Public Discussion Forum

Dylan - I have become a fan of the Media Filters - I wanted one years ago but was never able to find a suitable location to install such as they are generally quite tall (similar to a SCUBA tank). We found this half-height size with a wider diameter and were able to fit it into our existing cabinets in the Laz without modification. It's remarkable how much less the 20 and 5-micron filters need service when also using a Media Filter.

https://www.bluewaterdesalination.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/FL1401-MF-ASSY-5GPM-W-FRAME.pdf

Also wondering if you are installing a pH "mineralizer" on the product side of your system to alkalize the product water. Lots of chatter on the benefits of such for the boats plumbing but also for human plumbing.

We no longer use a UV light on the watermaker output, instead we use an LED UV light we learned about from Alex Benson under the sink for zap-on-demand dispensing. It seemed pointless to try and zap everything going into the tank and simpler to manage such instead on the way out. These inline LED UV systems are very simple to install.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/AquiSense-Technologies-PearlAqua-AutoMate-UV-C-LED-Single-stage-Microbial-Filtration-Under-Sink-Water-Filtration-System/5013685533

Carl Gulledge

MV Ellipsis SELENE 5906

Hi Carl

As always thank you for your insights.

The Electromaax units are very very simple and its possible to have one with zero automation.. all manual valves. Its what I am fitting to my boat as I like to turn it on and off and do a inspection for leaks. All Watermakers have one common goal.. and that is to leak,, It seems to be the biggest achievement for a watermaker.

On my boat the watermaker is tied to a bilge float that pulls power away from the unit when the bilge is high.

We are fitting the Selene units with a post production membrane filter for ultra filtration and to reduce any impurities. In theory... a water maker will filter out coliform.. but.. if the membrane is damaged then its possible to get through.

Mark, we too had a Spectra 1000 for many years, and it was all up a positive device until it wasn’t, and I didn't want to re-invest. It is amazing how little power the Clark Pump required to operate, though we rarely saw anything near full production capacity unless we were in the warmer and lower salinity waters of Desolation Sound. The trade-off with the Clark Pump was the frequency with which the seals need to be serviced and how temperamental it is about feed pressure. Understandable given the recovery nature of the pump cycling pressure up and down (intensification ratio of (9:1 in ideal conditions and as low as 3:1 in non-ideal source water conditions. It cycled ~500 per hour, putting mechanical stress on O-rings, lip seals, and annular rings. This wear was exacerbated by salt buildup if freshwater flushes weren't done after each use or the unit was infrequently used. We got the best results by running it daily to top off our forward tank. My old salt pal, Fred Lowthian (S59104), MV Aurora, used to say that he wouldn't make water south of Port McNeil! With regards to the cleanliness of supply water, I wondered for years over the tradeoffs of making water at anchor vs underway. Like you, I favored making water underway. Then one year, we decided to take the fuel/water sep out of the source feed. The shipwright doing the work called me out to display how strong the sep smelled of fuel - in this case, gasoline. We cleaned and left the sep in place, and from that day on, we decided to make water at anchor (end of high tide cycles) and had no more issues. When we replaced the Spectra with a BlueWater, the sep was clean, and I've elected to keep to making water where I can monitor it outside more closely than while underway. I've appreciated this significantly increased output of the high constant pressure blueWater system but was shocked to fully grasp the amount of power it takes - about 3+KW. Fortunately, we have a 5KW 240V inverter and a soft start on the HP pump, which does the job - but wow - what a difference from the 24V Clark Pump system, which ran well with about 400-650W of power. There are very few places we boat where we can't make our tanks last between provision stops so I am somewhat comfortable with the automatic watermarking systems (despite my rant about IC and PCB failures) but otherwise, I would be all over this improved Clark pump design by ElectroMaax.

Carl Gulledge

MV Ellipsis

SELENE 5906

We have spent a long time looking at this...

Blue Water make a great unit.

But for the new Selene Americas boats we are going with a 24V energy recovery unit from Electromaax. We are custom designing this unit to have extra features and be as silent as possible.

With watermakers you can really go 2 ways

1) AC driven and huge, makes a bunch of water in a short time

2) DC driven and smaller, makes water almost silently.

We went with option 2 as we really like to keep the boats silent and reduce the generator usage.

Electromaax is a bit of a new comer int he industry, but the original designer of spectra is part of the company and have essentially built the next level or watermakers. Lots of titanium parts and a very compact design.

