size water maker 30L/ Gal 7.8 enough?

[a64pilot]

Only comment I have is that when you no longer have to conserve, you will use way more water, and may even start fresh water rinsing off Dive equipment and other boat parts, keeping corrosion at bay and making stuff just last longer. I even rinse my anchor chain as it goes into the locker, no smell at all that way, and I think it helps prevent rust.
In short the two of us will go through 150+ gls a week. I say plus cause we wash clothes when the Watermaker is running as opposed to pulling it straight from the tank, so I don’t know how much we use by doing that, I do know the clothes washing machine uses a lot of water.
We flush with fresh water.

As I see it, sort of the point of a Watermaker is not having to conserve.
So I’d say don’t size for what you use now, size for what you think you may use, if there weren’t a shortage.

Would you believe that on land the average person uses somewhere between 80 to 100 gls a day?
https://water.usgs.gov/edu/qa-home-percapita.html

[waterman46]

What's this about noise from a watermaker? If you have a Spectra system with the Clark pump, all you will hear is a pleasant hum from the one or two first stage pumps and if you are sitting next to the Clark pump you can hear a little click every few seconds as it cycles. Although we don't run it at night, if we did I think it's calm droning would help me fall asleep.

[Nikki S]

Do you sometimes want to have friends come and stay? We are normally 4 on board with fresh water heads (🤦*♀️) and use 60 L per day but when we have an extra 2 guests we often use 120 per day despite them thinking they are not using much.

[elandra65]

I have a Echotec 50gph watermaker that runs the HP pump directly of the engine. I mostly make water when motoring in and out of anchorages so rarely just run the engine to make water. It is purely a manual system with no electronics to go wrong. Very reliable and the wear on the parts is less as it has short run times so should last a long time. I have had various systems and this is by far the best for me and I would go this way again. It is really nice to have lots of water and allows you to live similar to being on land. IE showers every day and the skipper doesn't have to be a water nazi.

Actually if I was doing it again I would source the parts myself and build the system from scratch. Should be much cheaper and the parts are readily available. They are not rocket science.

Andrew

[Pizzazz]

I would say go with the biggest water maker you can comfortably fit and minimize run time to avoid the noise. The alternative is to get a low cost, quiet water maker, like the old Power survivor 35, sound proof it as well as possible and connect it permanently to the fresh water tank (e.g. like a fridge, whenever the water lever drops below 2/3, the water maker is on, and whenever it reaches above 5/6th it is off). Then you always have fresh water and you do not think about it.

[Sailshabby]

Anyone have experience with the Schenker line, specifically the 60?

Thanks.

[CdS2 Roland]

I'am using a 100 l/m. Our boat has 1000l water tank. After 10 years experience with it, if once I change, I would buy a 200 l/m. We are 2 people on board most the time. So 1 tank is empty and the other one full. Why carring 1000 kg if 500 is enough? For some periods we have visitors and then we use both tanks. Less time the genset runs, less noise you have and I would appreciate a 200 l/m. If you are charging your batteries at the same time, 100 l/m, will be better. We are charging with solar.

[svSnow]

Thank you all for the reply, we are still reading this and evaluating different views.

At this moment I think it could be done on 30l/ 7,8 Gal maybe run it every two days for two or three hours. So you are more efficient with the running time and flush water. I got the impression that most people would like to have a bigger watermaker because their consumption will grow when having fresh water. It makes sense, even if we only do now 15 to 20 liters/4-5 Gal a day. No clothing washing or rinsing the deck. An occasional deck shower, no shower inside(yet/maybe). But then again, what do we know with only three months cruising...


We are indeed looking at Schenker or Spectra. We do not have/want a generator. This morning we have seen the ultra slim Schenker Zen 7.8 G/h. My thoughts are tending to go for double the size but this slim design is extra tempting SCHENKER dissalatori watermakers desalinators dessalinisateur wassermachers

Thanks again for reflection on our thoughts with real life experience.
Martin & Henny