Electrosea A/C Strainer - Experience?

[JD5652]

Have only been in Florida waters for less than a year and am tired of cleaning my A/C strainer every couple weeks... or more.

Came across this product and was wondering if the claims meet the expectations in real life. It's pretty pricey at about $6850 for the just cost of the equipment for my 58LRC.

Sea Strainer System | Biofouling & Marine Growth Prevention | ElectroSea

Any experience out there?

 

[madhatter1]

When my pump ran 24/7 this due like substance grew in the filter basked clogging it up. Once I got my new pump controller and it cycled normally the growth went way down. Being a live aboard you end up running yours a lot. What about extra baskets you can swap out dropping the fouled one into a chlorine cleaning solution?

 

[Pascal]

Never heard of hit, never seen them.

Next haul out swap your intake covers for South Bay strainers. No more clogged strainers.

 

[JD5652]

I'm up the Manatee River and what I'm experiencing is biofouling exactly as described and shown here...

Innovative Sea Strainer | Marine Growth Prevention | ElectroSea

I hear it's a very common problem in these waters.

I don't "think" the South Bay External Strainer is going to stop the biofouling?

 

[JD5652]

When my pump ran 24/7 this due like substance grew in the filter basked clogging it up. Once I got my new pump controller and it cycled normally the growth went way down. Being a live aboard you end up running yours a lot. What about extra baskets you can swap out dropping the fouled one into a chlorine cleaning solution?

Madhatter -

Thanks for the suggestion... I do have spare baskets, but I still have to get into this very tight spot that's not maintenance friendly on a very frequent basis. You may have forgotten, but we don't live aboard and I keep the thermostats at around 76 degrees when not on the boat. With 5 A/C units and a single raw water pump that feeds a common header, the pump runs almost constantly as at least one of the units is always calling for cooling.

 

[madhatter1]

Gotcha. But the non stop fresh sea water is feeder for the growth. Wonder if a UV light and a clear tube could kill before growth. They are used in commercial AC units and we need them off before we open access panels. Dangerous stuff so may be a decent homemade option. Now that I mentioned it I may try this as in the summer I still get crap growing in the basket that sucks to clean off.

 

[rob71]

I swapped out the small (3/4 inch) groco Strainers with a 1 1/4 perko unit. Of course I had to adapt down to the appropriate hose sizes. But with the much larger cylinder I only have to clean every few months. Also I am a live aboard on the Fl gulf coast with plenty of fouling to deal with.

 

[jim rosenthal]

What about a bromine tablet in the strainer basket? Would that help?

 

[Cricket]

Know quite a few people that have Electrosea's Clearline systen on their boats, Electrostrainer is their newest offering.
My AC guy also told me they work great, he said "best thing for boats since the autopilot".
He did say to make sure to Barnacle Bust everything so you're stating out with a clean system.
Getting ready to pull the trigger on a unit myself.

 

[rsmith]

We don’t get anything like that on the east coast. Wonder if it’s related to the red tide the west coast gets. I’ve seen silt and weeds in the strainer but never algae or growth it takes light do grow plants. If you leave your er lights on maybe cover the strainer glass to cut the light.

I'm up the Manatee River and what I'm experiencing is biofouling exactly as described and shown here...

Innovative Sea Strainer | Marine Growth Prevention | ElectroSea

I hear it's a very common problem in these waters.

I don't "think" the South Bay External Strainer is going to stop the biofouling?

 

[JD5652]

What about a bromine tablet in the strainer basket? Would that help?

Jim-

One of my neighbors does exactly that, but it only extends the periodicity of cleaning by about 25%. Plus one of my concerns is long term chemical interaction with the cupro-nickel in the heat exchangers and it's not exactly a "controlled" release with the tablet simply floating around in the strainer.

Electrosea seems to have all that covered in their FAQ page.

 

[JD5652]

I swapped out the small (3/4 inch) groco Strainers with a 1 1/4 perko unit. Of course I had to adapt down to the appropriate hose sizes. But with the much larger cylinder I only have to clean every few months. Also I am a live aboard on the Fl gulf coast with plenty of fouling to deal with.

