Poor Man's Watermaker ?

[Chrisc]

I have never paid much attention to watermakers as they are a bit outside my budget, but there is a man here in Tauranga (unfortunately away cruising the islands at the moment) who has built his own, apparently from a commercially produced membrane and a high pressure pump from a small waterblaster. I can't verify it, but his machine is reputed to make 30 litres/hour and cost him under NZD200.
Would anyone have any ideas?....does this sound too good to be true?

Regards, Joke & Chris

[Pura Vida]

I"ll cehck with a friend who just returned from Belize. He made one from parts he purchased at the local industrial supply. I"m not sure it was as efficient as a Spectra but ...

[rsn48]

Seems to me, the Pardey's at some point used a pressure cooker to create fresh water from salt.

[northerncat]

this is something that i would definitely be interested in as i am currently building my own fridge to get the cooling power versus insulation that i want, i have however been researching watermakers as well and they are very expensive 9-12000 for only about 20-40l per hour now as a fairly handy person i cannot see what would be so hard in the actual making of one of these witht the added benfit of knowing exactly how the thing worked
sean

[jimbim]

Originally Posted by rsn48

Seems to me, the Pardey's at some point used a pressure cooker to create fresh water from salt.

Since you can use a pressure cooker as a still -- and some people still think that baking bread is a pressure cooker's main strength -- using it as a watermarker would be less involved.

[BC Mike]

Louis Riel has built a water maker. He is in BC Canada and he descibes how to make it in his book about building a better boat. He has been on this list. It is easiest to find info on this from the origami site on Yahoo.
Michael

[Strygaldwir]

The expensive parts are the high pressure pump (???? $400 and more ???) and the membrane ($200). Everything else can be had pretty reasonably.

[s/v 'Faith']

Harbour freight salvage has a couple of pressure washers for less then $100, might be worth a look.

The trouble with the pressure washer based water maker (IMHO) is the amount of current it takes to run the motor. I guess if you had a big boat, you would have a genator that would be up to the task, but running a pressure washer off of an inverter would require a pretty big inverter.... and the associated cost, and space.

I see lots of adds for plans for pressure washer based water makers on E-Bay.

[Da BigBamboo]

Ahoy you Salty Dogs and Cats...

Check out this site. http://www.svquintessence.com/watermakerintro It's great. I gives you all the info you need to build your own, including where to find the parts and $$ for each. Really cool. When I get to that "Watermaker" entry on my list of "wishes" I will certainly be making my own!!
Aloha, Mike

http://www.svquintessence.com/watermakerintro

[Pura Vida]

SK Watermaker site has some good information also.
http://www.skwatermakers.net/

[northerncat]

the site about making your own water was good however i dont have a large generator or big diesel motor does anyone know of any sites that deal with pumps small enough for dc motors
sean

[bob46777]

I am selling the plans on ebay for the watermaker I built for my boat. I saved a bundle and its reliable. Look for bob46777 under watermakers.

[DeepFrz]

There was a thread on this subject on the SSCA forum that has some good information.

[s/v 'Faith']

Sean,

the site about making your own water was good however i dont have a large generator or big diesel motor does anyone know of any sites that deal with pumps small enough for dc motors

?


There in lays the rub. The problem is that most of the watermakers on the market are geared twords the big boat market with lots of amps to spare. I have not found the watermaker you are refering to, but would love to figure something out. I would like something like a DC powered PUR -06 that would satisfy drinking / cooking needs for a small crew on a small boat without a hottub, or washing machine.

I pruchased a used PUR-80, with the thought of adapting it to a lower current DC motor that would make less water. The problem is that you need a given flow, at a given pressure and that just requires a lot of power. Easier to develop the required current at a higher voltage (like 115VAC then it is to get the amps in DC. Either way, the load is nearly the same.

I would like to figure out a low volume, effecient H2O maker, that would fit on a small crusing boat...... oh yea, and somehting I did not have to squeeze by hand for hours on end when I am thirsty...

[bob46777]

If you know how watermakers work you can build any size you want.