When to Call a Marine Air Conditioning Technician
The short answer
Stop and obtain professional help for burning smells, repeated protective-device trips, suspected seawater leaks, electrical faults or work on the refrigerant circuit. Owner maintenance is limited to tasks the manual permits and that you can carry out safely. Pumps and plumbing can involve electrical and flooding hazards even when refrigerant is untouched.
When to Call a Boat AC Technician — Requirements and Limitations
Two Australian regimes draw the line. Handling refrigerant requires an ARCtick licence under the Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Management Regulations. Fixed 240 V work on a vessel is licensed under AS/NZS 3004.2. Both carry penalties and both exist for good reasons.
Three faults on this site say stop rather than check: a burning smell, salt water appearing in the cabin, and an RCD trip. The first is a fire risk, the second can sink a boat, and the third is the safety device doing exactly its job.
Related Sizing, Installation and Service Guides
Each of these answers a different part of the same problem.
- a burning smellswitch off at the breaker, not the controller
- salt water in the cabinthe one fault here that can sink a boat
- an RCD tripearth leakage, and why it is serious
- the licensing rulesboth regimes, stated plainly