Hi Richard, I know we discussed this directly but I figured I would share with the group. With the seawater pro, being a modular system, I just added two more filter housings to the system, from amazon, nothing special. I use a 100 micron and a 50 micron filter to keep the larger particles off the smaller filters. That seems to work well. I tried stainless 50 & 100 micron filters from amazon but somehow they just rusted. I use disposable ones now.

Joe and Linda

401 Play

2009 Selene 55078

Bill,

It sounds like you have the ultimate set-up. I'd like to run the HP pump off the main engine, but I need to run the genny every now and then to charge the batteries so I could make water too to load it up. With a 40 GPH watermaker that works well I can easily keep up with consumption running 2 hours every other day.

The other recommended brands look nice (Schenker, Blue Water, etc.), but I'm ditching the automation and going simple. A side benefit is the simple ones are much less expensive. I'm talking $4K vs $15-20K. Inexpensive, not cheap. If I get the basic model without the remote panel (works for me), I can eliminate a lot of tubing and connections.

I can fit a 40GPH SeaWater Pro basic model in the laz and take less room than my automated, Village Marine Tec that no longer works correctly and parts are unavailable.

Now I need to look into a good prefilter arrangement and research plankton filters and media filters.

I have had very good results from Schenker (Italian made) Zen 100 which produces 100 liters per hour at 24v. The water pump is not high pressure as the system creates pressure within the system.

Richard, when we got Amavi, I replaced the Parker watermaker with a "homemade" system that runs from either the main engine when underway or the generator. I do have a control panel in the pilot house to turn it on and off and also to monitor the feed pump pressure and the high pressure pump pressure.  It utilizes 2 different HP pumps, one each for the gen-set and one for the main, but only 1 feed pump, 1 pressure regulator, and one set of two 40" membranes.  We make 90% of our water off of the main when traveling.

Our filter system is a plankton filter, to a 30 micron to a 5 micron. I had 2 setups in parallel so when the 5 micron got plugged, I could switch over to the 2nd set.  I knew that there had to be a better way, so I installed a media filter and now replace the 5 micron at the end of each cruising season, even though it looks white and clean.  The media filter does require me to backwash it using seawater on a regular basis.

Bill

Amavi 5533

Mark: Everyone knows that the Rocna is THE only acceptable anchor if you want to sleep peacefully. 😂😂😂😂

Anyway this is a great thread as we’re debating which water maker to install. Timing is everything in life and this is perfect.

Does anyone have experience with SunPure. They are another “Off the Shelf” kit that our good sailboat friends recommended as parts are easily available.

I put in a modular 900gpd Seawater pro last winter. Nothing special in it, so nothing you can't get parts for almost anywhere. You could build your own based on how they build there's but they provide everything you need in one box. I installed a 220v high pressure pump because that's was the wiring from the original.

The modular design allows you to install all the pieces where you can fit them. Different parts can be anywhere in the boat.

Good luck,

Joe and Linda

401 Play

2009 Selene 55078

A 40GPH SeaWater Pro draws about 40A at 24VDC. I'm thinking powering the watermaker with DC current would be the way to go. I could arrive at an anchorage with full batteries AND full water tanks!

SeaWater Pro 40GPH DC watermaker with stainless steel pump, $4,500: https://seawaterpro.com/products/24-volt-double-membrane-water-maker?variant=47459402285289

The prior owner of our boat installed a Sea-R.O. in the laz. His reasoning was it was comprised of all off-the-shelf components. It's not very automated, but that's not what you want. Ours is an 800 gpd unit. Admittedly, we haven't had the opportunity to use it, but will soon, once we get the membranes replaced.

https://makeh2o.com/

Nick Vespa

LunaSea 5318

I have a Village Marine Tec Squirt that came with the boat. I've poured good money after bad into that thing. What drove me over the edge is when the TDS probe sprung a big leak and a new one (just 2 probes in a plastic fitting) cost $800!! I just bought two 38" membranes (it doesn't take the standard 40") for $1200!! I had a pesky broken wire in the boost pressure sensor that worked momentarily and I replaced a bunch of stuff before I found the suspect wire (which I think was there from day one).

Anyway, I'm looking for something simple with little to no electronics. I don't mind going into the lazarette and starting the watermaker every few days. I like to start it myself so I can see how it's running and look for leaks. I want a system that uses standard, easy to get, off the shelf parts. I don't need a compact unit, a modular system would be fine.

My VMT watermaker is 220VAC high pressure pump and 110VAC boost pump with a bunch of electronics (which can no longer be purchased from Parker, but a 3rd party now makes at a considerable cost). I'm toying with getting a 24VDC system and powering it from the stern thruster batteries which I would change to lithium after engineering the system. Or I could replace with another 220VAC/110VAC system.

