12 v Water Maker Recommendation

Helping a Caribbean sailor out. Any recommendations on a small 12 v water maker. I am familiar with the Spectra Ventura series but not other brands. Looking for something with a 150/200 gallon per day capacity. Prefer modular.

I think village used to make one. But I'm sure it's an outrageous price with proprietary everything.

Katadyne


They make a 12 volt model that has a 40 gpd and another that has a 80 gpd capacity. Prices start in the high $2K range

They quit making the model I have which which is the 160 gpd model. Mine cost $4500 or thereabouts.

These are simple very effective and reliable watermakers in wide use by the sailing community. Parts are available world wide.

ksanders said:

Katadyne


They make a 12 volt model that has a 40 gpd and another that has a 80 gpd capacity. Prices start in the high $2K range

They quit making the model I have which which is the 160 gpd model. Mine cost $4500 or thereabouts.

These are simple very effective and reliable watermakers in wide use by the sailing community. Parts are available world wide.

Click to expand...

Kevin,
It may have been awhiled since you priced watermakers. The Katadyn 1.5 gph (36gpd) is $3,695.00 at Defender. The 3gph (72 gpd) is $4,695.00. Watermakers have gone up alot.

READY2GO said:

Kevin,
It may have been awhiled since you priced watermakers. The Katadyn 1.5 gph (36gpd) is $3,695.00 at Defender. The 3gph (72 gpd) is $4,695.00. Watermakers have gone up alot.

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DC water makers sure are expensive! A stripped down Spectra Ventura (150 GPD?) is listed at $6,150, yet you can still buy an AC water maker that puts out 480 GPD for $4,400.

Larry M said:

DC water makers sure are expensive! A stripped down Spectra Ventura (150 GPD?) is listed at $6,150, yet you can still buy an AC water maker that puts out 480 GPD for $4,400.

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Spectra is expensive, but I believe their claim to fame is that they are energy efficient. The model you mention makes 6 gph consuming only 9 amps at 12 volts. If you don’t want to run the genny then that is important. If you are going to run the genny anyway then AC is the way to go in my book.

Larry M said:

DC water makers sure are expensive! A stripped down Spectra Ventura (150 GPD?) is listed at $6,150, yet you can still buy an AC water maker that puts out 480 GPD for $4,400.

Click to expand...

Wow! $4400 for 480 gpd, thats 20 GPH

What brand, etc...??? I might trade off mine.

What I have founnd is that the watermaker is the loudest thing on the boat. Thump thump thump. At 7GPH I need to run it for 6 hours a day to keep up or a little over 2 hours for the bigger one.

The katadyne works great but if the pprice point were reasonablle I could easily go to a larger unit.

READY2GO said:

Kevin,
It may have been awhiled since you priced watermakers. The Katadyn 1.5 gph (36gpd) is $3,695.00 at Defender. The 3gph (72 gpd) is $4,695.00. Watermakers have gone up alot.

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Yep, several years since I priced them. They have gone up.

Wow those are low GPH units. Our 33GPH AC water Maker was about 10k with auto diverter and auto-flush kit. That includes installation. Sometimes it's small for our needs. All relative I guess.

ksanders said:

Wow! $4400 for 480 gpd, thats 20 GPH

What brand, etc...??? I might trade off mine...

Click to expand...

I know 4 people that have put them on their boats and all are happy.

Cruise RO Water & Power: Watermakers for Boats & Yachts

Larry M said:

I know 4 people that have put them on their boats and all are happy.

Cruise RO Water & Power: Watermakers for Boats & Yachts

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I'm impressed!

Reasonable price, off the shelf compoonents, nice!!!

N4712 said:

Wow those are low GPH units. Our 33GPH AC water Maker was about 10k with auto diverter and auto-flush kit. That includes installation. Sometimes it's small for our needs. All relative I guess.

Click to expand...

N4712 said:

Wow those are low GPH units. Our 33GPH AC water Maker was about 10k with auto diverter and auto-flush kit. That includes installation. Sometimes it's small for our needs. All relative I guess.

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Many of the boats I run have at least one 50 gph unit on board. And in fact most have two.

And yes sometimes there are running 24/7. Got to keep the ensuite jacuzzi tubs and top deck hot tub filled with fresh clean water don't you know.

"If you are going to run the genny anyway then AC is the way to go in my book. "

I would chose a V belt .

Leaves the AC for productive work aboard .

FF said:

"If you are going to run the genny anyway then AC is the way to go in my book. "

I would chose a V belt .

Leaves the AC for productive work aboard .

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Making water is pretty productive work in my book.

Plus it puts a nice loading what might be an under loaded Genset.

FF said:

"If you are going to run the genny anyway then AC is the way to go in my book. "

I would chose a V belt .

Leaves the AC for productive work aboard .

Click to expand...

Works as long as the genset works. Had more than one friend stuck because the genset was out for several weeks and they had plenty of power from solar / wind and main engine.

When cruising my theory is not to be dependent on any one item, such as a genset, working.

One of the reasons of course for the two genset thread.

N4712 said:

Wow those are low GPH units. Our 33GPH AC water Maker was about 10k with auto diverter and auto-flush kit. That includes installation. Sometimes it's small for our needs. All relative I guess.

Click to expand...

Geeze.. I must be doing something wrong.. with your unit I would only need to run it about 5-6 hours... a week!

LOL. We start ours up when we wake up and turn it off before bed. We've never filled the tank to the point where water was coming out of the vent either. We have a 400G tank too.

Guess we're like Mr. And Mrs. B minus the group showers.

Ours puts out about 24-28 GPH. When we run the generator, we make and heat water plus charge batteries. If we loose the generator we can run the watermaker off of the invertor. The system draws about 15 amps AC. We have 1100 amp house bank so we can replenish that when we're under way. Not very efficient, but we won't be dehydrated.

We have two (for redundancy, not combined capacity), each rated at 800 gpd. When anchored, often we will run only on an incoming tide. Water tanks (300 gallons) are usually full (and overflowing) at least once a day.