watermakers

[contrail]

I have had various watermakers over the last 29 years, and I would not be without one. My cruising has been in water challenged areas and otherwise. I have always preferred a DC unit for the simple reason that it can use almost any source of power you may have aboard. True, nowadays with bigger and better inverters and battery banks, some of that is irrelevant, but have a problem with your power source, someday, and you may change your mind. They are also generally much more efficient and quiet. I have a 400GPD Spectra 12 V model. They do make 110V ones, as well.

[zemurray]

I know this thread seems to be targeted more to the full time cruiser use cases, however we have seriously considered a water maker. I have a very small boat, 30 gallon tank, and I supplement with another 15 gallons of cans. My wife and I take 1 gallon bucket showers in the cockpit and can get by with 5-6 gallons total per day. For us it’s about staying out and independent of marinas and self reliant. We’ve considered a Rainman just for the simplicity and portability to a larger boat one day. My other issue is holding tank, for now that brings us back to a marina unless we spend a lot of time off coast and stretch it. If I could find space to setup that macerator pump, we’d never hit a marina!

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Oceansailor

Thanks,

We have 900 Ah and 650 W Solar. On anchor we use 10 Ah. (240Ah/24 hour) The 650 W are not enough for us in the Carribean. On average we run a minus of 80-100Ah over 24 hour.

I’m going to guess that like me, you Cruise in Winter months, in Summer you would likely have plenty of Solar, and or if you were near the equator you may have plenty year round.
Many don’t realize they are coming up short as they motor often and catch up then, but let them sit for more than a week and they find themselves waking up to a dead bank and can’t figure out why.
When you talk to them they often say “we run the motor for an hour every day, our batteries have to be getting charged.”
They think I guess of their car, left the lights on, had to get jumped, drove for an hour and everything was fine.

Without using my motor and it’s alternator often, I couldn’t make the “numbers” work on staying charged in Winter in S Fl or the Bahamas, not without short cycling them, yes I could get to 85% or so every day, but not 100%.

So with our electrical use we can’t quite make it without either a lifestyle change or running something to charge batteries for a little while.
So I decided early on that we were going to have a generator, and that decision led to an AC high output watermaker.
See we use I think about 25 or 30 gls a day as we don’t conserve and we flush with fresh water and I was the boat down every now and again, and rinse the anchor chain with fresh as it gets put away.
I went into this knowing that if I were the power and water Nazi, she wouldn’t be pleased and neither would I, so my intent was realistically unlimited water and power, and that’s not hard, nor is it expensive.
We choose to cruise most often where getting water isn’t easy, and I don’t want to have to schedule how long we stay or where we go based on availability of water.
If we cruised where Marina’s were common then maybe we wouldn’t desire a watermaker.

Having a watermaker means you can go where you want to, stay as long as you want to, and while your there wear clean clothes every day, sleep in a clean bed and shower as often as you like etc.

A Honda is a boat buck, and with one you don’t have to worry that for the last three days it’s been overcast, and you don’t have to run your Diesel to charge batteries. If your supplementing Solar with one and making water etc. it’s only a few gls of gas a month.
Someone smarter than me ran the numbers and fuel for water is 200 to 1, meaning that one 5 gl can of gas will make 1,000 gls of water if you have an AC high output watermaker.

Nothing at all wrong with a Spectra, they are great pieces of kit, and if you can get by with the Solar you have and can run a Spectra too, then that’s what makes sense to do.
However if you have decided your going to have a generator, then maybe an AC watermaker makes sense for you.

That is why I say that often which watermaker you should buy is dependent on whether or not your have or are going to have a generator.

[Mike OReilly]

Another way to approach the water problem is to look at conservation. We use 1 gallon/person/day, so two gallons per day. I know this because I installed a flow meter a couple of seasons ago. It's a number that has been remarkably consistent over time.

At this consumption rate we use water as we need. We cook all meals on board, and we drink as much as we want. We're not restrictive, but are conscious of its usage.

A few things help make this usage possible for us.

