Katadyne Survivor 35 manual desalinator - army surplus

[Mike Two Moons]

I am interested in purchasing one of the surplus manual desalinators found on Ebay for my bail-out bag.

I understand these units are unused, still in the package, but possibly long-in-the-tooth. This could mean the units have dried out and in need of a rebuild and membrane.

Does anyone have any purchase experience with one of these units and was a re-build in order?

Any thoughts appreciated.........Mike

[Pizzazz]

I have purchased a few at $133. All three units worked well and the membrane seemed to hold well even after many years in dry storage. One unit I have on my boat now with a second hand motor gearbox. Makes water at 160 ppm. Another unit I converted to an electrical unit with a winshield wiper motor and a home made gearbox from a reciprocal saw. It worked OK but started rusting eventually. The third unit I have to a fellow boater. Others people have had to replace membranes or seals.

The bottom line is that while it was an exciting watermaker 15 years ago, nowadays you can put together a higher volume watermaker (e.g. 6 gph vs. 1.5 gph for the manual one) for about $1,200. You will need the higher volume for anything but occasional cruising.

[newhaul]

I have two one is electric version for day to day use. Works great.
I also have a manual one for the ditch bag/ G.O.D. bag. Shop around a bit on ebay I picked up my last one for $125.00
Navy surplus is better to get. ( better preventative maintance) .