Watermaker for off grid sailing
Posted by Schorrek420@reddit | sailing | View on Reddit | 11 comments
Hey fellow sailors,
My girlfriend and me wanna go on a big 1-3 Years sailing Trip in about 3 years. We‘re in our 2. Season with our Maxi 95 (9,5m sailing yacht) and are in the process of modifying it for off grid sailing. We have not a lot of electrical systems (only one small fridge, navigation lights as well as 2 phones and a tablet to power. Obviously some sensors will follow.). We are planning on installing a Rutland 914i wind generator plus solar panels in the next weeks. Our budget is very small, apart from living most of our hard earned money is going into the boat. We are currently looking for a watermaker that’s not too expensive and we won’t need to be generating more then maybe 30l of fresh water per day. Since plug and play systems for boats are pretty expensive (at least in our book) starting from 1.5k € we are looking for a cheap solution that works well. We are both boatbuilders so some DIY solution might work. Does anyone have a suggestion?
Thanks in advance for any ideas.
P.S. currently in Northern Europe Baltic Sea region
doedelflaps@reddit
I'm building one with my partner, search for karcher watermaker. It's not really a long term solution since the karcher will degrade, but you can get all the other parts of your system and just upgrade to a high pressure pump in the future. Also check out octopus watermaker for a kit.
adamvigneault@reddit
The Karcher systems are good value, but plan on replacing the pump every 1 or 2 seasons, under regular use. Upside: they're relatively cheap.
adamvigneault@reddit
FWIW, I built one with a PumpTec 107SS and 2514 membrane. 5g/h, roughly, and runs on solar. $1500 with fittings and lifting pump, or $2000 with a fancy remote panel like mine.
Schorrek420@reddit (OP)
You are right, I was looking at the Varuna mini which isn’t a high pressure system. My bad unjust startet my research today! How long are you running your system and do you have some more insight on how you built it? Thank you Adam
adamvigneault@reddit
It's a derivative of the Pizzazz system. Here's the thread: https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f115/small-watermaker-3-gph-225683.html
Scooter87942@reddit
Where are you planing on sailing? Reverse Osmosis watermakers are very inefficient at water temperatures below 27c (80f). It takes a lot of energy to produce a small amount of water!
Schorrek420@reddit (OP)
Around the world: starting east Atlantic coast down to Portugal, Atlantic to the Caribbean, Panama Canal, then pacific and checking out some islands. From there we’re not really certain about the route back to Europe tbh, depends on the ability to work in between, spare money and more factors. Basically near the equator most of the time
Extreme_Map9543@reddit
Why not just add some extra tank storage and a nice system for catching rainwater. It’ll be way cheaper and way more reliable.
underwaterCanuck@reddit
This is what I'm doing on my 36 ft just because of cost. Extra water containers for remote places and I'm looking to setup a train catching system for fun to see how it works.
Schorrek420@reddit (OP)
You are right, I was looking at the Varuna mini which isn’t a high pressure system. My bad unjust startet my research today! How long are you running your system and do you have some more insight on how you built it? Thank you Adam
adamvigneault@reddit
Where did you find a 1.5k euro system that included a high pressure pump? You can't even DIY one for that cheap.