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From: James Alexander (no email)
Date: Wed Jun 01 2005 - 12:13:25 EDT
As a result of failure of my Cruisair a/c pump yesterday I was forced to get
involved in finding a replacement and as a result have come away from the
situation a little more knowledgeable. Because I am sure many of us have
similar equipment I thought I would pass along what I learned. This is a
little long so if you aren't interested delete now.
To begin with, I awoke yesterday morning to a loud screeching sound eminating
from the engine room. Investigation quickly revealed that it was the a/c pump
making the noise. Just great, living aboard in Key West where the last few
days temps have been hitting the 90's with humidities approaching 90%, which
as you know makes it feel like 100+, outside. But, without choice I had to
shut down the a/c. By 0900 the temps in the boat were already at 90+.
I got on the phone and called a couple of local marine a/c dealers attempting
to run down a replacement pump. My unit has a Cruisair P1500BX, 1320 gph,
230v pump. to make a long story short, after talking to two separate dealers,
who contacted their distributors and ultimately Cruiseair up in Dania, FL it
was learned that a replacement pump would cost $730.00 + shipping, BUT even
Cruiseair did not have one in stock and they estimated 10 days to 2 weeks to
acquire one. Unbelievable?
I had to do something, there is no way we could go 24 hours, let alone 2 weeks
without a/c here in Key West.
So, first thing I did was rip out the old pump. Then, after a trip to home
depot to get some nipples and couplings, I plumbed my watermaker low pressure
pump into the a/c units and by running that pump I am able to have a/c at this
point.
Then after a long day of knocking myself out in the engine room getting the
old pump out and making the transition to the watermaker pump and spending a
couple of fruitless hours on the phone with a/c dealers I got on the internet
last night to see what I could come up with.
To start with I located a dealer (Hopkins Carter) up in Miami who had crossed
referenced a couple of replacement pumps (not mine) to a mfg called
Oberdorfer. That sounded familiar? So looking at my old pump I find
"Oberdorfer" cast into the housing of the main pump body. This is
interesting, so I did a search under Oberdorfer and came up with a complete
on-lind catelog of all Oberdorfer pumps. Searching thru their catelog I came
up with an identical pump to my Cruisair pump. It was available in several
models, stainless shaft vs monel shaft, and different motors. This morning I
phoned Oberdorfer and spoke with their tech people. They of course
reccommended the monel shaft and told me the difference in the motors was that
the more expensive models have a "coast guard approved" motor, which is only
required in commercial applications.
Oberdorfer would not sell directly to me, but instead referred me to Depco,
which to be honest I had not thought of as a source for an a/c pump.
I called Depco and not only did they have the pump in stock and are shipping
to me via overnight, the price on the pump was only $532. vs the $730 from
Cruisair. Turns out that Cruisair buys these pumps from Oberdorfer, slaps a
Cruisair sticker on them and then marks them up a couple of hundred bucks.
Jim Alexander
Serendipity
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