Ive been concerned about drinking "stripped water",thank you for your insight! food, beer and Himalayan salt with chips. Never sounded more comforting.
Yours is a great channel. I love your attention to detail and your ability to explain things so that those of us that are technically challenged are able to understand the scope of your projects. Thank you.
Working on an upgrade to my system, which like yours has a manual diverter for the first batch of water produced. I'm coupling a timer relay to a diverter valve. It always takes about 5 mins to get below 500ppm, so it's based on time rather than water purity. The advantage is it allows autonomous operation, so the watermaker can just be set by a timer switch and work on the boat even while we're away from it. Will keep you posted on how it goes if you're interested.
Fab video, our thoughts just like yours. We will look into this once we arrive in Turkey. Super efficient organisation and job done!... In 1 day👍🏼💪🏼👌🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼🙏🙏🙏
Thanks for that! Really informative. Sounds like a great system. One question: is there any protection for overflowing your water tank? Will the system shut off when the tank is full? Oh, congrats on 50K! That is a great accomplishment :)
Spectra do have a gauge you can fit to your tank which will automatically switch it off yes, but we have two tanks in it just not worth the effort. It comes out the overflow in the Galley sink when full so we get warning
@@waterboy8999 Ball Cock!……. Sorry not being rude it’s what they’re called. Sadly no good on boats though as the water surface wobbles around and anyway trying to stop pressurised water like that would damage the membrain. It just a simple electrical float switch to send a signal back to the controller to stop.
We have the same model but it has a TDS meter in-built with a solenoid valve. The product water quality is monitored on a touchscreen display and the solenoid valve diverts the product water straight out of the discharge until the TDS level comes down to the correct level and then it diverts it to the tank. My kit also came with a 20 micron filter unit in series with the 5 micron filter and both filters are quality monitored and an alarm goes off if they need attention. All very easy once installed.
Sounds good. I decided to keep it as simple as possible but I think Spectra make things well so I'm probably being over cautious. Do you find having two intake filters an advantage?
@@svfairisle I can't really compare as I've never just had one filter but I expect it makes the 5 micron filter last a lot longer before having to clean/replace
Excellent informative video....thank you. My boat has a Spectra system but I've never used it given the kind of sailing I do. It's been pickled for years.
Yes you’ve got to use a boat really regularly to warrant a water maker, or do regular month away type trips. But the system should be absolutely fine pickled so it’s there when you need it
We live onboard so the water is constantly changing and has always stayed good. I do blast it once a year with a cleaner and we has an Acuuva UV system for drinking water from the tank
Most of the Clark pumps from Spectra require a complete rebuild about every thousand hours. Several full time cruisers have reported $1200US t $1800S bills for rebuilds like clockwork. Yes they use less energy but have something like 90(which I don't know the exact likely numbers) seals that wear out in the double reciprocating action. Our system which is a pressure washer pump on a motor, has not needed anything but a few oil changes in the head in over 3000 hours, and a new head costs less than $300US and gets us about 35 gallons an hour for 80 amps 12 volt. Spectra(most 200 models) gives you about 8.3 gallons an hour (For the cheaper models) for around 10 amps at 12 volts(plus the boost pump). So mine uses more electricity but is faster. For 35 gallons a Spectra gets 42 amps. Mine uses 80amps for 35 gallons. Mine also cost around $1500. Yours is a great system, but my sailor friends say expect a rebuild at 1000 hours, not what they try and tell you in the literature of 3000 hours. When you need a rebuild, you might want to give Seawater Pro a call. A whole new system might cost you just a tad more than the rebuild and shipping.
Well I personally have only heard of one person rebuilding a Clarke pump & that was after 5 years, but in any case as I said in the film if you have the unit fitted by Spectra the warranty on the Clarke pump is much longer. I'm actually trying to find out if it's a lifetime warranty or 10 years, there seems to be some confusion. But either way I think it's pretty good.
I contacted Spectra, it is a lifetime guarantee on the Clark pump for and faults but that doesn’t cover general wear of the seals. So you will need to strip and put it new deals when needed.
@@svfairisle Spectra makes a good unit, but I just can't justify the cost. I think for the lower end u it's one would be in the hole for between 8000us and 16000us. Also if it is true about the seals wearing down every thousand hours or so like viewers have been saying on Sailaway World Sailing and Folsom Ocean Views.....well the costs get out of hand for normal cruisers. I use a generator to help with hot water, making water, and cooking. Essentially even though we only have 300 watts of solar, we can all have hot showers daily, refrigerate/freeze food, and cook on electricity with the generator. The ultra great electricity usage of a Spectra just couldn't service six people on a thirty foot boat. In other words it likely couldn't make enough water fast enough, and to babysit for the number of hours needed to make sure the operation went well. Our igen2600 can even run out 16k ac too. We use 15 gallons of gasoline per month no Ac, and and sixty gallons having the ac on 24/7. Typically with a mix we use about 22 gallons. So even not really being able to use solar on the water maker, vs the installation cost.... well on average we spend 88 dollars on fuel here per month to have all the creature comforts. Vs our home grown system the costs of a Spectra don't make sense. If they only last a thousand or so hours between rebuilds one might be looking a 10000us for the first thousand hours. My system including the generator , fuel, and system for the first thousand hours I estimate to be around 2800us.
I have run two Specra Watermaker on different boats over the last ten years. They are OK…. All Watermakers have their issues. However, I have just bought an AC Rainman. Just to highlight that with Solar and Lithium I plan to run the Rainman from my Inverter. It’s super high output means that I will only need an hour or so every few days which will be nothing for my energy setup. Horses for courses but the interviews in the Catermaran didn’t seem to take a non-generator powered AC Watermaker into consideration. I like the sheers simplicity and portability of the Rainman. If not Rainman I would have fitted a Schenker Zen - Spectra are very expensive for no particular reason.
