What a Marine Air Conditioning Installation Quote Includes
Two quotes for the same boat can differ by five thousand dollars and both be honest. The difference is almost always scope, not margin — and scope is visible if you know which lines to look for.
Marine Air Conditioning Installation Quote Line Items
A complete quote for a self-contained install has all of these. Prices are what the part costs supplied, before the labour to fit it. Three are marked because they are the ones that quietly disappear from a cheap quote.
A quote that reads "supply and install marine air conditioning — $9,500" is not wrong, but you cannot compare it with anything. Ask for it broken down. Any installer worth using will do that without complaint.
Common Seawater, Electrical and Drainage Exclusions
A dedicated through-hull and seacock
The cheap alternative is teeing into an existing intake, usually the engine's. It works at the dock and starves one system or the other under way, and it puts a second failure point on a fitting below the waterline. If the quote does not name a new skin fitting, ask where the cooling water comes from. The honest answer costs $250–550 in parts and two to three hours.
The 240 V electrical work
Fixed 240 V wiring on a vessel is licensed work under AS/NZS 3004.2 — a dedicated circuit, an RCD, correctly rated cable. Some quotes exclude it on the assumption you will arrange your own electrician, which is legitimate if it says so. A quote that neither includes it nor excludes it is the one to worry about. Budget $300–800 in materials plus three to six hours.
Somewhere for the condensate to go
A 16,000 BTU unit pulls litres of water a day out of humid air. It needs a gravity fall to a sump or a shower drain. "It drains to the bilge" means you have bought a machine that fills your bilge with fresh water all summer, which is how bilges start to smell and how bilge pumps wear out. It is a $120–400 item and it is left off constantly.
The pattern is the same in all three. Each is invisible on the day the unit is commissioned and each decides whether the system is still good in five years. A quote that includes all three and costs more than one that does not is the cheaper quote.
Questions Before Accepting an Installation Quote
How many hours, and at what rate? Separating labour from equipment is the single most useful thing you can ask for. It is also how you find out whether a dear quote is a hard install or an expensive yard.
Who does the refrigerant work, and can I see the ARCtick licence? Anyone charging or recovering refrigerant needs one. Asking is normal and nobody legitimate minds.
Does joinery have to come out? If it does, is putting it back in the price, and who is responsible if it does not go back the way it came out.
Where exactly does the unit sit? A self-contained unit under the bunk you sleep in is a decision you cannot undo. Get the location on the quote.
What is the warranty, and who honours it? The maker's warranty on the box and the installer's on the work are two different things with two different lengths.
What happens if it does not cool as expected? Undersized ducting is the usual cause and the usual argument. Agree in advance who fixes it.