Air Con unit heater smell

jcwads

jcwads

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Anyone any ideas on this one. I came to my boat last night and put the aircon heater setting on. This morning there is a toxic like smell in the boat. Traced the smell to the engine bay where it really smells. Hard to describe the smell, but it’s like tarmac. I’ve opened all vents etc but no idea how to address the issue...
 
Is it just the accumulation of dust etc on the heating element burning off?

our heating part of the AIRCOM always smells a little bit when it is first turned on. Soon calms down.
 
mcanderson said:
Is it just the accumulation of dust etc on the heating element burning off?

our heating part of the AIRCOM always smells a little bit when it is first turned on. Soon calms down.
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it seems pretty bad. The engine bay smells toxic. Not sure it’s that issue.
 
We had an aircon unit go when we lived in Australia and from memory that smelt like burnt oil.

Otherwise I would be following wiring as you may have a short somewhere.
 
Should not smell at all esp in the ER as it the same comp heat as generated if it was on chill ..... but now via a reverse valve not wasted but sen send the air handler (s) .

Start from 1 st principles look for chemicals on any hot / warm components -.
 
Assuming the ac is factory fit the only parts in the engine room on a t40 are the water circulation pump and a control box from memory.

all the units are stand alone -under the step in the saloon and under the saloon sofa.

engine room smell if not running would be batteries but they don’t smell like tarmac!
 
jrudge said:
Assuming the ac is factory fit the only parts in the engine room on a t40 are the water circulation pump and a control box from memory.

all the units are stand alone -under the step in the saloon and under the saloon sofa.

engine room smell if not running would be batteries but they don’t smell like tarmac!
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It's Jimmy's old boat which iirc had a/c retrofitted.
 
check your batteries.See if any of them are really hot on the sides. If they fail they make a terrible smell, acrid, gets to the back of your throat. Unlikely to be the aircon devices - could just be coincidence.
 
kashurst said:
check your batteries.See if any of them are really hot on the sides. If they fail they make a terrible smell, acrid, gets to the back of your throat. Unlikely to be the aircon devices - could just be coincidence.
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‘And the winning entry is this one! One of the batteries had basically exploded. Clean up not going to be fun, but luckily have a spare once done.
 
once you have it all cleaned up - check out your battery chargers behaviour. Measure the charging voltages as it goes through the various stages with a proper meter on the battery terminals. Again it could just be a duff battery, it could be your charger is on the way out. Nothing more annoying than replacing one battery to then come back a month or two later to find they are all cooked.

It's worth giving the engine bay and engines etc a rinse (fine spray - don't get the jet washers out) with clean water everywhere. The gas coming out of the battery is quite acidic, so a fine water spray will dilute it/get rid of it anywhere it has condensed. Take the boat for a run to dry it all out nicely with the engine heat.
 
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kashurst said:
once you have it all cleaned up - check out your battery chargers behaviour. Measure the charging voltages as it goes through the various stages with a proper meter on the battery terminals. Again it could just be a duff battery, it could be your charger is on the way out. Nothing more anoying than replacing one battery to then come back a month or two later to find they are all cooked.
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I don't know if it's the original charger but mine (from a similar era boat) gave up the ghost at the end of last year. It was a good opportunity to fit a new state of the art charger that can have a temperature probe adding to detect any issues. I also now trickle charge the stand alone starting battery.
 
When you are cleaning up the acid, make sure you do under the old batteries as you will be surprised how much acid will have come out and where it will have gotten.

We had a battery explode on start one day and it made a right mess.
 
mcanderson said:
When you are cleaning up the acid, make sure you do under the old batteries as you will be surprised how much acid will have come out and where it will have gotten.

We had a battery explode on start one day and it made a right mess.
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Thanks. Tell me about it. It stinks, I’m still retching at the thought of the smell. I’ve got all the acid up, but now need to remove batteries and rinse the whole battery tray as it still stinks and is coated... Remind me why we have boats.
 
FARSCO said:
I’d get onto the previous owner! ???
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I have the prior owner to thank for leaving me a spare battery, as otherwise I’d have been royally ******... To be fair the batteries were on the way out, so it was common knowledge. Just didn’t know they go in the way they did when they go. It’s my fault as I had not flicked the charger on twice on leaving it by mistake so the old batteries basically went pop when overloaded on discharge... Oops. Drama over.
 
When we had a bad smell problem with our domestic reverse air con unit we were told it was mould and the service technician came and did an early annual overhaul and clean. No more bad smell
 
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