Has anyone installed a water maker on 2019-2025 Azimut Flybridge yacht. Been researching and so far I have looked at Blue Water, Spectra Newport 400c and FCI watermakers. I am leaning toward the Spectra due to it ability to integrate with the Raymarine Axiom system and its full automated. Has anyone had experience on any of the above and where in the engine room was it installed? I purchased this Azimut recently and it is predisposed for the water make with a thru hull and strainer already installed. Would appreciate any feedback.
Fully automated means there are a lot more things to go wrong. Keep it simple. I wouldn't choose either bluewater or spectra.........FCI is good, Dometic, Sea recovery, watermakers inc. WHY on earth would you want a watermaker integrated with Raymarine and 2nd question would be why you would want Raymarine.
I agree, not a big fan of these fully automatic watermakers. Great when they work but it takes very little for all that electronic to fail. We have two WM on the boat I run, a primary Sea Recovery 100 gph with touch screen etc and a simple back up 30 gph I added from SeaWater Pro. Simple, off the shelf parts
I purchased this used and Raymarine was already integrated. I have always had Garmin and feel Garmin is more intuitive but Raymarine does have some great features and everything can be integrated on their Axiom systems. So controlling the water maker from the main Raymarine screen seems like a simple solution instead of hard wiring a separate touch screen. I will look into these other watermakers. I was checking with FCI and they were a bit steep on price compared to some others. Will check out Sea Recovery. Thank you for the feedback. New to watermakers so just trying to make a good decision. Mostly using for short trips no longer than a week. It’s possible we would hang out in Baja one winter but not likely. We have cruised Mexico and the South Pacific in our sailboats but now that we have gone over to the dark side, it’s just short coastal cruising and Channel Island trips. Cheers
I would stay away from sea recovery. Too complex and lousy support. Years ago I had one installed and after 2 years the touch screen failed… another 2 years and same thing except that this time the screen was discontinued and we had to upgrade. That was about $6k for a new updated screen, which also required a new motherboard board and a new by pass valve.
Have you heard if Schenker Smart Watermakers? Made in Italy but West Coast support. Seems like they are well made with great components and good support in the US on both coasts.
Like anything, you will get differing opinions. I have a Blue Water and I’m happy with it. However, I don’t use it much. I know others on here have Spectra and like them.
Buy a mainstream brand that isn't overly complicated and has a good dealer locally with parts in stock. The basic components are mostly off the shelf stuff that most of the manufacturers all use, it's the electronics part that can be unique and troublesome to get replacements for.
