Which watermaker and why

[Hippocampus]

S99 and Irene. Very helpful and congruent with my thinking. Perhaps I’m a bit cavalier about failure as the Spectra extreme has had no servicing except filters and pickling. Really like the media filter idea. After reading that thought Duh I should of thought of that. Still like the idea of minimizing electronics which is why we picked the extreme which has none. But also like the idea of pushing a button like you do with a Newport. On a sailboat it’s no big deal to go into the workroom.
Where do people put their watermakers? Engine room(hot) or lazerette (cooler) ?
We have often run it underway when in the northeast. More from concern with fouling the membrane with petrochemical waste such as oil but agree less sediment.

 

[Insequent]

I have a Spectra Newport 400 MkII. Possibly too small for some on here, but it is just a supplementary source for me. Main tanks cover normal house use, no conscious water conservation done either.

I had a board issue with it in 2013, probably due to a voltage spike. They said it was a rare and unusual failure. Since then it just runs. I really like the 5 day auto flush feature. I have only pickled it once, that was for the Vancouver-Brisbane shipping of the boat.

More often than not when I run it I'm underway. But if the solar has the house bank in float by early afternoon, which it often does, then I run the Spectra off the bank for a couple of hours and still have a fully charged bank at days end.

At the time, the yard suggested either Cruise RO or Spectra as clearly the best choices. They felt the auto flush etc gave the modular Spectra the edge. I think they were right. I would happily buy another.

 

[IRENE]

Ours was installed in the lazarette, starboard quarter.