Post edited 8:21 pm – June 17, 2009 by Steve Pooler

mmodlin said:

Steve – I took a good look at the system this weekend. One of the two electrical boxes under the dinette is the pump relay box. The other is the electrical box for the unit. The pump relay box has four entries for connections on the side. Perhaps two for the front unit and two for the aft?

At first glance I thought I might need to remove the water heater to gain access to the attachment for the duct but I found an access hole in the dinette seat. It is the 7-inch duct. If I have this correct, it looks like the only thing I need to do is remove the water inlet and outlet hoses, disconnect the duct, disconnect the drain hose, remove the hold down fasteners, and remove the electrical connections at the electrical box. I'm I correct in assuming the only wiring connected to the unit's electrical box is the L1, L2, L3, pump relay connections, and digital display connections? 

I've heard the Vector Turbo is quite enough without the sound box but it would not hurt to get a price. Much easier to put one on BEFORE I position the unit in place. When I replace the aft unit it will have one. It's mounted right under the bed.

The dealer I spoke with said the Passport I/O has the same size cutout as the old ECU keypad. To be sure, I'll pull it out this weekend and measure.

Yes the pump relay should have 4 “entries” for wire but did you take the cover off to see the connections ?…In your case (with 2 units) it should have 4 jacketed wires…2 with two conductors & 2 with three conductors inside the jacket of each.

One 3 conductor should come from the main breaker panel (pump breaker) the other 3 conductor goes out to the pump, and the two 2 conductor wires should come from each unit's pump connection.

Each 3 conductor should have a Black (line) White (neutral) & Green (ground) wire.

The 2 conductors need only Black & White to trigger the relay (the relay box & pump are already grounded by the 3 conductor wires)

The main power from the panel to the A/C unit should also be a 3 conductor wire but it should be of heavier gauge than the others, and should have the same Black/White/Green combo as described above…Your description of L1, L2, L3 would be for “Three Phase” power which I'm sure you don't have…Marinas don't supply it without special request (and cost) plus it would only be needed in the larger yachts.

I agree with the other dealer that the Turbo compressor is very quiet, and that a sound shield may not be needed especially if your installation does not have the return air grill close to the compressor (that's where the noise would come out) however the blower (air noise) when on high speed might be louder than your existing unit since it moves more air than the old one…This should only be so when you are trying to cool down a hot cabin as the control will lower the fan speed automatically as the cabin gets closer to setpoint…and we can even adjust how low is low to reduce the air noise further…When the fan is on low, is most likely when you will be able to hear the compressor.

The Passport should fit the same hole unless you have/had a ECU Maxx which is larger.

The rest of your description sounds correct to me for the change out…

The distributor does not stock the sound shield (they don't sell more than 2 a year) but seemed to remember it was around $150 retail, and we could order one from the factory…If they are made in the Pompano plant it would likely be here in a day or two…

Steve~

mmodlin said:

Post edited 6:11 pm – June 18, 2009 by mmodlin

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To test the pump relay, can you place a jumper between the black and white wires that trigger the relay then turn the pump circuit breaker on? Are the trigger wires 115VAC or 12VDC?

I'll call your office soon to discuss shipping the unit. As Larry the cable guy says, it's time to “get 'er done.” Especially since it's supposed to be 98 degrees this weekend.

Definitely Do Not Short Those Connections !!!…You Will Let the Smoke Out !!!…They run on smoke…If you let out the smoke it won't run

They are 115 volt A/C supplied from the unit.

What I mean is the A/C units supply 115 to each trigger connection when a compressor starts…

To test the pump relay…Just start each unit individually as I wrote a couple of posts back…

Looking forward to your call…

Steve~

Yes you can do all that…I would just use electrical tape on the bare connection ends (also leave off the main breaker for the fwd unit, but the pump breaker will need to be turned back on before starting the aft unit) and some masking tape for labeling where they came from so there is no question when you go to re-install…

As far as electrical shock to kill….If one didn't the other might…either way it wouldn't be fun

Steve~

mmodlin~

Did I loose you ?…Never heard how your weekend went with bypassing the fwd unit.

Steve~

Thanks Much for the purchase & referral !…My main objective here is to help folks, but sales do help me keep going too !

So keep passing the word around for both !

Three hours ?…Musta been a lot of help on the dock (adult beverage helpers)…Funny how everyone that has one in their hand is always wanting to tell you how to do something their way…

Kidding aside though…That's not bad considering it's your first one, and you did have all that  "Help"

Did you get pictures of the old unit installed ?…Maybe a side by side comparison of the 2 units on the dock when the new one arrives ?

I think folks here would be amazed to see the differences, considering they are the same BTU size….Old vs New…

As far as the hose splice…You can even use a plug of some sort to plug the supply hose to the fwd unit so that you can run the aft while installing…The aft unit will just get double flow for awhile…Which won't hurt a thing…

BTW it's is important that the seawater runs through the unit in the correct direction, so I hope you remember which hose went where…If not that's OK…Just trace the one from the pump that feeds the unit…It always connects to the Lower of the two condenser connections.

You may have to extend the seawater hoses since the condenser on the new unit is mounted vertically as opposed to horizontally on the old…So a supply of 5/8" hose & two splicers with clamps nearby may be in order too… 

To running the new unit before install ?…That's up to you, but I can't remember the last unit out of the box that I had a problem with it running properly (unless I saw physical damage from shipping) Dometic's QC is pretty good…Usually any problems that occur are with what you connected it to that exists in the old installation…

Let me know when it's up & running…I can walk you thru programming the digital control…It's got factory presets that are OK to run, but we can fine tune it for your installation…Every installation is different, and therefore the presets are just a get started thing…Fine tuning things like fan speeds, time delays, etc. can make for a much quieter, better performing installation that you will enjoy more than the factory settings…

Funny thing is that this almost never gets done at installation and the customer never knows these settings are available to tweak…I'd say 95 % of the boats that I service for the first time have never had it done and are still set at factory settings…I do it no matter how old the system is and always get comments like…What did you do ?…It's So much better now… 

Steve~