I can see the Rainman having an advantage of not having the bother of fitting but I really can’t see any other advantage, & you still have to store it somewhere. Running an AC unit through an inverter just says inefficiency to me. Big losses in the inverter. I agree the Schenker Zen is a good unit but very similar price to the Spectra and from my research the Spectra has the edge on reliability. I think they’ve nailed it with the Clark pump.
Really like the spectra watermakers - they seem technically very good and adaptive to the different situations that you might find yourself (low and high power modes). The Clarke pump design is brilliant.
It more aggressive but it’s we’re not talking acid here! Your domestic water systems should be fine, they’re all brass & similarly good metal that will deal with it no problem. The thing to watch out for maybe in your engine. You’ve got a standard old steel sections in there which might suffer.
During Covid here in south Devon we were joined for much of the time by many cruise ships, anchored up with nothing to do. Occasionally they would disappear for a day or two and it turns out it was to make water. They said they had to get quite a few miles out into the channel else it would clod the filters too quickly.
Thank you for another informative video. Enjoy your water maker. (Use it smiling smiling : Güle güle kullanın (TR)) I like the drinks that contain necessary minerals at the end of the video.
Great video, remembering what it was like from our circumnavigation in the 1980s, presently cruising the Bahamas with a Spectra 150 water-maker. My wife's book is a good read, published by Austin Macauley of New York, literally a fictional story of sailing and adventure: "Seychelle and the Cannabis Yachties". It is very entertaining, hoping you will give it a read.
Hi Steve. Congrats on the install. Well worth getting an inline ppm meter. eBay and Amazon £30-40 I have an osmosea. Very similar design. It takes a minute or two to get up to pressure, during which the water drops from 2000ppm to 300. I don't use the diverter valve, just run the unit for 2 hours minimum so it still averages clean. Have my on/off switch hooked to a 12v weekly timer so can program it to run every 7th day if I'm away from the boat. You'll get more production in warmer water. I always thought drinking water should be 500ppm or below, but can't remember where I saw that, and interested to know where you saw 750ppm figure. Don't run it in a harbour if there's oil or fuel in the water. It fouls the membranes. Good idea to use the soundproofing of the mattress to keep the pump noise down. I'm sure the batteries will cope with a couple of hours production each day
I know you said it was a mistake to not install a watermaker in the initial refit, but would you have really known what model to get? You might have gotten an AC one, since you had the generator? Would you have known your water consumption, energy production and usage? Seems to me you did it the right way, get out there and sail and live with what you have until you find out what you want and need.
Yes it's true, like anything really it pays to live with what you've got & find out what you need as you go. The one thing i'm sure of... you NEVER can have too much solar!
@@svfairisle Thank you for the reply. My wife & I ar planning to start cruising in 2 years when she retires (I am retired). Getting our Hunter 41ac up to speed - three major projects left - new rigging changing over to Lithium & solar, and adding a water maker. Gonna be an expensive two years, but necessary I think. I see so much on the Sea Water Pro, yours was the first I have seen on the Spectra - I think I prefer the Spectra better. So, thank you for your reply. I was curious long term how it was holding up. Sure hope I haven't jinx'd it for you!
@@scottbeare2323 I’m sure you haven’t! Re. The solar, do try and get bifacial panels if you are having them on an arch, so much more efficient. Look at fold out panels as well for when you’re at anchor, the saying you can never have enough solar is true! But there’s a limit to how much you can hard mount so extra panels are good. I use them to charge solar power stations but you could have them piped into the house bank. Have you watched the rigging videos? There are pit falls to rigging mainly to do with riggers who don’t really know what they are doing so it pays to get the best as we did or at least learn from the best, there’s too much dubious information out there! There the video on our changeover to lithium as well, this is really the minimum that’s necessary, ours is working great, but if I were designing from scratch I would have a system that separates charging from power supply completely with BMS’s in charge of each side and a centralised monitoring system, probably from Victron, controlling it all. Whatever you do though to some degree there is always the possibility of something messing up so redundancy is the key!
@@svfairisle Thank you for the advice. We have had our boat for close to two years but are certainly still in the learning phase. Purchased it from a woman who had just lost her husband to covid so we did not get much useful info on how systems were modified and arranged. I just discovered your channel a couple days ago, I am a big fan of youtube, really a lot of good info. I like your channel very much because you include a lot of hands on type info and less fluff so-to-speak. I also like a chap named Solar Solutions - same straight forward good info. I have not seen your rigging video yet, will look that up shortly. I have watched your lithium change over videos - very good. I appreciate the advice - I have flown airplanes my entire adult life (US Navy for 24 years, airlines for another 15) I learned a long time ago that experience is the best teacher. I give you a lot of credibility because you have done it. Nice to have a heads up on potential pitfalls and hurdles early on. So anyway, thanks for the advice - will take it all on board. Hope your sailing adventure continues to go well - I enjoyed the crossing video last night. I hope my wife tolerates the boat and seas as well as yours! Thanks again!
Is it that difficult for the manufacturer to provide a water quality sensor and automatic diverter instead of that manual water quality tasting procedure? 🙄
Yes Spectra have a fully automatic version that does all that but I prefer the simple manual method. Sod’s law says if the sensor is going to go wrong it will do it mid Atlantic and send salty water into your tanks tainting the whole fresh water supply. We are live aboard cruisers I have time to taste some water!
