Selecting A Water Maker-a Lesson Learned The Hard Way. Maybe This Will Help Someone?

[MotuIti]

I have contacted Tellie repeatedly for help on my much older Spectra and recommend him and Spectra for 12v water maker.


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[senormechanico]

One more big thumbs up for Tellie and Spectra.
Mine is over 15 years old and working great.

[Bulawayo]

I would agree with Richie on his summation. I also always carry a Honda 20i as do many cruisers I meet. My Spectre is run via our PV array which I grant is very large. My concern with being reliant on a Honda gen set is not the reliability (always been outstanding) but rather fuel. Once away from civilisation we are reliant upon what we carry. We also are conscious of our outboard engines fuel demands as well as our dive compressor which is also petrol driven. Our Honda will run quietly all night but will also use a complete tank of fuel in this time. Out Honda is run rarely, thankfully. We usually carry 100 litres of petrol in jerry cans plus another 4x 22 litres in the outboard fuel tanks & it's a concern sometimes about carrying this much. We can use this all very quickly if we are careless - running the 25hp outboard water skiiing or on s long fishing trip can scoff the fuel. I appreciate that this is cruising location dependent but once into more remote area's it can become a significant factor. If you look at spending a month in Chsgos, for example, & the passage out from there, that could be a lot of water required. The upside is that two hours use of the Honda shall produce a lot of water and our Honda runs for many hours on one tank full. I guess you must allow for carrying enough fuel for any extended periods away from a fuel source.

[Wolverine6300]

Thanks for posting! I'm in the process right now of looking for a water maker and am in a similar situation.

[Capt.Don]

You folks with the 12v Spectra -- which model do you have? How often do you run it, how many gallons do you mak, and how do you flush the 40e/80e?
Don

[downunder]

Originally Posted by Bulawayo

I would agree with Richie on his summation. I also always carry a Honda 20i as do many cruisers I meet. My Spectre is run via our PV array which I grant is very large. My concern with being reliant on a Honda gen set is not the reliability (always been outstanding) but rather fuel. Once away from civilisation we are reliant upon what we carry. We also are conscious of our outboard engines fuel demands as well as our dive compressor which is also petrol driven. Our Honda will run quietly all night but will also use a complete tank of fuel in this time. Out Honda is run rarely, thankfully. We usually carry 100 litres of petrol in jerry cans plus another 4x 22 litres in the outboard fuel tanks & it's a concern sometimes about carrying this much. We can use this all very quickly if we are careless - running the 25hp outboard water skiiing or on s long fishing trip can scoff the fuel. I appreciate that this is cruising location dependent but once into more remote area's it can become a significant factor. If you look at spending a month in Chsgos, for example, & the passage out from there, that could be a lot of water required. The upside is that two hours use of the Honda shall produce a lot of water and our Honda runs for many hours on one tank full. I guess you must allow for carrying enough fuel for any extended periods away from a fuel source.

Bulwayo,

Here is a link to a rather smart method where a chap is driving both his watermaker and dive compressor from solar on a small outpowered catamaran. Link is well worth checking out.

The chap is a air conditioning electrcian using 240 inverter and 3 phaseelectric motors with a variable speed drive. This could help solve your fuel issues with plenty of solar.

https://diy-yachts.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=1117

"The line of thinking about the energy requirements on my boat hasnt changed from day one- rather than run super expensive but efficient equipment, its cheaper overall and also more flexible to spend the dollars saved on bigger solar power... The money ive saved just by using 240v fridge and chest freezer compared to 12v boat or camping refrigeration - has more than paid for the entire solar system on my boat. Then i also have enough energy for watermaking and running my dive compressor, laptop, or whatever else i want without running into a brick wall on energy budgets like gerald is now contemplating... the tables have really turned now days with solar power being so cheap compared to only a few years ago..."

Cheers

[a64pilot]

I admit to not having read the thread, but I am very skeptical of running a dive compressor off of Solar, unless you mean Hooka.
To save gasoline you can run an AC watermaker off of your alternator and a big inverter if your motoring and of course that is your backup if the Honda quits.
Honda's are wonderful reliable machines, but everything eventually will break.

[daletournier]

I've recently purchased a Rainman. So far so good. Its well presented ,does what its meant to do and supported with good customer service. The Australian dollar isnt overly strong therefore it was price competitive. I have it semi permanently mounted (but can be removed easily).

My thinking was this. After coming from a smaller 12v system (14l/hr ) I wanted bigger, more water is better. I also wanted redundancy, this runs of a 2kva Honda but I can also run it off my 2000w inverter (240v). With a Mark Gasser 100a alternator I'm about to install I have two power sources if honda lets me down (unlikely) or I'm running low on petrol (gas).

