Does anyone know how to "unpickle" a Seafari 179 watermaker?

[Kaja]

Hello all
I am now on my yacht in St Mary's, Georgia, and my Captain has given me the job of getting the watermaker going. I have looked at the manual on how to start the process. I do not understand the terminology. It was "pickled" at least a year ago by the previous owner of the yacht. We purchased in April this year. We are now preparing the yacht to go to the Bahamas and onward. I need a simple step-by-step guide please. Do I need to put new filters in and how would I do that. There does not seem to be a simple way to open the machine. I know that I need to be out at sea but that will be too late to arrange for purchase of parts, etc or find physical assistance. I am sure that I should be doing some maintenance/changing filters, etc. Thanks in anticipation.
Kaja

[Kaja]

Mistake made. It is a 170 Seafari watermaker made by Horizon.
Kaja

[noelex 77]

I don't know the specific recommendations for your watermaker, but in general following pickling, the watermaker needs to run with unpressurised seawater to flush the pickling solution out of the membrane.
Unpressurised is important.
Typically this is done for 30mins before the pickling solution is flushed from the membrane and the pressure can be increased to start producing product water.

[Dsanduril]

Basically turn it on and run it in rinse mode to rinse out the pickling chemicals (so discharge overboard). If you don't know the care it received the before you may want to go through the membrane cleaning as well. For the step-by-step you can find the manual here:

http://www.artimarin.com/PDF/sf170_3...05compress.pdf

but some of it will depend on what options (if any) you have installed. For instance, there is an automatic rinse system, you'll have to determine whether or not that is fitted, because is affects valve positions during rinsing/cleaning.

[Sailmonkey]

Simple really.

back off of the pressure knob and run the unit for a while (like 30 minutes) to purge the pickling solution from the unit.

turn the pressure back up until you are making a little product water, and run it for a little while again (rejecting all the product water).

turn the pressure up to either what your manual specifies, or when you hit your rated product volume, whatever comes first. then check the product water for salinity. When your're happy with it, divert the product water to the tank.

I have not read the manual for your particular machine, but this is all that there is to it.

[hellosailor]

http://www.artimarin.com/PDF/sf170_3...05compress.pdf

Oddly, the manufacturer does not have their manuals online but this web site does. the complete 151 page owners manual as a PDF file, which should tell you everything. And probably should be printed out and kept on the boat.

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

http://www.artimarin.com/PDF/sf170_3...05compress.pdf

Oddly, the manufacturer does not have their manuals online but this web site does. the complete 151 page owners manual as a PDF file, which should tell you everything. And probably should be printed out and kept on the boat.

They have the manual, but didn't understand the terminology used in the manual.

[Kaja]

Dsundril
There is no automatic rinse system fitted.
Do I need to change any filters? Are they inside the machine?

Sailmonkey
How do I know that the water in the tank is 'fresh' water and has no chlorine or fluoride in it? Chemicals in the water can ruin the membrane.

Hello sailor
I have the manual. It say to fill a 5 gal container with fresh water but then says to disconnect the outlet line from the sea strainer and place it in the container. Where is the outlet line? In the machine?

[hellosailor]

Kaja-
"disconnect the outlet line from the sea strainer" I think at that point, I would call the maker on the phone. (A VOIP internet phone from an internet cafe should be less than a nickel a minute anywhere in the world.)
I can understand why the raw water INTAKE or INLET would be connected to a sea strainer, so the unit can suck in clean raw water. But an OUTLET shouldn't need a sea strainer. There should be one or two outlets, i.e. a waste discharge, and a fresh water discharge, neither of them connecting to a sea strainer.
That manual probably should read "disconnect the RAW WATER INTAKE from the sea strainer and place it in a container of fresh water". If there's no label on the water maker, follow the hoses. Only one of them should go to a sea strainer on the way to the hull.

But again, if the rest of it is that cryptic...call the maker. And hope that whoever answers the phone is not the person who wrote that manual. <G>

[Dsanduril]

The manual is poorly worded, but they mean the line that is connected to the outlet of the sea strainer. This provides the feed water for the watermaker, and so goes to the inlet of the watermaker.

Impossible to say where this is, the manual won't help you here. There is some hose/tubing/pipe that goes from the seawater inlet someplace in the hull to the watermaker. You'll have to trace the hoses to figure out which hose this is, the through-hull that brings seawater into the system is wherever the boat manufacturer or previous owner decided to put it.

I think when the manual talks about "fresh water rinse" it is talking about using product water, which is by its nature chlorine free. You do need to be very careful of using chlorinated fresh water as it can damage the membrane.

[Dsanduril]

With reference to this diagram, you should be able to identify [11], this the high pressure pump and is pretty easy to recognize. [6] is the pre-filter and is in the line that brings in raw sea water. See if you can recognize these two parts. Then follow the hose from [6] back to wherever it comes from (or wherever you can find a place to disconnect it). Basically, to run something else through the system you want to disconnect the hose that runs into [6] and put it in your bucket or whatever.

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by Kaja

Sailmonkey
How do I know that the water in the tank is 'fresh' water and has no chlorine or fluoride in it? Chemicals in the water can ruin the membrane.

If you're trying to unpickle this machine, the tankwater will never see it. If the ocean is chlorinated you've got bigger things to worry about than the watermaker.

When I need to be certain I've got chemical free water to pickle my watermaker I use it to make a gallon of water to mix the pickling solution in to pickle it. But when I unpickle the unit, I just run it with no pressure for a while to purge the chemicals. Easy peasy.

[Dsanduril]

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

I just run it with no pressure for a while to purge the chemicals. Easy peasy.

+1. And then if you decide it needs cleaning in addition to unpickling then make about 5 gallons of water into a bucket and use that for the cleaning.

[noelex 77]

You don't need to use fresh water to rinse the pickling solution out of the membrane. Salt water is fine. Just make sue there is no high pressure.

When using the watermaker normally, without any pickiling solution a fresh water rinse for 5mins or so at the end of a normal cycle is a good idea.
It is important that this water is chlorine free.

[capttman]

Hmmmm your boat you have a captain? He or she should walk you through it. Many chores we perform as Captain...... It's an easy process as may described before me