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.

We lived on our watermaker for five years from Florida to Coral Bay, St. John and up and down the Caribbean chain. Watermaker models are very different, but they all have similar characteristics. Water quality, air ingress, and flushing membranes after making water are a big deal. Our rule was that if you cannot see the bottom, do not make water. We moved to Hurricane Hole or Round Bay to make water. We had a cheap check valve fail, introducing air to our high pressure pump, and it killed the expensive pump. If you do not flush the membranes with fresh water, they will go foul and fail. However, our membranes are six years old and still produce below 250ppm TDS water.

That means do not make water underway, make certain that your head thru hulls are closed when making water, be aware of water quality.

The startup and shutdown steps are specific to each watermaker model and install. It is best to have a check list and follow it carefully.

Cheers, RickG

I agree with most of the above comments. I had a BVI Yacht Charters FP cat with a water maker last year, it ran on DC power (or was able to convert seamlessly from the engines), so we made water anytime we ran a motor, and usually only in deep open water. I assumed in harbours and moorings was either too shallow, sandy or other “unknowns” in the water (not everyone understands the black tank switching at anchor)…
with 2 crews of 6-8 people, showers, dishes and after swim fresh water rinsing, the tanks were never less than half full! Definitely better than the captain constantly shouting about water consumption! (Atleast that’s what everyone told me!]

Operation was simple, I can’t remember the model, but it was a single “on/off” button, and otherwise automatic. It was specifically “not guaranteed operable” by BVIYC, but worked great the whole 2 week trip - I agree though, why not?? Electric winches, chart plotters, A/C all installed equipment should work as intended, no??
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Sounds like an engine-driven water maker.

Bacterial contamination, while unpleasant to think about, should not be an actual risk.

I’ve learned a lot from this thread. Thank you everyone for replying! It will not be the end of the world if the water maker does not work, but I plan to ensure that it’s working when we leave the Moorings base, and we will change the intake filters regularly. We knew to only use the water maker in deep, clear water, but there’s a chance that the intake filters were not clean when we left since I did not check them. I know that this is important now - along with ensuring that the system properly cycles at start up and shut down. Wish us luck!