Rob -

I already have a 1" inlet and just installed a 1-1/4" to allow a little fouling and get same flow as the 1". That's good suggestion as well.

 

[JD5652]

Know quite a few people that have Electrosea's Clearline systen on their boats, Electrostrainer is their newest offering.
My AC guy also told me they work great, he said "best thing for boats since the autopilot".
He did say to make sure to Barnacle Bust everything so you're stating out with a clean system.
Getting ready to pull the trigger on a unit myself.

My system was just cleaned and now is a good time to pull the trigger myself. good to hear there's some operating experience out there with similar results as I'm hearing.

Just struggling with the price point a bit.... it's basically $10K installed.

 

[Pascal]

In SoFl We don’t get barnacles in the hoses but small mussels. In addition to declaring with barnacle buster once a year, I often have to back flush the coils with pressured water every 2 - 3 months to get rid of those that get loose.

I have rigged the chillers on both my boat and the one I run so I can quickly back flush them one a time without shutting down the whole system. I also monitor coil temperatures with an IR gun sink can see which one is running hotter before it trips.

Can’t see spending 10k to save maybe an hour a month

 

[JD5652]

In SoFl We don’t get barnacles in the hoses but small mussels. In addition to declaring with barnacle buster once a year, I often have to back flush the coils with pressured water every 2 - 3 months to get rid of those that get loose.

I have rigged the chillers on both my boat and the one I run so I can quickly back flush them one a time without shutting down the whole system. I also monitor coil temperatures with an IR gun sink can see which one is running hotter before it trips.

Can’t see spending 10k to save maybe an hour a month

Here is SW FLA we seem to get it all... barnacles, mussels and the biogrowth. If it was only an hour a month, I wouldn't be thinking about it. However, for me, I have to basically disassemble the A/C RW header, flush out all the lines, flush out the coils on each of the five A/C units about every 4-6 weeks and then clean the strainer every 1-2 weeks in the summer. I also have to remove the strainer assembly bowl and clean it monthly. All this while lying on my stomach between the engine exhaust header and the water tank with my arms outstretched as fa as I can get them.

That usually amounts to 10-12 hours a month. I'd rather be doing other things with my time.

I've already broken two fittings doing this evolution which then takes a few more hours to repair.

I too have a manual built-in backflush system, but it's not keeping up with the veracity of the growth.

 

[Pascal]

Wow… I d be ready to spend the $10k if I was in your shoes!! I forget how spoiled I am both with my 53 with excellent access to the chillers and pretty much everything else, as well as my “office” where I can stand in front of the three big chillers… and yes the ER itself has air conditioning

 

[Briankinley2004]

Never heard of hit, never seen them.

Next haul out swap your intake covers for South Bay strainers. No more clogged strainers.

Pascal do you still have your interior strainers? The 46C I now have has both these covers and standard interior perko type strainers. I thought you could do away with the basket types inside with these South Bay types

I am on the hard so now would be a good time to remove if I don't need them

 

[Pascal]

No I got rid of the air con and main engine strainers. On my boat I put a new strainer for the gen and kept the shower head style outside intake cover. Nothing really makes it thru that

On the “office”, last haul out we put South Bay strainers on air con and water maker but left the original inside strainers in place. Haven’t had to open them since

 

[Briankinley2004]

No I got rid of the air con and main engine strainers. On my boat I put a new strainer for the gen and kept the shower head style outside intake cover. Nothing really makes it thru that

On the “office”, last haul out we put South Bay strainers on air con and water maker but left the original inside strainers in place. Haven’t had to open them since

Getting rid of the strainers would be a big help in the smaller engine room of my 46C. I may remove them during this haul out since all of my covers are the South Bay type with the small holes in them. Would save alot of maintenance time too. Ditto on the Bromine mentioned above. I did this when living aboard and it helped keep my strainers clean. Suggest going to the plastic baskets though as the tablets tend to eat through the thin ss screen

 

[cww]

You can't use just one bromine tablet and expect much result, I used to partially fill the strainer basket with them and that makes a huge difference. Also you can just get dehumidifiers and leave the a/c's off when you're not there, which will eliminate the growth entirely. I would not buy this system, you can get probably a few lifetime's supplies of bromine for the $10k this thing will cost.