How Much Water Will My Liveaboard Family Use?

[Greenhand]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

The last time I was at sea, which is today... I looked around and low and behold... I was surrounded by water hundreds of feet deep as far as my eye could see. Why in the world would I feel the need to conserve water if I have the ability the generate as much as needed via a water maker? If I lived in a desert, things would be different I suppose.

It still takes a lot of energy to create the fresh water from sea water, which costs money and creates pollution. Why not learn to scale back somewhat? Every other day showers are plenty in most conditions. If you need a shower every day, you probably aren't wearing very many clothes to wash.

[robert sailor]

Ken its all about watermaker size envy..the rest of us are just jealous!!

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

One more thing to consider, if you want to live like you're camping all the time, buy a water maker to fit your minimum needs. If you want to live more like you're at home, upsize the water maker... You'll never be sorry that you did.... Unless you want to spend all your time being a water nazi. It's small money when you consider the cost of the entire boat. The same when you pick out your anchor. Go one size up.

Note: Women don't like water nazis.

+1 Well said.

However, remember also that there is practically no upper limit to water consumption with kids and washing machines on board. I have been cruising in the Baltic for the last 3+ months, and there is no problem with water, since we go into ports at least every couple of days. It is amazing how fast the water goes down -- we have 1000 liters of tankage, which lasts me for weeks when I'm on my own, but with a few people on board and the washing machine running continuously, it literally only lasts two or three days.

The moral of the story is that if you are making your own water, even if you're not planning to be a water nazi, you will have to work on consumption and you can't live exactly like you might live on land. On my boat, the main culprit is the washing machine, a Eumenia/Eudora unit which seems to use a lot more than Kenomac's washing machine uses. I reckon it must use 70 or 80 liters for one small load.

Definitely go for a higher capacity, 230 volt unit, as Kenomac suggested. Think about how long you plan to run your generator every day -- can you make enough water to last you during that period of time? I would want at least 100 -- 120 liters an hour, I think, nominal production.

[zeehag]

i have watched as folks have come into various ports in which i have visited complain on how bad it was when the water maker went out.
ok.
once ye learn to conserve, your fail will be tolerated a lot better than if you are dependent on hugeous water usage in the face of no water at all.
what will you do in the face of water maker fail. they all do . fail, that is.

i am concerned about this as i am thinking about being talked into considering the possibility of thinking about creating water on my own boat, and i do not wish to become dependent on a piece of equipment that will, as everything always ends up doing, fail when most needed.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Greenhand

It still takes a lot of energy to create the fresh water from sea water, which costs money and creates pollution. Why not learn to scale back somewhat? Every other day showers are plenty in most conditions. If you need a shower every day, you probably aren't wearing very many clothes to wash.

In hot weather, I need two showers a day, and I also frequently change my clothes. I like to be clean and am not interested in "scaling back somewhat". To each his own.

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by Greenhand

It still takes a lot of energy to create the fresh water from sea water, which costs money and creates pollution. Why not learn to scale back somewhat? Every other day showers are plenty in most conditions. If you need a shower every day, you probably aren't wearing very many clothes to wash.

My wife and I have used less than 25 gallons of diesel to cover all of our fuel/energy needs over the past 30 days.... Electricity included. During that time, I've traveled over 600 miles on my boat, 200 miles on my bicycle and produced well over 2000 gallons of water. As I write, my wife is doing a partial load of laundry on board.

How much fuel have you personally used over the past 30 days? Please don't forget to include gas in the car, gas for cooking, and oh yes.... Electricity. How much oil, natural gas or burning trash was required to fulfill your electrical needs?

Before you blindly cast stones... Maybe you need to first look in the mirror Mr Green.

Ken

[crazyoldboatguy]

If I'm making water using 12V, solar and wind power, where is the pollution coming from? Folks who are on ac are running their watermakers while charging up their batteries and making hot water. If they are using a genset their fuel usage is actually quite minimal. An OTR truck driver farting makes more pollution.

[FSMike]

Come on guys, this thread is supposed to be about watermakers, not who is the biggest polluter.
I use very little water when out cruising, but if I had the bucks I would definitely have a large watermaker.

[sailorchic34]

I do think that if one needs a watermaker then a 120V water maker makes sense. Rich's product does look attractive in that you only need to run it an hour a day or so. The folks with one will want hot water for showers, so need to run a generator for the water heater anyway.

Myself being a cheap, er that is frugal sailor, a watermaker to me is $$$ and a bit high maintenance in that once you start using it, you must use it.

At one time I thought I might need one. Now a days, I only use about 10-15 gallons of fresh water a week. A 1/2 gallon for shower, dishes are washed in what the boats floating on. In summer I wash in what I swim in anyway.

[colemj]

Originally Posted by zeehag

i make my 49 plus 49 gallons last a long time(more than 3 months, just under 6 months).

