watermaker
I too am pondering the watermaker question.
My new boat has an optional Village Marine Little Wonder 200 gal/day and the
upgrade to a modular "no frills" system is 3800.00 over the cost of the 200
gal unit. A couple of issues under consideration
24V @ 9A VS 220V @ 8A?
The 200 gal unit is available in either voltage at the same cost. 600 gal unit
is 220V only.
My current thought is to go 24V so as not to be limited in running the
watermaker only when the genset is running. I have 240A of charging
capability, 2 x 140A alternators on the main, and dual 3Kw inverters so genset
run time will be minimal while at anchor. Battery bank is 800 AHrs @ 24V. When
running the main engine electricity from the big alternators is not a
problem.
200 gal VS 600 gal
Note these are ideal production figures and may not be achieved.
Tankage is only 200 gal, and my wife can go through water like no other. Heads
are fresh water only, and there is no salt water at the sinks. If more than
just the two of us on board at anchor then perhaps the 200 gal unit would not
do the job running 24/7. OTOH the 600 gal unit requires the genset and will
make 25 gal for each hour of genset run time, or perhaps 50 gal day max. when
using the gennie to charge the batteries at anchor.
I am leaning towards the 200 gal unit in 24V but would appreciate input from
those with some experience in these thingies.
Robert
Discover the new Windows Vista
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I am leaning towards the 200 gal unit in 24V but would appreciate input from
those with some experience in these thingies.
I vote for the 600 GPD AC unit. Watermakers (at least mine is) are
very noisy. I would not want to ever run one at anchor, and when I
am running, why not run the generator as well. I usually start it up
and power an array of chargers and then, as things begin to taper
off, start making some water. The advantage of high output models is
that you don't need to run them very long to make significant
quantities of water. (They are noisy --- think a pressure washer pump).
Mine came with the boat (A Filtration Concepts unit). It chugs along
under a regimen of benign neglect. I backflush it whenever I am on
the boat, other than that, it has received no maintenance other than
an annual cleaning of the filters. It is still on its original membranes.
The new edition of Calder's book has a nice chapter on watermakers
which is well worth reading.
Best,
Steve
Steve Dubnoff
1966 Willard Pilothouse
www.mvnereid.com
sdubnoff@circlesys.com
I am leaning towards the 200 gal unit in 24V but
would appreciate input from
those with some experience in these thingies.
You don't specify the size of boat and typical use,
but having 24VDC/220VAC indicates something fairly
sizeable, something large enough that you'll have some
AC power demands anyway so running the genset would be
a near daily routine. Under that assumption, I agree
with Steve Dubnoff and would lean toward the 600gpd
unit. With the 24V/200gpd unit, you might squeeze out
10-hours of running - 70 gallons - before you'll be
running the generator anyway (90-100 amp hours). With
the 600gpd unit, your routine will likely be a couple
hours of generator time (which you'll probably have
anyway) during which time you'll run other A/C items -
oven (assuming it's electric), maybe some small
appliances, vacuum, and washer/dryer if your boat is
so equipped.
7 gph is not a lot of water. 25 gph is. And yes, for
the most part, those are the actual production
numbers. Similar to Dave Cooper's suggestion, its nice
to have excess water to do things like wash down the
windows and handrails to remove salt that seems to
accumulate overnight while underway (more of an issue
in tropics). Or wash down the dinghy.
BTW - my boat has a 200gpd watermaker. I bought it
with under 5 hours on it. The previous owner had it
installed originally on his boat, then decided it was
too small and replaced it with a 600 gpd unit.
Peter
Willard 36
San Francisco
Hey Robert
Our routine has been to make water whenever we moved the boat. Our DC
water maker makes up for our usage in less than a days typical cruising.
We don't like the idea of having to run the generator to make water.
We've seen some boats that have to run the generator even with the main
engine running to get the 240V power they need to run the water maker.
There's another line of thinking that says buy a big water maker so you
can fill your tanks up as fast as possible and so run the generator as
little as possible. On a boat with an AC galley, that line of reasoning
seems quite sensible. Our boat is a gas/DC galley, so it made less sense
for us. About the only time we have to run our generator is on hot buggy
nights at anchor when we can't sleep without cooling down the boat.
tr