Water maker or not?

[meirriba]

Originally Posted by Dave22q

Sometimes we get gross misinformation on the net including here

"Very bad idea - the salt that will be on the cloth is hygroscopic.
The towel will never dry out and become smelly"

Salt is indeed hydroscopic, it sucks the moisture out of its
surroundings. That is why it is good for preserving meat.
No; salt water will not make your towels hard to dry or smelly.
Here in Florida our hot sun drys and deodorizes almost everything.
To remove the dried salt you only need to shake them. If you
throw them below wet they may mildew and stink before they dry.

You call my post 'gross misinformation' and continue with an agreement to major part of my post...
To the point: not everyone lives in Florida where the sun rules.
How about parts of the world where drying out towels/cloths is a little more difficult due to higher air humidity and/or less direct sunlight?

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by zboss

Everywhere we have been, which isn't many places I admit, water has been near a dock or across the street. Nothing a long hose couldn't take care of. I know when you get to some far off places it's less common.

I suppose you could lug water from further away and then pour it into the bag, going back and forth until the bag was full then pump it into the boat. It would certainly lessen the work of putting full jugs from dock to dinghy and dinghy to boat.

The bag is also useful for catching rainwater. You can plump a tent to run to the bag instead of directly into your tanks, treat it there and then filter it before pumping it into your tanks.

However, we are definitely going to get a watermaker. There were times in the Bahamas where our only limitation to staying in some quiet anchorage, far from town, was access to water.

What is the furthest distance you have had to walk to get water in the Bahamas and the Caribbean?

I think the bag is a good idea, didn't mean to sound as if I didn't. I'll be honest, I have never jugged water, I consider myself too old for that or too lazy, I intend to have a watermaker, it's on the required, not nice to have list.
However for someone who doesn't, I can see your "bag O water" is a good idea, just lifting Jerry jugs into and out of the dinghy, that alone makes the bag sound appealing, plus I would think the bag stores in less space than say 4 or 5 Jerry cans too, I don't see a down side to the bag

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by tuffr2

I am getting mixed messages.

I know that wet towels need to be dried in the wind/sun. Same for all other clothes.

So if I get a bucket of salt water and joy soap and wash clothes in the bucket then rinse in salt water will they dry if in the wind and sun. Will they be clean if I shake them for a few seconds?

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You have to give it a try for yourself, in my opinion and more importantly in my wife's opinion, no, they won't feel clean, they will feel sticky. She is allergic to almost any kind of detergent also, so we can't use anything that's not hypoallergenic too.

But I don't understand the shake the salt out theory, the salt is dried into the material, not on the surface, you can't shake the dirt out, why should the salt shake out?

[Target9000]

I agree with other posters about going out cruising before deciding. We did and I am happy we did. In the US, Cuba, and Mexico we had no issues but in Providencia water was a real issue and we bought one.

Rainman is the one we picked. It was super easy to get internationally and their support was great. It also doesn't require an elaborate install or a technician, so the perfect option for us even though we were "out there".

[zboss]

We definitely do not wash or rinse clothes in saltwater.

We have on order a device called a Dolfi that is maybe the size of a hockey puck and uses ultrasonic waves to wash the clothes. This should save a considerable amount of water and time if it actually works.

Dolfi

[Tellie]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

You have to give it a try for yourself, in my opinion and more importantly in my wife's opinion, no, they won't feel clean, they will feel sticky. She is allergic to almost any kind of detergent also, so we can't use anything that's not hypoallergenic too.

But I don't understand the shake the salt out theory, the salt is dried into the material, not on the surface, you can't shake the dirt out, why should the salt shake out?

I agree, and I live in Florida. When I lay Tee-shirts out to dry in the Florida sun that have been in salt water they dry to be sure, but they dry stiff almost like cardboard. Even shaking them out is not going to remove all the salt. Try putting that Tee-shirt back on after you've shaken it out and then sweat in the Florida sun. Mine get washed in fresh water and rinsed in fresh water. Maybe when I was twenty something in a 28' mono with $12 in my pocket. Perhaps I'm a bit spoiled but I like my comfort. I earned it.

