Posted: September 1, 2011
If you like your boat’s unpleasant odors, don’t read this.Any boat with indoor space, no matter how big or small, is bound to have an odor problem, eventually. Funky odors tend to accumulate in the stale air of a closed-up boat. Smells generating from the head or the engine room, or mold and mildew can be a stinky fist to the nose when you open the cabin door after a prolonged absence. You could load up on those cardboard Christmas tree air fresheners, or you can destroy the offending air particles in their tracks.
The award-winning Dometic Marine In-Duct Breathe Easy Air Purifier doesn’t clean the air with a filter; rather, it purifies the air in a unique way. It uses a powerful twin-tube ultraviolet bulb that activates a titanium dioxide catalyst that actually converts odor-producing particles into harmless, inert material. The photocatalytic titanium dioxide nanomesh grid has a curved design to create a vortex of air that makes it more effective by increasing the number of suspended particles that come into contact with it. The more particles that come in contact with the catalyst, the easier it is to “kill” the smell.
This device was tested independently by Environmental Diagnostics in Clearwater, Fla., and was found to be up to 100 percent effective at eliminating volatile organic compounds, bacteria and fungi. I was so impressed with the product after sitting on a Boating Writers International judges panel, which gave it an NMMA Innovation Award, that I convinced a friend of mine to install one on his boat.
Dometic recommends you have it installed by an authorized air-conditioning technician, but this is a pretty simple job for someone with good hands and basic electrical skills.
My friend Scott Craig is the captain of a Hatteras 67 Motor Yacht with six A/C units, so he should have at least four of the purifiers, and that’s the beauty of the In-Duct Breathe Easy system: It’s scalable to whatever size boat you own. His boat needs four, but a Rinker 280 Express Cruiser should only need one. The install is exactly the same.
Craig’s boat was built in 1987, and has a distinctive older-boat smell. He uses it mostly for dinner-cruise charters on Florida’s St. Johns River, and he said about one in 10 passengers asks, “What’s that smell?” He would love to never face that question again.
Install Time
These are the tools you’re going to need: a box cutter or serrated knife, duct tape, an electric screwdriver and straps for securing the purifier and controller to the bulkhead.
Step 1: Shut off the breaker to your A/C unit for safety.
Step 2: Locate the outflow duct nearest your A/C unit.
Step 3: With your box cutter or knife, slice through the existing duct all the way through a foot or two away from the A/C unit.
Step 4: Although the directions didn’t mention this, we removed the section holding the ultraviolet bulb that attaches to the main unit with large thumbscrews, taking care not to touch the bulb itself.
Step 5: Place the unit’s end sleeves inside the two ends of the severed duct, and screw the duct onto the purifier to secure it in place.
Step 6: For extra holding power, use tie wraps to further hold the duct over the ends of the purifier.
Step 7: Use duct tape to create an air-tight seal on both ends of the duct and Breathe Easy unit.
Step 8: Reattach the bulb assembly to the main unit.
Step 9: Secure the Breathe Easy to the bulkhead with straps. (Since our ductwork was suspended, we had to fashion a cradle later to support the unit.)
Step 10: Connect the wires to the electric box after consulting the manual to get the wiring correct.
Step 11: Install the electric ballast control unit so that the blue light is visible for periodic inspection. Secure it to the bulkhead.
Step 12: Flip on the breaker and power up the A/C unit. You should see a blue light on the control unit and a purple glow from the In-Duct Breathe Easy unit (from the ultraviolet bulb). Also, check to make sure there’s no air leakage from where the unit is attached to the ducts.
The unit will be on whenever the power is on in your boat. If you keep your boat on shore power, keep your A/C’s fan running to continuously purify the air. The unit is designed to run constantly. The bulb will need replacing about every year (wait until it burns out). The titanium dioxide nanomesh screen never needs replacing.
I visited Capt. Craig a couple of weeks later — it can take that long for maximum results — and I noticed a difference. One sharp, unidentified smell in particular was no longer present. In more remote locations of the boat, the old smells were still there, so Craig plans on installing more units on his boat to finally smell victory. The Breathe Easy doesn’t correct the source of the problem, just the resultant odors. Locating the cause of the odor is extremely important for crew health.
The air purifiers are priced according to tube diameter: $795 for the 4-, 5- and 6-inch tubes, and $895 for the 7- and 8-inch tubes. Go to dometic.com for more information.