#1. Our climate is cool, so we're not generally loosing as much water through perspiration that most of you do down south. This is probably the most significant factor.

#2. We use sea water for dish washing, ending it with a fresh water spritz. For laundry, a sea water wash followed by a fresh water rinse. This alone saves us lots.

#3. Our head is a composter, so no water usage (other than a final spritz).

#4. We tend to shower with rain or spring water, although if that's not possible we use tank water. But we don't shower daily -- maybe weekly. Daily sponge baths do the job just fine.

[sailorboy1]

I feel the dish washing is my highest water use. I would consider a saltwater wash at the sink, but acturally what to use the water tanks up and refill on a regular time frame.

[Pizzazz]

Those of you who claim very low water usage per day. Technically, a person can survive on may be 1/4 gallon of fresh water per day. But why? I looked up average water use per day, excluding baths, dishwashing and flushing (typically done with seawater) but your are still left with drinking water, personal hygiene and showers and that adds up to min 5-7g/day/person. Sometimes it is just nice to take a long shower. I can’t imagine why people would not prioritize a water maker over the fridge, the autopilot, the radar or a bottom paint. I would not.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Pizzazz

Those of you who claim very low water usage per day. Technically, a person can survive on may be 1/4 gallon of fresh water per day. But why? I looked up average water use per day, excluding baths, dishwashing and flushing (typically done with seawater) but your are still left with drinking water, personal hygiene and showers and that adds up to min 5-7g/day/person. Sometimes it is just nice to take a long shower. I can’t imagine why people would not prioritize a water maker over the fridge, the autopilot, the radar or a bottom paint. I would not.

To each his own. If water was an issue, then it would rise to the top of the list. But it's not. So in my case a working autopilot and radar is far higher on the needs list. Bottom paint is pretty important. And the fridge is nice.

But I already have all those things. PLUS I have no water worries .

It's funny, but I can't imagine using 7 gallons of water each day. Even when we're tied to a dock, with endless water easily available, our usage doesn't quite double. And this is mostly because we can't use salt water to wash dishes while we're in a marina. Seriously ... it would require an serious effort to be that extravagant.

I was a bit surprised at our rates after I installed our flow meter, but they are consistent over two years now. Like I said, we are not water paranoid. We absolutely use as much as we need or want. But I suppose we are water conscious. And our location and our boat's setup certainly helps.

[Oceansailor]

Originally Posted by Pizzazz

Those of you who claim very low water usage per day. Technically, a person can survive on may be 1/4 gallon of fresh water per day. But why? I looked up average water use per day, excluding baths, dishwashing and flushing (typically done with seawater) but your are still left with drinking water, personal hygiene and showers and that adds up to min 5-7g/day/person. Sometimes it is just nice to take a long shower. I can’t imagine why people would not prioritize a water maker over the fridge, the autopilot, the radar or a bottom paint. I would not.

For us a watermaker is very important. Clean water is freedom. Being able to take freshwater shower after every swim I take is not only refreshing it also prevents saltwater contaminating of the fabrics inside the boat. I guess we swim 3-4 times/day. Just the rinsing off after swimming is 10-12 g/day.

When we have guests onboard it is not the end of the world if someone leaves the tap open a little bit more than needed.

My wife is definitely very happy with the watermaker as she can use the washing machine as much as she wants.

However I do think autopilot, radar, fridge etc. is a little bit higher up on the priority list:-)

When I do longer crossings a watermaker is a safety factor. I carry 150 g in two tanks. I only use one tank. The other is just an emergency tank. We top up the tank in use every second day.

