TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Water maker question...

Hi everyone! We are heading down next month for our annual family trip. We had a water maker last year for the first time after some years of attempting to master water conservation. Honestly, it took a little adventure out of the trip in the first week - until the water maker stopped working for the second week - so we were back to conservation mode (mainly boat showers off the back). Overall, we'd like to have it, so I'm trying to learn for this year.

We will be on a Moorings 46PC - the same boat type as last year. When it stopped working, they said that it was an issue with the membrane, and it could only be serviced at the dock. Therefore, I want to do whatever we need to do to keep it working for two weeks this year. Elvin from the Elm came by the boat to collect the mooring fee one evening, and he said that the water makers are not built for the amount of salt in the BVI waters. However, I honestly haven't done much research to this point, so I have no idea if this is accurate.

My question is... what are the steps you would take to keep the water maker working (changing the filter with a certain frequency, etc.)?

Thank you for any help you can provide!

Steve

I would make sure the water maker is working before you get off the dock, if possible. Then, make sure that you have some spare primary filters aboard.
Too much salt in BVI waters? Sorry but that sounds like utter nonsense. They're not built for the amount of maintenance in the BVI :-)

I would say, the most important thing when it comes to my positive experiences with water markers, is be patient.

They require cycling behind the scenes that can take some time. I found that sometimes it took 15 min or more for the light to come on and work. It seemed like nothing was happening and then suddenly it would start.

My .02.

I'm going to have a water maker on my upcoming charter but I know almost nothing about them. Can you make water while underway or do you have to make sure the intake is always submerged (or is it low enough that that's not an issue)?

Re - making sure you have primary spare filters; Are we really going to be making filter changes? Are you going to be able to get the charter company to give you spares - are you buying your own somewhere?

I watch a couple of sailing vlogs and I don't get the kind of water maker angst from them that I get from the charter company and I really don't understand the "no service" issue. I mean, the A/C isn't necessary either but they'll come out and fix that. Why is the WM any different - unless it breaks so often that they can't support it.

Really confused on this particular piece of equipment.

Running the watermaker underway will mean running the generator underway. Unlike the saildrives, the generator intake is not typically as deep and more easily takes in air or seaweed. We never run the genset underway, though people of course do and get away with it. Officially (Moorings) you're not supposed to.

Depending on circumstances, changing the filters might be preferable to waiting for the chase boat to come out, it's nice to have the option. Moorings usually puts spare filters aboard. They certainly will if I ask.

It's my understanding that if a watermaker isn't used for 2 weeks, it should be "pickled". I doubt this is consistently done. Also, after stopping the watermaking process, there is supposed to be a flush (backwash?) cycle, but there's nothing to prevent the user from just turning off the breaker and bypassing this step, which I'm sure increases problems.

We had two power cats this last Feb. During the check out briefing, my friend was told his water maker worked and I was told "mine didn't" > end of story.

We just got back from chartering a 41.3 mono > water maker worked fine. It produced ~ 15 gallons per hour. We were told to monitor it (no auto shut off when tank was full"). We produced water while on the mooring ball with generator on and running on one of the two AC's at the time (We had issues running both AC's anyway).

I would think > 90% of the equation is making sure it works at time of check out.

We were flatly told > it didn't work on our first trip.

Most water makers run off the generator and you should not be running the generator underway. A couple of points on the generator first. If you run it 24 and 7 you increase the chances it will fail during the week. The majority of failures are the impeller. Running it underway can introduce air into the water intake and this will destroy the impeller. Save the Genset for AC at night. If you go to Anegada clean the generator water intake filters when you leave. Depending on the wind ect.. they might be filled with sea grass.
The watermaker also needs some care. Watermakers need to be powered on for 3 to 5 minutes before you ask them to make water. It goes through a startup cycle when power is initially supplied. On some watermakers pushing the start button more than once will bypass the startup cleaning cycle. The same thing applies on shutdown. You select stop on the watermaker panel. Then you need to wait 5 minutes while the watermaker back flushes and cleans itself. If you shut it off and kill the circuit breaker at the same time it’s likely you will not have a working water maker at the end of the trip. Not allowing the watermaker to backflush kills the membrane. They are 800 dollars each! As another poster mentioned there are also pre filters. There should be spares and they are easy to change. DO NOT RUN YOUR WATERMAKER AT ANEGADA. The fact that you can’t see the bottom in 7 feet of water should tell you why.