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Sea Recovery AquaWhisper watermaker membrane

Discussion in 'Watermakers' started by CSkipR, Jul 13, 2014.

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  1. CSkipR

    CSkipR Member

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    I need to change the two membranes on my SeaRecovery AquaWhisper DX 900-2 gpd watermaker. Each membrane tube is approximately 25" although based on my search most membranes are 21 or 40 inches. From my research none of the 21" membranes will filter 900gpd. One will do 300gpd and assume two would do 600gpd so I'm not sure how to get to 900gpd. Can anyone explain what I need and if I need to buy from SeaRecovery or is there another company that supplies them to SR.
    Thanks
  2. Old Phart

    Old Phart Senior Member

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    I dunno
    Sometimes a pic will help.


    SeaRecovery AquaWhisper DX 900-2 gpd watermaker.jpg


    SeaRecovery AquaWhisper DX 900-2 gpd watermaker 2.jpg
  3. Old Phart

    Old Phart Senior Member

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    I dunno
  4. CSkipR

    CSkipR Member

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    Yes I have contacted SR and their pricing for the membranes is very expensive. Just trying to see if I can find a good substitute or the actual manufacturer that makes them for SR. AquaWhisper 900-2 is model. About 38gph. It maybe that I purchase from SR but just want to check out.
  5. Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

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    We replaced the membranes on our aquamatic 900 about a year ago. They were a but pricey but not as bad as their **** POS control screens. The WM mentioned there was no away around using SR supplied membranes as none other were compatible with the unit.
  6. Capt Ralph

    Capt Ralph Senior Member

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    I had a time with 4" ro membranes years ago. The Kids at AmericanRO helped me out.
    I don't think SR makes their own membranes, but they could be proprietary for a while. Ya just got to find that film mfg.
    The only gripe SR would have is a warranty claim. They could mess up your day.

    Are you sure your membranes are EOF?
  7. K1W1

    K1W1 Senior Member

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    Hi,

    If you can replumb the pipework you can pretty much use anyones cannisters and membranes as long as you can match the membranes to your systems flow rates.
  8. Capt Ralph

    Capt Ralph Senior Member

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    In a Red-Neck environment; if they were just too expensive to replace, you could cut down the tube lengths to accept the 2.5 x 21 inch membrane. There at $160 each.
    Do you really use 900 / day?
    Your gen-set runs 24/7 when you're out, slower water production, nicer constant load on the gen-set.

    So, What's SR quoting on their film tube?
  9. Marmot

    Marmot Senior Member

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    That's not "red-neck" it's just good sense!

    There is no point in paying a huge premium for "private label" membranes.

    Reverse Osmosis Membranes
  10. Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

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    In our case, we sometimes use 500gpd on a 70 footer... We are not going to tell folks that they have to take navy showers :)

    Personally I don't want to run the water maker all day, so a larger capacity unit lets me make the water we need in a few hours... Reason is that I like to keep an eye on things so running it for hours make it harder. Also, the high pressure pump pulls quite a bit of power and if we are cooking or running the dryer and the saloon 48k btu compressor kicks in the brief voltage drops cause the WM to shut down... PITA

    I d have to look it up, but I m pretty sure the 900gpd SR membranes were $1500 installed. The first set lasted 5 years... I didn't want to experiment since when we re in the exumas, the watermaker is critical
  11. Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    I recommend 1200 GPD watermakers for 60' MY's and SF. Think about this, 900 GPD is only 37.5 gallons per hour. If you have a 200-300 gallon water tank. You're not going to start the watermaker until the tank is half full. Say you travel, you get in and use 50-100 gallons to rinse the boat then you have 5 guests all taking showers, your full tank is now empty and if 2 people take a shower per hour, the watermaker isn't even keeping up with consumption. Then you might do laundry too, all of those beach towels etc and you really don't want to run the watermaker if you're doing laundry (or cannot because of the soap and electric draw) and you don't run the watermaker if you're pumping out either. Then you can't always run the watermaker with cooking and such, the generator cannot handle the load. You cannot run it at night most of the time because of the noise. The only difference between a 30 GPH and a 50GPH watermaker most times is just 1 extra membrane, same pumps, same electricity etc. So, for an extra $1000 or so, you have a watermaker that covers your needs, you can keep up with demand, and you can refill the tank in between marina's in 4-6hours. Having a small watermaker is equivalent to having an apartment sized stacked w/d in a household with 6 people. You can make it work, but there will be times when it's **** inconvenient.

    I did a trip on a 75' Hatteras MY with a 600 gallon freshwater tank, we traveled and anchored everynight for 4 nights straight. I had 7 guests and 2 crew. It only had a 30 GPH watermaker that I kept running the entire 4 days non-stop and the water tank was almost empty when I got to Paradise Island. Every morning everyone took showers, then we snorkeled everyday and everyone took showers again, than we had all of the beach towels to wash, 2 loads a day, then cooking usage and everything else. Not to mention the boat had an extension and the cockpit 300 gallon water tank gravity fed into the boats 300 gallon water tank, so the trim of the vessel was all over the place depending on where the water level was. It sucked, plus everyone had to deal with the noise, but the generator noise wasn't much quieter through the boat.
  12. Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    Cskip, what capacity in GPM is the low pressure pump and the high pressure pump. I'm willing to bet you could put larger membranes to put out 50 GPH instead of 37.5 and the watermaker wouldn't know the difference.

    I just looked on their site. They are using the same 4.5 GPM low pressure pump and the same high pressure pump on their system all of the way to 75gph/1800 GPD. I'd put aftermarket membranes that are similar in shape and connections that'll make you 50 gph and call it a day. The only thing you may have to change is the flow meter....but the scale might also be high enough that it too is fine. Does yours have the plunger style high pressure pump or the radial axle one?
  13. Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

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    Another issue.... In shallow water, say 10 to 12' or less like most exumas anchorages you have to shut off the watermaker when moving around because the sand you kick will quickly clog your prefilters... So the bigger the WM, the fewer hours it runs...
  14. CSkipR

    CSkipR Member

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    My boat is only 43ft so 900gpd works fine and the fresh water tank only holds 100 gls so in approx. 2 hrs tanks full.
    SR wants over $1000 for the two membranes which I believe to be 2.5" x 21".
    Just received an email from Ampac USA that their 2.5" 21" membrane is $198 ea. Need two. They say these are 800gpd instead of the 900gpd. Anyone know why these wouldn't work just reduce my output slightly.
    Actually just found out the membranes in the model I have are 3" x 21" so they maybe hard to find since 2.5" and 4" seem to be the normal.
  15. K1W1

    K1W1 Senior Member

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    Hi,

    Ask them what their max thru put and pressure is and if its the same as your current system there will be no problem.

    It maybe that they work at a lower pressure than your other ones.
  16. Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

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    What I was told by the tech when we replaced ours was the the electronic control on th aquamatic would have problems with membranes others than for SR. He works with different manufacturers so he had no need to force the SR membranes.
  17. Capt Ralph

    Capt Ralph Senior Member

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    Uh? You do or don't have 28" long tubes (model 900-2)??
  18. Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    I would think they would work fine. How would you mount them, just pad them to make up the extra space between them and the clamps. What about 2.5"x 24" or something slightly longer from the same company that are a little higher in flow?
  19. CSkipR

    CSkipR Member

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    The 2 tubes are 25" long. Inside the tubes are the membranes which have about 2" open on each end before the caps.
    SR now tells me the membranes are 3" x 21" which appears to be an odd size.