Very small water-maker oder Big one for very fast refilling?

[Ibetitsthisway]

Hi guys

I am Not a Fan of complex tech boats But a water Maker can make life easier i damit That.
Now... I was thinking about a very small one running 24/7 on solar Power or alike
But know some one strongly advised a large one That can fill my bunker weithin 3-4h Under Motor.
1300 Liters. Our consumption is about 100liters per day.

He said That Would be way more versatile on a journey.

What Do you guys think?

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by Ibetitsthisway

But know some one strongly advised a large one That can fill my bunker within 3-4h Under Motor. 1300 Liters. Our consumption is about 100liters per day.

Just confirm you have 1300 litres on an Albin 25, that's 1.3 tonnes of water.

Pete

[gmakhs]

Small one is better I believe running from solar less complex

[motion30]

Not much solar power at night

[belizesailor]

A water maker system, of the size classes normally found aboard cruising boats, has the same basic components requiring the same maintenance regardless of output (again, in the context of cruising boat sized systems).

So, what is the advantage of a smaller unit other than smaller physical size?

Lower initial cost?

Less energy use/more efficient per galon/liter? Nope.

[Capn Jimbo]

Most full-time cruising couples that we knew averaged 4 to 6 gallons per person per day. Note that single handers may use a bit more and families a bit less as "boat use" is divided amongst fewer or more people.

https://theboatgalley.com/how-much-water/

You are using 26 gallons a day? Gotta stop washing the car...

[Ibetitsthisway]

The albin Was a test mule.
We used 40l a day for cooking and washing (Salt water removal) With external cold shower.

The 100liters a day... As well as the water Maker... Are for the coming cruiser. I added Hot shower in cold aereas and saltremoval from Deck to the water consumption a day.

My cruiser candidate has nö heating and no WM at the Moment. But 1300l fresh water and 1400 diesel


I know about All the water saving people.
We travel for 20 years in Campers and small boats and we use 10-15l per Person per day.
I calc With 20.
Plus luxury shower und Deck washing.

[CaptTom]

To answer the question in your thread title, I don't see the value in fast refilling.

A higher capacity system will require more power, more space, and larger (and more expensive) parts - both initially and replacements.

The only possible benefit I see would be if you wanted to make a lot of water fast when you're running the genset or on shore power. But most people say you shouldn't run an RO system in port, so the shorepower option is limited. If you think you can run it off solar alone, then obviously a smaller (slower) unit would have lower power draw.

One final drawback: Each time you use it, there's a procedure to start and stop. If you stop for too long, there's another procedure to pickle it. It seems it would be more efficient to do these procedures less often, and let it run longer each time.

[john61ct]

I'm the opposite, **if**

you have plentiful ICE power source that is being regularly run anyway several times per week

then maximize your ability to make 150L per hour, get it done, fill the tanks wash the decks and shut it down. CruiseRO for the win!

However, if the boat has so many panels that you are regularly producing **excess** energy over and above what's needed otherwise, and

**if** you don't find the noise annoying

then leave the much more energy efficient but tiny L/hour Spectra unit working 24*7

[Q Xopa]

Originally Posted by john61ct

I'm the opposite, **if**

you have plentiful ICE power source that is being regularly run anyway several times per week

then maximize your ability to make 150L per hour, get it done, fill the tanks wash the decks and shut it down. CruiseRO for the win!

However, if the boat has so many panels that you are regularly producing **excess** energy over and above what's needed otherwise, and

**if** you don't find the noise annoying

then leave the much more energy efficient but tiny L/hour Spectra unit working 24*7

Yes agreed,

Most cruisers try and cordinate WM running with engine or generator running. Even solar you are going to obviously try and time this for peak solar production after the batteries are topped up, usually early afternoon.

WMs, even small DC ones its usually a significant current draw. So most people dont want to draw their batteries down.

Better IMO to try and minimise your engine/ generator and WM run time. This obviously means less diesel and less engine maintenance time used.

The biggest capacity WM that you can practically afford, fit and power the better I reckon.

Just my 2c.

[john61ct]

especially given this high-volume use case, and that WMs are optimistically rated, like alternators and solar panels

Those getting by on a gallon or two per day, may be a different story

[jkleins]

One thing I think many people forget about is that water makers are usually somewhat noisy. Even the small ones can be annoying to hear all day unless they can be isolated with soundproofing, etc. We cruised 20 years ago or so with a little 1.5 gph model and did fine. We ran it all night so we weren’t bothered by the noise (it was back in cockpit locker and we slept forward).
Now we use a CruiseRO and make water when we need to motor or are otherwise running the generator since keeping a load on the gen is a thing you have to pay attention to as well. The noise seems to not be an issue since something else is running. Even the quietest thing that is running while you are sitting at anchor can be annoying to us.
Just one thing that is not often mentioned and something to think about.

[Peeew]

If you have a genset there are watermakers available that produce over 35 gal/hour. I found this a good system that I tune once or twice a week when I run the generator anyway.

[Budawang]

The two of us are quite profligate using roughly 50 litres of water per day and I find our 25 litre per hour WM sufficient. We only run it while motoring or running the generator. Our combined run times are usually at least 2 hours per day so production volume is not a problem. It's a simple low weight and low maintenance system which is a plus.

[alctel]

So I went through this recently, and bought a high capacity water maker, something like 20-30 gallons an hour.

I never ended up turning it on - I didn't use enough water! They need to be run every couple of days ideally, and I was only using 1 to 2 gallons a day! It also needed a 10 minute flush after each use and used a lot of power, so basically it wasn't worth running unless you were going to use it for a couple of hours - but then you'd have to re-pickle it as it wasn't going to be used for a while. Wrong type for my use case.

I ended up uninstalling it and got a second hand one that does 1 gallon an hour. I can just run it a couple of hours every couple of days and it keeps me topped up.

If anyone wants to buy an unused high capacity watermaker in Mexico give me a PM!