Watermaker Pressure Vessel

[northerncat]

i would have thought that water at 800 psi would still hurt if it hit you not to mention any bits coming off at that pressure, i know my little pressure washer hurtas when it accidently comes into contact with any aprt of me
sean

[Lancerbye]

Has anyone used the watermakers for double duty. With a bit of re-plumbing so as to have the HP pump using water from the fresh water tank and bypassing the membranes with a HP hook up to an HP hose and wand. A very useful HP washer would be available. I am thinking of doing this on my boat and tying it to a HP hose reel and wand. Has anyone tried this?

[GordMay]

My critics (Bill & Brent) are, of course, right.
Water, being incompressible, will have little stored “blast” energy, and at <1,000psi there’s little danger of an explosive, shrapnel producing, rupture.
I was (over) reacting to my incorrect perception of a cavalier attitude towards pressure vessels.

While an 800psi water jet, in the eye or on the alternator, would be calamitous, it shouldn’t cause serious damage to most soft tissue (ie: wouldn’t penetrate/cut skin).

Most “small” domestic pressure washers (< 1,500 psi) generally deliver between 1.5 and 2 gallons per minute (60 - 120 gph).
A smaller pressure pump, from a 5 gph R/O unit, is likely to deliver only about 50 gph, placing it in the very smallest category of washers. Useful; but not very.

[JusDreaming]

WaterAnywhere

[Lancerbye]

I have Village Marine MPW 200 which is rated at 8.3GPH, so it might not have enough output. Too bad. I guess I shouldn't have sold the 3000 PSI one I had made using a Honda 5.5HP engine. But that was 6 years ago. I want something smaller anyhow or rent once in awhile.Back to the drawing board.LOL

[bobs]

Doesn't anybody have some web adresses where to buy membranes and so on ??

Thanks

[Lancerbye]

www.waterfiltersonline.com

www.cruising-watermaker.com/Sterling/Web/membranes.htm

www.shop.darwinwaterdepartment.com/splashPage.hg

www.waterstore.org/pages/pros/parts.html

or just google water maker membranes. Depends where you live for your closest supplier.

[JusDreaming]

Originally Posted by bobs

Doesn't anybody have some web adresses where to buy membranes and so on ??

Thanks

one more
WaterAnywhere

[bobs]

Originally Posted by JusDreaming

one more
WaterAnywhere

---------

got the picture JusDreaming,

I'll look into it.

Thanks all

[phorvati]

Here is where I got my membranes and pressure vessels. Very reasonable pricing.

FILMTEC MEMBRANE DISTRIBUTOR

Petar

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by Lancerbye

Has anyone used the watermakers for double duty. With a bit of re-plumbing so as to have the HP pump using water from the fresh water tank and bypassing the membranes with a HP hook up to an HP hose and wand. A very useful HP washer would be available. I am thinking of doing this on my boat and tying it to a HP hose reel and wand. Has anyone tried this?

CAMP WATERMAKER

[bobs]

Speeking about double use of the watermaker and using it , with the help of some re-plumbing , as a highpressure cleaner , i was thinking , ...why not reverse the idea and use a highpressure cleaner for the supply of a watermaker ?
The high pressure catpumps are really expensive , and you can get a HP cleaner (80 bar / 10 GPH ) for about 60$.

Any thoughts somebody ?
Please ellaborate.

Thanks

[phorvati]

Having traveled recently through the outislands of SE bahamas where water is very hard to get, I can't describe how glad I was to have an all stainless cat pump. God forbid the pump went bad, it would have made our trip a pure frugal survival. Now we are in the DR and parts are still hard to come by. I guess if you elect to go the cheap way on the HP pump, have spares, unless you are willing to live without the watermaker.
For instance I elected to go cheap on the fittings and high pressure hoses(304 instead of 316), and I have payed the price. I've had to get new hoses once and NPT fittings twice in the last 10 months. Now everything is 316 and thats the way it should be.
Petar

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by bobs

Speeking about double use of the watermaker and using it , with the help of some re-plumbing , as a highpressure cleaner , i was thinking , ...why not reverse the idea and use a highpressure cleaner for the supply of a watermaker ?
The high pressure catpumps are really expensive , and you can get a HP cleaner (80 bar / 10 GPH ) for about 60$.

Any thoughts somebody ?
Please ellaborate.

Thanks

People are doing this. I am considering it also. Reliability and life expectancy might not be as good as the Cat type pumps, but if you have good access to the pump, it would be cheap to carry a spare.

Having said that, my $80 au Karcher has done a heck of a lot of work with zero care or maintenance, and sometimes gets left unused for months, but still works perfectly. If you always made sure the pump was THOROUGHLY flushed with fresh water after use I would think you would get a reasonable life out of it.

Being an AC motor you would need a big enough invertor though.

basics

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by bobs

Speeking about double use of the watermaker and using it , with the help of some re-plumbing , as a highpressure cleaner , i was thinking , ...why not reverse the idea and use a highpressure cleaner for the supply of a watermaker ?
The high pressure catpumps are really expensive , and you can get a HP cleaner (80 bar / 10 GPH ) for about 60$.

Any thoughts somebody ?
Please ellaborate.

Thanks

10 Gph sounds very small. Are you sure of this figure? That's less than a litre a minute? I would have thought 100 gph would be closer to the mark for even a small pressure cleaner. Using a 10 gph pump for watermaking would result in a very small freshwater production.