That comes out to just over 0.5 gal/day usage. Are you really that conservative? I drink more than a gallon a day.

Mark

[dannc]

Our house is on a well so our cost to use water is the cost of the well pump, pressure tank and power to run the pump.

We are lucky in that we have a well with a large replacement rate unlike many of our neighbors. Per the numbers, we could run the well pump 24x7 and not run out of water. We have low flow toilets, faucets, shower heads along with water usage dish and clothes washer. Both washers use about 10 gallons per load.

Even though we have almost unlimited water at almost no cost, we do not waste it. You never now if the well will run dry no mater what the well specs indicate.

My best guess for a worst case number, is that with four people, we use no more than 200 gallons a day, most of which would be from washing clothes on a weekend. I think our real worst case use is around 100 gallons a day on a weekend. When people are at school and work the water usage would be around be much less.

One trick I learned from my father, who learned it from an old petty officer in the US Navy, was when taking a salt water shower, dry off with a towel ASAP. This removes the water and thus the salt that would dry on your skin. It really does work. We sure did not have a water maker on my dads sail boat, just a wee small water tank. A bucket of salt water and soap that works in salt water and we were good to go.

At the end of one sailing trip we were running up the ICW to the dock in South FLA. We had been out for a good week or so in the summer, no AC on a boat back then, so we were a bit ragged. Salt water bucket baths and swimming to get cooled off and cleaned up. We did not want to shave in salt water and we were sailing, so who cares about a beard?

We got up to Fort Lauderdale on ICW on a Saturday evening. The tour boats were out and one went by us heading south as we went north. As they passed us, a whole bunch of people on the tour boats started taking pictures of us on the sail boat. Really? I guess the sail boat with crew that had not had a fresh water bath in a week or so must have looked really salty to the tourists!

I wonder if our photos are in someones photo album somewhere. Grandma, who are theses strange people in the sail boat?

Later,
Dan

[SV THIRD DAY]

Originally Posted by GhostChaser

Maybe a dumb question but when installing, can you 'T' into an existing through hull or is best to have a dedicated one?

Not a dumb question at all and I get asked this almost once a week!
Almost every water maker company manual will say there same thing that you must have a dedicated through hull. But why do we say that and is it really TRUE? The “You need a dedicated through hull answer” is the easy no risk thing to say and explain (by risk we are talking about warranty claims and hours of trouble shooting inlet flow problems). But in reality if you set-up to share a through hull properly and are willing to turn a “Y-valve” every time you start and stop the water maker (without forgetting), then you can share a through hull. I would NEVER share one with a generator or engine, just because the risk of forgetting to open back up your engine or generator cooling water. Water makers hate air bubbles, like in damage the membrane type of hate, so simply putting a “T” in the line risks the water maker being able to pull air bubbles in through the shared device.

Personally (because I'm cheap), I wouldn’t do a haul out just to put in a water maker inlet through hull, I would install a Y-valve and then if I wanted a dedicated through hull I would do it on my next haul out. Having a dedicated through hull does make the start-up and shut down easier especially if access to your “Y-valve” is under a bunk without easy access and most importantly, it takes away the “User Error” risk.

[SV THIRD DAY]

In terms of water usage and it being ridiculous or miserly or needed or wasteful. I guess all we really “need” to go cruising is 29-foot boat like lin and Larry aboard SV Taleisin with a bucket for a head and oil for their running lights. As a “Go Now and Go Simple” type of guy myself I would hate to think that someone would not go cruising because they couldn’t afford a water maker or any piece of “must have cruising gear”. Is a water maker a must have item to go cruising? Absolutely not, but from our experience having plenty of water aboard is a game changer in terms of comfort. I do have to admit that we usually just wait until we get to anchor before washing down the boat with fresh water, but then my wife reminded me of this photo. We were motoring into La Paz and with two kids living aboard the deck looked like a disaster or dirt, food chunks and grime! So there I was washing and scrubbing it down under way in 100-degree Sea of Cortez heat. Maybe it's a little “ridiculous” I’ll admit, but deck gear is expensive, salt water is evil, and because I CAN.

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by sailorchic34

A 1/2 gallon for shower

Wow. Are you sure? I thought I was doing that well until I showered on a boat with a flow meter and discovered I was running right around 2 gallons.

[sailorchic34]

Originally Posted by Auspicious

Wow. Are you sure? I thought I was doing that well until I showered on a boat with a flow meter and discovered I was running right around 2 gallons.

I use a 2 gallon garden sprayer as a solar shower. I can get 4 showers from it. It's a fine and small stream. So I wet the hair and start at the top and wash, then rinse and towel dry. Could be 3/4 of a gallon some times. Works pretty good in summer. Winter or cloudy days is a pot on the stove to warm the water.