Watermaker Opinions ?

[meyermm]

Keith did you check the oil before starting the engine or just hit the starter?

[surfmachine]

Hi, Meyermm, yep, checked the oil and water and sea cock for raw water intake.

I know I am a fool for not sorting out the watermaker before I left, but I had read that you can leave them for 2 or so weeks before pickling, but not in Langkawi!! Plus, I had just come back from my first sail on her after the deal was closed and had to get on the ferry for the plane back to Perth.

Just went to motor to Phi Phi and the "new" nanni deisel would not start and smoke coming from the wiring!!!!! So pulled the wiring apart and rewired the +ve connections, and checked everywhere, still smoking, removed and cleaned the earth and +ve battery leads, no go...Pulled the switch apart, it fell to bits, put it back together, after much cursing, no, pulled the alternator off and hot wired the starter with a lead to the battery via a switch to the solenoid, you beauty, it starts, but wont stop, manual pump switch off!!
So, what do you reckon it is? A short in the wire taking power to the starter solenoid? Gues I will rewire that part of the circuit and see what happens. It's 37C in the cabin and no air movement in the motor room, hard to see through the sweat.
I will worry about the water maker later!
Cheers from Keith.

[Tellie]

True story, one in which I might be the only one who finds it ammusing.
At the beginning of this season I got a call for a water maker that had sat unused for six months and was not working. The new to him owner claimed to have read the manual from beginning to end. He had several of his boat buddies come over to take a look to no avail. When I arrived he was ready to pull out a 10K unit and toss it over board. In ten minutes I had it up and running to specs. Of course he wanted to know what it was that he missed. I said it always helps to open the thru hull valve. It's not unusual at all for me to get calls for simple over sights like this. But as I'm prone to do, I engage in small talk and asked him what he did for a living. He was retired from NASA where he worked on designing the Space shuttles boosters. His wife chimed in at that moment saying" He's a rocket scientist. Thanks so much for coming by" It just made my day.

[Pete7]

Pete

[Tspringer]

I purchased a Spectra Cape Horn extreme from Tellie..... very reasonable pricing plus he came out and gave me a class on running it and maintenance. Completely professional.

The unit is not small and installation was definitely some work but I did get it all into a single locker and still managed to have plenty of storage there. The instructions were complete and easy to decipher plus Tellie was great with answering questions and providing advice. The Cape Horn Extreme is fully manual and so far it is producing slightly more than the rated 14 gph. Running it is silly simple: flip a switch, test product water, turn a valve. When done making water turn two valves and wait 2.5 minutes and then shut it down turning all 3 valves back to the normal run/start position. I cannot fathom why anyone would spend all the money on a fully automated unit when the actions required to run it manually are so simple and easy.

We run ours every 3d day usually for 6 hours during peak sunlight when our panels are producing excess amps. We are using 35-40 gallons per day, the solar panels are providing excess energy and so far its working out well enough that we just dont pay that much attention to conserving water because we do not have too. I have been VERY happy with this unit and view it along with our full enclosure as among the very best things we upgraded on our boat.



Terry

[sailorgal]

We also purchased a Spectra Cape Horn Extreme from Tellie. We talked to Tellie and asked his advice on which Spectra watermachine to get. On his advice, we decided on the Cape Horn Extreme. As TSpringer wrote, it has manual controls, which works for us since we live aboard and will be using it consistently when we start cruising. Plus, it was thousands of dollars cheaper than the automated Spectra models. We did decide early on that we wanted a Spectra because of all the research we did and the great reviews given by Spectra owners.

Tellie gave us a great deal and is always available to answer questions. The most difficult part for us was deciding where to install the unit. After several phone calls with Tellie and sending him pictures of our proposed install locations, we finally decided the best place to install it. We are working on the install a little at a time while also doing other refitting jobs. We have the Clark pump installed and all the plumbing lines and electric ready. There was already an unused thru-hull that we tapped into, so no new thru-hull for us.

We will report on how the unit operates once we have it up and running (hopefully in the next week or so). I should mention, we are on a motor vessel with a 12.5 Kw Kohler generator. We were thinking of installing solar panels also so that we don't have to run the genset too often, but Tellie convinced us that we probably wouldn't need those. So we saved some money there, too.

I highly recommend contacting Tellie if you're thinking about a Spectra watermaker.

[AilesEtIles]

Hi Keith,
I am new to the forum, French and presently in Bundaberg. Looking for how to buy some water maker biocide at a reasonable price, I found the post in which you said having purchased 1.5 kg of it. Could you provide me/us with additional info about the provider?
I'm sorry since I discovered that your boat suffered from the last tsunami in Sumatra. I hope you do not spend too bad moments ...
With my best regards.
Claude

[surfmachine]

Hi claude, the details were lost with the boat, it was in Brisbane, Queensland.
My wife will try and trawl through her emails and find the details for you!
Keith.