@@svfairisle if the water maker is up and running and making clean water, wether by taste or automatic sensor you still need to divert the water from the sink outflow to the tank manually by turning the lever from sink to tank so your comment on an automatic system dumping salt water into a tank couldn’t happen. Secondly I have owned and used many makes and types of water maker over the last 20 years and have never had a problem with saline sensors. Being a live abord is irrelevant, imaging in very heavy wether having to hold on in the fore cabin to a glass and a tube while turning the valve on and then having to taste the water and never being sure if it is totally free of salt, especially coming down from a salty atmosphere. Even a tap over the sink would be much easier to use in these conditions. Any water maker with special parts that can only be purchased from one manufacturer is not a good idea, most water makers use off the shelf parts that can be adapted anywhere, a spectra pump would be difficult to repair in far off places, the answer would be to carry a spare pump, very expensive.
@@teddyboysdontknit810 All the automatic systems I’ve seen detect and switch the water it seems people who want automatic want everything automatic, I don’t!
I love your channel. One of my top five. I also like your technical episodes. Fair Isle is such a classy and stylish yacht and if anyone suits their boat, it`s you two.
Your Recommendation for Himalayan sea salt : FYI - The salt exceeded the safe level set by Food Standards Australia and New Zealand by 25 per cent, and contained more than 130 times more lead than white table salt. Other pink salts were found to contain heavy metals including mercury, cadmium and aluminum, which can be harmful if consumed long terms.20 Oct 2020
@@svfairisle Yes - Well at least you didn't "recommend" this watermaker (it's just the one for you) - otherwise we'd have to take your recommendation "with a grain of salt"😂
Great video, thanks. I just bought a Schenker ZEN 100, which I think was on your short list, correct? I’m curious to hear the reason(s) why you went for the Spectra instead? Thanks!
Not a lot in it to be honest, Schenker and Spectra were the two left on my short list & I think both are great. I got a good deal with the Spectra, the remote manual model suited my installation perfectly and they have a good worldwide dealership (they have one in Istanbul) Nothing bad to say about Schenker though.
Thanks, I'm not sure I heard why you picked the Ventura over the Catalina. Did you look at the Newport? Curious if you considered that model, or why you eliminated it. I'm trying to decide between Ventura and Newport. Thanks!!
Well the Newport being over twice the price was a factor! But actually I love the really low draw of the Ventura, as Oktay said in the film 10amps is a joke! I know taking into account capacity that the Newport is the most efficient but it's 24volt so no good for us. The Catalina draws 18Amps & I just think there might be times I don't want to put that draw on the batteries. (I might be wrong, we will see when I have the lithium in!)
Can you explain how the water maker knows when the tank is full? Does it have a pair (Hi and Low) of float switches in the tank already or did you have to fit them?
Spectra have a switch you can fit to the tank that switches everything off when full. We have two tanks and the overflow goes into the galley sink so I didn’t bother to fit anything, easy to know when full.
Yes I’ve seen it, very good. Jeff is very knowledgeable. I’m hoping the next episode will give some in depth info, I think Aladino will end up with a system close to the one I’m building.
Steve, at 21:25 of your video I see a half dozen sunglass holders on your cabin side , I’ve searched for something like that on Amazon.ca but no joy, is it a European product . Excellent tech video on the Spectra. Tom
Yes I got them off Amazon in the UK when we were back over Xmas. Search for remote holders, that’s what they’re meant for. & to be honest it probably what they’re best for, they are harder plastic than I hoped they would be so wrap around glass are a bit of a squeeze but great for the others
Steve I don’t understand why you use a manual system of a glass and tube to test the water, I would imaging this takes time and would be difficult while under way in heavy weather. Most water-maker systems divert to a spout over the galley sink and the saline level is automatic.
I prefer to have as much things as possible manual. Yes it might be more time consuming doing it yourself but we’re not short of time. An automatic system will eventually go wrong no matter how well built with sensors and electrically driven valves & that might end up putting salt water in your tank and raining the whole water supply. Of course if that were to happen it’s bound to be mid Atlantic!
They are stainless, I don't think any water tank made of suitable material would suffer from having RO water in it, so plastic & stainless will be fine
Excellent. Best I’ve seen. Diagram was fantastic. Can you elaborate on power requirements. I’m having a 44 Hallberg Rassy built. I hate the idea of needing a generator but with watermaker, I’m concerned with power requirements in addition to fridge/navigation/autopilot at sea and usual power consumption at harbor. Do you know of a good resource to work this out?
I’m actually just working on a video tackling power at the moment. We are currently switching to Lithium. You can of course work out a power budget going through the draw of every device and then trying to work out how often it’s used but in my experience real life often doesn’t fit with the paper model. For example if I have an overnight passage and budget 5Amps for the autohelm all night, I might have a big following swell on the back quarter & it be twice that. Or I might have 15knots on the beam and with well balanced sails it will be next to nothing. I’ll be posting lots of figures & I plan to have a dedicated section on tech corner in the website, so use us as a guide.
Great commentary and video on the topic. I wish you mentioned the price, I strongly dislike companies that don't advertise price of the products. Cheers!
I agree it's annoying when company websites don't have at least a recommended retail prices. Most international companies now do this, I guess it's because there's too wide a range of prices depending on where you buy. The Spectra website address I put in the description has a store locator in the 'Services' section press that and you get the price local to you.
reverse osmosis water makers are exceptionally good for removing nearly all minerals. By doing this you will need to really make sure that your diet is essentially rich in the minerals need by the body for good health....just desalinated water in the diet is not healthy!
