Cruisair SMX II troubleshooting

[flaod]

Need some help troubleshooting my air conditioners. It is a cruisair smx ii system circa 1997. When I turn the units on, the keypad in the v berth shows 56 degrees with the heat light on and the fan set to high and the display is stuck on these settings. Nothing I do to try to reset it will get it to change. The keypad in the salon is very erratic, the display is constantly flashing and some of the lights are rapidly flashing. Trying to reset it does nothing as well. I tried a new keypad but nothing changed in either room. The compressors and pump do not turn on either.
I then checked the pump relay box (its a PR8x) and the triggers looked fried so I replaced both of them but nothing changed.
Next I bypassed the relay box to determine if the pump is working and it turned on right away and had good water flow. With the pump running I then turned on the compressors. The v berth keypad was still showing 56 degrees and stuck on the exact same settings and the compressor did not turn on. The salon keypad display was still very erratic but the compressor did turn on and the fan was running. The air did not feel very cold but I cannot be certain what the keypad is set to.
Is my next step to replace one or both control boards at the compressors? Does this sound like the pump relay box needs to be replaced as well? Any help troubleshooting is greatly appreciated!

 

[Creekwood]

My Cruiseair on my 97 stopped working last summer. It had been working perfectly. I tried replacing the key pad. Did not work. So I bought a new control board (the original board is not made any more, so you need them the help you select the proper replacement. Expensive! (in Canada at least). The new board did not work either. Winter came to end (postpone?) my frustration.

So last month I decided to just replace the whole thing. I ended up buying a Marinaire from Miami (no Canadian distributors). Just finished the install this weekend and it works great so far. Neat key pad that has a feature where you set a prescribed humidity level and it holds it there. Nice and quiet. I went with a 9K BTU to replace my 12K so it would fit where the 12K was (they are a bit taller than the Cruiseair) I think it will be perfect for my 330DA. Today was about 90 and it kept the cabin nice and cool with no issues and did not run full time.

So I have the old control board, the new control board, and two SMXII key pads that I will probably try to sell on eBay if I can find someone that wants to take a chance on them. I think the actual AC unit may be the problem, but who knows.

 

[mquiet]

Sounds like you need new board. They are about $800. The wall controller is a "bumb" controller and does not do much. I had same issue with a unit. I have a board leftover which solved that problem, but now my salon AC does the same thing. I am replacing. We put a Webasto (sp?) in our master cabin and it works great.

 

[Creekwood]

Update on my post below re the Marinaire AC unit. It is still working really nicely. No issues whatsoever with dropping down from the 12K btu to the 9K Marinaire, at least for use in Canada. Our August daytime highs are mid 80s with high humidity.

I set the humidity control to 55% and when I left a couple weekends ago, and when I went back to the boat last Friday it was 52 degrees in the cabin. 55% setting is clearly too low for a boat in the water LOL!. Nice an dry air inside though, but as soon as I opened it up, all the glass, cabinets and walls had condensation from the 80 degree air that came spilling in from outside. So i tried 65% last sunday night and will see how it is this Friday.

Installation was pretty simple although the unit was about 2 inches taller so I had to remove the mounting base that the cruiseair was on. I also had to make up a 90 degree 1/2" copper pipe bend because the water inlet was horizontal rather than pointing down on the Cruisair. Pulling the wire for the thermostat was a bit of a pain. I tried just taping the new onto the end of the old and pulling it through, but it was hanging up in the closet wall in the very last stage. So i used a wire puller back from the top to get it through. The thermostat is a different size and shape from the SMX so I made up a white starbord base to mount it in. Looks fine now. The rest was simple. So far so good.

My Cruiseair on my 97 stopped working last summer. It had been working perfectly. I tried replacing the key pad. Did not work. So I bought a new control board (the original board is not made any more, so you need them the help you select the proper replacement. Expensive! (in Canada at least). The new board did not work either. Winter came to end (postpone?) my frustration.

So last month I decided to just replace the whole thing. I ended up buying a Marinaire from Miami (no Canadian distributors). Just finished the install this weekend and it works great so far. Neat key pad that has a feature where you set a prescribed humidity level and it holds it there. Nice and quiet. I went with a 9K BTU to replace my 12K so it would fit where the 12K was (they are a bit taller than the Cruiseair) I think it will be perfect for my 330DA. Today was about 90 and it kept the cabin nice and cool with no issues and did not run full time.

So I have the old control board, the new control board, and two SMXII key pads that I will probably try to sell on eBay if I can find someone that wants to take a chance on them. I think the actual AC unit may be the problem, but who knows.