Anyone Tried Making your own Watermaker?

[SV Windrush II]

I was reading this article about how to make your own watermaker and seams pretty straight forward. Has anyone tried this? if so, how successful was it?

http://www.westward-ii.com/PDF%27s/H...watermaker.pdf

[misfits]

There was a 2 part article in Good Old Boat about 3 years ago for a do it yourself watermaker using OTC parts. May be worth looking up.

Bob

[SaltyMonkey]

Be aware:

The Limitations of Water Filters and Water Purification | Section Hikers Backpacking Blog
Water Purification

It might not be the same for sailing situations, but I would consider additional "purifier" if you want to be extra careful

[Zanshin]

That link to water purification is somewhat disingenuous and doesn't apply to water made by reverse osmosis watermakers at all.

Watermaker particle size filtration goes down further than bacteria size, down to between 0.0001 and 0.001 microns. See Particle Size Chart for an example. This particle size is smaller than the Hep A, rotavirus and Norwalk virus mentioned in the article.

In addition, the rotavirus transmission is from unsanitary conditions and infected feces. While it survives a long time in fresh water, salt water is a different matter altogether.
While Hep A can be present in salt water, it's diameter of 0.027 microns is much larger than the particle size that any watermaker lets through.
The Norwalk Virus (more correctly, the Norovirus) is 0.038, so almost 4 times larger than the largest particles that go through a watermaker.

The water coming out of a reverse osmosis watermaker is about as pure as you can get outside of a lab. Contamination might come from the tank and tubing - but certainly none of those nasty viruses will come from your on-board water.

[s/v Beth]

I would like to make one that is operated by your feet. The legs are much more powerful than the arms, yet any compact one I see out there is powered by the arms.
Also, I have a R/O system under my sink that only uses water pressure. Just 60 psi, yet I get tasteless water from it, and it drains just like a R/O system should.
Am I getting fooled? Because most of these R/O systems say you need this incredible pressure to produce water.

[Cap Erict3]

Evaporation at less than 1 bar utilizing waste engine heat will eventually make it to the small boat world.

Build it and we will come.

[socaldmax]

Originally Posted by s/v Beth

I would like to make one that is operated by your feet. The legs are much more powerful than the arms, yet any compact one I see out there is powered by the arms.
Also, I have a R/O system under my sink that only uses water pressure. Just 60 psi, yet I get tasteless water from it, and it drains just like a R/O system should.
Am I getting fooled? Because most of these R/O systems say you need this incredible pressure to produce water.

I asked myself the same question. Maybe it's a matter of higher pressure = greater volume of water. I know my 60 psi system at home only makes like 10 or 15 gal/day, while these high pressure ones make that in an hour or less.

I'd like to have an RO system powered by a stairstepper. Get your exercise while making water!

[SV Windrush II]

Hummmm, ok I will design a foot powered concept and post it later. You guys can help me brainstorm. I think if I connected a bicycle machine to a reduction gearbox that is mounted on the pump then the person could crank up the RPMs. It could even have a flywheel like a exercise bike so that you could keep up the momentum.

I am also thinking of the same thing to run a small generator to charge the batteries. So you could have a lever to switch from watermaker to charger

[s/v Beth]

A bike is kinda boring and cumbersome (Ha! from someone who made bikes for a few years!) I have seen a stair stepper however that is 10 by 14 inches and easily portable. What if we could attach one of those to a flywheel and power up our water maker/or generator.

[SV Windrush II]

Originally Posted by s/v Beth

A bike is kinda boring and cumbersome (Ha! from someone who made bikes for a few years!) I have seen a stair stepper however that is 10 by 14 inches and easily portable. What if we could attach one of those to a flywheel and power up our water maker/or generator.

Newt, can you post a link or pic? I will also do some research on compact stair steppers.

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[a64pilot]

Look up how few watts a human can make and you'll be surprised

[motaman9]

The boat we recently bought has a "home made" water maker.....it seems to work more reliably and more productively than any mass produced one I have seen.....for what that's worth....

[SaltyMonkey]

Originally Posted by Zanshin

Watermaker particle size filtration goes down further than bacteria size, down to between 0.0001 and 0.001 microns. See Particle Size Chart for an example. This particle size is smaller than the Hep A, rotavirus and Norwalk virus mentioned in the article.

Thanks Zanshin!

[StuM]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Look up how few watts a human can make and you'll be surprised

A top pro cyclist can sustain around 300 watts (5 or 6 times as much in a short burst). Figure your average sailing cruiser would be lucky to do 1/3 of that for any reasonable length of time. So about 8 amps @12v

That might be enoough for a low powered watermaker making around 10 l/hr (Half of which would possibly go in replacing what you sweated out making it! )

[SV Windrush II]

Originally Posted by StuM

A top pro cyclist can sustain around 300 watts (5 or 6 times as much in a short burst). Figure your average sailing cruiser would be lucky to do 1/3 of that for any reasonable length of time. So about 8 amps @12v

That might be enoough for a low powered watermaker making around 10 l/hr (Half of which would possibly go in replacing what you sweated out making it! )

Hahaha, but just think how fit you would be after an ocean crossing

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