Advice About Watermaker

[CAELESTIS]

Your opinion (and others who may own one)?

WaterMakers

[downunder]

CAELESTIS,

I was considering a similar thread asking for opinions of the CruiseROwatermaker.

Well priced, simple, using seemingly quality non proprietary components it looks like it could be the way to go.

Looking foward to feedback

[downunder]

The 3 year warranty indicates cruiseRO has some faith in their product.

[Tellie]

Sure, put me on the spot. <grin> I know of CrusieROwatermaker and of the company owner. I think there are several people here who know him as well so I'll be very careful. He is a very nice guy and I really wish him all the best and success in his business. I've followed his progress over the past few years since he built his first watermaker. If you want this watermaker I'd suggest at the least you first get CF members Brent Swains book on how to make your own. You'll end up with the same thing for a lot less. I would carefully read the warranty. There are good reasons the major watermaker companies are careful about what kinds of warranties they offer. Most of it garnered from lots and lots of hard won experience. Cruise RO is very new and young to this game. The claims of the best warranty in the industry is relative. It would be tough to compare apples to apples and unfair to him if I started. I've read his website and several of his statements about watermaker size show a lack of experience which I'm sure he will certainly get as time goes by. I've said it many times that RO is not rocket science. Give me a membrane a high pressure pump some off the shelf plumbing fittings and I can slap together a watermaker. I've done it before several times on one of my own boats and on a few friends boats. I made many mistakes and ruined one very expensive to me Yanmar that wasn't mine. I will say this, and this is from hard won personal experience, stick to the electric motor driven ones. Stay away from engine driven watermakers.
Again, the best of luck for Cruise ROs success.

[CAELESTIS]

Tellie, the watermaker uses a Honda generator to supply the electricity, not an engine driven pump. An inverter could also drive the watermaker, preferably while the engine was on.

Thanks.

[beau]

I built my own using a petrol pressure washer with a brass pump 2x 40 inch membranes 140 liters of fresh water and hour at a cost of under aud $2,000 I run it once every week or two weeks and flush with fresh water. I wouldn't be without it.

[Tellie]

Originally Posted by CAELESTIS

Tellie, the watermaker uses a Honda generator to supply the electricity, not an engine driven pump. An inverter could also drive the watermaker, preferably while the engine was on.

Thanks.

You didn't specify which model you were looking at and Cruise RO offers an engine driven unit so my comments were in general. But out of curiosity does the 4K watermaker come with the 1K Honda EU2000?
Sure inverters can power anything. Reality is that you just won't be running your engine that much and you shouldn't just to operate an inverter for several hours a day to power an appliance that needs, in the the very best scenario, 15 amp hours at 115V plus another extra 10.5 amp hours at 12V. Running an inverter powered from a battery bank only is even a larger loss of precious battery amps. It's very inefficient. Especially on a smaller boat with limited battery bank amp capacity. You can always add panels, larger alternators, or wind generators, but add those to the cost of 4K for the watermaker. I miss the real long term savings for most small boats.
Running a EU2000 everyday or two is an option. I have one myself for backup and they are great units. But I don't rely on it for my daily power needs. It comes down to what kind of cruising you do and how you want to set up your boat as to whether a EU2000 is practical over other forms of energy regeneration. Bigger is not always better. If that were the case I can get you into a 115V, 75 gph watermaker that will use a third of the power. Oh, and by the way yes, people have bought too large of a watermaker and sized down. It happens more often than some others may think and the owners are usually very disappointed with the trade value. I just don't need another used watermaker taking up space in my shop. (unless it's a Spectra)
Choosing the right watermaker is an expensive decision for most and it IS a balance and compromise between what your needs and wants are and what your boat is capable of handling. Luring people with thoughts of all the water they can use and then some is not the way I operate if I want repeat business and a good name in the industry. If you shop strictly price, as with many boat related components, you might not be happy with the results.

[VirtualVagabond]

Originally Posted by beau

I built my own using a petrol pressure washer with a brass pump 2x 40 inch membranes 140 liters of fresh water and hour at a cost of under aud $2,000 I run it once every week or two weeks and flush with fresh water. I wouldn't be without it.

Could you elaborate a little?
Were you following someones plans or a specific design?
Also, what other components did you need, and what did the whole project set you back?

[beau]

You will find a set of plans on this site(CF) the leo litchfield plans were the best for me. Also comments from Brent Swain.
I bought a petrol powered 6.5 hp pressure washer from Ebay (brass pump)
2 X 2.5 X 40 inch membranes (filmtec) You can buy the membranes and cylinders here in Australia however I imported mine from the USA.
A shurflo pump as a primer, a 5 micron pre filter.
A pressure gauge at the end and I used a gate valve as a pressure regulator.
Basically you need to filter seawater and pressurise it to 700-800 psi. 2/3 should flow through the RO filters as brine water and 1/3 will flow as fresh water. I get 130 litres of fresh water and hour.
You must flush with fresh water after use.
All up cost me less than AUD $1,500.00

[VirtualVagabond]

Thanks Beau. Very helpful.
Vic

[Patrick_DeepPlaya]

I wont' make a specific product recommendation but I will ask you some questions I asked myself:
1) Do you want to have an AC, a DC or a engine pulley based system?
This is the big decision IMHO. Once you make that one then you can quickly weed things out. For clarification this is how I' define these systems:
* AC - Runs off of an AC power source. Could be an AC generator you always run to make water or an inverter.
* DC - Runs off of a DC power source. Could be a DC generator you run to make water. Could be your ship's battery bank.
* Pulley Based - Runs off a belt driven by either the main engine or a separate engine (like your generator)

2) Then all the other normal questions apply:
* Will it fit in your boat?
* How much water will it make?
* How much power will it take to make that water?
* Is the product well respected and recommended?

I have some water maker feature comparisons you can check out here:
WatermakerComparison.xlsx - Microsoft Excel Web App

Hope that helps,
-p

[jcb47769]

I just got done installing a Cruise RO watermaker (well, most of one). I spent a few weeks scrounging through threads like this one, looking for the most "bang for my buck". My relative inexperience installing DIY watermakers (I've installed a small few Pur/Katadyne units but that's it) was a problem, and I found Rich and Charlie to be helpful, even though I was basically just sourcing parts through them - not buying a watermaker as such. I picked up 2 membranes and a HP pump from them, basically for the cheapest prices I found anywhere online, and they provided some high pressure hoses and tech support. I was building the basic system in France, plumbing it in the UK, and connecting it to the NPT fittings from the cruiseRO people, what a headache. I'm also doing a bunch of custom stuff - setting up electronic valving to auto-flush, installing a "day tank"-type setup for saving product water, etc, and they've been helpful even when they're not making money off of me.
What I would do differently next time: buy the prefilters and salt-water pump from the same supplier - just because it looked like I can get the same parts locally for cheaper, I spent a bunch on adapters and the headaches wasted a ton of my time. I think I was sort of an atypical case, doing the work in 3 different countries, but maybe others can learn from my mistakes Anyway, I overall had a really positive experience with them, and it was great to see the huge volume of product water compared to the tiny overpriced Katadyn units. We cross the Atlantic with the new system in a week, so if I get a chance I'll post a followup.
BTW, it's a 220V electric HP pump, which we can run from the inverter for about 6 hours (draws about 100A at 12V, thank god for LI batteries). That's over 200 gallons, which is the total tank capacity for our boat. No complaints there. We do plan to run the genset mostly when we make water, though.