Lucia 40: Watermaker (Aquabase)

[MKB53]

Hi All
For some time I have been puzzled as to why sometimes there would be a trickle of water out of the through hull discharge. At first I thought it may be residual pressure but eventually got around to chasing it down.

The following is an excerpt from the SDLC installation guide.
"
The produced water pipe (F) is connected to the upper part of the tank and should not touch the water.
Don’t put a valve on this production pipe (because there is no rise in pressure); if a valve is installed on this tank, then it must be
always open (water must be able to pass freely into the tank).
Do not immerse the piping into the tank to avoid a "siphon" effect
when stopping the watermaker."

Well, water was siphoning back from the tank and it turns out the fitting used was for an extraction hose. it had a barb fitting that extended about 100mm into the tank so when full the top 100mm was free to drain slowly out!
5 minutes with a hack saw fixed that! If you notice any "dribble"have a look at the tank fitting.

[MKB53]

Another gotcha discovered after 5 seasons.

ESW units specifically.

When testing the production rate I discovered that the water was flowing through the production line from start up, before the green light had come on signifying the correct salinity level was reached.

It turns out this was not a problem with the unit but an error on installation.

There is a small grey knob on the solenoid valve that diverts brackish water to waste until the correct salinity level is reached.

This was "in-line" "with the body of the solenoid.(see Photo 1).

SLCE advised that it should be transverse to the body and needed to be turned anti-clockwise. In the inline position it overrides the solenoid and the water is always directed to the product water line. (See Photo 2)

I could not find any reference to this in the manual.

Our unit was fitted aftermarket by Uchimata but it's worth checking regardless of who installed it.

That said the salt was never noticeable. I tasted the water out the line it was OK long before the light changed to green. We almost always do long runs so the ratio of salty water to good would have been very low.