My New-to-Me Spectra Watermaker

[Intentional Drifter]

Not mentioned so far: don't forget to include in your calc's the 5 to 6 gallons you'll use for flushing every time you run it. If your unit does 6 gal/hr, that's an hour's worth of running time that will essentially be tossed overboard.

I've known people who use the same flush water over and over, but that doesn't seem wise to me. After all, if the point is to rid the system of contaminants, then why put the contaminants right back in? Tellie, what do you think of this practice?

ID

[Tellie]

Originally Posted by Intentional Drifter

Not mentioned so far: don't forget to include in your calc's the 5 to 6 gallons you'll use for flushing every time you run it. If your unit does 6 gal/hr, that's an hour's worth of running time that will essentially be tossed overboard.

I've known people who use the same flush water over and over, but that doesn't seem wise to me. After all, if the point is to rid the system of contaminants, then why put the contaminants right back in? Tellie, what do you think of this practice?

ID

Hi ID,

I don't like the practice at all for the reason you stated. I have met people that do exactly that as well. It's penny wise pound foolish and the effort to do so seems more of a hassle than it's worth. There are certain givens when you own a watermaker and one is that you have to account for making enough water for you and a fresh water flush. You just can't really get around it if you want to take proper care of your unit.

[svstrider]

Originally Posted by Tellie

Hi ID,

I don't like the practice at all for the reason you stated. I have met people that do exactly that as well. It's penny wise pound foolish and the effort to do so seems more of a hassle than it's worth. There are certain givens when you own a watermaker and one is that you have to account for making enough water for you and a fresh water flush. You just can't really get around it if you want to take proper care of your unit.

Hi Tellie
Thanks for the great advice. I have my new watermaker installed and am just waiting for electrical installation when I return to theboat from being shanghaied by an overseas job that took much longer than planned. I was planning on running my watermaker at least every other day if not daily for 2 to 3 hours. Do I need to freswater flush after every use if I am using it that often?
Paul

[Cheechako]

tellie's service is beyond expectations, Spectra's watermaker sounds below expectation. Probably the first thing to do is to take all the things they make "to protect you from yourself" off of it. I believe that would eliminate your first two calls. (salinity probe and transducer) Transducer for what? When it comes down to it, a WM is just a pump, a membrane, a needle valve and a gauge right?

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

When it comes down to it, a WM is just a pump, a membrane, a needle valve and a gauge right?

Yep.

And an airplane is a wing, a fuselage, and some motors.

[Tellie]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

tellie's service is beyond expectations, Spectra's watermaker sounds below expectation. Probably the first thing to do is to take all the things they make "to protect you from yourself" off of it. I believe that would eliminate your first two calls. (salinity probe and transducer) Transducer for what? When it comes down to it, a WM is just a pump, a membrane, a needle valve and a gauge right?

I wouldn't advise anyone to start taking things off of a Spectra watermaker to make it more simple. Unless you just really like my company on your boat. Things can get complicated after that. The two transducers are part of the electronic system that tells the owner of the condition of the pre-filters by reading a vacuum across two filters. Cheechako what you describe is a simple basic watermaker. Spectra makes a couple of units that fit that bill as well. Although you won't find a needle valve on any of them. On a modern cruising boat today you'll find all kinds of electronic gadgets. Most of which are not absolutely essential. But yet they are there. A lot of people just like the convenience of a partially or fully automated boat and don't want to be bothered by running around manually operating all of their boats systems. As my wife likes to quote "Boys and their Toys" But, most admirals want only to push a "RUN" button when it comes to making their water. There are some that will to be sure, but in my experience most gals just don't want that Blue job of manually operating a watermaker.
PS Thanks for the compliment.
Tellie

[Cheechako]

"And an airplane is a wing, a fuselage, and some motors"
OK, I forgot the Pressure relief valve.... ;>)
Seriously, my Catamaran came with a 1.5 HP AC water maker with a control box the size of two large shoe boxes. It had a lot of nice colorful indicator lamps etc. It always said the water was not to spec. I removed the whole unit, put the pump on one engine and got the system down to a PSI gauge, needle valve, relief valve and of course a membrane. worked great and never told me the water wasn't right either!!