So far its quite impressive ,120-140l/hr. Although its portable it is quite heavy to lug around, particularly with the membranes full of water. I've mounted the pump/ motor part and only take the membranes up on deck. Will most like mount then somewhere in the future.

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[Navicula]

if one is making 20 gallons an hour....would it not be a good idea to also have fresh water flushes

[daletournier]

Yes, that's one of the benefits of a larger watermaker, it takes no time to fill a 4 gallon bucket to use to flush membranes, I couldn't do this with my smaller watermaker.
While on the subject of flushing, the larger capacity watermaker also enables me to use fresh water flushing heads which I think is an improvement.

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[downunder]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I admit to not having read the thread, but I am very skeptical of running a dive compressor off of Solar, unless you mean Hooka.
To save gasoline you can run an AC watermaker off of your alternator and a big inverter if your motoring and of course that is your backup if the Honda quits.
Honda's are wonderful reliable machines, but everything eventually will break.

Well worth a read.

He is running both a watermaker and dive compressor off 240V 3000W inverter. (3000W cont, 600W intermediate inverter) I too was sceptical but have seen his setup.
Bauer

The key is the 3phase electric motors with variable speed drive which gets around the peak start up loads of the motors. Well worth the read.

"Good news - my varibale speed drive arrived on friday and i connected it all to the dive compressor... it ran fine on plugged into the mains but kept tripping the inverter when i tried to run it from the boat... good news is i added an inductor to the line as a line filter and everything is now ok - the variable speed drive generates quite a bit of noise and harmonics on the incoming power supply which the inverter doesnt seem to like much - it wasnt a current problem - the unit only draws 9amps at 240V and that is happening once the compressor is upto full pressure...

So now i have a 2.2kW scuba tank filling compressor running from my 3kW inverter - powered by solar (and engine alts if need be) "

[daletournier]

How long does it take to fill a tank? Its a huge battery draw, what size is your bank and solar system? Sorry if I missed this as I haven't read the whole thread and cant open the above link in this phone.

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[downunder]

Originally Posted by daletournier

How long does it take to fill a tank? Its a huge battery draw, what size is your bank and solar system? Sorry if I missed this as I haven't read the whole thread and cant open the above link in this phone.

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I can only note the OP of the threads comments. Seems pretty normal.
"Post by groper » 23 Jan 2016 22:26

The compressor isnt as nearly as noisy as the petrol engine powered versions - obviously there isnt a combustion engine running it. But its still noisy, just the pistons of the compressor do make a bit of noise - at full speed its the same as any other small size electric motor and belt driven air compressor you would run for air tools and spray painting etc

The good thing is now i have full control of the RPM so i can slow it down a bit if i want to and the more i slow it down the more quietly it runs and the less power it uses - at 30hz it runs very quietly and uses nearly half the power... 35hz seems to be a good compromise on speed to fill a tank and noise levels are tolerable.

At full speed it fills a medium size tank in 20mins from empty, 15 mins if there is 50BAR already in it. Its output at full speed is 100L/min. So a 10L tank (85cu ft imperial) is 20 mins to input 200BAR."

You need to read the thread. Certainly seems an option.

[Sandero]

Thanks to everyone who posted here. Very informative.

It's obvious to me, Tellie made a brilliant post about there is no one solution to the answer of which water maker is best. The factors to consider are many.

About 25 years ago I installed a Power Survivor 35 IIRC the name. I got it for emergency use only and to make water on passage. It worked fine and was actually little used because my cruising grounds were close enough to "services" (Caribbean) such that I had access to fuel and water... and food provisions.

However if I was sailing well off the beaten track... and I don't consider the Caribbean to be off the beaten track... then a more "robust high(er) output watermaker makes sense... not only water. Big boats with large crews and tankage will have different demands for sure.

I also understand the creature comfort creep... sailing starts off conceptually as basic off the grid sort of thing and we slowly add the sort of comforts and features to our boats that are taken for granted on dirt... cell service, www access, lots of power for devices that run on electricity... fridges and freezers.. ac and the list goes on. Reading the "needs" of cruisers these day on CFs. it seems as if bountiful fresh water is not a luxury but a requirement and if you don't have massive tanks to stow it you'll be forced to make it.

The discussion needs to include:

boat. tank and battery size (including alt charging sources)
number on board
where you cruise

I personally find a boat of 50' or most cats are very different from my mid 30' mono... and so the solutions for the larger boats simply do not apply.

CF at it's best!

[SV THIRD DAY]

After 5 days at the Miami Boat Show it sure is easier to answer questions online rather than standing in the booth for a 5 day show. But one of the benefits of having a working refrigerator demo in the booth is that the show was made easier by an ample supply of beer and I even shared one with Tellie.