From the research I've done I do't think that is true. The only warning given by the world health organisation for drinking only RO water is when its RO from dirty river water (which tends to have a very low PPM count, below 20) & when this is the water source for very poor areas of the world with extremely limited diets.
Got them off Amazon when we were in the UK at Xmas, they are advertised as 'remote holders' but work well with glasses - stops you forgetting where you've left them.
Yes absolutely I really don't see any benefit at with having bottled water the reverse osmosis water is just as good if not better & you save all the plastic.
Great vid. Very informative. Is the silver probe renewable (exchange) or do you need to replace the unit? How big is the probe? Any indication of life expectancy in the information pack?
Okay initial response...... the Z-ion electrodes will last 2-3 years (no idea what usage profile they've put that on) still chasing a cost on replacement
Info from Otkay the Spectra dealership. The Z-ion has a service interval of 720Hrs so as it’s only running for 3mins on each flush that’s a very long time!
More info that Otkay got from Spectra's tech team... it does not need to be changed out every 720 hours. The rods and housing must be inspected at that interval to ensure that the system does not need replacements. To prolong the life of each Z-ion electrode ensure that customers do not extend the 15-minute flush duration and do not manually increase voltage to the electrode. Generally, these parts do not have to be replaced.
@@svfairisle Thank you. I have used silver as a sanitizer for drinking water in the past. The element for that system was frighteningly expensive when due for replacement.
Excellent presentation as ever! One thing I did notice, Steve, those small cables coiled up. Would they be better cut to length ? I presume they are low voltage so heat build up maybe isn`t such an issue. It`s just my OCD regarding pipes, ducts or cables! Fair winds guys, take it easy xx
Ha! yes well my OCD kicked in in another way... My pet peeve is wires run to length on components that might need to be looked at if they go wrong or serviced. I hate having to lean over into tight spots when I could just unscrew the item from the bulkhead and work on it comfortably. Also how many times have you installed something then a couple of years later needed to move it slightly to make way for something else? I've just done that with one of my MPPT's to make room for some components for the lithium instal, fortunately I left a little loop of spare cable. And your right, unless you've got your cable sizing wrong there's no problem with a loop of wire, actually really the only issue is high current devices with fast fluctuations in current where you might run into back-emf problems.
Always fascinated by Steves research . I had a Schenker 30 fitted at the beginning of 2021 in the Med on my 46ft monohull. . It has never worked underway which is not what the manufacturer says. The installer was a highly competent engineer. Hoping it will get fixed. Why did you choose Spectra steve over the Schenker 30 on 12 V . Thanks
I actually think Schenker and Spectra are equally as good, they are the top running DC units for quality. So really it was just that there was a Spectra dealer in Istanbul that swung it in the end. Re. Your use while underway, have you got a forward facing strainer type inlet on the through-hull? That’s what Spectra recommend
@@svfairisle yes Steve it is forward facing, the Schenker dealer in Lefkas looked at the installation about 2 weeks ago, they are saying that we should not use the unit when underway- not what they say in the brochure, they claim that the Schenker is good for small boats with outboards, ribs etc, obviously not true, and no use for sailing non stop for a week or more. Would be interested to know if yours will work happily underway?
Ive been concerned about drinking "stripped water",thank you for your insight! food, beer and Himalayan salt with chips. Never sounded more comforting.
Yours is a great channel. I love your attention to detail and your ability to explain things so that those of us that are technically challenged are able to understand the scope of your projects. Thank you.
Working on an upgrade to my system, which like yours has a manual diverter for the first batch of water produced. I'm coupling a timer relay to a diverter valve. It always takes about 5 mins to get below 500ppm, so it's based on time rather than water purity.
The advantage is it allows autonomous operation, so the watermaker can just be set by a timer switch and work on the boat even while we're away from it.
Will keep you posted on how it goes if you're interested.
Yes, sounds good 👍
Anyone wanting to fit a water maker would find your info invaluable Steve. Absolutely brilliant guide, well done to you , and the taster too 🥂
Fab video, our thoughts just like yours. We will look into this once we arrive in Turkey. Super efficient organisation and job done!... In 1 day👍🏼💪🏼👌🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼🙏🙏🙏
Thanks for that! Really informative. Sounds like a great system. One question: is there any protection for overflowing your water tank? Will the system shut off when the tank is full? Oh, congrats on 50K! That is a great accomplishment :)
Spectra do have a gauge you can fit to your tank which will automatically switch it off yes, but we have two tanks in it just not worth the effort. It comes out the overflow in the Galley sink when full so we get warning
@@svfairisle get a copper ball attached to a brass rod, can't remember what they call em, been around for years.
@@waterboy8999 Ball Cock!……. Sorry not being rude it’s what they’re called. Sadly no good on boats though as the water surface wobbles around and anyway trying to stop pressurised water like that would damage the membrain. It just a simple electrical float switch to send a signal back to the controller to stop.
We have the same model but it has a TDS meter in-built with a solenoid valve. The product water quality is monitored on a touchscreen display and the solenoid valve diverts the product water straight out of the discharge until the TDS level comes down to the correct level and then it diverts it to the tank.
My kit also came with a 20 micron filter unit in series with the 5 micron filter and both filters are quality monitored and an alarm goes off if they need attention. All very easy once installed.
Sounds good. I decided to keep it as simple as possible but I think Spectra make things well so I'm probably being over cautious. Do you find having two intake filters an advantage?
