How Hard is it to Install a Water Maker?

[simonpickard]

Hello all,

I'm thinking of buying and trying to install a 40E water maker. Just wondering how easy this would be for someone who's very keen to try but hasn't really got any experience of such things.

I'm going to be installing on my Hanse 385. I think there are a few places I can place the system and I'm hoping I can tee off of exciting plumbing?

Are these things best left up to the pros? Could I at least buy and place the main components before getting something in to hook up the pipe work?

I understand it's hard to give advice without knowing excitingly what and where I'll be doing but ball park, should I give it a shot?

Regards,
Simon

[Randyonr3]

you may want to figure all different configurations you might want.. if the unit has an electrical silinity sistem set up, you can plum it directly into the system, where the water dosent enter the tank until it is perfectly correct.
otherwise you want to set it up to where it dumps the water until its right and then deverted manually to the tank.

My first unit, a spectra was plumbed directly and worked fine, my next unit will be "stand alone" where I'll have control of the salinity of the water befor it goes into the tank..
You can probably do all the work yourself.. just put it all on paper befor you do it..
The worst thing you want to do is dump contaminated water into your tank

[SV THIRD DAY]

90% of our water maker clients to their own installations, so I think a water maker is certainly something the average cruiser can and even should install themselves. It's just a plumbing and electrical project when you boil it all down and strip away the "black magic". Besides, your installation guy won't be with you out at anchor if there is a problem, so doing the installation yourself is a great way to learn how your water make works!

[colemj]

That particular unit is all self-contained and is easily installed by anyone who can use hose clamps and run a wire. For the intake side, you will need to connect a hose from a seacock to the filter, a hose from the filter to the unit, and a hose from the unit to a thruhull. For the product water side, you will need to connect a hose from the unit to a 3-way valve and two hoses from the valve - one to the tank and the other free to use for testing. For the electrical, you will need to run a wire from the unit to the battery, making sure an appropriate fuse or breaker is installed.

That unit only produces just over 1 gallon/hr while using 4 amps/hr to do so. Even a simple installation doesn't seem worthwhile for that output and price. Is there a reason you have chosen it over a higher output one?

Mark

[lorenzo b]

It's a whole lot cheaper to get a 50 to 100 gal tank. Every one I know is constantly fixing their water maker and paying insane amounts per gallon when it does work. In a pinch you can store water on deck.
PS. half the time the water ends up tasting awful.

[SV THIRD DAY]

....ya...and why buy that Radar/Chartplotter combination unit? Heck it's a lot chaper to just use papercharts! A marine head...why when you can use a bucket and chuck it approach?

A water maker purchase is never about making water cheaper than you can fill your tank from the dock, it's always about lifestyle, comfort, and convienience, as are most of the moden shipboard systems.

If a water maker is making poor tasting water then the person is either not operating/maintaining their water maker properly or they have water tank contamination that is fouling the water. The product water from a properly working and maintained water maker isn't foul tasting at all.

To your installation question, installing the 40E is a 1-2 day project, 2 out of 5 shells on the level of complexity and difficulty.

[simonpickard]

Originally Posted by colemj

That unit only produces just over 1 gallon/hr while using 4 amps/hr to do so. Even a simple installation doesn't seem worthwhile for that output and price. Is there a reason you have chosen it over a higher output one?

Mark

Price mostly + it gets very solid reviews from what I've managed to find.
We have a good amount of spare solar during the day so can run it for hours on end if needed.

I do see your point though, if there's any better products on the market that can be run from 12volt, in a small space, for the same money, I'm all ears.

Thanks for the info as well, sounds like this is something I could do on my own then.

Regards,
Simon

[Canibul]

I'm looking at replacing our PUR 35 with an engine driven water maker for a variety of reasons. I was just talking to some friends who bought a full up, all options, high output electric water maker two years ago, and they have an interesting perspective. They told me that they really wish that they had bought a smaller watermaker that needs to be run more often over the big expensive one that only runs for a short time once a week or so.

[lorenzo b]

" lifestyle, comfort, and convenience "

You gotta be pulling my putz, dude. The damn things are a nightmare to install, operate, and maintain.

Now if you happen to be selling those $6000 gizmos, no doubt you love them.

[simonpickard]

Originally Posted by lorenzo b

It's a whole lot cheaper to get a 50 to 100 gal tank. Every one I know is constantly fixing their water maker and paying insane amounts per gallon when it does work. In a pinch you can store water on deck.
PS. half the time the water ends up tasting awful.

The problem I'm finding though is that in a lot of marinas I'm staying the water you'd fill this new 100gal tank up is undrinkable also.

I know for showers, cooking, etc, that's not an issue but we were hoping to be able to drink the water from the water maker reducing our time spent lugging water bottles + the cost of this.

[colemj]

Originally Posted by lorenzo b

" lifestyle, comfort, and convenience "

You gotta be pulling my putz, dude. The damn things are a nightmare to install, operate, and maintain.

I have installed two of them on our boat and that is not my experience. One was a 12V 6gph and the other a 120V 30gph. They were both very easy to install, extraordinarily easy to operate and required little maintenance - change a common filter every once in a while and run pickling compound through it when leaving for a long period of time. I had to put a new membrane in our 12V system after 10yrs. That required me to unscrew a cap, pull out the membrane, put the new one in and screw the cap back on. I didn't even have to read the directions to do that.

Many other common things on our boat are more difficult to install, operate and maintain than our watermakers have been.

The only people I run into who have watermaker problems are those with fully automated systems. They seem to constantly be having to jumper over all the fail-safes and automation. Even this is not too bad. I have yet to meet anyone with a basic system - 12V or 120V - who have the issues you describe.

And yes, we chose a watermaker for the lifestyle, convenience and comfort. In fact, we chose for this reason twice!

Mark

[colemj]

Originally Posted by Canibul

They told me that they really wish that they had bought a smaller watermaker that needs to be run more often over the big expensive one that only runs for a short time once a week or so.

Yes, figuring out how one will use a watermaker and what type to get is very important before buying one. They certainly are not a one-size-fits-all thing. It sounds like you are going through this right now.

For us, we had a smaller one and wished for a larger one (so got one). The larger one was less expensive than the smaller one and meets our needs much better.

Mark

[colemj]

Originally Posted by lorenzo b

" lifestyle, comfort, and convenience "

You gotta be pulling my putz, dude. The damn things are a nightmare to install, operate, and maintain.

I just noticed that you have a trawler, and assume it has a generator?

Generators definitely fit all you say above and are chosen solely for lifestyle, comfort and convenience.

Mark

[monte]

http://www.eco-sistems.com/en/
These ones are available in Spain. Looks decent on paper and easy to install but I can't vouch for how good they are. Best to do your homework.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by simonpickard

The problem I'm finding though is that in a lot of marinas I'm staying the water you'd fill this new 100gal tank up is undrinkable also.

I know for showers, cooking, etc, that's not an issue but we were hoping to be able to drink the water from the water maker reducing our time spent lugging water bottles + the cost of this.

Then simply filter the water with an NSF 53 or NSF P231 certified filter--much simpler. Remember that a water maker is not going to work well in many harbors (too much silt in the water) and that it is not going to remove all microbes (all water makers leak internally and none that I know of are certified to remove microbes without an additional sterilizing step, either Cl or UV).

The water filter will be ~ $25 if you search anda very simple install.