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Sea Recovery Watermakers

Discussion in 'Watermakers' started by boatguy901, Aug 19, 2011.

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  1. boatguy901, Aug 19, 2011
    #1
    boatguy901

    boatguy901 New Member

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    " It's not just me " I'll make this short. Sea Recovery AquaMatic 1400. It was $ 14,000.00 plus install. At 91 hours??????????? New Touch Screen @ $ 980.00, main circuit board $ 1,400.00, service call/repair $ 2,100, that's a total of 4.5K. Now it doesn't work again. They don't know whats wrong but say they all fail and it will be $ 1,300.00 for retro-fit kit with 8 hour install or about $ 2,300.00 with service call. NOW, I think I understand. They build a POS watermaker, pawn it off on us moron boaters and when there technology fails we pay to fix it??????????? I DON"T THINK SO. There unit sucks and they want us to pay to retro-Fix it. I DON"T THINK SO.

    Does any body remember some years ago when the Banner Tow was flying over the Miami boat show, something about " MAN DIESELS "???????? I DO.

    " It's not just me "
  2. Pascal, Aug 19, 2011
    #2
    Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

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    We had a SR 900 installed 3 years ago on the boat I run... We replaced the touch scren control board twice (once under warranty, once at $1400 incl labor)...

    The screen has a bunch of lines on it too, not worth replacing though and sometimes you have to the breaker off and back on a dozen time to start the **** thing as it throws a screen comm error

    Where is yr screen? Ours is in the ER and I suspect heat is an issue. I m going to move it out of the ER...
  3. K1W1, Aug 19, 2011
    #3
    K1W1

    K1W1 Senior Member

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    Hi,

    If it is the controls that are always causing problems it is not rocket science to knock up something that works. It might not have all the pretty pretty graphics but as long as it does the job correctly does it really matter?

    In my opinion these guys make the best units on the market today.

    http://www.hemwater.com/produit.asp
  4. boatguy901, Aug 19, 2011
    #4
    boatguy901

    boatguy901 New Member

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    Reply

    You are correct. A watermaker is HP salt water forced through a membrain, removing salt and aalllaaa,,,fresh water. The fact is that they dont back up there electronic boondogle and want the end consumer to pay for there p**s poor technology. K1W1 you can try to convence me that $ 20,000.00 for 121 hours of service is good but I dont buy it. I found some 20 year old high presure valve, gauges, flow meters, bypassed all there crap and now I make water with NO HELP FROM SEA RECOVERY. They have screwed up technology and want us to fix it. " It's not just me "
  5. AMG, Aug 19, 2011
    #5
    AMG

    AMG YF Moderator

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  6. boatguy901, Aug 19, 2011
    #6
    boatguy901

    boatguy901 New Member

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    K1w1

    K1W1,,,,,,if I can keep One (1) of my fellow boaters from making the same $ 20,000.00 mistake I did then my work is done. But believe me when I say
    " It's not just me "
  7. boatguy901, Aug 19, 2011
    #7
    boatguy901

    boatguy901 New Member

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    Pascal

    Pascal,,,,trust me on this one. Go to some body in the business and put manual controls on your unit like I did or you will need your watermaker and it " WONT WORK ". Use your same pumps and membrains and boost the pressure by hand and boot it down when you have made what you want. Trust me, ER heat is not the problem or they would not have gone to the trouble to procuce a retro-FIX to try to solve there electronic boondogle. My point is they should have done that " FOR US ". $ 2,100.00 for the retro-fix and hope it works????? REALY??????
  8. Capt J, Aug 19, 2011
    #8
    Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    What year is your unit?
  9. boatguy901, Aug 19, 2011
    #9
    boatguy901

    boatguy901 New Member

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    Capt J

    Capt J,,,,,,,,,,,,,installed in 07, in service end of 08,,( conplete referb of a 45 Hatteras 45 C ),,,,,first problem at + or -91 hours mid 09, second problem end of 09, last problem at 121 hours mid 2010 and been fighting till about may this year when I fanaly told them to go pound sand where the sun don't shine. Why do you ask? Go ahead and tell me you have an Aqua Matic that works fine. I bet not.
  10. Capt J, Aug 19, 2011
    #10
    Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    I just wanted to get an idea of how old the unit was, I could see them not wanting to stand behind it if it was 10 years old. BUT, at 5 years old or less, they really should take care of the problem or at least subsidise the repair.
  11. Capt Bill11, Aug 19, 2011
    #11
    Capt Bill11

