Water maker for yacht

[Mr B]

Village Marine, Little wonder water maker,
I have a 160-200, Unit, It works great and its 20 year old,
Its about $4500-00

[Mr B]

Originally Posted by mvmojo

I put together an engine driven system (Ford 80hp Lehman diesel) that worked great. Used a pressure washer pump with stainless steel internals for the high pressure pump. Designed a bracket to mount it to the engine with an electric clutch to engage/disengage the pump. Tee'd into the raw water circuit just past the oil cooler. The water pump">raw water pump supplied more then enough water for the water maker and the engine heat exchanger. Ran high pressure hose from the engine driven pump to a remote mounted membrane with a pressure gauge and stainless steel steam pressure valve and associated plumbing. Worked great with daily use from 1995 until 2000 when we sold the boat. I then moved the pump/membrane/etc. to the new boat and kept making water. The same Lehman engine also had a 100 amp alternator and an engine driven refrigeration compressor belted to the front. We ran the engine an hour in the am and an hour in the pm for refrigerator/freezer and to charge batteries. The water maker made 16 gph so we only ran it once a day. Once full, the tanks stayed pretty much full since we rarely used more than 16 gal/day including showers, cooking, etc.

Which pressure washer pump with Stainless internals did you use,
Im having trouble finding one with the stainless pump,
Aluminium just doesnt like sea water,

[a64pilot]

Rich Boren of Cruise RO sells components too, like pumps etc.
https://www.cruiserowaterandpower.co...r-maker-parts/

When you go to buy membranes, be careful. The shelf life once packaged is only 1 year, and many, many out of date membranes are sold at what seems to be great prices.

[sailcrazy]

After a lot of looking and talking to other cruisers, we bought a CruiseRO.....and are very happy with it and the service Rich Boron provides. Buy one big enough for your expected use. The biggest reason to go CruiseRO is that the components/parts are common off-the-shelf (read universally available) and not proprietary. You don't need to go back to CruiseRO for it.....no matter where in the world you happen to be!

[CdS2 Roland]

We are using a French brand Dessalator 30 USgal/h. Some told us we will going into issues with electronic control. After 10 years we just changed the membranes 2 years
ago and the high pressure flexibles between pump and membranes. If I change it once I would go to a bigger one, trying to match power production and power consumption. Why run a big engine/genset and use only 1,5 kw?

[Anders]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

But, if were buying a DC unit new I would get a Schenker instead of the Spectra

Why do you prefer the Schenker?

[Marathon1150]

Originally Posted by dougweibel

The Katadyn have very low production rates. You may want to look at the Spectra Ventura series. They are a little more money but will allow you to make a lot more water per hour.

The Rainman water makers do not have an energy recovery device (Clark pump) like the Spectras so your energy usage will be higher.

We also ended up choosing between these two systems (Katadyn and Spectra) and ended up installing a Ventura 150 because of the production/power use ratio. We have had it for 4 years and crossed an ocean with it. So far so good.