@@svfairisle I can't really compare as I've never just had one filter but I expect it makes the 5 micron filter last a lot longer before having to clean/replace
Excellent informative video....thank you. My boat has a Spectra system but I've never used it given the kind of sailing I do. It's been pickled for years.
Yes you’ve got to use a boat really regularly to warrant a water maker, or do regular month away type trips. But the system should be absolutely fine pickled so it’s there when you need it
GREAT STUFF but I somehow missed out on the Guiness!!! (didnt get mine!)CHEERS from Westcoast Canada!
😎
Nice video! So you drink the water from the plastic water tank? How do you control the bacteria growth in stagnant water?
We live onboard so the water is constantly changing and has always stayed good. I do blast it once a year with a cleaner and we has an Acuuva UV system for drinking water from the tank
Great and detailed video, Thank you for the information.
Most of the Clark pumps from Spectra require a complete rebuild about every thousand hours. Several full time cruisers have reported $1200US t $1800S bills for rebuilds like clockwork. Yes they use less energy but have something like 90(which I don't know the exact likely numbers) seals that wear out in the double reciprocating action. Our system which is a pressure washer pump on a motor, has not needed anything but a few oil changes in the head in over 3000 hours, and a new head costs less than $300US and gets us about 35 gallons an hour for 80 amps 12 volt. Spectra(most 200 models) gives you about 8.3 gallons an hour (For the cheaper models) for around 10 amps at 12 volts(plus the boost pump). So mine uses more electricity but is faster. For 35 gallons a Spectra gets 42 amps. Mine uses 80amps for 35 gallons. Mine also cost around $1500. Yours is a great system, but my sailor friends say expect a rebuild at 1000 hours, not what they try and tell you in the literature of 3000 hours. When you need a rebuild, you might want to give Seawater Pro a call. A whole new system might cost you just a tad more than the rebuild and shipping.
Well I personally have only heard of one person rebuilding a Clarke pump & that was after 5 years, but in any case as I said in the film if you have the unit fitted by Spectra the warranty on the Clarke pump is much longer. I'm actually trying to find out if it's a lifetime warranty or 10 years, there seems to be some confusion. But either way I think it's pretty good.
They're really easy to strip and rebuild. Hardest part is sourcing the seals.
I contacted Spectra, it is a lifetime guarantee on the Clark pump for and faults but that doesn’t cover general wear of the seals. So you will need to strip and put it new deals when needed.
@@svfairisle Spectra makes a good unit, but I just can't justify the cost. I think for the lower end u it's one would be in the hole for between 8000us and 16000us. Also if it is true about the seals wearing down every thousand hours or so like viewers have been saying on Sailaway World Sailing and Folsom Ocean Views.....well the costs get out of hand for normal cruisers. I use a generator to help with hot water, making water, and cooking. Essentially even though we only have 300 watts of solar, we can all have hot showers daily, refrigerate/freeze food, and cook on electricity with the generator. The ultra great electricity usage of a Spectra just couldn't service six people on a thirty foot boat. In other words it likely couldn't make enough water fast enough, and to babysit for the number of hours needed to make sure the operation went well. Our igen2600 can even run out 16k ac too. We use 15 gallons of gasoline per month no Ac, and and sixty gallons having the ac on 24/7. Typically with a mix we use about 22 gallons. So even not really being able to use solar on the water maker, vs the installation cost.... well on average we spend 88 dollars on fuel here per month to have all the creature comforts. Vs our home grown system the costs of a Spectra don't make sense. If they only last a thousand or so hours between rebuilds one might be looking a 10000us for the first thousand hours. My system including the generator , fuel, and system for the first thousand hours I estimate to be around 2800us.
Did the water pump last? Update please?
I have run two Specra Watermaker on different boats over the last ten years. They are OK…. All Watermakers have their issues. However, I have just bought an AC Rainman. Just to highlight that with Solar and Lithium I plan to run the Rainman from my Inverter. It’s super high output means that I will only need an hour or so every few days which will be nothing for my energy setup. Horses for courses but the interviews in the Catermaran didn’t seem to take a non-generator powered AC Watermaker into consideration. I like the sheers simplicity and portability of the Rainman. If not Rainman I would have fitted a Schenker Zen - Spectra are very expensive for no particular reason.
I can see the Rainman having an advantage of not having the bother of fitting but I really can’t see any other advantage, & you still have to store it somewhere. Running an AC unit through an inverter just says inefficiency to me. Big losses in the inverter. I agree the Schenker Zen is a good unit but very similar price to the Spectra and from my research the Spectra has the edge on reliability. I think they’ve nailed it with the Clark pump.
Thank you Judy and Steven ! How much did it cost?
Depends on where in the world you are, I fear they’ve gone up since we got ours, check here… www.spectrawatermakers.com/us/us
Thank you
We have the same plan. Just got delayed .... 😉 Sail Safe guys.
Yes, hope you’re feeling better, you looked okay bird watching from the dinghy on the latest ep.
Really like the spectra watermakers - they seem technically very good and adaptive to the different situations that you might find yourself (low and high power modes). The Clarke pump design is brilliant.
Great video! Leffe and IPA's when everything else fails. Love it. The Turkish Spectra rep was really good as well.
For a moment I was certain the wine bottles were chilling as a water replacement.
Another excellent factual tutorial ! Best wishes from Aberdeen Scotland UK
RO water as you say is very "aggressive" how do you protect taps pumps and the like from corrosion?
It more aggressive but it’s we’re not talking acid here! Your domestic water systems should be fine, they’re all brass & similarly good metal that will deal with it no problem. The thing to watch out for maybe in your engine. You’ve got a standard old steel sections in there which might suffer.