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

"And an airplane is a wing, a fuselage, and some motors"
OK, I forgot the Pressure relief valve.... ;>)
Seriously, my Catamaran came with a 1.5 HP AC water maker with a control box the size of two large shoe boxes. It had a lot of nice colorful indicator lamps etc. It always said the water was not to spec. I removed the whole unit, put the pump on one engine and got the system down to a PSI gauge, needle valve, relief valve and of course a membrane. worked great and never told me the water wasn't right either!!

I gotcha.

Just messin around.

Everyone draws lines on what is onboard and the allowable complexity of them.

[Cheechako]

Yea Tellie, I am over simplifying it. Bottom line though is that the system must reach at least an acceptable level of problem free use, if my GPS required 3 contacts with the manufacturer in my first month or two of use.... I guess wouldnt have it long! I view the water maker as allowing me to avoid taking the dingy into town with 5 gal jugs and ferrying water back and forth. Manually setting the pressure felt like a small price to pay...vs... talking with the manufacturer , diagnosing a bunch of colored lights and probably paying through the nose for replacement sensors etc....

[Tellie]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Yea Tellie, I am over simplifying it. Bottom line though is that the system must reach at least an acceptable level of problem free use, if my GPS required 3 contacts with the manufacturer in my first month or two of use.... I guess wouldnt have it long! I view the water maker as allowing me to avoid taking the dingy into town with 5 gal jugs and ferrying water back and forth. Manually setting the pressure felt like a small price to pay...vs... talking with the manufacturer , diagnosing a bunch of colored lights and probably paying through the nose for replacement sensors etc....

To further the line of thought on your analogy. If your new GPS failed three times in the first month or two you would be swearing off that GPS and other models like it and using a sextant for it's inability to fail electronically. In a sense you'd be right but in practicality it doesn't make common sense. The fact of the matter is that most watermakers don't have the failure rate you seem to think is implied. Their acceptable level of problem free use is evident by the tens of thousands of trouble free units out there and the fact that the major players have been around for some time now. I like mechanical simplicity as much as you and the feeling of satisfaction I get by knowing how to operate all my boats systems and why they operate the way they do. But there are thousands of others that are not at all interested in that part of boating. Where does that leave them? As long as there are enough people that want all the bells and whistles, there will always be bell and whistle manufacturers.

[Cheechako]

hmmm.... I think my comparison would be more along the line of: if my GPS with the autopilot, chartplotter, radar, depth sounder, ais and laptop all linked to it was unreliable, I would back off to the basic GPS, not forego GPS entirely! Nuff said I guess. Anyway, you sound like a great guy to have in the maintenance pool!

[bobfnbw]

On the issue of complexity,
Sure the more complex a system is the more chance of failure, but then the greater the reward as well.
Take a computer for instance. No one would argue that the early computers, which were far less complex than todays, are better. In fact they are not.
Take society as well. Are system like we have in the US is far more complex then say, North Korea or China. (although China is really complex in itself due to the hugh amont of people, territory, languages spoken... etc. ) but who would want to go there....
Or airplanes. Or cars. I love my built in nav, safety features, etc.
So I would guess with a water maker. Sure a more complex system is .. well more complex and more likely to fail. But with regular maintenance it should not, no? And the benefit of complexity is more satifisfaction with the unit itself. Although at a increased price.

[Dreaming Yachtsman]

Our Catalina 300 model Spectra Watermaker is the second most useful piece of equipment we installed to prepare our boat for cruising. (The number one most useful is the chart plotter.) It has a nominal capacity of 12 GPH so with just the wife and myself aboard, we typically run it 4 hours every 3 days to keep our tanks topped up. On a sunny day we can make water without discharging the battery, powering the watermaker with our solar panels. The MPC 5000 Controller takes almost all the work out of running the system. It even flushes the unit automatically every 5 days when not used.

Since our unit was installed in March 2005, the only significant problem with it was a blown high pressure fitting on the inlet to the membrane chamber about a month after we started cruising. Replacing that fitting resolved the problem. A few months ago another fitting started leaking but was easily stopped by tightening it with a wrench.

