Watermaker on a 46c

[Capt Chad]

I didn't want to hijack the Bahamas Prep thread. But expanding on it has anyone here installed a watermaker on a 46c? And does anyone have a guestimate on how much water it takes to freshwater rinse a 45'-50' boat?

 

[Dan Mapes]

On the guestimate it depends on how thorough you are. We'd wash down the 43 once in a while and use 20-30 gallons. That was starting at the bridge hard top, working down the enclosure, then the aft deck lid and it's enclosure and finally the hard stuff.
If you are going to install one, don't bother with less than 30 gph, 250VAC, etc.. We wish (just for the two of us) we had installed one that was double what we had at 12 gph.

 

[Pascal]

I d say about 40 USG for a rinse.

Dan nailed it, don’t undersize the WM or you ll spend a lot of time running it and watching the water gauge creep up. 35/40gph is the right size for a boat that size.

Best value is www.seawaterpro.com I installed their 40GPH 240 volt unit as a back up to the 100gph on the 116 I run. It s about $4000. No fancy electronic, many off the shelf parts like the automatic fresh water flush which is just a garden water timer. Not fancy but it works.

Being modular it s also easy to find spaces to install the components unlike others.

 

[Dan Mapes]

BTW, In my opinion, a single membrane water maker at this size is better than two. It is longer for sure but it will work better than two in series. Don't be led into a two membrane water maker because it appears to be easier to install.

 

[metama]

Sea water pro!
Simple, don't over complicated it. What you want is as many consumer avil parts as possible anywhere you are.

FYI, I did have a problem with mine in the middle of the outer islands. A 1 dollar plastic pressure release screw had a manufacturing issue and split. Yep, I found one. Try that with the 20K pain that we replaced.

 

[Pascal]

The only thing I didn’t like about the sea waterpro was the small feed pump and nylon hoses with plastic fittings. I had a small march pump and used that instead with proper marine hoses and double clamps. The nylon tubing and plastic fittings are fine for gauges and product but I don’t trust them under the water line for raw water

À few months ago the fresh water function on our primary failed… replaced the $200 valve and still would not work, it turned out the touch screen controlled computer wasn’t sending the signal… suggestions from the Sea Recovery dealer, replace and update the computer AND screen… I got the same garden timer used on the sa water pro! Works great. Runs the FWF for 15 minutes every week…

 

[Capt Chad]

Thanks Guys. Looks like if we do it I'm going Seawater Pro.