During Covid here in south Devon we were joined for much of the time by many cruise ships, anchored up with nothing to do.
Occasionally they would disappear for a day or two and it turns out it was to make water. They said they had to get quite a few miles out into the channel else it would clod the filters too quickly.
Yes river estuaries can be particularly bad with suspended sediment, I should think the East coast would be worse than Devon though.
Thank you for another informative video. Enjoy your water maker. (Use it smiling smiling : Güle güle kullanın (TR)) I like the drinks that contain necessary minerals at the end of the video.
Excellent episode down to every nitty-gritty detail. I cannot agree more with the Irish view of what's needed to survive. Cheers.
No relevance to my needs, but fascinating vlog and very impressive nonetheless - equipment and fitting 👍
Great video, remembering what it was like from our circumnavigation in the 1980s, presently cruising the Bahamas with a Spectra 150 water-maker. My wife's book is a good read, published by Austin Macauley of New York, literally a fictional story of sailing and adventure: "Seychelle and the Cannabis Yachties". It is very entertaining, hoping you will give it a read.
Sounds good, is it available as an ebook as well?
thanks. i ve been viewin esysman supryacht videos here in port orange florida. thos 200 mn dlr boats seem to be ego boosters
Hey making Guinness from water, now that is clever!
I was in a big water maker a couple of weeks ago, Highland Spring in Blackford.
Hi Steve. Congrats on the install.
Well worth getting an inline ppm meter. eBay and Amazon £30-40
I have an osmosea. Very similar design. It takes a minute or two to get up to pressure, during which the water drops from 2000ppm to 300. I don't use the diverter valve, just run the unit for 2 hours minimum so it still averages clean. Have my on/off switch hooked to a 12v weekly timer so can program it to run every 7th day if I'm away from the boat.
You'll get more production in warmer water.
I always thought drinking water should be 500ppm or below, but can't remember where I saw that, and interested to know where you saw 750ppm figure.
Don't run it in a harbour if there's oil or fuel in the water. It fouls the membranes.
Good idea to use the soundproofing of the mattress to keep the pump noise down.
I'm sure the batteries will cope with a couple of hours production each day
I reckon your viewers couldn't come any less technically-minded than me, but I really enjoyed this video and learnt a lot from it. Thanks!
I know you said it was a mistake to not install a watermaker in the initial refit, but would you have really known what model to get? You might have gotten an AC one, since you had the generator? Would you have known your water consumption, energy production and usage? Seems to me you did it the right way, get out there and sail and live with what you have until you find out what you want and need.
Yes it's true, like anything really it pays to live with what you've got & find out what you need as you go. The one thing i'm sure of... you NEVER can have too much solar!
Just curious, how happy are you with your Spectra Water Maker long Term now that you have had it and used it for a couple years? Thank you.
Well it hasn’t missed a beat and still delivers perfect water at the specified rate, so A*. Now I’ve jinxed it!
@@svfairisle Thank you for the reply. My wife & I ar planning to start cruising in 2 years when she retires (I am retired). Getting our Hunter 41ac up to speed - three major projects left - new rigging changing over to Lithium & solar, and adding a water maker. Gonna be an expensive two years, but necessary I think. I see so much on the Sea Water Pro, yours was the first I have seen on the Spectra - I think I prefer the Spectra better. So, thank you for your reply. I was curious long term how it was holding up. Sure hope I haven't jinx'd it for you!
@@scottbeare2323 I’m sure you haven’t! Re. The solar, do try and get bifacial panels if you are having them on an arch, so much more efficient. Look at fold out panels as well for when you’re at anchor, the saying you can never have enough solar is true! But there’s a limit to how much you can hard mount so extra panels are good. I use them to charge solar power stations but you could have them piped into the house bank. Have you watched the rigging videos? There are pit falls to rigging mainly to do with riggers who don’t really know what they are doing so it pays to get the best as we did or at least learn from the best, there’s too much dubious information out there! There the video on our changeover to lithium as well, this is really the minimum that’s necessary, ours is working great, but if I were designing from scratch I would have a system that separates charging from power supply completely with BMS’s in charge of each side and a centralised monitoring system, probably from Victron, controlling it all. Whatever you do though to some degree there is always the possibility of something messing up so redundancy is the key!
@@svfairisle Thank you for the advice. We have had our boat for close to two years but are certainly still in the learning phase. Purchased it from a woman who had just lost her husband to covid so we did not get much useful info on how systems were modified and arranged. I just discovered your channel a couple days ago, I am a big fan of youtube, really a lot of good info. I like your channel very much because you include a lot of hands on type info and less fluff so-to-speak. I also like a chap named Solar Solutions - same straight forward good info. I have not seen your rigging video yet, will look that up shortly. I have watched your lithium change over videos - very good. I appreciate the advice - I have flown airplanes my entire adult life (US Navy for 24 years, airlines for another 15) I learned a long time ago that experience is the best teacher. I give you a lot of credibility because you have done it. Nice to have a heads up on potential pitfalls and hurdles early on. So anyway, thanks for the advice - will take it all on board. Hope your sailing adventure continues to go well - I enjoyed the crossing video last night. I hope my wife tolerates the boat and seas as well as yours! Thanks again!
A fantastic film as usual Steven and Judy.
I love the way you go into every single detail.
Brilliant as usual 👏 👌 👍 😀
Is it that difficult for the manufacturer to provide a water quality sensor and automatic diverter instead of that manual water quality tasting procedure? 🙄
Yes Spectra have a fully automatic version that does all that but I prefer the simple manual method. Sod’s law says if the sensor is going to go wrong it will do it mid Atlantic and send salty water into your tanks tainting the whole fresh water supply. We are live aboard cruisers I have time to taste some water!
