debating about which watermaker style

[rebel heart]

I've got a friend who's happy with his Cruise RO system and we saw the people from the Third Day (the boat), and they have a great reputation.

I've got another friend who bought his Spectra at 25% discount at a boat show and is a rep, so he knows all about how to work on them and told me it's been a great product.

I was pretty much set on the Cruise RO except I really don't want to pickle my system constantly or run the generator every couple of days. When I heard that the Spectra will pull 8 amps and deliver a few gallons an hour, that sounds pretty ideal for me. Every day during peak solar I can flip it on for a bit, get some water, keep the membranes happy, and shut it off after the fact.

We carry about 100 gallons of water onboard and usually go about 2-3 weeks between fill ups. Our Honda 2000 usually just sits under its cover and maybe every few days if we're at anchor for a while and the clouds are thick we'll spin it up. I don't like the idea of using the Honda that much. It's noisy and flipping a DC breaker switch is a lot less hassle especially on a passage.

Thoughts?

[belizesailor]

If you want energy efficiency then nothing touches the Spectra but that of course comes at a steep cost in dollars.

Aside from the efficiency the automation is nice, but not necessary, and Spectra's tech support is awesome!

One down side to lots of automation is that you need more sensors and solenoids...which add points of failure.

Why do you think that you have to "constantly pickle" a CruiseRO system?

[Mimsy]

If it helps, we are leaning heavily towards Spectra after researching all the options for an incredibly looooonnnnng time.

Our reasons- efficiency, size, durability and the biggest factor- excellent, responsive customer service.

I'm know that Cruise RO prides itself on responsive customer service as well but Spectra just has more 'hands on deck" to handle any issues.

[rebel heart]

Originally Posted by belizesailor

Why do you think that you have to "constantly pickle" a CruiseRO system?

In tropical waters you'd need to run the the watermaker every couple of days, I don't see myself starting up the Honda that often. Flipping a DC switch would be lot less fuss.

[sailorboy1]

I think that except for the systems that have energy recovery like the Spectra, that pretty much all watermakers use the same power/gal. It just depends on how fast you what to do it. So even if you use an AC pump system and drive off your inverter and recharge the batteries with your solar, or if you run DC pump system and still recharge off the solar, the total power isn't a lot different.

In reading all the threads over the years for me the decision seems to be whether you what to run the watermaker more often and longer or do you want to get it done faster!

[Sailmonkey]

We've got the smallest of the small, the katadyne 40e. I found for two of us it was more than adequate to run 2-3 hours every day. Maybe for your situation the next size up run every day for 2-4 hours would work well.

The solar and wind kept up with it just fine.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by rebel heart

In tropical waters you'd need to run the the watermaker every couple of days, I don't see myself starting up the Honda that often. Flipping a DC switch would be lot less fuss.

True flipping the switch is much more convenient. I just flipped mine!

I run my Spectra almost every day when cruising. I try to stay ahead of water usage and keep the tanks near full so I dont have to play catch up. Spectra also has an automatic fresh water flush which is handy and extends unpickled downtime.

Re pickling. As I recall Spectras recommendation is to pickle, or turn on automatic periodic fresh water flush, if the system is going to be unused for two weeks or more. This is the guideline I have followed, here in the tropics, and I got about 8 years out of my first membrane. I dont know CruiseRO systems but I think the same strategy should work fine given that it is the same membrane technology.

[Sulaire]

+1 for katadyn 40e, excellent customer support too, they picked mine up , repaired and returned all at no cost.

We live onboard too (2 of us) and agree 2-3 hours a day and you do not notice the power usage, ours runs at around 3-4 amps. very easy to dismantle and maintain yourself due to ishipaco and his excellent book and video. If you run each day or every other day, no need to pickle.

We run ours while sailing with no worries about power.

[senormechanico]

Another + 1 for Spectra.
Mine's a Spectra 180, 13 years old with the original membrane.
I never have pickled it in anything except its own product water.

I had it updated by the factory a few years ago, and it now puts out almost 10 gallons an hour @ 8 amps @ 125 ppm.
Part of that increase is due to my LiFePo4 batteries.

[jeremiason]

We have had our Spectra Newport for 5 years and love it. We have never pickled the unit, even before we started cruising. Just use the fresh water flush system and the Z-Brane. Our unit makes about 17.5 GPH at about 1.25 AH per gallon of water produced.

The thing that always bothered me with AC units was that you had to rely on having AC power. What if the gen set or the inverter fails? Also with inverters, you will probably lose some power during the inverting process, causing you to use more AH per gallon of water.

Also remember that Spectra Watermakers like voltage... When installing, always go at least one bigger gauge power wire than required. On our Spectra the difference between 12.5 volts and 13.5 volts is about a gallon of water per hour, it degrades even futher below 12 volts. Because of that, I normally run the watermaker when the solar is at peak power or during normal generator runs, to increase output.