hello
not sure what this is called, but it takes water from the lake to make heat and air con. anyway of coarse it dosent work! but what could be wrong with it. it does pump water through and makes a clicking sound at the control unit on the bulkhead, but no cool air or no heat. any thoughts?

digital control? Any error codes displayed?

Contact the mfr for a troubleshooting guide (probably available on the net).

Will the fan run?
Does the compressor try to start and then give up or does it never try?

Need more info.

no digital control. old style dial control 1988 boat! fan will run on all speeds. compressor seems to hum or start up but no dice on heat or cool air. think a recharge? will that effect heat out put?

Doesn't have to be old to use a mechanical control. Some new ones still do.

When the compressor starts, you should feel the output line on the compressor warm up (can get pretty hot actually). If it's not, then you got issues. You say you have tried it on COOL as well and it won't cool?

What's the water temp? I've seen some units that lock out the compressor at low water temps.

not sure the temp of the water but it was cold. lake ontario! anyway thanks for the help. could it be the wall control. i cant remember if the unit was getting hot or not. thanks again

If the water is below about 48 degrees the unit will not likely cool or heat. You may need to wait till it warms up a tad and then try again.

You said the compressor hums. Do you hear a humming, then a click noise at the compressor? If so, that's usually the thermal overload shutting the compressor down after it tried to start. It's usually an indication that the compressor is seized. What we used to do (when I was in the AC business), when we had a stuck compressor like that, was to give it a rap with a hammer while it's humming. I know it's not the best thing to do, but it got a lot of otherwise bad compressors running. They usually got stuck from sitting idle for so long. If it's not running now, it can't hurt to give it a shot. If it is running, then you'll have to put a set of gages on it to see what's going on inside the sealed system

My units have no gauge ports. You have to do freon diagnostics with thermocouples and temp differentials.

That's a pain in the butt!

Not really. Hermetically sealed compressors never lose refrigerant unless something pukes in a big way.

That's the good part about a sealed system.

(and once you have trouble, you add the normal ports anyhow)