full 12 volts water maker for 1000 $

[rapanui 2]

hello, I was going to buy a watermaker from seawaterpro from florida and a friend send me this link:
https://www.alibaba.com/product-deta...71f67a316120s0
is anybody has install this kind of machine in his boat???

[Lepke]

I bought membrane housings on Alibaba, but I'd worry about replacement parts for a whole system. Hundreds of small Chinese business have closed forever because of covid19.

[dougweibel]

Now and then people buy expensive cruising products from Alibaba (dingies, chart plotters, etc.) and discuss it here and occasionally the buyer seems satisfied with the purchase.

This water maker seems like a case of not knowing what you are really getting and having nobody to stand behind it. Maybe it is fine. Maybe it has inferior components which will fail quickly. Maybe there are fittings that will be hard to match when you need to get repair parts.

The $1000 model (12V 300 LPD) has a few things that are strange looking. The boost pump is listed, and appears to be in the pictures, a submersible style pump. How you are supposed to plumb that would be a mystery. It does not appear to include parts for a fresh water flush. The power rating is for 600 Watts, which would be 50 Amps. It's cheap but power hungry.

I'd love to hear someone's experience with it. Personally I'd only take a chance on this if you don't need a water maker for a while so that you could see how this actually works and to what degree you can service it if it breaks, and you can spare the $1K if it is junk. It might be a great unit at a bargain price, but seems like a gamble.