ultrawhisper 200 Sea recovery

[jtsailjt]

Originally Posted by surazo

remember is a physical process and not chemical .Do you need enough pressure to force the solution trough the membrane .Check if it's the appropriate membrane and probably is due to a low water salinity .Are you in a lake ?

I’m not sure what your reference to a chemical process was prompted by because I don’t think anyone has mentioned that before? Of course forcing water through a membrane under high pressure isn’t a chemical process.

Apparently I do have enough pressure to force water through the membrane because the Watermaker is meeting it’s rated output GPH rate and the product water is meeting the level of salinity required to satisfy the salinity detector, and it doesn’t taste at all salty. My boat is in the ocean in Maine, not in a lake or river. If it were not able to produce its rated output of fresh water at its current operating pressure, I think the Watermaker would automatically increase the pressure until it could, up to the limit of the 1/3hp motor pushing the pump. It will be interesting to see what feed pump output pressure and system pressure I see when I get my boat into warmer and saltier water. But for now, in its present location, it seems that 480 system pressure is enough for it to satisfy its rated output of between 16-17 GPH.

[surazo]

after all I rebuilt my ultrawhisper 200 wit Eco-sistem parts .Nice persons and they send me manuals and procedures how to repair it.
Now i ask for an alternative membrane because I found the original but it's really expensive .Any experience about it ?. Thanks Hernan

[dougweibel]

Originally Posted by jtsailjt

Apparently I do have enough pressure to force water through the membrane because the Watermaker is meeting it’s rated output GPH rate and the product water is meeting the level of salinity required to satisfy the salinity detector, and it doesn’t taste at all salty. My boat is in the ocean in Maine, not in a lake or river. If it were not able to produce its rated output of fresh water at its current operating pressure, I think the Watermaker would automatically increase the pressure until it could, up to the limit of the 1/3hp motor pushing the pump. It will be interesting to see what feed pump output pressure and system pressure I see when I get my boat into warmer and saltier water. But for now, in its present location, it seems that 480 system pressure is enough for it to satisfy its rated output of between 16-17 GPH.

Watermakers with an ETD are inherently different because, so long as the system is able to generate the required pressure, the brine discharge and the product water are always held at a fixed ratio. This is a function of the way the ETD pump works. A result of this is that if the salinity of your intake water is low then the flow through the system will be limited by the flow/pressure performance of the motor driven pump and the membrane pressure will be susbtantially less than a water maker with a restriction valve governing the membrane pressure. I have seen membrane pressures as low as 200 psi with my S.R. UltraWhisper 600 at the rated product water flow in brackish waters of the northern Chesapeake.

[surazo]

Hi ,after a successful repair of my Ultra Whisper 200 ,Now i have fresh water during 40 minutes and then the plant stopped .At moment I can't find the problem .Any suggestion Please .Thanks

[jtsailjt]

Originally Posted by surazo

Hi ,after a successful repair of my Ultra Whisper 200 ,Now i have fresh water during 40 minutes and then the plant stopped .At moment I can't find the problem .Any suggestion Please .Thanks

My owners manual says if the ETD won’t run when the pump is running to check the orifice that’s located near the bottom of the ETD to see if it’s clogged. If you mean that your pump stops running then it’s got something to do with the circuit board and i think you’ll need to get professional help with that. Sorry I can’t offer any better ideas. Good luck!

[dougweibel]

When you say the plant stopped can you be more specific. Do you know if the ETD failed so the system shut down or if the pump failed or something else? What happens when you try to start the system? What pressures do you see?

[surazo]

Hi ,thanks for your advices .When the plant leave to produce pure water ,the high pressure gauge shows near to Zero .But the plant stop in variable time ,may be 2 mins or 30 mins .I can found any leak from hoses or a place in which the pressure are escaping .The membrane is new
I'm thinking in replace the ETD by a 12V High pressure pump and mantain all the rest ,like Parked does when bought Sea Regards .
Any suggestion about this ,It's too crazy ?
Thanks

[dougweibel]

Does your system have a gauge for the boost pump pressure as well as the high pressure gauge? If so what is the boost pressure showing?

When you try to start the system does the high pressure gauge pulse up and down or stay flat? What does the ETD sound like?

I have a UltraWhisper 600 with the box style ETD. With mine it is possible for the pistons to get into a bad spot where the ETD jams on startup. If I disassemble it and manually move the pistons to a different spot then it will start up. I don't know if this works with the cylindrical ETD as well.

I have thought about converting the system to an electric high pressure pump but decided if I need to go that far to fix the system it would be better to replace it. Issues with replacing the ETD are:

1. You will have to add a manual pressure regulator after the membrane. As your system is now the ETD automatically manages the high pressure.
2. You will have to ensure that whatever high pressure pump you use can tolerate the pressure supplied by the boost pump, which may be around 150 psi and may cause an issue.
3. Your system will be very energy inefficient as the boost pump is sized much larger than you would need with an electric high pressure pump.
4. The plumbing to reuse your guages, TDS monitor, etc. may not work out inside the current case.

It is a possible conversion but for the time and money required you'd probably be ahead to replace the system with one from SeaRecoveryPro or a similar vendor.