Halden Marine Services | Marine Watermakers, Solar Panels, Wind Generators

[Sailmonkey]

Rinsing out a t-shirt in salt water is awful. I don't care how much you shake it, it'll always feel wet and salty. The salt is stuck in the fabric.
I spend a lot of time in on and around salt water, so my rambling a are not just theoretical.


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[SV THIRD DAY]

Originally Posted by 2hullvenus

I'm sorry.

Got no answers to my earlier post.

Might have not worded it correctly.

Can you run them in dirty harbors and rivers if you are willing to change pre filters?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVAE5ZOKWAk

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by colemj

I must be doing something wrong. For ours, I fill a bucket with the pickling solution, stick a hose in it, pump it through, and done. Takes 5min to make the solution and 2min to pump it through.

What takes 30min and what is the second hose for?

Mark

I'm thinkin:
Retrieve bucket from deep locker. 3 min
Clean it. 3 min
Find pickling powder and measuring cup. 3 min
Mix with fresh water. 5 min
Attach or disconnect hoses as reqd. 5-10 min
Start watermaker, pump solution thru 5 min
Reset hoses 5 min
Rinse bucket and re-store in locker 3 min
Clean up. 5 min

Yep, 30 mins or more...

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

To further skew the answer, it's also charging your batteries while water is being made, which most are going to have to burn fuel anyway to charge batteries, so an argument could be made that fuel usage to make water is very little.
I figure 1 gl of Diesel will give me 120 gls of water, but it will also wash my clothes, charge my batteries and heat water too.

Yep, on one boat I charged batt's, made 25 gal water and froze the fridge plates from the engine in one hour. Less than 1/2 gal of fuel. Although I'm not that fond of engine drive refrig.

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by 2hullvenus

I'm sorry.

Got no answers to my earlier post.

Might have not worded it correctly.

Can you run them in dirty harbors and rivers if you are willing to change pre filters?

Yes. Done it many times. Avoided it when I could though. Nice thing about engine drive was if I motored for 6 hours getting to that dirty harbor, I could make 150 gallons of water before I got there!

[tuffr2]

Tee shirts, pillow cases, sheets etc. Have to be and feel clean. Same for my body. I looked at water makers. Just as I thought they are not simple. It makes sense that they are complicated and something I will need to read up on. After all...how can dirty or salt water go in and clean fresh water comes out. It I think about that alone is a miracle.

It also makes sense that you really can not shake to salt out of your cloths.

I think someone on this thread mentioned spraying off their deck with fresh water and that is really good for the boat. Can anyone expand on that? Washing the deck with fresh water....really helpful to the boat or a bogus claim?

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[Terra Nova]

Unsubscribed.

[a64pilot]

It's not just the boat, but winches and other metals will do better without being covered in salt, it's washing SCUBA gear, flushing out the motor on the dink regularly, washing your anchor chain and windlass off with fresh water, helps keep it from smelling bad too, fresh water flush for the heads


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[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by tuffr2

Tee shirts, pillow cases, sheets etc. Have to be and feel clean. Same for my body. I looked at water makers. Just as I thought they are not simple. It makes sense that they are complicated and something I will need to read up on. After all...how can dirty or salt water go in and clean fresh water comes out. It I think about that alone is a miracle.

It also makes sense that you really can not shake to salt out of your cloths.

I think someone on this thread mentioned spraying off their deck with fresh water and that is really good for the boat. Can anyone expand on that? Washing the deck with fresh water....really helpful to the boat or a bogus claim?

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I think FW rinse is good for the boat in general, especially SS stancions etc as the salt cakes on there, eventually causing some rusting. However, Salt water is better for unfinished teak.