[svmatilda]

We have been living aboard 9 years and have been seriously cruising with very little marina contact for the last 6, with 3 ½ years spent in SE Asia. I will tell what we have. Fitted on Matilda is a Spectra 380 but this is now known as a Spectra Cape Horn Extreme. There are several reasons we like this system. Its 12V no nasty shocks if something goes wrong, no additional bits and pieces to assemble when its time to make water. In the last six years we have had to replace the feed pump diaphragms twice (four diaphragms, one for each pump twice).
The system has been reasonably trouble free other than the odd leak developing. Getting in and fix the leak straight away takes care of this, don’t leave it to develop into a bigger leak. We do clean or replace the pre filters on a very regular basis. Along with doing a back flush if we don’t use the unit daily.
We have been in some areas where the water hasn’t been totally clear and haven’t had a problem. We have cleaned the membrane twice during the last nine years and doing so has returned it to like new PPM readings.
We make water most days to top up the tanks. Matilda has a reasonably large battery house bank, 120 Amp alternator, silent wind generator, however I don’t think a bigger battery bank would matter because the power is made up during the day and the banks are at 100% at days end. There are also lots of ways to reduce the power consumption not impacting on your living standard. This will leave more for things like a water maker, just about every time we turn the motor on we start the water maker. Even if the tanks are full we keep a couple of containers to fill for this purpose.
We don’t have to carry extra fuel for a generator or 4 stroke motor. We have friends who have motor driven systems and while they are good there is a lot more maintenance to be done. This is amplified because there is a motor and water maker both in the equation. Storage of a system that requires assembly for use can be a pain. Keep in mind we can make water in just about any weather condition even really rough weather where the intake sea cock is out of the water from time to time. Try making water with a system of loose assembled parts on the duck board on a rough day.
There are a lot of pros and cons when choosing a system. We like the Spectra system and getting parts wasn’t a problem even in SE Asia.
The only other bit of advice I can give is this, if you do get a Spectra, don’t be tempted to use sodium metabisulphite to pickle the membrane. While it’s ok for some systems it will destroy the Spectra components, only use spectra compounds. A friend of mine brought a boat where he was advised by the previous owner to use sodium metabisulphite in his spectra and it didn’t work very well after it was unpickled.

Fair Winds

[frozenhawaiian]

this thread has settled me on my decision to go with a 12v spectra

[MIRELOS]

good choice, I got one 24V on my boat...now to install it

[slug]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

To each his own. If water was an issue, then it would rise to the top of the list. But it's not. So in my case a working autopilot and radar is far higher on the needs list. Bottom paint is pretty important. And the fridge is nice.

But I already have all those things. PLUS I have no water worries .

It's funny, but I can't imagine using 7 gallons of water each day. Even when we're tied to a dock, with endless water easily available, our usage doesn't quite double. And this is mostly because we can't use salt water to wash dishes while we're in a marina. Seriously ... it would require an serious effort to be that extravagant.

I was a bit surprised at our rates after I installed our flow meter, but they are consistent over two years now. Like I said, we are not water paranoid. We absolutely use as much as we need or want. But I suppose we are water conscious. And our location and our boat's setup certainly helps.

Your boat also needs fresh water

Takes a few gallons of water to remove salt from deck, cockpit areas, windows ...

Equipment maintenance and general down below clean up consumes fresh water

I budget about 4 gallons per day in temperate climate

Double in tropical and Uv burnt regions

[Leo Ticheli]

Our Spectra 150 has been perfect for us, but if I were doing it again, I might well be tempted to go with Rainman to avoid the additional thruhull and other installation costs.

Fair winds,
Leo

[Idylles15.5]

Was just at the Javits center for the boat show last night. Not very big, but when walking around the vendors area I was surprised to see that Spectra did not even have a booth there, or Schenker. I actually went too look at new water maker models, 12 volt. The only manufacturer there was Parker with the Sea Recovery Aqua Whisper on display. I never even considered this unit. Very compact, didn't have all of the electronic bells and whistles, manual back flush and such, but was impressed. Cost was even more impressive. Under 5 grand and Parker is a huge filter manufacturer, so the replacement components they make are inexpensive. Anyone have one of these units? Any feedback would be great.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by slug

Your boat also needs fresh water

Takes a few gallons of water to remove salt from deck, cockpit areas, windows ...

Equipment maintenance and general down below clean up consumes fresh water

I budget about 4 gallons per day in temperate climate

Double in tropical and Uv burnt regions

That's what rain is for .