How long do you run your watermaker?

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by tms

...to run for 2-4 hours ......it would be a draw on the batteries (9 amps/hr). If you had 600 ah of battery or 300 ah of actual use, this would be about 15% of battery storage/day. Could the Caribbean sun compensate?

4 hours at 9 amps = 36 ah. Piece of cake even with a 400 ah bank. C'mon.

[Lepke]

I have a power boat with water tanks that hold 450 gallons. I also have a washer and dishwasher. When I'm alone I can go about 2-3 weeks except for pickling considerations. I have something like the bigger Cruise RO setup and run the HP pump on a Perkins 4108 that also runs a a generator. Depending on battery needs I run an hour every other day unless I need more hot water or doing laundry, etc. With people on board I need 2-400 gallons a day, but don't have any water saving inclination. I wish I would have known of Cruise RO before I made my system. It would have been cheaper in the long run.
I've owned or run a number of commercial watermakers and my complaint with them is the proprietary filters, membranes and parts. Price gouging is common and makes piracy look tame.

[Kenomac]

We run our two Spectra 380c watermakers every day for an hour or two during the time the generator runs. Each one produces 17 gallons per hour for a hourly total of 34 gallons.

[wrwakefield]

TMS,

We run our older Spectra [Santa Cruz model] WM about once a week for a day. On reason is the manual states it is better to run for longer periods, vs. several shorter runs topping things off...

Our basic strategy is to fill one 110 gallon tank when it is near empty, leaving the 2nd 110 gal tank still full in case of WM malfunction, etc. We make 10-12 gallons/hr depending upon water temp. [We are in higher latitudes, so in winter our ~40-45°F raw water reduces WM output slightly...]

On the day we are running the WM, we also make sure to do a round of showers- especially- if we have guests onboard- and laundry, fresh water wash of deck and anchor chain [if nature hasn't already accommodated us...] give water to fellow boaters in need [if we even see another boat...] etc.

This way, when the tank is full, we have no immediate water demands...

If you are interested in more details regarding strategy, usage metrics, etc. here is a blog post which began as a response to a somewhat related question to yours...

Cheers! Bill

PS: [on edit] We average about one 12VDC AH/gallon of water with the Spectra.

[accomplice]

We have an Aquamatic 900gpd (~= 3400L/day or ~39gph) and about 900Liters/240 gallons in two fresh water tanks.

For the most part, whenever we run our genset -- whether it be to charge the batteries or run a load of laundry, we make water. Usually this is only for an hour or two. If one of the tanks runs empty, that will generally trigger running the water maker -- for an hour or two. If we were to run it for 3 hours, it would take a tank from empty to full -- so that is the max. With a big (120A) battery charger, it is rare that we'd want to run the gen more than 2-3 hours at a time anyway.

So, generally 1-2 hours at a time, as needed.

As for water usage, that depends mostly on how many people are aboard. We sometimes cruise with up to 11 on board (although occasionally 14). Without great conservation efforts, they use around 10gal/person/day. So, with full water usage we still don't need more than 2-3 hours a day to keep up.

[sailjumanji]

Originally Posted by Stu Jackson

4 hours at 9 amps = 36 ah. Piece of cake even with a 400 ah bank. C'mon.

Agreed. Actually, its even less of an issue if you are cruising in a sunny area. We had 300 ah bank, and two 120-watt solar panels. (Pretty modest setup.) Our evening and overnight draw was usually 20-30 amp-hrs. (The biggest draw was the refrigeration, house water pump - showers, and dishwashing, followed probably by the DVD player! The anchor light and most of the interior lights are LED.) By around noon each day, the two solar panels had the battery banks almost up to fully charged. We would startup the watermaker then, and that added an 8 amp load to the system. The solar controller would go from trickle charge on the bank, to seeing the 8 amp load (watermaker), and go to bulk charge to cover that with the solar panel output. If there was the WM load on the DC system, and/or batteries really undercharged, the solar panels would put out 10-15 amps on a sunny day, at 13.2-13.9 volts. At the higher voltage, the watermaker would put out 7.2-7.5 GPM. The flow gauge was backed up by the tank level before and after. For reference, I think the Spectra Ventura 150 D rating of 150 gpd = 6.3 gph is at 12 volts.

We don't have a permanent generator onboard. (We carried a Honda 2000 as backup on our three month cruise, and only ran it once for a few hours.) Our boat is set up to be sustainable on the two panels. We have twin outboards (9.9 hp), that both have alternators. We also ran the watermaker a few times when motoring - and depending on how many other instruments were on at the time - the overall effect was a minimal net draw on the battery bank. We were pretty lucky in that our two months in the Bahamas, we had a lot of nice weather, and did much more sailing than motoring to/from the various islands.

