Hi Julian,
Let me start with our requirements, as I believe that every system has to fit the stated mission.
In our case, after cruising in the Bahamas for a winter season in 2020-2021 without a water maker, we were tired of the time and energy it took to find and lug fresh water in jerry cans back to Onward (or staying in expensive marinas, where the water wasn't always great), and it was negatively affecting the way we cruised (e.g. always looking for water, always being stingy with showers and washing the salt off the boat, etc.) It made it much more difficult to have guests aboard.
Onward carries 135 gallons of fresh water plus jerry cans on the deck, but it was still a major PITA to fill them. We spent a lot of time looking at water maker installations on other boats, and doing the research.
Our thoughts boiled down to:
- We wanted to make water quickly, as the noise of ANY water maker is annoying while you are at anchor in some beautiful spot.
- We had a Fischer Panda genset on board - (although many people run AC power units with a small gasoline portable generator or lower output DC systems on solar)
- We weren't circumnavigating, so we didn't need to make water while underway (making water underway would have required a more invasive/expensive installation)
- We wanted to be mindful of the budget - which meant we wanted to get a functioning water maker and then decide about upgrades/improvements to it as needed
We focused on Rainman (https://www.rainmandesal.com/)
We struggled with the decision of a DC or AC system, but went with the high volume (140 liters/hour) AC system. (https://www.rainmandesal.com/ac-electric-watermaker/)
For installation, we chose a middle ground between "completely portable" and "completely plumbed in".
Let me explain:
- We mounted the reverse osmosis (RO) unit in the aft shower just to the starboard side of the shower head (see photo which shows how the unit looks when making water)
- We mounted the power supply unit (PSU) deep in the locker directly to starboard of the shower (we added a shelf to mount it on) - accessible via the small door. We did this so it was out of the way, but we could easily remove it if it needed servicing
- To make water, we did the following:
- Opened the small door and took out:
- The PSU's electrical line and plugged it into an outlet in the aft head
- The raw water line (it is connected to the PSU)
- Opened the blue RO unit (in the aft head) and pulled two tubes out (fresh water, and brine water)
- Pushed the three water lines (fresh, brine, and raw) through the porthole in the aft head and onto the starboard deck. One line went into the ocean to pull in the raw water, one allowed the brine to exit back into the ocean, and the third was the fresh water. We simply pulled the fresh water line to whatever tank we wanted to fill (port, starboard, or v-berth)
- When we were done, we powered down the unit, shut off the genset, and pulled the lines back into their places
We made water every few days, and ran the system for about 45 minutes each time (more if we had guests taking showers)
We thought long and hard about plumbing the system, but that would have involved routing the raw water and brine lines to a through-hull, and running fresh water lines to each water tank, and installing a monitoring module (sold by Rainman) and mounting that also. That was more money/time/effort than we wanted to tackle or felt was necessary.
Now we are back in the US and not traveling to the southern islands anymore. We just uninstalled the 2 units of our water maker last month, as we really don't need them in New England waters.
Let me know if you want to talk further - glad to answer any questions you might have. There are so many options to meet any need.
If you are interested in buying our Rainman system, let me know. We haven't put it on the market yet, but will be later this spring.
Best,
David
sv Onward, T4100, #74
Boston, MA