Are watermakers losing their relevance?

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Damn!!!! That's 150 gal a WEEK. in cruising mode my wife and I use 150 gal every 3-4 weeks and that's taking showers on the boat. What are you doing with all this water (no need to answer as that's thread drift)

I don’t think it is as it explains why have a watermaker.
We flush with fresh water and bathe everyday, wash clothes and I even fresh water rinse the anchor chain, that has seemed to greatly extend the life of the chain, it doesn’t seem to rust without sitting in the locker soaked with salt water.
We also wash clothes and do dishes etc. I defrost the cold plates with water too as nothing else is as gentle or as fast, running 80 something degree water over ice, melts it fast.
In short I don’t hang over her and complain about her leaving the water on while she washes her face etc.
We have a high output water maker and run it a couple of hours, a couple times a week.

[cyan]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I don’t think it is as it explains why have a watermaker.
We flush with fresh water and bathe everyday, wash clothes and I even fresh water rinse the anchor chain, that has seemed to greatly extend the life of the chain, it doesn’t seem to rust without sitting in the locker soaked with salt water.
We also wash clothes and do dishes etc. I defrost the cold plates with water too as nothing else is as gentle or as fast, running 80 something degree water over ice, melts it fast.
In short I don’t hang over her and complain about her leaving the water on while she washes her face etc.
We have a high output water maker and run it a couple of hours, a couple times a week.

This.
Ditto.

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by Leo Ticheli

Water Makers are not financially justified, but neither is boat ownership, at least for most of us. I'm very happy with my little Spectra 150 although I doubt I would have bought nearly enough water to pay for it.

Fair winds,
Leo

Leo,


We hear that a lot about boats.


I find it hard to justify the comment for those that are living on their boats full time. It is their home. What part of that is not financially justified?


Now for me, essentially a fair weather summer season sailor who can justify my hobby, partly because I've kept this boat for 21 years and it's all paid for, yeah.


What's so wrong about wanting the comforts of home? Didn't most of us grow up with h&c running water and laundry machines?

[Sojourner]

The difference is easy to understand. Like having a little summer dacha or cabin by the lake vs your full time home. At the cabin, I don't mind showering in rainwater from the cistern and bringing drinking water in the trunk when I'll be there for a weekend. In my normal all-year-round home, I want clean, safe drinking water piped in on demand when and how I need it, without worrying about the quality or quantity. And if that cabin turned into my full time home, I'd pay the bucks to drill a well to achieve this.

We have a 70lph watermaker. We don't use it horribly often (well, we do, briefly to keep the membranes good) because it works out that we enjoy marinas once a week or every 10 days anyway either to resupply or weather, and with our 1000 liter freshwater tank, it usually lasts us till the next free wateringhole. But the times when we needed it, it was very very nice.

[alansmith]

Haven't gotten around to buying and installing on my trimaran. But i did a good long hard look at where i could place the components. Have talked to Rich Boren several times over the years about his R/O system. Perhaps that is the way i will go.

My boat only has a 25 gallon tank. All extra water has to be stored around the boat. I want my wife to feel comfortable on the boat. She is my first mate. Salt attracts moisture and i detest that sticky-icky feeling. Women really do like to cleanse themselves much more than men do. I don't want my wife to get turned off with sailing over 5K. That would be silly thing not to keep mama happy. My boat is in Sea of Cortez and water sources aren't that readily available when you are on the eastern side of Baja.

So, my thinking is such....i can camp and ration water. Or I can spend the money on the R/O and not worry about making my wife miserable....

[mikedefieslife]

Originally Posted by Franziska

Interesting. Where about in Europe?

We did never had a similar an issue doing that (coast between Poland and Southern Brittany.

If we are at anchor we try to fill water Jerry cans when we also need some fuel. First fill the fuel jerry cans and than the water tanks.

If we don't need fuel, we just fill the water cans on one of the pontoons which is not to close to the Marina offices. Never had someone complain.
Sometimes "those who ask will get answers" does not work out great.

Usually we fill about 10-15x5Liter cans.

But than again our dinghy has a big hold where no-one sees the water cans once they are filled.
In the medium term I do think about installing a 100l bladder tank with transfer tank in the dinghies hold.

So far I guess one would need to catch us in the act ;-)
Probably we were just lucky.

Once we are full time again, a water maker is very high on our list of things to get. Especially as we hate the camping atmosphere of marinas and almost always anchor.

Lagos, Portugal.

A 100l bladder in the dinghy and a transfer pump is the way to go I think. It was something I'd been considering for a while before I bought the watermaker.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by mikedefieslife

Lagos, Portugal.



A 100l bladder in the dinghy and a transfer pump is the way to go I think. It was something I'd been considering for a while before I bought the watermaker.

