12V water maker

[pandw]

So which way did you go?
I'm interested to hear if you bought the Osmosea, and if you have had any issues since?

(We have a 2019 60LPH 12V Energy Recovery OSMOSEA unit, and looking to collaborate on issues)

 

[Star-Lord]

I have a Spectra Ventura 150 with control panel and auto flush every five days. It has been on and working every day for over 5 years. 12v 6 gallons per hour all run from solar. Truly amazing bit of kit. The Volvo race uses Spectra - Cape Horn version I think. If you are happy to run engine you can get a stupid amount of water per hour on some Spectra models - probably what I will get next time or if I did it again.

 

[Star-Lord]

Many thanks to those who replied to my original question - we do not have a generator due to size/cost restraints. The reason we are looking at 12V is to run from battery power, and a fairly simple installation. Cost is also a major factor and the American units appear very expensive compared to European made systems. We have looked at engine driven units but these have clunky industrial pumps with special brackets for mounting etc, and we really do not want to HAVE to run our engine to make water. (Whilst fully appreciating the power has to be put back into the batteries somehow and we were relying on our 420 watt of solar to help with that) The advice to look at litres produced per amp consumed in DC units was particularly helpful .

I like to make water when under way moving anchorage. Your solar aray will suffice but if you have standard batteries they will last longer if you shore power them once a month. Running engine for an hour to get a week's worth of water is not bad. . And it will. E better for batteries. Engine should be run once a week according to some. 6 gallons an hour works out as quite a few hours runningtbe wagermaker and they do hum a but so noise cancelling headphones and a good audio book is recommended!

 

[cherod]

So oo expensive ?

 

[davethedog]

All I will say is of you do buy a watermaker I can nor recommend Jim at sailfish marine enough as he is well known here on gran canaria for the ARC and he offers excellent advice. And he does have some used watermaker in stock usually.

We bought a used OSMOSEA 12v 25l hr unit from the owners (who bought it off Jim) and he still offered us advice etc. The way I equate watermaker production rates is like the mpg figures on a new car.... Achieved in perfect conditions but not likely in the real world as our 25l hr unit I reckon produces between 15 and 18 l hr in reality but when it is only drawing 9A that is acceptable to me.

 

[cherod]

and what is the price of a used one ?

 

[davethedog]

Ex demo & pre owned watermakers for sale

 

[davethedog]

and what is the price of a used one ?

We paid just over 2k for our used one privately.

 

[Star-Lord]

In many parts of Med (and lots of other spots further afield) filling up with water becomes a commando operation. And if you do find water you had better filter it before you jerrycan it (seagull dockside filter is good) and then Seagull filter it before drinking it. But I have met plenty of people who take jerrycans ashore and do it the old fashioned way and they use no filters (maybe a Britta filter) just boil it before drinking. Basically you spend what you can afford!

 

[cherod]

Ex demo & pre owned watermakers for sale

Ex demo & pre owned watermakers for sale

excellent link Dave ,, thank you ( so ooo bloody expensive )

 

[sailaboutvic]

After many many year cruising without one I ended up building my own four years ago we use it every other day given us 90lph
We use to alway carry cans in our dinghy and pick water up where we can , I can't remember a time when we brought water .
But having a water maker as make life much more better .
I was offer told " you can buy a lot of water for the price of a water maker " and so you can , but not only it make life easier and it means you have unlimited water and better quality water , but it save your back pain too .

 

[cherod]

I have looked into that as well , maybe poss for around £1K ( + ) , if you can fit all the bits into available spaces , i found the standard length filters a bit diff to accommodate ,

 

[cherod]

After many many year cruising without one I ended up building my own four years ago we use it every other day given us 90lph
We use to alway carry cans in our dinghy and pick water up where we can , I can't remember a time when we brought water .
But having a water maker as make life much more better .
I was offer told " you can buy a lot of water for the price of a water maker " and so you can , but not only it make life easier and it means you have unlimited water and better quality water , but it save your back pain too .

240 /110 v i presume ?

 

[sailaboutvic]

240v yes the membrane being 40 ins isn't easy to fit but. Put Mine vertical and the whole lot fit in between the gap in the V berth
.

 

[cherod]

240v yes the membrane being 40 ins isn't easy to fit but. Put Mine vertical and the whole lot fit in between the gap in the V berth
.

Thank you , as they say , if there is a mind then there is a method , they should also have said , if there is 1K£ ?

 

[sailaboutvic]

Thank you , as they say , if there is a mind then there is a method , they should also have said , if there is 1K£ ?

1k was about what it cost me to build about 4years ago I guess it be a bit more now depending on cat pump , vessel,membrane which are the three most expensive bits .
Spending money on boats is never ended especially when your living on board full time , thinking on lithium now, but need to know a lot more before building my own .

 

[cherod]

1k was about what it cost me to build about 4years ago I guess it be a bit more now depending on cat pump , vessel,membrane which are the three most expensive bits .
Spending money on boats is never ended especially when your living on board full time , thinking on lithium now, but need to know a lot more before building my own .

T Y ,,, ( fortunately i dont have to consider Lithium !! )

 

[Yngmar]

We're now happy with our Schenker Zen 30 (energy recovery type) after its second season, but only after it went back for warranty repair twice in the first year. On the last repair it came back with redesigned (thicker) endblocks and this has finally resolved the problems with the new design, which seemed to have some teething problems (cracked endblocks on the main unit leaking sea water). It makes the specified 30 litres an hour at 9A/12V (110W).

Beware of new designs I guess. After some initial arguing about the mounting, Schenker did the right thing, repaired the thing under warranty and adapted the design, so I would now recommend the model (but don't get a used one without the modifications).

Acquaintances with a new Osmosea also had problems, theirs was a high pressure type and the pump cracked repeatedly, squirting sea water around the engine room at high pressure, which is vastly more annoying than a low pressure drip. They're less DIY and spent much of their season hunting down Osmosea agents in Italy and Greece.

We have 600W solar, which for us means on a regular summer day the batteries are full by noon and we then run the watermaker for an hour or four. On cloudy days, we don't run it and draw down the tanks instead, then make more water on the next sunny day. This way, water tanks turn into batteries where we can store excess solar power

 

[geem]

This post has been around for a while. When I first posted we had a Cat 247 pump and a 40” and 21” membrane making about 133l/hr. we added a second 40” membrane so with the three installed membranes we now make 200l/hr. we are fortunate that we have a 5kVA genset so no problem finding the power to run the genset.
The reason we added the third membrane was to reduce genset run time. 15mins per day is our average genset run time to make us 50 litres per day. We generally run the genset every three days. For us we didnt want to be slave to the watermaker. We don't have to worry about when or where we make water. Combined with an 800l tank capacity we have a lot of options.
We also added a UV filter so now happily make water in dirty harbours. The only thing we avoid is diesel in the water as it destroys the membranes

 

[alhambra]

Time flies - 4 years since we started this thread! some interesting points raised. We ended up buying the 12V Osmosea 25l unit which worked well for us on our two year trip to the Caribbean. Our only problem was we wished we has bought a larger unit. anyway we have been back in the uk for a year now and the watermaker is no longer needed so for sale if anyone is interested?