Carver Owners Forum

Looking for air conditioning options for our 1979 carver mariner. We recently purchased our first carver and renovating the interior. We purchased a large portable ac 10,000 but but it's still stifling. It is docked in our yard but the coolest it is getting is 80 degrees. Will that change once we are on the water? Wasn't looking to spend a fortune but need something that will make the heat more manageable as two dogs and teenagers will be with us. Suggestions? We live in New York and will mostly use it at the dock slip and fire island where we can use 30 amp shore power. Thanks in advance!

What kind of 10K unit are you using? One that goes though a top hatch?

A year ago I bought a 16K home portable unit on CL. I "plumbed" the 6" exhaust to one of the portlights (used an old one that was all scratched up). Works great cooling our salon on a 35' aft cabin, but doesn't circulate back to the aft cabin. The downside with these kind of portables is that they are constantly sucking in outside air (hot, humid) into the boat that it has to fight. It stills works, but not nearly as good as a true marine unit.

This year I picked up a 7K marine unit that I'm going to install in the aft cabin. I have it temp'd in right now, and it's cooling things just fine.

It is a portable 12k unit. We have everything currently off the window so I'm in the process of making new snap in blackout curtains. Hopefully that will do the trick. I may still return the unit and opt for something larger.

What size Mariner? Our 355 has two units a 12000 and 16000 btu. On a very hot sunny day (90+) with both units running it will creep up to about 76. When the sun drops, we can drop the temp into the 60's.

Your boat is a big plastic "terrarium" with no insulation, it takes a lot to keep it cool.

If you really want to shutdown the sun heating the cabin, line the window curtains with space blankets. These will reflect nearly 100% of the IR light that would normally go right though curtains.

km1125 wrote:Source of the post If you really want to shutdown the sun heating the cabin, line the window curtains with space blankets. These will reflect nearly 100% of the IR light that would normally go right though curtains.

KM what is a space blanket......

bud37 wrote:Source of the post

km1125 wrote:Source of the post If you really want to shutdown the sun heating the cabin, line the window curtains with space blankets. These will reflect nearly 100% of the IR light that would normally go right though curtains.

KM what is a space blanket......

It's a really, really thin piece of plastic that has a really really thin piece of foil on both sides. They are also called survival blankets because they are light and compact but you can wrap yourself up in it to conserve heat if stuck outdoors. The foil reflects nearly 100% of the IR radiation back to your body to retain heat, or away from you to keep you cool.

It's amazing how much the cabin heats up when the sun is beating on it. A week ago I was cleaning the dingy cover, and needed to stretch it back out when it was drying. I hooked it in four corners and put it over the cabin to dry out. You would have thought I turned on the A/C by how quickly the cabin cooled off!!