    Capt Bill11 Senior Member

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    While I feel your pain. I will say I have run a number of boats over the years with Sea Recovery units on them and never had the problems you and Pascal seem to be having.
    Last edited: Aug 20, 2011
  12. Capt J, Aug 19, 2011
    #12
    Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    I've personally seen more than 1 Sea Recovery unit with a bad electronics board. It seems the manual ones are ok, but there circuit boards are crap and don't last. The last one I came across, we ran it with the salinity meter unhooked in order to fool it into making water because the board was bad and the owner didn't want to spend the $1400 for the board and labor to install it.
  13. dan1000, Aug 20, 2011
    #13
    dan1000

    dan1000 Member

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    We have a 1 year old Sea Recovery Aquamatic 1800 gallon per day modular unit, and couldn't be happier with it. Great water, zero problems with the unit once it was properly installed (the installer initially neglected to install the right software the first time, but got it right the 2nd time). I like that I have a 2nd control panel in the pilothouse, and so can control and monitor the unit easily while underway. I also like that it auto-flushes every 7 days for 10 minutes.

    Boatguy901 - I'm sorry you're having these problems with the company. That can't be any fun at all. On our recent Bahamas trip, our $18,000 unit made over $7,500 of water (at $0.50/gallon in the Bahamas). I'd hate to have been without it. I hope you get someone who can put it right for you. Ours was installed by Beard Marine, who did a good job for us (other than that one programming error).
  14. Capt J, Aug 20, 2011
    #14
    Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    Keep in mind that if you're making that water while hooked up to shorepower, running the watermaker is costing you a small bundle of money in electric in the Bahamas, and the electricity to run the low pressure and high pressure pump has to be figured into the dollar equation.
  15. K1W1, Aug 20, 2011
    #15
    K1W1

    K1W1 Senior Member

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    I was not trying to do that at all which is why I wrote

    which is what it appears you have done with the exception of no mention of how you check the salinity.


    Must be a while since you were there Lars, there is still the big man in control from your neck of the woods who I have known for more than 20 yrs but he is now surrounded by those who wear blue on the rugby field.:)
  16. dan1000, Aug 20, 2011
    #16
    dan1000

    dan1000 Member

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    Ours made 77gph of water, using 6kw of power, which I ballpark at 0.6gph of gen fuel. At $5/usg, this is 0.6*5/77 = 3.9 cents per usg. Of course, there is wear and tear too, so it is not a true cost. But many of the marinas we stayed at had flat fee power of about 50 to 60 dollars per night for a 50 amp cxn. Frankly, we don't use that much electricity, and felt that we "should" use our water maker or else we were getting taken to he cleaners on the electricity fee. In many parts, I would not run the water maker in a marina, but in the Bahamas with crystal clear water and a strong current through many of the marinas, it made sense.

    Dan
  17. boatguy901, Aug 20, 2011
    #17
    boatguy901

    boatguy901 New Member

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    I'm just saying

    Capt. Bill11,,,,,,,,,Bill I know several people that have the older, more simple units that have very little problems. The fact that they produced this electronic nightmare, pawned it off on us consumers and want us to pay for it is unacceptable. I feal they should have re-called all these units and replaced them with the more reliable/simple, proven unit.

    As for DAN1000,,,,,congrads and GOOD LUCK. I'm just telling you that it is only a matter of time. When you touch that screen one day and nothing happens,,,,,,,get ready for a very rough and $$$$$$$ filled ride. And lets face it, most people don't put a watermaker in to save money. It's so you have good qualty water in any port. I keep a manual test meter on my boat at all times. My TDS's ( salt ) run about 221 to 235 ppm ( they say below 500 is acceptable ) and most of the water in the Bahamas that I have tested runs in the high 400's. Sea Recovery blaimed my problems on dock power in the Bahamas. OK, that was possible so I started running the unit on Generator power ONLY,,,,,same result.

    Until my recent "downgrade" to a more simple water producing unit it only cost me $ 2.75 per gallon. 121 hours @ 60 gallons per hr = 7,260 gallons from a $ 20,000.00 unit. BTW, cense my ""downgrade"" it has run 34 trouble free hours in two months. KNOCK ON WOOD
  18. ArielM, Aug 20, 2011
    #18
    ArielM

    ArielM Senior Member

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    I have a older 600gpd sea recovery and i never have any problems. It doesnt have a touch pad and i manually boost the pressure but it does have a circuit board and LED salinity meter markings so i am not sure if it falls into this same category or not.

    On a side note, for future reference who makes more reliable water makers if we should stay away from Sea Recovery?
  19. Capt Bill11, Aug 20, 2011
    #19
    Capt Bill11

    Capt Bill11 Senior Member

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    These were units with the electronic touch pads. :)
  20. K1W1, Aug 20, 2011
    #20
    K1W1

    K1W1 Senior Member

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    Hi,

    If you are really getting that with a calibrated high quality Tester you should be thinking yourself very lucky indeed, that sort of TDS level is normally reserved for the Vac Evap Boys.
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