite restrictive if not cleaned , causing all sorts of issues from condensation to low air flow, poor performance etc.

Thank you, I will do that.

I have a very thin square piece of filter on the inside of my return air vent. Also, a thicker square piece of filter just sitting loose in front of the A/C coils. They don't catch much, but they are there. I also just run a wire brush down the coils each season. Keeps things clean enough. The unit loves free air, so sometimes if it is really hot, I open a door and blow air in that compartment with a fan. More info than needed, but..... er

Even if you don’t have filters, I’m betting there is a place for one.
On my boat when I bought it, the forward AC had none, so I made my own to fit the odd size return. Aft AC had one , but was so clogged, it was sucked out of its position into the ductwork. I spent 15 minutes with a high suction vacuum cleaner, cleaning the duct and AC cooling fins/coils..,and cut my own filter to fit into the slot.

Most every system I have seen has a washable filter directly on the heat exchanger itself. A thin foam/plastic type screen for lack of a better word. Usually can be slid out vertically. You can vacuum it but at some point you will need to remove it and wash it down good with some soap and water. There may also be a filter at the intake grill of the boat as mentioned but it is important to clean the one at the AC unit itself.

I have metal screen filters that were oem I also installed a filter media in front of these to do a better job of filtering the air before the coils

Certainly look for square or rectangular return vents first but some models don't have them, they simply have a slot along a floor, under a step lip, a slot in a cabinet, etc. In these cases, there's no external filter screen. In all cases, there should be a removable/reusable screen on the evaporator of each AC unit. The only thing I would use to clean the evaporator is a soft pile brush and a vacuum. Careful not touch the fins with anything solid as they bend easily. If you do this often, dust won't cake up to a point where it's difficult to remove.

In a salt water application, you may want to consider being proactive and flushing the raw water circuit with a product designed for this. It'll clear marine growth and increase efficiency if there is any growth in there now.

I have a 1999 Voyager 450 as well, mine is the pilothouse model with only 2 staterooms. Each stateroom has it's A/C unit under each bed. Those units have a removeable nylon mesh washable filter on the opposite fan side of the evaporator core. The salon and pilothouse A/C units are under the galley sink. To access them one must remove the floor inside the cabinet under the sink. Then slide the black floor with screening under the cabinet floor toward the stern. You will then see down into the compartment that houses the 2 A/C units. These units also have a removeable washable nylon mesh type filter opposite the fan side of their evaporator core.
I actually slide down into that space by removing the cabinet door and shelf under the sink. Not easy, but doable dragging a shop vacuum and droplight. Getting back out is a challenge. If you know a tall and slender teenager it's a snap. The difficult location guarantees a very dirty filter. I clean mine at least yearly.

Good luck
Rich

I took this picture on my 450 last week, I’ll be climbing down there soon.