[Tellie]

This is not Spectra water maker right?

[AilesEtIles]

Right, it is a PS40E from Katadyn.
Please, could you specify the reasons for your question, i.e. is it that Spectra water makers don't need biocide (cleaned with reverse flushing?)?
Thanks for your help.

[Tellie]

Originally Posted by AilesEtIles

Right, it is a PS40E from Katadyn.
Please, could you specify the reasons for your question, i.e. is it that Spectra water makers don't need biocide (cleaned with reverse flushing?)?
Thanks for your help.

The reason I asked is that Spectras will not tolerate standard biocide other water makers use. Though the biocide will protect the membrane it will certainly destroy the Clark pump, parts of the membrane vessel and it will void the warranty. A very expensive mistake. At the minimum a 2K repair. Spectras biocide is propriatary, at $25 per one time use. Every year I get a handful of Spectra owners that try to save a few dollars by using other biocide. A PS40E though small, as water maker go, is still an expensive unit. I'd strongly recommend using Katadyns own biocide for their units. It's not that expensive. This is one of those areas where the old saying "Penny wise and dollar foolish" well applies.

[AilesEtIles]

Thanks Tellie, I'll follow your advice.

[PAX]

I just purchased a 41’ sailboat in Europe this past spring and sailed it back.
It came with a 4 year old modular (meaning one can install it in any number of configurations) RO system, which according to the previous owner worked splendidly when he and his wife sailed over from the US 3 years earlier. Since then, being in Spain as a live aboard, he pickled it.
As part of my purchase he was to restart it and prep it for our run back, which he did…sort of.
It ran reasonably well for 2 days, although it tasted a bit gamy, then died in Gibraltar, where our search for an expert technician began, and/or the parts we thought we needed.
We thank God we had ample tankage.
We stopped in Canaries at a distributor of the system who had an expert look it over. He thought it might be a part would take 3 weeks to a month to get at a cost that would make your wallet cry.
Not being one for spending money on hunches, we sailed to another port in Canaries with another expert. This one said he couldn’t work with the company and dropped them for another- no solution.
Off to Cape Verdes and a very nice marina with another expert who thought it could be any one of several things, parts would be about the same time frame as we heard form Canaries and at even more outlandish prices because of added import duties , agent contributions to expedite the handling, etc…
We made Bermuda with water in our tanks to spare, but again while there found the same lack of clear diagnosis by the local expert. I filled the tanks with Bermuda water.
Now back in East Coast US, we again had to looked at by another expert who came aboard and administered a fix using the process of elimination theory. It didn’t work.
We then turned to another expert who came aboard for an afternoon, shook his head at every aspect of the system then provided me with a $4500 estimate 3 weeks later to go through it, find out what was wrong and bring it back to factory performance spec. That is nearly half the price of the system!
During his one day plunge into my system, he happened to mention that it might just be a membrane problem. I bought one on line, threw it in and bingo the system is producing.
My lesson? Many, but one stands out.
Fresh water is a wonderful thing, unlimited fresh water would be heaven, but I can sail with my brother-in-law a goodly distance, have a wonderful time of it, live as normally as one can in Blue Water sailing and not need the aggravation of a watermaker. He is an aeronautical and mechanical engineer, which is to say, not the village idiot, but and RO system is a beast of an odd sort, not for the faint of heart or novice no matter how bright.
I would think long and hard before investing in an RO, and if I was going to, I would be very certain of the availability of service or/parts where I intended to be sailing.
In my case we were lucky enough to have sailed through areas that had reliable water, if we had not then the whole scenario would have been different.
My Seafari now resides in my boat shop all neatly packed away sans membrane for its next call to duty.

[PAX]

I would think long and hard before investing in an RO, and if I was going to, I would be very certain of the availability of service or/parts where I intended to be sailing.
In my case we were lucky enough to have sailed through areas that had reliable water, if we had not then the whole scenario would have been different.
My Seafari now resides in my boat shop all neatly packed away sans membrane for its next call to duty.

[Palarran]

I just purchased a 1000 gpd modular system to replace my 400 gpd Village Marine unit. I bought a system with absolutely no electronic controls and all parts are off the shelf. The Village Marine unit wouldn't start-up and the technician on St. Maarten basically said he didn't want to work on it. With the new unit, anyone can. I'll have it installed in 3 weeks and will be able to fully report it's performance. The total weight of the unit is 175 lbs and draws 9 amps at 220 volts. If you have a generator, go big.

FWIW, we use water like there's no tomorrow. 3 showers a day, freshwater flush toilets, washing maching, ice maker, freshwater washdown, ect. Just washing down our scuba gear probably takes 20 gallons. I know, I'm spoiled.