What will a watermaker cost - fitted?

[Richard10002]

My little bit of research suggests a cost in the region of £5K fitted, so I dont think I can afford/justify one.

Can anyone help to be more specific re: costs.

Cheers

Richard

 

[NOHOH]

Have a look here:- http://www.sail-world.com/cruising/index.cfm?nid=33568&rid=11
Send me a list of all the bits when you`ve sourced them please. It all seems very straightforward.

 

[pohopetch]

Ours is a simple design very similar to the one described above. Made in New Zealand by OpenOcean and cost NZ$5500 in early 2008. Works out to £2000 roughly. Rated at 65 litres per hour, but produces just over 100 litres per hour in the tropics. Ours is engine driven but electric options are available. This is a very simple system with manual flushing and no electronics whatsoever which makes it just about bulletproof. All fittings, connectors, valves etc are of the shelf stuff. I installed it myself and the only hard part is making the bracket to mount the pump on the engine. Professional install would add to the cost typically around £500.

During 8 months in the Solomons/PNG running the engine for 2 hours once or twice a week kept us topped up. Link to their site is http://openoceanwatermakers.co.nz/ . I met one US boat who traded in their US$8000 Spectra for one of these (the trade in covered the installation!).

Cheers Peter

 

[Richard10002]

[ QUOTE ]
Have a look here:- http://www.sail-world.com/cruising/index.cfm?nid=33568&rid=11
Send me a list of all the bits when you`ve sourced them please. It all seems very straightforward.

[/ QUOTE ]

Frightens me to death /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Now... if I was a plumber, it would probably all look familiar and be a doddle to source, fit and run.

 

[Jeannius]

Mine cost me $3700 (@2 to the £) delivered to the Caribbean from USA by http://home.comcast.net/~prowatermaker/ I then fitted (never fitted so much as a tap before in my life) and had an electrician wire it up for another $300. An experienced boat mechanic could have done the lot in a day. Delivers more than the claimed 500 gallons (US) a day. Can't praise them enough.

 

[damo]

You could try mactra , they may have s/h or recon'd units, as well as new

 

[Anonymous]

Richard, see if you can pick up a second hand Spectra. All parts are user serviceable -- the Clark pump is low speed. Fiddly work on, you use dentist's tools (good second career /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif?) but is do-able. The actual electric pumps are standard Shurflo and are serviceable. There is not much plumbing, really. Just normal low pressure stuff and some compression fittings.

 

[PhilipH]

I have just fitted a Spectra 150DL which does 24 litres an hour at 8 amps. Made the last thru'hull connection last weekend. I have only cut one hole in the hull for the water intake and connected to the existing bilge pump outlet for the brine discharge.

It was around £3500 plus VAT. I have done the plumbing and installation myself but will get the electrical connections done by my electrical guy - need new circuit breaker. If you are handy, they are not too difficult to install once you have decided where it will go. The Spectra is modular so that you can site different units to suit your boat's configuration.

I was concerned that I needed a professional (may still do since I haven't fired it up yet and it may leak all over the place!) but using the adage "measure twice, cut once", I think it should be OK.

 

[NOHOH]

....an interesting piece of kit from NZ.....but, looking at even the small amount of information they provide on their website...it becomes obvious that the pump they are using for their engine driven model is essentially the same as, for example, EchoTec use for their engine driven watermaker.....which makes you suspect that all that many of these guys are doing is buying in components, re-badging them ,possibly adding a small bit of electronics...but often not, and selling them on in a nice metal box or as a kit of parts......at probably vastly inflated prices. What I was trying to find is if someone has any knowledge of the various sources of all the component parts...the pumps, membranes, filter housings and filters etc....is there an" A.S.A.P of watermaker stuff" somewhere?. To take up the point of installation......to any competent sailor who does all the work on his own boat anyway it should not be a daunting task. There is a fair amount of stuff to find a home for..but essentially its all pretty straightforward plumbing , a very small amount of wiring. ...and a measure of common sense. You can download EchoTecs installation and user guide from their website to get the basic idea of what/what not to do and get you started.

 

[FullCircle]

If anyone wants it, I have a 2.25Mb word document with a complete design and list of parts, with sourcing info for a home build watermaker. Comprehensive I would say.
The estimate for making one at time of writing (5 years I think) was $2000

Send a PM with your e-mail address.

 

[Sy-Revolution]

I bought a SH hardly used one for £2000 and fitted it myself. It's an American built Little Wonder 200 (8 gph 17amp). Went in and seems to work ok but have yet to test it at sea. I know that Fox's have two (slightly different models) for sale as SH/old stock in Ipswich. Ask for Henry in chandlery/electical dept.......?