Modern water makers are very good tools and very useful on any overnight boat. We have enjoyed several on different boats. It does add complexity for the owner, operator, and end user. Some are better with marine complexity than others. The modern "watermaker" will make cleaner water than the water coming out of your public hose or tap. There is no chlorine so the water is only sterile for the moment. The bacteria and water health risk on any boat is the tank and piping. Once you have serviced a few boat tanks or changed out any boat tubing you will not want to put boat water in your mouth anymore. To be clear there is no way to tell whether the boat you were on was built with medical/food grade tubing or tanks. It differs from day to day in the building process.

If you spend enough time on boats you will figure out that you should never put yourself in a position where you must have an engine, generator, AC, and now the watermaker. If you are going to leave the dock you should be prepared to deal without anything on the boat including the hull.

All that noise aside. I do not want any overnight boat without a genset, AC, and watermaker even though I can do just fine without it. In the BVI we always have at least one clean gallon of emergency fresh water for each person aboard. If ever the boats water supply falls short we hand out those gallons. Further down island we would carry more spare water.

With tens of days using a water-makers aboard. We have experienced one failure on a Voyage Cat related to some type of fuse/thermal breaker we could not self service. The issue was a known problem that Voyage met us and corrected within 24 hours. We have had less luck with gen-sets and AC's coupled with salt water. Get the watermaker if you can. Be prepared to do without the boats water supply no matter what.