I'm looking at either CruiseRO or SeaWater Pro systems. Any other suggestions?

I've never been completely stranded without the ability to make water, but I have had to jerry rig my VMT watermaker to keep it running when I didn't have access to parts.

Love the ideal of moving it out of the engine room and into the laz.

Love Bluewater Product - We ripped our pesky Spectra and replaced it with the Blue Water Legend 1500 Component using 3 short membranes, 220V Single Phase, and it's been a game changer in many ways. I chose Bluewater after an exhaustive search for brands that support NMEA2000 monitoring and control! I appreciate having control in the pilot house and didn't want to run cables from the Laz nor to purchase yet another expensive proprietary control panel. Bluewater's NMEA2000 implementation worked as per spec. We have control over activation, shutdown, and flushing anywhere we have access to N2KView. It's convenient, and I am able to monitor and manually trigger the flushing progress remotely in the off-season. We get an N2KView generated email every time a flush starts along with water tank levels, etc. We also discovered that Bluewater offered a ½ height media filter that would fit in our cabinet. So we installed that instead of the Commercial filters, which are quite costly ($125 ea) relative to the standard filters ($15/ea). In the end, we fit the Master Panel, Low Pressure Pump, Filters including the media filter, the product filters including Product Water Ph filter, all inside a set of cabinets in the Laz. Unfortunately, the only models that Bluewater makes with the NMEA2000 port on are the Legend(s), but it is not a cost+ feature; it is included; all you have to do is request it when ordering so they install the NMEA2000 connector. Finally, we shopped for a water maker that we could power with our 5KW 230V inverter, and the Legend fit the bill with a soft start module.

Of note, Bluewater spec's their production levels a bit more strictly perhaps than other manufacturers. When they market a 60GPH model, that is strictly defined as 60GPH when the source water is 25C. In the northwest, we rarely find water above 70F, so our actual production ranges between 40-55 GPH. When we have been in warmer waters, we've seen production levels at and above 60GPH. Our Spectra was similar - Rated at 40GPH, we generally realized a level closer to 30GPH in the colder NW waters.

A couple of thoughts:

Size the watermaker to your water usage. Ideally the unit can fill your usage in a single reasonable run, rather than running it for an hour each day. In our case we made water when we had used half of our 200 gallon tank, takes a bit over 4 hours to fill it near to the top, plus a bit extra for the flush. With a perfect run we'd finish with 193 gallons in the tank.

Determine your power source and run times. In our case the genset works at anchor as we also use the genset for operating the dinghy lift (twice daily for dinghy launch in the morning and retrieval at night, dinghy does not stay in the water overnight), running the washer/dryer, and baking in the convection oven. What we don't like is running the genset offshore when we're already running the Cummins main engine.

Determine how often you're likely to leave the boat and not be using the watermaker; once the membranes are wet they require freshwater flushing, typically at 5-7 day intervals, to remain viable. The alternative is to chemically pickle the unit, that can last for 3-4 months before the pickling solution should be changed or the unit put back into service. Pickling is expensive and is not kind to the membranes, it's not something you want to do lightly. Know how you are going to accomplish this if you're not at the boat.

Roadrunner came with a Village Marine Squirt 600 gallon per day watermaker installed in 2012, we replaced the membranes, serviced the high pressure pump, and had the high pressure pump motor bearings replaced when we purchased the boat in 2024. It then produced 2900 gallons for us this March to June in the Bahamas. Right now it's on a 5 day flush schedule as I'm on the boat, later on I'll be pickling it for the summer.

I've installed and operated a Spectra watermaker, I found Spectra no better or worse than the Village Marine unit - both require periodic servicing and maintenance. Spectra parts are very specific to the Spectra and I only purchased through them. The Village Marine unit is more generic and I think it's a lot simpler, and I get parts only from Parker (they bought Village Marine).

To use the Village Marine unit we need to run the genset to produce 13 amps at 110vAC power to run the high pressure pump motor - that's pretty dumb when we're powering along with the Cummins engine. Our intention is to add a second 110vAC inverter to the boat, and possibly add a second 190AH alternator to the Cummins - that will let us operate the watermaker without having to start up the genset (e.g., when we're powering along with the Cummins on multi-day runs).

A lot of time is spent at anchor and that's when we'll decide which day we're going to make water, and plan for laundry and baking that day - which can lead to an all day genset run, lots of water, lots of clean linens afterwards, plus cookies!

- rob

Roadrunner

2007 Selene 49 deep hull 48-029