Schenker Zen Watermaker issues anybody?

[Benjamins]

I’ve purchased a brand new Schenker Zen 30 unit in March. I’ve had below issues from the beginning. The dealer came on board and advised I had done a really good job on the installation.

Normal operation of the unit is okay. The water production is a little bit Lower than specified. Also the pressure is slightly higher than specified.(around 8 bar)

Sometimes there is a pressure block when starting up. To avoid explosions there is a pressure sensor in the system. This sensor seems not to be working well in my system. I have had the prefilter blown up twice when starting up the system while on a pressure block. Salt water everywhere and pieces of plastic flying around the boat.

My issue is known by schenker but they don’t want to supply any reasonable warranty. I can buy new parts (pcb and control unit) and send back the old ones. If indeed there is a malfunction in the parts they will refund me.

The pressure membrane and Clark pump part seem good quality.

-the supplied hoses are not fit for purpose (I had to replace everything with hoses double the pressure spec)
-schenker advises to mount the hoses with supplied hose clamps these are not suitable for the 8 bar pressure. They keep leaking.
-also the filters have a max pressure of 8 bar while my system operates at 8 bar.
-The pressure switch is not working correctly. The system is supposed to switch of at 9,5 bar but is doesn’t.
-the system came with a broken pump ventilator mechanically wrong mounted which caused plastic to crack
-The whole electronic part feels a bit flimsy and questionable.
-imo there should be a blow out valve in case of high pressure to avoid explosions. I asked for this and they send me a plastic tap manual open/close?!

On the meanwhile this is dragging for half a year. What a nightmare. I would never trust this company again with my money. Every time I start the Watermaker I have to worry it might explode. It has never worked okay from new.


Anybody else had warranty or quality issues with a schenker unit?

[Sailmonkey]

Wow!

Our older schenker operates closer to 6-6.5 bar. I’ve got my pressure switch set to 8.5 bar (they are adjustable).

Beyond that I can’t be of any help because there isn’t really anything Schenker original on ours except the high pressure pump and the membrane housings.

[zboss]

Hoses? Mine wasn't supplied with hoses... I needed to buy my own. Same with hose clamps. In fact, mine didn't even come equipped with the proper set of feet and I needed to manufacture those since I didn't have time to wait for them to be shipped from Italy.

No, we have never had any of these problems on ours and we used it every day for hours in the Bahamas this past season.

Did you adjust the pressure sensor switch on the electronic unit?


"Pump high pressure switch
The main pump is equipped with a high pressure safety switch set at around 9,5 Bar.
The pressure switch can be calibrated with a screwdriver. To calibrate the pressure switch pull out the plug, remove the security nut, and engage the small internal screw with a small screw driver.
Turning clockwise the calibration of the pressure switch increases, while turning anticlockwise the calibration decreases."

[Qismat]

I have had 0 issues with ours that was purchased in april of this year. We have run it porbably 130 hours since. Knock on wood.. Ours came only with the blue hose from the system to the tank, but I supplied all other hoses.

Very peculiar!

[Schenker Watermakers]

Dear Benjamin,



could you please let me know where you bought the unit and to whom you have sent the warranty request ?

We don't supply any hoses (except the production hose ) our clamps are used by around 1000 users/year and up to know we had no complaints



Please let me have further details as the issues reported are not matching with our product quality standards



Thanks

Originally Posted by Benjamins

I’ve purchased a brand new Schenker Zen 30 unit in March. I’ve had below issues from the beginning. The dealer came on board and advised I had done a really good job on the installation.

Normal operation of the unit is okay. The water production is a little bit Lower than specified. Also the pressure is slightly higher than specified.(around 8 bar)

Sometimes there is a pressure block when starting up. To avoid explosions there is a pressure sensor in the system. This sensor seems not to be working well in my system. I have had the prefilter blown up twice when starting up the system while on a pressure block. Salt water everywhere and pieces of plastic flying around the boat.

My issue is known by schenker but they don’t want to supply any reasonable warranty. I can buy new parts (pcb and control unit) and send back the old ones. If indeed there is a malfunction in the parts they will refund me.

The pressure membrane and Clark pump part seem good quality.

-the supplied hoses are not fit for purpose (I had to replace everything with hoses double the pressure spec)
-schenker advises to mount the hoses with supplied hose clamps these are not suitable for the 8 bar pressure. They keep leaking.
-also the filters have a max pressure of 8 bar while my system operates at 8 bar.
-The pressure switch is not working correctly. The system is supposed to switch of at 9,5 bar but is doesn’t.
-the system came with a broken pump ventilator mechanically wrong mounted which caused plastic to crack
-The whole electronic part feels a bit flimsy and questionable.
-imo there should be a blow out valve in case of high pressure to avoid explosions. I asked for this and they send me a plastic tap manual open/close?!

On the meanwhile this is dragging for half a year. What a nightmare. I would never trust this company again with my money. Every time I start the Watermaker I have to worry it might explode. It has never worked okay from new.


Anybody else had warranty or quality issues with a schenker unit?

