Watermaker and E/R Monitoring Recommendations

31 gph is a pain in the ass with more than 4 people on board, or needed water for rinsing the boat and fishing. You pretty much have to make sure to start it when the tank level gets to 60% and run it for 12 hours just to keep up with showers and such. On your size boat, around 50 GPH is the magic number for me. I like modular units, it means the parts you need to access and service are actually accessable!

Why bother rinsing the boat if you are using salt water???

It all depends on who’s on board... female add 50% to the estimated water usage! Long hair? Add 25%. Male? Reduce by 25%. Couples with oversized shower stall? Add 30%. Gender neutral? Not sure On charter? Add 30%. Owners? Add 10% and tell them they need to upgrade the WM fishing buddies? They don’t need to shower...

200 GPD???? Is that hand operated or something? That's like 9 gallons per hour. I figure about 35 GPD per person when you figure in the cooking/tender/keeping the outside clean......

The 66' Sunseeker I'm on goes through that with just ice makers and stuff (almost). With 8 people on board, on anchor, we go through 250-300 gallons per day. One time, they went through the entire water tank (250 gallons) in 1.5 hours...….All came back from snorkeling, 6 people go to take showers......I start the Watermaker at 67%, and it makes 40 GPH.....some are up and start prepping food for dinner as I keep checking the water tank gauge...….it got down to 5%...….then everyone sat down for dinner...….they get done, it's at 23%, and they start rinsing dishes and run the dishwasher and back to ground zero...…...

I like to be able to fill the tank in less than 4 hours. You know the quality of the water your in, can do it between marina's in the Exumas, etc...….

Capt J you forgot the washing machine(s)

With a full house (10 guests 3 crews) we use 500 to 700 gal a day. 1400 gpd watermaker runs up to 10-12 hours a day.

A few times I waited till the 400gal tank was down to 30% to start it and it couldn’t keep up... close call

Yeah, that was running too!!!! But an all in one and I think on dry mode at the time...….the best is the vent is on the side deck, so if you leave it running and it's full when people are about to take a shower, you have a river running down the side deck and down the side of the aft deck teak......and stairs to swim platform...….

Another trip on a 62' Princess, there were 11 people, 8 guests/3 crew. It had a 30 GPH watermaker and we were on a 3 day trip and anchoring every night...…..the watermaker stayed on as soon as the tank got to 60% and never shut off for the entire trip, and we only had it coming out of the vent 1 time for 40 minutes......LOLOLOL

Adam, the membranes are between the deck supports and the exhaust on the ledge. The pump and all filters are installed in the cockpit tackle center locker. I believe you converted that area into another set of tackle draws. The high pressure pump can be mounted any where, its plumbed to the membranes with h/p hose.

The control panel is mounted in the salon.

You're going to have to easily access the pressure adjustment knob. Also keep in mind the high pressure pump is noisy. I like a modular system and being able to access easily the unit itself so I can see the pressure, flow and other vital information.

I am on one boat where this is mounted on the stringers 8" behind the starboard main and facing the engine. You need a **** mirror or cell phone to see what the pressure and flow is, AND to even find the start button. What a pain in the ass. It does have a remote start/stop panel in the galley. But I always have to get it going, adjust pressure, and wait 5 minute for pressure to stabilize, LOL.

They're nice, but also a lot of crap to go wrong. My preference is totally manual, then you just need to carry a spare salinity detector solenoid. Over the years I've had all sorts of things go wrong with watermakers because most of them rarely get used. Automatic fresh water flush solenoid sticking open, which dumped the entire water tank. Electronic circuit boards going bad and wouldn't allow the watermaker to make water. Salinity sender going bad, so wouldn't open the solenoid to allow the good water to go to the tank (thought water had high salinity) etc. etc. etc. To me, the simpler the better.

I ageee. Simple is better when it comes to watermakers. I ve used the fully automatic touch screen versions, they re great until the electronics decide to quit. I prefer the manual pressure adjustment. Once set you don’t have to adjust it everytime unless salinity and temp changes.

Auto flush is nice though.