Hi Roc,
One thing you may want to check that can have a negative effect on the life of your A/C compressor is the line voltage of your 120v AC power feed. If the voltage gets fairly low ( <105 v or so ) the compressor will run much hotter and will experience premature failure. The telltale signs are the normal push-on spade connectors used to connect power to the compressor unit itself: if you have been experiencing significant low line voltage, the spade terminals on the compressor will be discolored and/or charred looking. In bad cases the wire may also be discolored for an inch or so away from the rear of the terminals. Your Vector unit may be new and smart enough that it has automatic shutdown for low voltage, but units like the Mermaid units won't have such a shutdown feature.
For a couple of years on our previous C34, we were on the end of an old dock with lots of power users between us and the shore, and in the summer months it was not uncommon to have line voltage drop to 100 v or even lower when our unit kicked on. I replaced spade terminals and feed wire at the compressor twice before the whole compressor finally failed. Shortly after that we moved to a new, better wired dock and had no more problems.
I would hate to see you replace a compressor only to have it happen again.
Good luck.
John
One thing you may want to check that can have a negative effect on the life of your A/C compressor is the line voltage of your 120v AC power feed. If the voltage gets fairly low ( <105 v or so ) the compressor will run much hotter and will experience premature failure. The telltale signs are the normal push-on spade connectors used to connect power to the compressor unit itself: if you have been experiencing significant low line voltage, the spade terminals on the compressor will be discolored and/or charred looking. In bad cases the wire may also be discolored for an inch or so away from the rear of the terminals. Your Vector unit may be new and smart enough that it has automatic shutdown for low voltage, but units like the Mermaid units won't have such a shutdown feature.
For a couple of years on our previous C34, we were on the end of an old dock with lots of power users between us and the shore, and in the summer months it was not uncommon to have line voltage drop to 100 v or even lower when our unit kicked on. I replaced spade terminals and feed wire at the compressor twice before the whole compressor finally failed. Shortly after that we moved to a new, better wired dock and had no more problems.
I would hate to see you replace a compressor only to have it happen again.
Good luck.
John