@@svfairisle if the water maker is up and running and making clean water, wether by taste or automatic sensor you still need to divert the water from the sink outflow to the tank manually by turning the lever from sink to tank so your comment on an automatic system dumping salt water into a tank couldn’t happen. Secondly I have owned and used many makes and types of water maker over the last 20 years and have never had a problem with saline sensors. Being a live abord is irrelevant, imaging in very heavy wether having to hold on in the fore cabin to a glass and a tube while turning the valve on and then having to taste the water and never being sure if it is totally free of salt, especially coming down from a salty atmosphere. Even a tap over the sink would be much easier to use in these conditions. Any water maker with special parts that can only be purchased from one manufacturer is not a good idea, most water makers use off the shelf parts that can be adapted anywhere, a spectra pump would be difficult to repair in far off places, the answer would be to carry a spare pump, very expensive.
@@teddyboysdontknit810 All the automatic systems I’ve seen detect and switch the water it seems people who want automatic want everything automatic, I don’t!
Marvelously informative. Thanks you so much.
Thank you very much. A terrific presentation !!!
Excellent review Steve, makes me rethink about a water maker. André
I love your channel. One of my top five. I also like your technical episodes.
Fair Isle is such a classy and stylish yacht and if anyone suits their boat, it`s you two.
Thank you!
Your Recommendation for Himalayan sea salt :
FYI - The salt exceeded the safe level set by Food Standards Australia and New Zealand by 25 per cent, and contained more than 130 times more lead than white table salt. Other pink salts were found to contain heavy metals including mercury, cadmium and aluminum, which can be harmful if consumed long terms.20 Oct 2020
Well I did say it contained everything!
@@svfairisle
Yes - Well at least you didn't "recommend" this watermaker (it's just the one for you) - otherwise we'd have to take your recommendation "with a grain of salt"😂
I am so glad to hear that beer and shout is a recommended addition to a healthy diet!
Great video and congratulations on hitting 50k.
Great video, thanks. I just bought a Schenker ZEN 100, which I think was on your short list, correct? I’m curious to hear the reason(s) why you went for the Spectra instead? Thanks!
Not a lot in it to be honest, Schenker and Spectra were the two left on my short list & I think both are great. I got a good deal with the Spectra, the remote manual model suited my installation perfectly and they have a good worldwide dealership (they have one in Istanbul) Nothing bad to say about Schenker though.
Thanks, I'm not sure I heard why you picked the Ventura over the Catalina. Did you look at the Newport? Curious if you considered that model, or why you eliminated it. I'm trying to decide between Ventura and Newport. Thanks!!
Well the Newport being over twice the price was a factor! But actually I love the really low draw of the Ventura, as Oktay said in the film 10amps is a joke! I know taking into account capacity that the Newport is the most efficient but it's 24volt so no good for us. The Catalina draws 18Amps & I just think there might be times I don't want to put that draw on the batteries. (I might be wrong, we will see when I have the lithium in!)
Can you explain how the water maker knows when the tank is full? Does it have a pair (Hi and Low) of float switches in the tank already or did you have to fit them?
Spectra have a switch you can fit to the tank that switches everything off when full. We have two tanks and the overflow goes into the galley sink so I didn’t bother to fit anything, easy to know when full.
There's a good episode on Sailing Magic Carpet about electrical systems with Lithium batteries. Well worth a look Steve.
Yes I’ve seen it, very good. Jeff is very knowledgeable. I’m hoping the next episode will give some in depth info, I think Aladino will end up with a system close to the one I’m building.
Steve, at 21:25 of your video I see a half dozen sunglass holders on your cabin side , I’ve searched for something like that on Amazon.ca but no joy, is it a European product . Excellent tech video on the Spectra.
Tom
Yes I got them off Amazon in the UK when we were back over Xmas. Search for remote holders, that’s what they’re meant for. & to be honest it probably what they’re best for, they are harder plastic than I hoped they would be so wrap around glass are a bit of a squeeze but great for the others
Steve I don’t understand why you use a manual system of a glass and tube to test the water, I would imaging this takes time and would be difficult while under way in heavy weather. Most water-maker systems divert to a spout over the galley sink and the saline level is automatic.
I prefer to have as much things as possible manual. Yes it might be more time consuming doing it yourself but we’re not short of time. An automatic system will eventually go wrong no matter how well built with sensors and electrically driven valves & that might end up putting salt water in your tank and raining the whole water supply. Of course if that were to happen it’s bound to be mid Atlantic!
Thank you! Great video!!
Are your water tanks steel or plastic? Would that make any difference to water you’re going to drink?
They are stainless, I don't think any water tank made of suitable material would suffer from having RO water in it, so plastic & stainless will be fine
Excellent. Best I’ve seen. Diagram was fantastic. Can you elaborate on power requirements. I’m having a 44 Hallberg Rassy built. I hate the idea of needing a generator but with watermaker, I’m concerned with power requirements in addition to fridge/navigation/autopilot at sea and usual power consumption at harbor. Do you know of a good resource to work this out?
I’m actually just working on a video tackling power at the moment. We are currently switching to Lithium. You can of course work out a power budget going through the draw of every device and then trying to work out how often it’s used but in my experience real life often doesn’t fit with the paper model. For example if I have an overnight passage and budget 5Amps for the autohelm all night, I might have a big following swell on the back quarter & it be twice that. Or I might have 15knots on the beam and with well balanced sails it will be next to nothing. I’ll be posting lots of figures & I plan to have a dedicated section on tech corner in the website, so use us as a guide.
