Aquanu Marine Desaltor?

[Paul Mazza]

I've recently purchased an Endeavour 37 and have begun repairing and upgrading it for a South Pacific cruise. The boat came with an Aquanu desal unit. The unit appears to be rated at 300 gal/day and is unused. It's housed in a blue plastic case. It came with no (zero) paperwork. It appears to have been made by a company in South Carolina, that's no longer in business. I've searched all 94 pages on this Forum with no luck, so it's time for my first posting. I've seen a lot of great advice from Tellie et al, and could really use some help in turning this into a usable desal. I've attempted to attach a photo of the unit. Help!

[Paul Mazza]

Hopefully this time the photos will attach.

[Tellie]

I haven't seen one of these particular ones before but I will say they are using good parts and the Cat pump is built for SWRO so it is a salt water RO system. Anyone who would take the time and care to use SS tubing like this and put together a clean compact unit like this probably has a good understanding of what were doing. This was probably built for emergency usage in mind, natural disasters etc. Several watermaker companies built "suit case" units like this with limited sale success. It looks like it has hardly if ever been used which is good news. It's too hard to see the plumbing routing from the two pics but it looks totally intact, at least for all the important parts. I'd say you certainly have something worth converting into a usable boat based system. It may need a new membrane but that's an easy fix on CodeLine vessels. I'd fire it up to see what happens, my guess is the worst case scenario is you'll have a bad membrane and some dried out O-rings to contend with. If you need help with it I would need a lot more pictures and would have some questions. You can PM me if you'd like.

[LeaseOnLife]

the internet does not forget....

You can find old Feb-2005 webpages for aquanu.com on archive.org:
https://web.archive.org/web/20050203...ww.aquanu.com/


Hope this helps

Dirk

[Tellie]

Originally Posted by LeaseOnLife

the internet does not forget....

You can find old Feb-2005 webpages for aquanu.com on archive.org:
https://web.archive.org/web/20050203...ww.aquanu.com/


Hope this helps

Dirk

How'd he do that?

Good find LOL, It does state that this unit uses a 14" membrane. So it is a 150gpd unit not 300gpd.

[Paul Mazza]

Thanks Tellie and LOL. The unit has two of those membranes stacked one on top of the other, so it might be 300 gpd. but either way 150 is enough for us. It sure looks like a quality piece of equipment. I spent 36 years producing drinking water for lots of people, but the treatment units were conventional and usually in the 50 to 150 MGD category. So I don't have any experience with Desal, or small units like this. But everything in this unit looks like high quality.
I assume I'll need to remove this thing from the case and mount it in a compartment on the boat, so prior to that, I guess my next step is to set up a test bench with a pre-filter and a barrel of salt water. Currently the boat is in an estuary on San Francisco Bay. The bay has a very low salt content, but it is a commercial harbor, and probably has rather nasty raw water quality.
For test water, should I batch up some salt water, and does anyone have a suggestion on the concentration. I'll also go out an buy a TDS meter.
Tellie, when I get ready to start assembling this thing, I'd like to send you some photos and questions. Thanks again to both of you, I really appreciate the help on this. Paul

[Tellie]

Hi Paul,

I can't see the second membrane but yes a second would make it capable of 300gpd. The pump is certainly capable of supplying enough pressure and flow. For test water I would just use a clean five gallon bucket with about four gallons of distilled water and some artificial Ocean. You can get artificial Ocean at most pet stores that sell salt water fish. It takes about 1/2 cup of salt for each gallon of water. You will also want to pick up a inexpensive hydrometer as well while you are there. These are better for measuring the high salt content of salt water than a simple TDS meter. The TDS meter will suffice for measuring the fresh product water. You'll make your water to read around 35K PPM. But first you will want to set up a charcoal filter and housing, I didn't see one in your pics, because you'll want to flush any possible pickling solution from the system before you start. When you are getting ready let me know and I'll be happy to help you out.

[Paul Mazza]

Thanks Tellie, I can manage that. I've got tons of deferred maintenance and outfitting to do on this boat, so in a a few months I'll be tackling this desal unit. As soon as I've worked thru what you've suggested I'll post my progress and questions, thanks again for the help. And again, if anyone has any info ie: manuals or additional product info on this Aquanu desal unit, I'd really appreciate it.

[NickBB]

Originally Posted by Paul Mazza

Thanks Tellie, I can manage that. I've got tons of deferred maintenance and outfitting to do on this boat, so in a a few months I'll be tackling this desal unit. As soon as I've worked thru what you've suggested I'll post my progress and questions, thanks again for the help. And again, if anyone has any info ie: manuals or additional product info on this Aquanu desal unit, I'd really appreciate it.

Hey Paul, I'm just wondering how you went with the desal unit. I'm looking at buying the same one second hand. Did you manage to find replacement parts/membranes for it alright. I see the CAT pump on there, so that should be fine to find parts for.

I also can't see how it connects ?through the case? or does it come out and get mounted somewhere?

Thanks for your help.

[Paul Mazza]

NickBB,
Early last year, as Tellie suggested we ran the Aquanu with it's existing membranes. It put out very good water. We had trouble with the pump cycling and we're working on that issue when a remarkable Craigslist deal came along. I bought a lightly used, but old Spectra Ventura 150 for a couple hundred bucks. I've got about $2000 in it now with a new circuit board and assorted sensors, but it's installed and working great. We removed the Aquanu from it's blue plastic suitcase and set it up on a test bench. I may have some photos of that setup if you're interested. I re-pickled the Aquanu and stuck it back in it's case. It's sitting in my garage in Calif. now. Unfortunately I never got around to searching for and replacing the membranes, so I can't help you there. Paul

[Chrissmith]

I have a Aquanu unit identical to yours and just like yourself I have no paperwork. Any help would be much appreciated. My unit was purchased brand new and never been used to my knowledge. Practically been stored every since purchased new.

[Paul Mazza]

Sorry this reply took so log, we were traveling in French Polynesia and just returned. Unfortunately I was unable to find any information on the Aquanu Desal unit. I found info on the Chinese company that apparently bought the rights and tooling and even had a picture of it on their website, but never got a response to any of my inquiries. We did remove ours from it's blue suitcase and set it up on a test bench and run it. It produced good water, but had a problem with pulsing on and off we never sorted out. I found a very cheap Spectra and installed it on my boat instead. I'll be selling the Aquanu locally soon. Good luck. Paul