Water maker versus catching rain

[zboss]

Originally Posted by jongleur

You'd probably use tons of propane to produce a cup of potable water.

True, but it would have alleviated the suffering
reported by Stead Hand in this thread.

After using up the propane, one could cannibalize
the woodwork for fuel.

Anyway, don't die of thirst.

True and if you used a pressure cooker and made a make shift still, you could easily get plenty to drink without using a lot of propane. We can go almost three months with our two propane tanks on board. Plus, you have the engine fuel and maybe the dinghy gas. Then you have a black tarp and a pressure cooker.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vR-hcYIaJdQ

[GGamble]

We have a Spectra Newport 400 II. This the second one I have installed. 17 GPH is what we average. It's a 12 volt system so we can run it off the engine, generator or our solar cells. We always keep one tank in reserve (50 gallons). Never had a problem and its self flushes so you don't have to worry about it and pickling it.


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[SV THIRD DAY]

Originally Posted by GGamble

We have a Spectra Newport 400 II. This the second one I have installed. 17 GPH is what we average. It's a 12 volt system so we can run it off the engine, generator or our solar cells. We always keep one tank in reserve (50 gallons). Never had a problem and its self flushes so you don't have to worry about it and pickling it.

That's good thinking to always keep some water in reserve, because it would be a bummer to drain your tanks all the way down and then go to start up the water maker (of ANY Brand) and Sha-zam...ka-pow...it doesn't work!

Auto flushing is a nice feature for the run it and forget about it approach. That way time doesn't get away from you and 5-7 days turns into 2 weeks. It's happened to me a few times, so I had to deal with the smelly consequences of biological growth and H2S...uggg. That's actually what got me to offer an auto-flush feature as an option on our water makers. My wife told me, "if this can happen to you Mr. Water Maker Anal, then it can happen to anyone". She was right of course, but wanting to keep to our design philosophy of "Keeping things simple", we went with a simple bomb proof 12v adjustable timer that turns on the boost pump an opens the fresh water flushing solenoid every 5 days for 3 minutes. So you have the normal manual fresh water flush or the "set it and forget it" approach while on or off the boat.

It's actually surprised me how well that optional feature is selling to be honest, but I do have to admit, it is nice to have one less thing to remember or take care of....

[Rohan]

Originally Posted by newhaul

A catchment trough on the boom to catch rain off mainsail seems to be the best way to catch rain while underway

If you are catching it off your boom, mast, or sails, don't you worry about contanimants in the water? Specifically bird droppings?

I'm just asking because I have no experience with this issue and no idea.

[rockDAWG]

Originally Posted by Rohan

If you are catching it off your boom, mast, or sails, don't you worry about contanimants in the water? Specifically bird droppings?

I'm just asking because I have no experience with this issue and no idea.

If you worry, just use Clorox or boil the water before drinking.

[RDW]

You would not collect the first of a rain. Let the first rinse off and then collect. I grew up using cistern water that was collected off the roof of the house. Just need to make sure the cistern is covered and no animals fall in and drown.
rdw

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by Rohan

If you are catching it off your boom, mast, or sails, don't you worry about contanimants in the water? Specifically bird droppings?

I'm just asking because I have no experience with this issue and no idea.

Ya what RDW said

[PortClydeMe]

Originally Posted by RDW

I have a 46 foot sloop with 150 gal of water tanks (3). I plan to do the World ARC. My boat had a water maker that has given up the ghost. Previous owner used it. I think I have read that boats with water makers used 7 liters per person per day while boats without did well with 3 liters pppd ( recent world arc) I can easily see that having a water maker would be nice. I can also see that it is one more thing to maintain. I have a large shade cloth that I am tempted to adapt to catching rain water.
Anybody done both?
Thoughts?
RDW

No offense, yet a world ARC on a 46-footer and you are asking about whether or not to repair and use a water maker due to it being something else that might need to be maintained? Did I get that about right?

Ewww. My head is starting to hurt.

[RDW]

Originally Posted by PortClydeMe

No offense, yet a world ARC on a 46-footer and you are asking about whether or not to repair and use a water maker due to it being something else that might need to be maintained? Did I get that about right?

Ewww. My head is starting to hurt.

Yes you are exactly right. I have a concept that most of us can afford more that we can maintain. My boat is much more problem to me than my house and office. Just me being lazy. Just me trying to keep it a little simple while still having a very nice boat that is more capable than me.
RDW

[colemj]

Regarding maintaining a watermaker, while I'm sure some have units that require constant attention and repair, most people we meet rank their watermaker as pretty robust.

There is routine maintenance of flushing it occasionally, maybe pickling if left alone for a long time, changing the filters every so often and changing pump oil every couple of years. The flushing and changing filters take <5 minutes, and pickling <20 minutes.

It is definitely simpler to not have one - just like everything else on board.

You probably shouldn't count on catching rain - particularly on passage. So getting a real baseline usage rate for your boat and crew would be a good thing to do before setting off on a month-long passage. Your tankage comes to 5gal/day for a month - not a lot for two, and definitely very small for more.

We have a permanently installed 150sqft water catchment system that can collect 375L/hr during deluge rain, run it through filters and deliver it straight to our tanks without us doing anything except turn a valve. We have yet to experience enough rain on a passage, during times it wasn't mixed with salt water, to collect water while underway. Squalls are nice for rinsing things off, but they don't last long enough to flush everything away and then provide clean water. You will be hoping for longer-term crappy weather if you rely solely on water-catchment.

I cannot even comprehend living on 3L/day. Not even 7L/day. Where did you find these WARC data? I have been around the WARC fleets for 2 years and it would surprise me if these boats are using that little. They are, for the most part, large, newish, well-equipped boats - and most of their owners and crew look very clean and determined to stay that way...

I drink 3L/day just keeping hydrated. Call me wasteful and not a "real" cruiser, but I also enjoy washing down each day with more than a single spritz of water out of a spray bottle.

For us, 10L/person/day would be minimum. And not stanky water that has been sitting in jugs in the sun on deck for 3 weeks.

Mark

[44'cruisingcat]

When it rains, we catch it, but if we had to rely rain for water, we'd be dead!


We LOVE our watermaker!

[w32honu]

Question………..

There has been some mention of pickling your systems. Lets say one had a brain fart and forgot to pickle the system……. Left it for say a month or so and a bit of growth occurred. Can you simply pump in the bio-side to sterilize the system at that point or would you need to go further??

Tx.

[daletournier]

I also love my watermaker, a small Katadyn 80e ( 14 liters/hour. Probably not the best watermaker and certainly not the largest but I sail mostly by myself so it produces enough. Very simple, my batteries can't use all the solar panel energy by approx lunch time so I switch watermaker on for a couple of hours and that more than takes care of my water needs. I can't tell you the last time I filled get cans up. I have two showers a day and never feel like I'm camping. Maintenance is very low.

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[Cadence]

Originally Posted by daletournier

I also love my watermaker, a small Katadyn 80e ( 14 liters/hour. Probably not the best watermaker and certainly not the largest but I sail mostly by myself so it produces enough. Very simple, my batteries can't use all the solar panel energy by approx lunch time so I switch watermaker on for a couple of hours and that more than takes care of my water needs. I can't tell you the last time I filled get cans up. I have two showers a day and never feel like I'm camping. Maintenance is very low.

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Seems like a sensible post.

[RDW]

Colemj,. you are probably right. The majority of WARC boats carry watermakers.
Daletournirer, You are staying clean enough to get a good looking female to go along
rdw