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From: Richard Bradshaw (no email)
Date: Fri Mar 17 2006 - 18:40:20 EST
Hi Philip,
Sorry about the missing info. We're trying to get the house on the
market and I'm a bit "fried" most of the time.
First the URL for the towed unit is :
http://www.yachtwatermaker.com/. I'm thinking it is about half the
cost of anything else and that is attractive but I'm also thinking it
would be a very nice very large fish lure. A couple $k plus is a lot
for a fishing lure. ;-) However it does have a handle to work it
manually and an optional 12v motor. Could be a good deal.
There will mostly be the two of us on board plus a cat or two. The
tank is about 120 gallons and we probably won't need more than 20
gallons per day and hopefully less than 10. Someone likes long
showers but that might change once the water runs low. >:-}
A friend of ours is a broker and he recommends the Spectra. They are
standard on a multi that he sells and has high praise for it.
Apparently another manufacturer in Europe, after seeing that boat,
changed their standard to include the Spectra unit.
(BTW, if anyone here is in the San Diego area or is coming to this
area to buy a boat, I'd be very happy to recommend this guy. From my
perspective he is the most honest, straight forward broker I have
ever come across. And no, we didn't buy our boat from him. We did,
however, bend his ear a few times and there was no charge even though
he knew he was not getting a commission on the sale. He seems to be
one of the truly good guys in the business.)
So far, from the info I've received here, personally, and elsewhere,
I'm leaning toward the Spectra. Service, reliability are very
important. Nice to know that they need to be used at least every
other day or so though. I didn't know that. Web searches have had
mixed results. I wonder if these guys really care how their site
looks to "visitors" who have little time to plod through their site.
Something else that has been mentioned is the possible addition of a
"day tank" sort of thing that could be used to put the "new" water
into first and then put into the general water tank. That way, if the
unit goes bad, salty or brackish water doesn't contaminate all the
water. Seems like a prudent thing to do. Any comments?
Thanks for the info. Keep it coming.
Rick
>Woops!
>
>Rick,
>It would be helpful to know how many people are on board or your daily
>water requirements. How are you going to supply power to run it?
>
>I had both a Power Survivor, inexpensive, but costly to maintain. Power
>requirements for water delivered were high IMO and it never delivered the
>advertised output. I also bought a Spectra. If you are looking for a
>serious unit. Spectra is the winner hands down in my book. Low power
>requirements and makes water by the bucket full.
>
>I gave the Little Wonder by Village Marine a good look, but went with he
>Spectra even though it cost a lot more. It is quiet and sips power.
>Delivered more than it was advertised. Mine delivered better than 8 gph.
>And all the time I used it, (4 years in the Caribbean) never had any
>maintenance problems. Had to replace the membrane once in Honduras. Spectra
>shipped me one pronto - good folks to deal with.
>
>One thing though. Any water maker you get will have to be regularly used or
>it will give problems. Have to make water at least every other day in the
>tropics or nasty stuff starts to grow. Pickling and such is a pain and easy
>to forget to keep up if you are not using the unit. You just don't pickle
>it once and let it sit idle for a year, then expect to membrane to be OK.
>At least that was my experience. Also figure on installing a two stage
>pre-filter for the intake water. Make sure you have a salinity checker too.
>
>Like to know more about that tow behind desalination unit - sounds neat.
>Got a web address for it?
>
>Hope this helps.
>
>Philip
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