We were just in Portugal for about 1.5 months and visited Lagos. We REALLY enjoyed Portugal.

I got to Portugal from the USA on a boat w a Spectra watermaker. A watermaker is not only a game changer for coastal cruising, but offshore as well. We did carry some water in jerry jugs just in case, but otherwise we effectively had unlimited fresh water. However, we only motor sailed for about 3 days of the entire crossing so it wasnt often warm for showers. [emoji51]

[daletournier]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I don’t think it is as it explains why have a watermaker.
We flush with fresh water and bathe everyday, wash clothes and I even fresh water rinse the anchor chain, that has seemed to greatly extend the life of the chain, it doesn’t seem to rust without sitting in the locker soaked with salt water.
We also wash clothes and do dishes etc. I defrost the cold plates with water too as nothing else is as gentle or as fast, running 80 something degree water over ice, melts it fast.
In short I don’t hang over her and complain about her leaving the water on while she washes her face etc.
We have a high output water maker and run it a couple of hours, a couple times a week.

We would use approx the same amount, main reason is ,because we can.

In the tropics it's hot, we jump in the water alot and wash of everytime, this is the true beauty of a large water maker, it gives pleasure.

My last boat had a 200 l tank, and very small watermaker, I now appreciate the luxury of alot of water.

[Tellie]

Originally Posted by Mr B

I have a little wonder 160 watermaker and the 12 volt motor is totally shot,
They want $1200-00 for a new 12 volt DC motor,

Do you have any info on a 12 volt motor alternative that can be used in place of the Little Wonder DC motor,,
I was thinking of a starter motor off a car engine, But I think the power draw would be way too high,

Thanks in advance,
Brian,

A car starter motor is not a continuous duty motor ans would burn out in short order.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by alansmith

Haven't gotten around to buying and installing on my trimaran. But i did a good long hard look at where i could place the components. Have talked to Rich Boren several times over the years about his R/O system. Perhaps that is the way i will go.

My boat only has a 25 gallon tank. All extra water has to be stored around the boat. I want my wife to feel comfortable on the boat. She is my first mate. Salt attracts moisture and i detest that sticky-icky feeling. Women really do like to cleanse themselves much more than men do. I don't want my wife to get turned off with sailing over 5K. That would be silly thing not to keep mama happy. My boat is in Sea of Cortez and water sources aren't that readily available when you are on the eastern side of Baja.

So, my thinking is such....i can camp and ration water. Or I can spend the money on the R/O and not worry about making my wife miserable....

I can solve your should or shouldn't I Celina with 4 words.

HAPPY WIFE HAPPY LIFE

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by mikedefieslife

Lagos, Portugal.

A 100l bladder in the dinghy and a transfer pump is the way to go I think. It was something I'd been considering for a while before I bought the watermaker.

We do the same with a 200 litre bladder to feed our 5 tonne of tankage.

[AndyEss]

For those who are interested in rolling their own, I have the pressure vessel (and used membrane) from a PowerSurvivor80E for sale on CF.
$200 plus shipping from La Paz.
I couldn’t imagine doing the cruising I do without a watermaker. The only trick, as I see it, is to have sufficient solar panel capacity that you run your WM on panel output once your bank is full. For me, that’s about 500 watts of panel output.
The only time I run into water problems is when I have a large group of friends partying on my boat over a weekend at Balandra. Few of them are sailors, so you just have to go with the flow.

[mikedefieslife]

Originally Posted by Simi 60

We do the same with a 200 litre bladder to feed our 5 tonne of tankage.

5 tonnes My boat doesn't even weigh 5 tonnes.

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by Leo Ticheli

Water Makers are not financially justified, but neither is boat ownership, at least for most of us. I'm very happy with my little Spectra 150 although I doubt I would have bought nearly enough water to pay for it.

Fair winds,
Leo

Our Little Wonder has made well over 120,000 litres of water for us over 9 1/2 years.

We usually don't have to pay for water in Australia, but still just in fuel savings going to docks for water it's got to be close to paying for itself.

[mikedefieslife]

Originally Posted by 44'cruisingcat

Our Little Wonder has made well over 120,000 litres of water for us over 9 1/2 years.

We usually don't have to pay for water in Australia, but still just in fuel savings going to docks for water it's got to be close to paying for itself.

In San Antonio Ibiza, that amount of water would have cost you €3.600

In Ratjada, Mallorca, or Porto Colom, it would have cost closer to €2.000

In Propriano, Corsica, it would have been €5-10.000 depending on your tankage.

It would be €20.000 in Naxos Sicilly, though you might have been able to negotiate and get water discounted.

And of course in other places it would be free, but a lot of hassle. I know many of the places I went to in Italy would only allow you to take on water for as long as you were using the fuel hose.