[sailcrazy]

We bought and installed a 30gph CruiseRO watermaker a year ago. Our boat is set up around the genset, and we run it each morning and each evening.....our refer is 230vAC, and we use an electric stove (vs a gas stove....the admiral's choice!). So every 3-5 days, when we run the genset in the evening for cooking and cooling the refer boxes, and we also make water. Our 4-tank setup allows us to keep tank 1 full, and in reserve. The other 3 tanks are typically down to about half by then, so we top them off-it amounts to about a 60-90 min run time each 3-5 days. and because we also need to pull down the refer boxes and cook, we hardly notice we're making water, too!

[a64pilot]

My intent is to run the generator twice a week to fully charge the bank, I intend to run the yet to be installed watermaker at that time, will most likely be a Cruise RO.
I have 750 W of Solar now, but will likely install one more panel over the Bimini to take me to 1 Kilowatt as that is all my Outback 80 can handle.
I will have shading issues so I won't have full use of the Kilowatt.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

My intent is to run the generator twice a week to fully charge the bank, I intend to run the yet to be installed watermaker at that time, will most likely be a Cruise RO.
I have 750 W of Solar now, but will likely install one more panel over the Bimini to take me to 1 Kilowatt as that is all my Outback 80 can handle.
I will have shading issues so I won't have full use of the Kilowatt.

On a side note, I recommend that you NOT install the extra panels till you have cruised know you need it. If you are going to run the generator for other things there is no reason to have the extra solar and all they do is cost you money and get in the way.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

On a side note, I recommend that you NOT install the extra panels till you have cruised know you need it. If you are going to run the generator for other things there is no reason to have the extra solar and all they do is cost you money and get in the way.

I have them, what happened was I was trying to find some panels for a good price, but every time I did, the shipping killed it. So I started calling installers of large ground based systems, and got one in Pensacola that had 5 250 watt panels left over from a couple of installs and would sell them cheap, so I sent the kid down in the truck and bought what they had, so I have two extra. So I figure why not?
Part of the reason why is once we go, there is no longer a land base from which to operate and things like these panels would mean renting a car and driving to storage etc.
I've never heard anyone complain the have too much Solar, and we use electricity like it was an endless supply and if anything I see usage increasing, we don't have a microwave, but I can see one day we may for example.

Besides, I'm hardheaded. I have decided to wait on watermaker until after we go though

[elandra65]

Hi TMS,

I have had a watermaker driven from AC on a previous boat and my current setup which drives the pump off a belt from the engine. It is a EchoTec 1200 - BML - 3.

Unless you have dedicated diesel generator, running an AC watermaker is not a great idea as they use lots of power and a small petrol gen is not likely to last long or even be powerful enough. They are also very noisy.

I love the engine driven WM as it produces 200l/hr 50gal/hour and I mainly run it in conjunction with motoring in and out of anchorages or motorsailiing. One hours running every couple of days keeps us in water. That is 100 litres a day which for us is plenty for showers etc etc. Therefore unless we are anchored for more than 5 days the engine is never run just to run the watermaker.

If you go that way make sure the mounting system for the HP pump is very robust and there is a way of tensioning the belt. That is the only problem I have had with that system.

Can't really comment on DC watermakers but the excessively long run times required to make a decent amount of water have to take the toll on the moving parts!


regards

Andrew

[Symphony]

I helped deliver a new 45 foot catamaran the last month. When I came on board I noticed one engine had nearly 400 hours and the other only 70 hours. "How weird" I thought, but once I looked inside the engine rooms I realized that one had a large EduTech belt-driven water maker. Man! That thing made a lot of water fast. We used a tremendous amount of water, it was the most luxurious water use I have ever experienced because we just engaged the engine and WM once a day. I even hosed down the decks and cockpit twice a day to get the salt off! It was my first experience with an engine driven WM and I can tell you it has a lot of advantages over little DC units. To engage/ disengage the unit we opened the engine room hatch and hung over the side to reach the control button. That was a little weird especially when a sea was running, but it did force you to look at the belts in the unit each time you turned it off and on. This turned out to be a good thing because the final output tibe sprang a leak the day that we landed Antigua.

[carstenb]

we have a spectra 200T, two water tanks of each 170 liters (roughly 40 gallons each).

My wife and I use about 40 liters per day for everything (yes we shower every day).

We left Denmark i May and have sailed across scotland, down europe and across the atlantic.

We have 775 watts of solar, no generator.

We have lived on watermaker water exclusively since we left Denmark. we make water every 3 days or so - this cost us about 30 amps which is easily handled by our solar.

we could make water more often but we find this to be a pattern that suits our lifestyle. we switch tanks when we fill so our water is never more than 3-4 days old

using the watermaker every 3-4 days means you never have to pickle.

[daletournier]

My last boat had a Katadyn 80e, I would run it two hours a day and make approx 28l.
My new boat has a Rainman, I ran it yesterday for 3hours and made approx 380l of water, that will last us for a week quite comfortably.
Im impressed with how well it works.

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