Cruising with a Katadyn 40E

[Mike OReilly]

Have you considered the Schenker units?

SCHENKER Watermakers | Best Watermaker for your Boat, Yacht or Vessel

They seem interesting to me.

[a64pilot]

Curious, where do you get a good AC water maker for $3,000 ish?
Be careful sometimes you get what you pay for. You bought a Honda, not a Harbor Freight for half or less, why?

I’m thinking if you choose an AC watermaker that is the same quality of a Spectra, that there isn’t much price difference, especially if you have to buy a Honda to run it.

I’ve seen a budget AC watermaker, and the one I saw wasn’t anything near the quality of components that Spectra uses, or a quality AC one for that matter.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Have you considered the Schenker units?

SCHENKER Watermakers | Best Watermaker for your Boat, Yacht or Vessel

They seem interesting to me.

looking into them now, not really a 40E thread item as it is more of a Spectra unit

BTW - in case people don't know Katadyn now owns Spectra. As part of that the 80E and 160E have been discontinued because they don't stand up well aganist the Spectra units. But they kept the 40E as it has a place in the market.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Curious, where do you get a good AC water maker for $3,000 ish?
Be careful sometimes you get what you pay for. You bought a Honda, not a Harbor Freight for half or less, why?

Seawater Pro sells a 20 gph for $3k and a 40 gph for $3.5k.

I only answer this thread drift because you keeping asking it. Please don't now turn a thread about a 40e into a nitpick between your CruiseRO and the Seawater Pro.

[hzcruiser]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Thanks.

Like a wind gen, I bet the noise level is largely determined by the installation. I'm sure there are better, and worse, ways to set it up regarding noise levels.

True, now that you mention it, I can't hear the wind turbine in the lazarette at all!

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by hzcruiser

True, now that you mention it, I can't hear the wind turbine in the lazarette at all!

Sorry, couldn't resist.

For some more drift

I rafted to a boat with a wind generator once (that's when I learned that a Honda made less noise than a wind generator because he had that also). I asked him how he could stand listening to the wind generator and he said he couldn't hear it.

That's when I learned that over time a wind generator makes you deaf.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

looking into them now, not really a 40E thread item as it is more of a Spectra unit

True, but you know how threads drift. Regardless, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on how these compare to other Spectra.

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

I rafted to a boat with a wind generator once (that's when I learned that a Honda made less noise than a wind generator because he had that also). I asked him how he could stand listening to the wind generator and he said he couldn't hear it.

That's when I learned that over time a wind generator makes you deaf.

Possibly true (regarding the deafness ), but it very much depends on which wind gen and how it is installed.

I own a wind gen (a Silent Wind) and I have a portable gas generator. No comparison regarding the noise level -- the generator is WAAAY louder. And I specifically bought the quietest gas generator: the 1000 watt Yamaha. It is quieter than the Hondas.

[alctel]

I have one, works great for me. My water usage is about 2 gallons a day, sometimes less - with someone else on the boat it goes to a pretty regular 4 gallons.

Had no problems with the unit, dead simple, easy to pickle and small.

If you want to take freshwater showers on the reg though, you are gonna need a bigger one.

I originally had a seawaterpro which I sold, as the amount of water it generated was too high so I couldn't run it enough.

[Quadrille in JB]

We lived with a PUR Survivor 36, the forerunner to the Katadyn 40E for a number of years. That was before Katadyn bought PUR out and doubled the price. There is definitely a place for this watermaker on smaller boats.
This little watermaker worked out great for us on our 27' Watkins. We would get up in the morning, my wife would start it up, purge the initial salt water output, and start making water. It ran off of a 360W Sunpower PV panel and battery bank along with a Danfoss based freezer/fridge with no problems, as long as you didn't have more than 1 rainy day in a row, and then out came the Honda.
It would run throughout the long summer daylight hours and produce about 15 gals of water a day, plenty for our ice, drinking, and shower needs.
To minimize the noise, I mounted it on isolation mounts, to prevent the low frequency noise from being transmitted through the boat. The sound it produced was very minimal, in fact we found it kind of comforting to hear it, knowing that it was producing water for us.
That unit went with the boat and the only thing that kept us from replacing it with a Katadyn 40E was the price. Why buy a 1.6 gph watermaker when you can get a 20 gpm watermaker for under $2K. We replaced it with a SeawaterPro and have been very happy with it. We now have 2-360W Sunpower PV panels and an 840 ah AGM battery bank which keeps both the fridge and freezer cold as well as power the SeawaterPro watermaker for 30-45 minutes each day through our Kisae 2K watt full sinewave inverter.
The batteries are usually up to 100% before noon, and then we make water for the day. With the sun shining brightly and the PV panels kicking butt, the draw on the battery bank is usually about 50 amps according to our Victron 702 battery monitor.

[Tellie]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

looking into them now, not really a 40E thread item as it is more of a Spectra unit

BTW - in case people don't know Katadyn now owns Spectra. As part of that the 80E and 160E have been discontinued because they don't stand up well aganist the Spectra units. But they kept the 40E as it has a place in the market.

This is true. I deal with both units. I can tell you this though, when a customer comes to me all set on wanting to buy a Katadyn 40E, nine out of ten times he will be getting a Spectra V T150 before I'm through. This is not an attempt to up sale any one into a more expensive watermaker. It is just a far wiser choice to go the extra money to get more than four times the amount of water at half the energy use. If you're running any water maker every day for 6-10 hours you have made the wrong choice in the size of a watermaker.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Seawater Pro sells a 20 gph for $3k and a 40 gph for $3.5k.

I only answer this thread drift because you keeping asking it. Please don't now turn a thread about a 40e into a nitpick between your CruiseRO and the Seawater Pro.

Not turning it into anything, but your going to be as well pleased with a Seawater Pro as you were with that Lombardi generator you saved money on, and for the same reason.

You continually start threads and then complain about people not telling you what you want to hear.
So to make you happy, watermakers are totally silent, and a Seawater Pro is just as good as a Spectra, just at half the price.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Not turning it into anything, but your going to be as well pleased with a Seawater Pro as you were with that Lombardi generator you saved money on, and for the same reason.

You continually start threads and then complain about people not telling you what you want to hear.
So to make you happy, watermakers are totally silent, and a Seawater Pro is just as good as a Spectra, just at half the price.

I tried to avoid this as nothing but thread drift, but you are determined.

Just because YOU think a watermaker maker using the same HP pump, same RO membrane, pretty much the same filters as you have must somehow not be as good because they came from a different "builder" you choose to use doesn't make it so.

Face it, I am sure Rich at CruiseRO has gained experience and knowledge experimenting with other people's money while building water makers. But that doesn't change that at the heart of it he was just a cruiser that put together a DIY water maker and then started building them as a business. There is no magic to his units or design. He uses off the shelf items and really the only value adder is that a buyer doesn't have to spend the time to source all of them.

You jump into every watermaker thread with the same story and you act like a sales agent for CruiseRO.

And Mr. Moderator there is no way to not take your above post as NOT a personal attack. The only reason I don't report the post as such it that I have learned that it is a waste of time.

[dwedeking2]