HRO/Sea Recovery Watermakers

Hello AMG... Thank you again for taking the time... and we agree: one must try and remain objective. "Upset" at spending all the time and money involved, under our circumstances is not really the right adjective.
Would you like to peruse the 200+ emails we have of correspondence over the past three years to fill in any pieces you feel we have left out? Let me know how you would like us to get these to you?
Please see the photos I have posted with my public account.
It will not be so "anonymous" if you take the time to review the data we have accumulated.
By the way: the system worked great until about 250 hours... it is NOT the membrane: this is protected after the sea strainer by a prefilter assembly ( see photos). How then does age become a factor if the membrane is fresh and fresh water flushed (by RO water) after each run? The system has prefilter and post prefilter pressure gauges. It also has a vacuum gauge measuring the status of the sea strainer. The sea strainer gauge has always measured NO resistance or zero vacuum: it is clean. The control panel is mounted in the cabin (see photos) and is always visible during operation. Similarly, no blockage or resistance is evidenced by a disparity between pre and post filter pressures: the sea water filter is not clogged. The automated HRO Sea Recovery system will stop and fault out if there is a pressure problem from too high or too low pressures. The performance problem rests entirely on the poor pumps provided by Sea Recovery. After 250 hours, the HP diaphragm pumps just start to fail....end of story.
As we have posted previously, it is hard to get 3 years worth of correspondence, troubleshooting and experience with our system all into these type written words we have supplied in the forum.
We appreciate the need for members to be objective and careful and we are happy to provide information provided members remain courteous and objective. Being critical of adjectives we have used or posting uninformed conclusions/opinions are not examples of members being objective. We have tried to answer all queries by members regardless. AND we are very grateful at having received information that will help us make our system less dependent on Sea Recovery in the future.
We stand by our previously posted statements: no one is happy when getting taken advantage of. Spending 11,000.00 (of your OWN money) on a watermaker system and then only getting 250 hours out of the the pump supplied is not the surprise anyone hopes for.... period (hope you are reading this 'rcrapps'). All comments by forum contributors considered, we sincerely doubt anyone would truly be nonchalant about being deceived by the vendor and just carry on, chin up, stiff upper lip and all that!

We thought people should know about it......
PS let us know how you want those emails delivered.... from 2009 and onwards... it is just copy and paste for us but you would have read all of them...

thank you...

THANK YOU K1W1... this is pretty much what we are going to do using a industrial 8000 series pump supplied by Shurflo that is not regulated by any agreement between Shurflo and Sea Recovery. We can purchase parts/spares for these pumps VERY inexpensively and direct from shurflo.

See Photos we have posted under our public profile with the forum.
Shurflo model: 8050-174-168

Hello AMG... Thanks for the apology.
Have you seen the photos we have posted?
The second diaphragm style pump was a good will gesture. It was not a new pump... it was a reconditioned pump they sent...free of charge. The pressure switch was wonky and we changed it out with the one from the first pump. This 2nd pump is the pump we have that is now failing after an additional 250 hours of service.
Total time on our system is 526 hours.
In emails and telephone conversations we have had with Chris Rollins from Sea Recovery he has delineated our options: spend $350.00 every 250 hours or so for a new diaphragm pump (they will not sell just the kits to replace the diaphragm and valve assemblies) or buy a CAT style hydraulic plunger pump for 2150.00 (including shipping).. He has also written what a big privilege it is for us to be able to do so thru him.... "privilege" is the exact word used... more than once... in writing.
Sea Recovery has the upper hand in this because they know you will be back if you choose the diaphragm pumps. They knew this when they sold the systems but failed to tell prospective buyers.
Would you buy such a system, $11,000.00 of your OWN money, knowing that the pump supplied was going to crap out after 250 hours? Would you?
And would you just shrug it off... the deception? Or would you do what we have done: try and find a work around and let others know?

Hi Marmot. The photos are there and I also uploaded/sent them privately to K1W1 email address at his request. Contact the site people to find out why the photos are not getting displayed or I can email them to you if you send me your email address privately.
Yes... I would rebuild the pumps if I could... it is dead easy if you can get the parts from shurflo. Call Shurflo.. ask them. As I have posted previously, shurflo will not sell these direct to customers because of agreements they have with Sea Recovery. All of our other diaphragm pumps get maintained regularly and easily but Sea Recovery has made it necessary to go thru them. So now we will still use a Shurflo 8000 series pump but we will NOT use the Sea Recovery model....something similar and something we can buy spares for. We will also be bypassing the PCB and operating the system more manually as posted by K1W1.

Thank You

Sorry... I missed the what failed part? of your post...
The failure is with the diaphragm and valve assemblies. The synthetic plastic/nylon bits degrade and distort over time/use... about 250 hours worth.
We have previously posted this information.
Chris Rollins and Mike Harris of Sea Recovery both admitted to us in conversations we have had with them that it was a known problem.
Unfortunately Sea Recovery never shared this information with customers before the sale. Once the sale is made and the installation completed they knew the customer would be hooked: it is just easier for most to adjust/modify than fight the deception.

Thanks again Marmot... Absolutely right... as we have written we will get it sorted with an inexpensive 8000 series pump (not Sea Recovery supply). We will buy lots of inexpensive diaphragm and valve kits. If there is a problem with compatibility with the automated features of the system, we will simply modify the system to make it more manually operated.
It is not ruining our cruise.... the boat is our 22 years and counting home... it is just the same as dealing with wonky bits one buys for the house I suppose... if you live on land.
We have repeatedly posted the intent behind sharing our experience in this forum: to let others know and help them make more informed decisions. As we posted earlier to AMG: we " try and find a work around and let others know?"
The Shurflo pump number i gave you is on the pump in the photo we have uploaded as well.... it is a Shurflo unit/pump made for Sea Recovery.
Sea Recovery in their install and owners documentation supplied with our machine refer to the diaphragm pump as a "high pressure" pump so please forgive me if I have made an error.... you are right of course: one of the things we have learned from this discussion (and not from Sea Recovery before) is the diaphragm pumps they supplied are not High Pressure pumps as their documentation describes them but merely feed pumps for the energy transfer device (ETD).
We like what you wrote: "I thought rag boaters were supposed to be self-sufficient and hardy mariners who made the most of adversity and thrived on challenge ..." What would you call this forum? It has been a challenge keeping up! Thanks again....

Thank you for taking the time to poste Pascal.
NO, respectfully we don't think so... here is the reason why: the 2nd reconditioned Shurflo pump is doing exactly the same thing as the older Shurflo pump. It has lasted about the same number of hours regardless of the age. The 2nd Pump has only been in service since April 2011.
It took almost 18 months from the first pump starting to fail to get someone at Sea Recovery to do something about it. 18 months from when we 1st met with the New Zealand agent Mike Harris (Nov 2009) until we actually got someone at Sea Recovery to actually follow-up.
I'm really glad you got overnight service from these people (Mary Day).... it has quite obviously not been our experience.
Perhaps for some, $11,000.00 for a Watermaker system installed is a cheap package.... it sure does not feel that way to us.... when it was coming out of our own wallet it seemed like a lot....
Regardless, NO where is there or was there any notice given to buyers of these Sea Recovery systems that the pumps would give such short service: The deception part.