Katadyn PowerSurvivor 40E water maker

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Ric

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Has anybody got any experience with this compact water maker? The power consumption and production are adequate for my needs. But how reliable are they? How noise are they? Any feedback welcome.
 
I've got one. Bought second hand and mine has a noisy motor, which I knew about when I bought it. Otherwise it works well. Simple to pickle for storage, though it will take at least 30 mins of operation to clear the taste of the pickling solution on recommissioning. I've had to replace the membrane, but spares are readily available. As I tended to run it whilst motoring, it would have made sense to fit the more powerful 80e unit.

Speak to Jim Macdonald at http://www.mactramarine.co.uk/ he's the UK agent and very helpful.
 
Very happy with my 40E. Not silent, but no water maker is, and if you're running the engine at the same time you wouldn't hear it.

Very easy to fix. Make sure you have the spares kit if going offshore. Works well. Not for those who have three teenage daughters who want to wash their long hair twice a day, but for providing enough water for a couple of people on a long passage - fine.

Power consumption low. Used mine mostly when there was sun on the solar panels. Ran it for an hour every day for three months.
 
Very happy with ours and have found it completely reliable. Bit noisy if you are close up to it (ours is next to the aft berth) but not unbearable by any means. Our KISS wind generator powers this extremely well ensuring no drain on the batteries.
Has always produced sufficient from wind power for our needs, two people on long passages.Still going strong after 14 years!
Make sure you pickle it well when not in use and carry spare o rings.

Met this guy http://www.ishipaco.com/katadyn/ on our travels and the info he supplied is invaluable.Worth downloading the trouble shooting section from his site as insurance!
 
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I'm surprised you guys use your motor at the same time as using your watermaker but apparently OK?

" It is recommended that your marine watermakers operate while at sea rather than in port where water is excessively polluted with oil to ensure that these filtration ..."

Centek Watermaker Protection System And Filters | Products
fivedrive358.sourceforge.net/centek-watermaker-protection-system-and-...
Rating: 4.3 - ‎136 reviews
Nov 28, 2013 - This system can be easily installed to your watermaker inlet line to prevent gas and oil pollution. Even the slightest amount of oil or gas can ...

https://www.google.com.au/#q=watermakers+oil+pollution
 
We have the earlier PUR Powersurvivor, bought secondhand. Early days for us but with ample solar panels we run it for 3-4 hours a day when needed which supplies all our needs. The sound is not intrusive and we run it during the day anyhow. There's a good book by Gary E. Albers "How To Survive With A PowerSurvivor Watermaker" which we found useful. Downloaded it free, but don't remember where from.
 
typhoonNige said:
We have the earlier PUR Powersurvivor, bought secondhand. Early days for us but with ample solar panels we run it for 3-4 hours a day when needed which supplies all our needs. The sound is not intrusive and we run it during the day anyhow. There's a good book by Gary E. Albers "How To Survive With A PowerSurvivor Watermaker" which we found useful. Downloaded it free, but don't remember where from.
Click to expand...


http://www.ishipaco.com/katadyn/docs/WatermakerBook.PDF.
Excellent book...............
 
As the 40e doesn't have a separate lift pump it helps if the unit is mounted close to the waterline, Also make sure the intake remains immersed at all angles of heel.
 
Lazy Kipper said:
Not sure how you'd get it behind the exhaust.
Click to expand...
The exhaust on my Nic39 is amidships(ish) port side just above the waterline adjacent to the centre cockpit so you could actually have an inlet aft of that.

Personally. I don't think it would make a huge amount of difference if it was, as the watermaker intake would be well under water and closer to the keel.

In fact, my watermaker intake is directly opposite on the starboard side, and is well away (& separated by the long fin keel) from the forward port side heads outlet which is perhaps more of a consideration.
 
coopec said:
I'm surprised you guys use your motor at the same time as using your watermaker but apparently OK?

" It is recommended that your marine watermakers operate while at sea rather than in port where water is excessively polluted with oil to ensure that these filtration ..."
Click to expand...

Which part of "operate at sea" is unclear? Everyone I know with a watermaker in commission runs it when motoring, wherever their exhaust happens to be. What they don't do is operate it anywhere water quality is suspect, port or not.
(Centek's video link was under maintenance, lest it suggests otherwise.)
 
Thank you for your polite and erudite response.

Maybe I interpreted statements like

" Oil contamination of the watermaker's osmosis filter is a serious concern (about $1,000 each to replace), so we never use the system in busy and possibly polluted ports or anchorages."

a bit too seriously

It seems it would make good sense to keep the intake well away from the exhaust and that is what I will be doing......................
 
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"but you'd need a pretty sick diesel to be putting significant amounts of oil in the water."

Well there must be a lot of sick diesels in the waterways then?
"It is recommended that your marine watermakers operate while at sea rather than in port where water is excessively polluted with oil to ensure that these filtration systems last extensively before they need to be replaced. "

What people do is not always best practice but sheer ignorance. The fact that they seem to get away with it demonstrates the luck of fools.
 
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Coopec, I'm really struggling to understand where you're coming from. Yes, harbours are sometimes polluted with various oils, usually spillage, bilge pump-out and similar stuff. This, it seems to me (not having watched their 'under maintenance' vid, as explained) is what Centek warn about. But then they are in the business of selling filters. And very few people capable of tying their own shoelaces would even think of running a watermaker in even a clean harbour.

To then make the leap to saying "I'm surprised you guys use your motor at the same time as using your watermaker" just doesn't follow. Centek themselves simply suggest, as you mention in post #16, that "your marine watermakers operate while at sea". They do not say, or even imply, "while at sea and not motoring".

I might add that many of the watermakers for which Centek happily supply filter systems are in power boats, whose owners would probably be a little narked if they had to stop whenever they wanted to make water. That would equally be something of an issue for any boat, power or sail, with an engine-driven watermaker pump.
 
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