Therapy, I strongly encourage you to go to the Spectra web site and download the operation bulletins found there (http://www.spectrawatermakers.com/su..._BULLETINS.pdf). They contain a wealth of information not in the Owner's Manual that can enhance operation and extend the lifetime of your unit. One specific example concerns filter replacement: If you read only the manual, you'll run your system until you get an alarm telling you to change one of the filters. Operation bulletin OP-2, however, recommends changing filters after each use, especially in warm water.

[Tellie]

Originally Posted by Dreaming Yachtsman

Our Catalina 300 model Spectra Watermaker is the second most useful piece of equipment we installed to prepare our boat for cruising. (The number one most useful is the chart plotter.) It has a nominal capacity of 12 GPH so with just the wife and myself aboard, we typically run it 4 hours every 3 days to keep our tanks topped up. On a sunny day we can make water without discharging the battery, powering the watermaker with our solar panels. The MPC 5000 Controller takes almost all the work out of running the system. It even flushes the unit automatically every 5 days when not used.

Since our unit was installed in March 2005, the only significant problem with it was a blown high pressure fitting on the inlet to the membrane chamber about a month after we started cruising. Replacing that fitting resolved the problem. A few months ago another fitting started leaking but was easily stopped by tightening it with a wrench.

Therapy, I strongly encourage you to go to the Spectra web site and download the operation bulletins found there (http://www.spectrawatermakers.com/su..._BULLETINS.pdf). They contain a wealth of information not in the Owner's Manual that can enhance operation and extend the lifetime of your unit. One specific example concerns filter replacement: If you read only the manual, you'll run your system until you get an alarm telling you to change one of the filters. Operation bulletin OP-2, however, recommends changing filters after each use, especially in warm water.

Hi Dreaming Yachtsman, I'm glad you're happy with the Catalina300.
The advice you give to go to Spectras site is spot on. I should have said that myself. There is a wealth of information there that does not all appear in the individual manuals. I wish more people would take the time to review it. Knowing Therapy, I'm sure he has. But, there's always a but. Two things, when you had your second leak you said you tightened it down with a wrench. I winched a little. You probably know this, but for other owners info, most of the fittings on the Spectras are sealed with either teflon tape or O-rings. Our first instinct when we see a plumbing related leak is to grab a wrench. When you are working on the Clark pump or the membrane vessel, tightening down a leaking fitting can be a costly mistake on Spectras. For the most part if you have a leak it is usually a bad O-ring. It's better to remove that fitting and replace the O-ring. Over tightening a fitting even a little can lead to a crack in the end caps or main block. You'd be surprised how little tightening is required where the fittings meet the pump and vessels. Of course the two piece SS tube fittings are a different issue. You must carefully use two wrench's here as not to again over tighten the part of those fittings threading into the unit. Second, do you change your pre-filters out after every use? You'd be the first I met that does. OP-2 is a little unclear. Though it is true, leaving salt water in your pre-filters for more than a day in the really warm climates can lead to anaerobic bacterial growth you have the MPC5000. After each use your unit will fresh water flush the unit including the pre-filters. In areas with really high fertile areas you will need to pay closer attention and will need to change out the pre-filters more often. In the Carib you should be fine. Look at it this way, if it were a forgone conclusion the fresh water in the pre-filters would go bad in a day, where does that fresh water come from? You'd have the same problems there as well.

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by Dreaming Yachtsman

Therapy, I strongly encourage you to go to the Spectra web site and download the operation bulletins found there (http://www.spectrawatermakers.com/su..._BULLETINS.pdf). They contain a wealth of information not in the Owner's Manual that can enhance operation and extend the lifetime of your unit. One specific example concerns filter replacement: If you read only the manual, you'll run your system until you get an alarm telling you to change one of the filters. Operation bulletin OP-2, however, recommends changing filters after each use, especially in warm water.

I'll do that.
I think something I have mentions changing the filters more often. It specifies three sets in rotation. One soaking, one drying, one in use. I don't know about changing them for every use but then I am not cruising.........yet.

<edit>

I just skimmed that.
I am pretty sure it is all in the "newer" manual I have. Will do a complete read though.