@@svfairisle Thank you and nice work brother!
Great commentary and video on the topic. I wish you mentioned the price, I strongly dislike companies that don't advertise price of the products. Cheers!
I agree it's annoying when company websites don't have at least a recommended retail prices. Most international companies now do this, I guess it's because there's too wide a range of prices depending on where you buy. The Spectra website address I put in the description has a store locator in the 'Services' section press that and you get the price local to you.
reverse osmosis water makers are exceptionally good for removing nearly all minerals. By doing this you will need to really make sure that your diet is essentially rich in the minerals need by the body for good health....just desalinated water in the diet is not healthy!
From the research I've done I do't think that is true. The only warning given by the world health organisation for drinking only RO water is when its RO from dirty river water (which tends to have a very low PPM count, below 20) & when this is the water source for very poor areas of the world with extremely limited diets.
Just noticed the little holders for reading glasses and other bits above your Nav station, I like those :-D
Got them off Amazon when we were in the UK at Xmas, they are advertised as 'remote holders' but work well with glasses - stops you forgetting where you've left them.
Thanks for this. My Ventura 200 is en route and I'm glad this exists as a reference for me.
You won’t be disappointed, it’s great to know you can always get water.
Another well presented video,as usual.The thing on my mind is.Would you be happy to cross an ocean ,without drinking any bottled water.
Yes absolutely I really don't see any benefit at with having bottled water the reverse osmosis water is just as good if not better & you save all the plastic.
great info thank you.
Love my cruisero
Great video as always! Would there be any problems if you were to be in a fresh water area, an estuary for example?
No it actually easier for the system so you’ll get good flow. Just avoid turbulent silty water which will clog the filter quickly
Lekker man lekker 🇿🇦
again very helpfull , now only talk to the big boss on board
As many showers as you want normally does the trick!
Great vid. Very informative.
Is the silver probe renewable (exchange) or do you need to replace the unit? How big is the probe? Any indication of life expectancy in the information pack?
Very good question that I don't quite now the answer to yet, but I'm on it!
Okay initial response...... the Z-ion electrodes will last 2-3 years (no idea what usage profile they've put that on) still chasing a cost on replacement
Info from Otkay the Spectra dealership. The Z-ion has a service interval of 720Hrs so as it’s only running for 3mins on each flush that’s a very long time!
More info that Otkay got from Spectra's tech team...
it does not need to be changed out every 720 hours.
The rods and housing must be inspected at that interval to ensure that the system does not need replacements.
To prolong the life of each Z-ion electrode ensure that customers do not extend the 15-minute flush duration and do not manually increase voltage to the electrode.
Generally, these parts do not have to be replaced.
@@svfairisle Thank you.
I have used silver as a sanitizer for drinking water in the past. The element for that system was frighteningly expensive when due for replacement.
good video
Excellent
Excellent presentation as ever! One thing I did notice, Steve, those small cables coiled up. Would they be better cut to length ? I presume they are low voltage so heat build up maybe isn`t such an issue. It`s just my OCD regarding pipes, ducts or cables!
Fair winds guys, take it easy xx
Ha! yes well my OCD kicked in in another way... My pet peeve is wires run to length on components that might need to be looked at if they go wrong or serviced. I hate having to lean over into tight spots when I could just unscrew the item from the bulkhead and work on it comfortably. Also how many times have you installed something then a couple of years later needed to move it slightly to make way for something else? I've just done that with one of my MPPT's to make room for some components for the lithium instal, fortunately I left a little loop of spare cable.
And your right, unless you've got your cable sizing wrong there's no problem with a loop of wire, actually really the only issue is high current devices with fast fluctuations in current where you might run into back-emf problems.
@@svfairisle Fair point, let`s call it a draw :)
Always fascinated by Steves research . I had a Schenker 30 fitted at the beginning of 2021 in the Med on my 46ft monohull. . It has never worked underway which is not what the manufacturer says. The installer was a highly competent engineer. Hoping it will get fixed. Why did you choose Spectra steve over the Schenker 30 on 12 V . Thanks
I actually think Schenker and Spectra are equally as good, they are the top running DC units for quality. So really it was just that there was a Spectra dealer in Istanbul that swung it in the end. Re. Your use while underway, have you got a forward facing strainer type inlet on the through-hull? That’s what Spectra recommend
Try fitting a forward facing skin fitting. All flush skin fittings will experience a strong negative pressure when you're boat is at speed.
@@svfairisle yes Steve it is forward facing, the Schenker dealer in Lefkas looked at the installation about 2 weeks ago, they are saying that we should not use the unit when underway- not what they say in the brochure, they claim that the Schenker is good for small boats with outboards, ribs etc, obviously not true, and no use for sailing non stop for a week or more. Would be interested to know if yours will work happily underway?
👍👍👍👍👍
Thanks Steve, great presentation on the Spectra 200T. If I buy one 4 my 50 ft schooner, can U get me a discount? Billy
I’ll drop a line to my contact there and if they have a code.
@@svfairisle thanks Steve.
Sorry they say they don't do discount codes, I tried!
@@svfairisle thanks Steve
well, coupled with lithium batteries, high output alternator & solar this is the way to go.... getting rid of the generator is the real benefit
So how much did it cost?
Follow the link in the description and go to the store finder for your location it will depend on where you are.
Pickling your water maker is better than pickling you liver... But you try telling that to liveaboards and they won't believe you.
𝓟Ř𝔬𝓂𝔬𝐒ϻ