Experience With Cruise RO Watermaker

[Tellie]

Originally Posted by SV THIRD DAY

Unfortunately No.
The Honda 1000 just doesn't have enough power to run the 1100W 1.0Hp motor used on both our 20GPH and 30GPH models.

The Power Survivor 40E is rated at 1.5GPH. To put that in perspective, you would need to run the 40E for 13.3 HOURS to make 20 gallons of water. At a 4.0 Amp power draw that is 53.2 Amp Hours out of your battery bank.

By comparison, you can make 20 gallons of water in an hour and charge your batteries at the same time with our approach of running the Honda 2000 or diesel genset if you have one.. Hey not everyone likes our approach and some think I'm crazy, to which I say guilty as charged. I'm more into showers and deck/gear wash downs and anchor....

Come on Rich. A 40E as an energy and product comparison? You compare a 1.4gph watermaker to a 20-30gph watermaker? Apples to apples, you can't kick start a 20gph watermaker with a Honda 1000. You say you can't have too much water making capabilities. Then how about a 1,500 Watt/hr 125 gallons an hour watermaker operated on a Honda 2000. It can be done, in 24 volts as well. That might be more a fair comparison to a 20-30 gph high energy hog watermaker. 125gph on 1500Watts is a whole lot different than 20-30 in an hour and leaves even more power to charge your batteries. With that we can wash down your neighbors boats and anchors at the same time. Heck by the time someone else makes 20-30 gph we've washed down our boat, anchor, drying all the girls hair, and have given a neighbor 100 gallons of fresh water for their tanks on less than 2,000Watts. So, before we start ripping other watermakers, lets keep it apples to apples There are plenty of rotten oranges out there and there are enough people in this industry who try to tell us they smell like apples.

[GILow]

Ummmm... I don’t think Rich chose the comparison. He was responding to a previous post.

[GILow]

Ummmm... I don’t think Rich chose the comparison. He was responding to a previous post by Franziska.

[a64pilot]

I’m going to go out on a limb somewhat and just guess the Cruise RO was sort of designed for the most popular suitcase generator, the Honda 2000, or it was just luck, but they match well, the 2200 is of course even better.
My Cruise RO draws about 8 amps and makes a little over 30 GPH, usually. That leaves me room to run my battery charger at 30%, now it’s a 125 amp charger so I guess that’s about 40 amps? So by the time my water tank is full, so is my battery bank.
As long as your burning gas anyway energy efficiency isn’t really relevant, but what is of course is, is to stay within the rating of the thing producing power.

So what your doing to a great extent is trading efficiency for simplistic design, as a life long maintainer of rather complex equipment, I have come to like simple things with COTS parts, COTS is an acronym for Commercial Off The Shelf, I dislike proprietary parts, cause they are hard to source and often expensive.

To a little extent as I understand it, the Spectra watermakers just don’t compare to the Cruise RO, they are both good pieces of equipment, it’s apples and oranges. The Spectra to use boats as an example, is a good sailing sailboat, it can carry you around the world without burning a drop of fuel.
The Cruise RO is a good Trawler, it can also carry you anywhere you want to go, but your burning fuel to be there.
Money wise I’m not convinced that a Trawler cost a nickel more than a Sailboat to operate, Lord knows when I look at how much money I have in Sails, rigging, chainplates etc, I think a Trawler actually can be cheaper.

I believe the choice between an AC powered high output watermaker vs an energy recovery efficient DC one is really more about whether or not you already have or plan on having a generator, cause if your not, then an inefficient watermaker is not for you. I know people plan on putting DC motors on and using Solar, but it’s not going to work, unless you have an insane amount of Solar.
But if you have or plan on having a generator, then the simple high output AC watermaker may cost less is simpler, doesn’t have any proprietary parts, and may cost less

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

...[1] Money wise I’m not convinced that a Trawler cost a nickel more than a Sailboat to operate, Lord knows when I look at how much money I have in Sails, rigging, chainplates etc, I think a Trawler actually can be cheaper ...
...[2] I believe the choice between an AC powered high output watermaker vs an energy recovery efficient DC one is really more about whether or not you already have or plan on having a generator ...

1. Robert Beebe makes this point, very convincingly, in his landmark passagemaking bible “Voyaging Under Power”. This may be even more true today, than back in 1975.
➥ https://www.bookdepository.com/Voyag.../9780071767330
➥ https://www.passagemaker.com/web-ext...ical-web-extra

2. Indeed.

[WanderIVth]

Just so you're all aware; Rich is a saint and if anyone says different, I'll knife fight them in the street.

But seriously, he's been texting with me all day to get this thing running. I owe him a bottle of something nice. Unbelievable.

[neworleansrich]

I have a Cruise RO 20GPH system that is set up manual. My preference; keep it simple....

I just have to say Cruise RO is a great company and Rich has been more than helpful with this watermaker, water maker supplies (at fair prices), and a Blue cool freezer that I inherited. If they make an automatic freshwater flush system, it will work as advertised, or Rich will be on the phone until it does.

If all marine companies could be this good...

[a64pilot]

He does make an automatic fresh water flush system.
I’ve not gotten one as it’s just not hard to remember to flush, when we are in a Marina for Hurricane season, I flush every time I fill the tank, which is just short of a week.