Aircon Gone And Back Again
Boats, man! The old adage that "Cruising is doing boat work in exotic places" has never been more true.
One of the first projects after we arrived in the Dominican Republic was attempting to breathe life into our brand new, high efficiency aircon. The one on the port side stopped working just hours before tying up at the marina.
This is the 5th one of these to die for various reasons. They were installed in January...and February...and March...
We kind of have a love-hate relationship with them. When they work, they are great. But holy smoke...5 dead units in as many months is a little over the top.
This one appears to have kicked the bucket due to water in the condensate drain pan being sloshed in rough seas and coming into contact with a power transformer.
I need to figure out how to make the condensate pan drain better (this was supposed to have been done during installation), but also it looks like we need some parts sent to us...
This will be an ongoing project for a bit, I suspect. We probably won't get the parts for a few weeks. Boats, man!
Good news (from Puerto Rico)!
Mabru sent the new part to us via FedEx, and it arrived in Puerto Rico before we did.
The mounting holes didn't line up properly with the bracket, but I was able to connect the wires and get it running.
I have it mounted with one screw and some zip ties. I'll have to check on it frequently and figure out how to mount it better.
In order to prevent this sort of short circuit from happening in the future, I have mounted the transformer with the wires facing up, and also installed more shims to tilt the condensation pan toward the drain hose more. Hopefully this does the trick.
Even better news (from Grenada)!
It has indeed done the trick. We haven't had any issues with either aircon since Puerto Rico. That was about 6 months ago.
And we have been so very thankful to have them during the scorching summer hurricane season in Grenada. They have kept us cool at night, and they really do sip electricity once they get the cabin down to the set temperature. We are so incredibly spoiled...
Final thoughts on Mabru
In spite of the issues we had early on, we still recommend Mabru aircon units to everyone who asks. Their support has been outstanding (even though you'd prefer not to have to use it), and the units perform as advertised. Maybe even better than advertised.
They can deal with hot Grenada summers, even in the middle of the day. When we go to shore without the Boater Collies, we leave them inside with the doors and hatches shut and the aircon running. Usually, solar provides enough power to run the aircon AND charge the batteries.
Our love-hate relationship with them has settled into just love, with a distant memory of being annoyed. If we were to get another boat, we would install these same Mabru models, no questions asked. And no, this post is not sponsored by Mabru. We are just really happy customers (in spite of occasional frustration).
And, to be clear, our experience seems to be an extreme outlier. Most people don't have any issues and don't need to take advantage of Mabru support.