[Rombovini]

just jumped in this forum...
mate there is something wrong in your post , we own 3 Schenker in our charter fleet and by word of mouth many skippers / owners in our marina got one, no serious issues at all, the customer service is amazing, they've supported us when having problems while in south caribean area. They don't supply any hose/clamps for the installation so you may blame the installer and not the company, about the filter housing by mistake we run one of ours withe the brine discharge closed and the pressure rised up over 9 bars , nothing blows and the pressure switch shut down the system. Let me tell you a simple rule that I've learned ... after two repetitive issues on the same units and same boat the issue is on the boat ....
good wind

[Baronkrak]

Originally Posted by Benjamins

-also the filters have a max pressure of 8 bar while my system operates at 8 bar.
-The pressure switch is not working correctly. The system is supposed to switch of at 9,5 bar but is doesn’t. …

Your system does not operate at 8 bar. With a pressure cut out factory set at 9.5 bar your system should be able to withstand 9,5 bar. For Schenker to provide a filter housing rated at 8 bar (116 psi) or any thing else that is under rated is bad and is irresponsible engineering as someone can be hurt by the exploding items.

Originally Posted by Benjamins

Anybody else had warranty or quality issues with a schenker unit?

I guess anyone that had purchased a Schenker unit with unsuitable parts will have issues.

[Baronkrak]

Originally Posted by Rombovini

about the filter housing

Can you provide details about the Schenker filter housings that you own: pressure rating, material, size? Fair wind.

[Rombovini]

Hi,



I had an issue with the filter housing once, but mainly due to overtight as the filter cartridge was just a bit longer , not because of pressure.
So I was scared about happening again and I've spent some time sourcing details on the housing, keep in mind that the explosion rate is much higher than the working rate, the feed pump (Shurflo) itself is not able to reach such pressure, so the housing failures are mainly mechanical and not due to pressure. Anyway if you need support you can contact the factory as they use to be helpfull



fair wind mate

[Baronkrak]

Thank you Rom

Ben, and other, filter housings were new, un altered, straight out of the delivery cardboard box, Ben got a replacement that also failed.

Originally Posted by Benjamins

I have had the prefilter blown up twice when starting up the system while on a pressure block. Salt water everywhere and pieces of plastic flying around the boat.

Driving him to despair.

Originally Posted by Benjamins

On the meanwhile this is dragging for half a year. What a nightmare. I would never trust this company again with my money. Every time I start the Watermaker I have to worry it might explode.

You reported

Originally Posted by Rombovini

the pressure switch shut down the system

Ben, and other, reported

Originally Posted by Benjamins

The system is supposed to switch of at 9,5 bar but is doesn’t.

For the simple raison that the pressure never reached 9.5 bars, as observed by other, not even the maximum pressure rating of 8 bars.

The question remain

Originally Posted by Baronkrak

Can you provide details about the Schenker filter housings that you own: pressure rating, material, size?

Fair wind Chief

[Schenker Watermakers]

Dear Baronkrak,


we have sold more than 300 units (1000 units if we consider the whole ZEN ange) worldwide and the issue with the filter housing is limited to very few, the explosion rate for the filter housing is 13 bars (tested) and the Shurflo pumps are not able to get even close to that rate. About mr Benjamin I've asked him here in the topic, as you can see , to provide further details but he never come back to me or anyother in the company. His unit and the installation has never been inspected by any official Schenker Service/Dealer, he is also complaining about hoses but Schenker doesn't supply any of them ...



By the way in order to clean up this few matters with the filter housings since february all the units are shipped with a different housing, from a different supplier that has the explosion rate up to 20 bars.
The pressure safety switch is calibrated during the test before the packaging in the factory, if it is not properly connected the unit will not even start.
in his case it maybe a failing sensor or not properly calibrated (can be done on the field using a screwdriver) but again not details on all this reported failures



Are you having hte same issues ? Could you please provide the serial number of the unit ?



At your disposal

Schenker Team

Originally Posted by Baronkrak

Thank you Rom

Ben, and other, filter housings were new, un altered, straight out of the delivery cardboard box, Ben got a replacement that also failed.



Driving him to despair.



You reported


Ben, and other, reported


For the simple raison that the pressure never reached 9.5 bars, as observed by other, not even the maximum pressure rating of 8 bars.

The question remain



Fair wind Chief

[sailorboy1]

For what it is worth as i have no dog in this. But when i was considering a Schenker Zen unit my impression was the factory support guy was good and respected. But for the most part the dealer network were useless scum.

[Schenker Watermakers]

Hi Sailorboy,


could you please let us know which dealers ?

feedbacks from users are helping us to know the dealer network quality



Thanks



Schenker team

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

For what it is worth as i have no dog in this. But when i was considering a Schenker Zen unit my impression was the factory support guy was good and respected. But for the most part the dealer network were useless scum.

[Baronkrak]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

..But for the most part the dealer network were useless...

As far that I am concerned I will rate my dealer at 10 out of 10 and 12 given the limitations imposed by Covid.

The dealer sell a package, Schenker create the package from material they source or manufacture.

I have not joined this forum to destroy or to let a company self destroy; I have joined this forum to try to help fellow sailors.

[sailorboy1]

Thats great. I am just expressing the impression i got when researching my choices last year.