Hi everyone, I'm Dave, the
engineer behind Rainman. I live on my yacht in
Sydney,
Australia.
It's great to see the interest in our machine. We've been developing our products for a couple of years now, and we're about to take them to the world market.
What we've tried to do is simplify desalination.
Polls of cruisers regularly rate watermakers as some of the most expensive and high
maintenance systems on a
boat. Similarly, the
installation of a watermaker is not a small
project.
We believe we've addressed many of these issues by offering a product that arrives ready to make water, requires no
installation and if and when
service is required, the machine can be serviced in a workshop, rather than in the bowels of your
boat.
A few posters mentioned they already have Honda generators, so they wouldn't want a
4 stroke powered machine. For those customers we're debuting a portable AC
electric powered watermaker that plugs into your
generator at the METS
boat show next month.
Another questioned whether it's a good idea to use our pressure unit for
washing as well as watermaking. Both the Honda Engine and the General Pump stainless pump are best in class, and are rated for thousands of hours of operation. Why not use it for both?
Regarding price: Tellie, I think you might have gotten the exchange rate mixed up or something, our systems start at about
US$4500 and go to about
US$6200.
We hope prospective customers factor in total cost of
ownership. Yes, there are cheaper machines available, and machines the same price that make a fraction of the gallons per hour of our portable watermakers. At least here in
Sydney, the several days required to install a watermaker is charged at $90 an hour, with a haul-out required to fit the through-hull.
Similarly, a common cause of watermaker
malfunction is lack of use. You can take a Rainman watermaker home with you at the end of a
cruise, away from the
corrosion and neglect that causes so many watermaker headaches.
And Robyjeff, yes we agree about needing a manual mode. By making our units portable, we've been able to do away with the need for
electronics, solenoids and other high-maintenance components. We feel our fully manual machines are more in keeping with
seaworthy design. Simple, robust, less to go wrong.
Tellie and Rich, great to hear your thoughts. I've been reading your posts for years, and in fact your views on watermaker issues have definitely influenced the design of our machines. I look forward to you both joining our dealer
network some time down the track!
We'll be at the METS
trade show in
Amsterdam next month. If anyone wants to drop by for a chat, come and say hi.