Looking for a new AC unit... what brand would you go with?

[JvilleJeremy68]

Good morning, everyone,

Hope y'all are having a great start to the week.

I'm currently in the market for a new 16,000 BTU self-contained A/C unit. Wondering what brands would you guys say are the best performing at this time?

I've always had dometic up until now, but have been hearing good things about webasto lately, and previous experiences with Dometic's customer support left me a little less than excited about getting another one of their units.

If you are familiar with webasto, what unit would you say is a good one? https://citimarinestore.com/en/184-marine-air-conditioning-boat-ac. I see Mermaid there as well, heard they got pretty decent units as well.

Any other recommendations, I'm all ears!

Thanks!

[g36]

You might also try using the search on this forum it's been asked alot . As for me I have mermaid units and have been pleased they also have a 5 year warranty.

[JvilleJeremy68]

Wow.. that's a heck of a warranty... how long have you had the units for?

[g36]

I've had 3 units from them. Still using 2 now since I sold the other boat that had one. So. 7 years on one which replaced the OEM dometic unit which went bad shortly after buying my carver. 11 on the other which I had added it for the vberth in my trojan and took it out after buying my carver and installed it in the aft cabin on my 405. And left one in another boat I had. I'm sure you'll here from others on what they like but this my experience. Here's a link to them if you want. .https://www.mmair.com/

[JvilleJeremy68]

Nice. That's a significant amount of time for both units... going to take a look around their site / units.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Midnightsun]

I will throw this brand into the mix. Have had one in the previous boat and now 3 of them in the Carver. Never an issue and really quiet. The materials and quality is above anything else I have seen. If you call them a real person will answer and knows his stuff which is rather exceptional in todays world. They are called MarinAire not to me confused with MarineAir. https://www.marinaire.com

[waybomb]

I have 2 Webasto reverse heat ac units.
Wonderfully quiet.

[pepmyster]

Bought the Marinaire after seeing the one Hans installed on his other boat. Very quiet, I installed one in my Rinker and it was a heck of a lot better then Dometic.

[JvilleJeremy68]

Thank you gents for all this feedback. Much appreciated.

I've heard about MarinAir, but don't know much about the units... need to investigate a bit there as well...

I always thought Dometic was the creme de la creme when it came to marine AC, but on recent discussions I've been looking into, have been finding more than a few complaints on them...

But seeing good things on all these other brands as well.

[Viper]

Also consider a brand's market coverage. All the positive feedback on a brand while it works good won't help you when it breaks and it's nearly impossible to get parts for or takes forever because it has to come from overseas, or the brand utilizes a third party for a model that soon get's discontinued because they opted to switch to another third party, etc, etc. Look into the brand's infrastructure for nearby dealerships and certified service providers, where it's made, parts availability, third party manufacturing involvement, customer service, etc. All things being equal, the one that scores high in all these wins when it's a hundred degrees out and you want your broken unit fixed as soon as possible.

Good luck with your search and let us know what you decide to go with.