R27 le. Webasto ac converting to soft start

[Jcat2010]

I have a fcf16000 in my r27. Fairly sure it's not soft start. Has anyone converted theirs to soft start and what did it reduce your peak (compressor start) amps?

Starting to gather the parts needed.

 

[Submariner]

What year is your boat? I took this photo in Aug '23, installing Autoglide on an R27.
I've not seen a Webasto FCF 16000 in an R27 with LFP batteries not have slow-start.

 

[Ataman]

IIRC we have the same model year/ option—2020 w the genny. Mine has a hard start capacitor mounted where the Easystart is in Martin’s photo.

I’m curious about your conversion — are you doing lithium as part of this? I’ve wondered whether w rewiring and networking the Westerbeke could be programmed to kick in to support a solar/ lithium/ inverter system below a certain battery voltage rather than just be a separate AC source on the panel.

 

[Jcat2010]

Martin, I've got the capacitor, not the easy start. 2020. All the generator equipped r27s I've seen have caps, not easystart.

I'm looking at easystart to get ready for converting to lithium. Also to reduce the wear and tear on both ac compressor and Genny. That loud thump when the compressor kicks in, along with the 5x starting current, just bothers me.

As to using the westerbeke to supplement a lithium system, it's something I've thought about. The concern is that it relegates the westerbeke to a "once in a while" use category, which in my experience means it won't work when needed. also, that's a lot of weight to be dragging around as a backup.