Our Incredible AquaMarine Watermaker

We are so blessed to have friends and acquaintances in the cruising arena who are willing to listen and help solve issues that occur on the boat.  It is not as though either Renne' or I had been born with knowledge of how to solve many of these problems.  Renne' and I both owned our own cruising sailboats prior to our meeting, but actually getting ready to cruise, and actually being out on deep, blue water cruising, has given us a perspective of maintenance and repairs well beyond what we possessed previously.

When we returned from our cruise to The Bahamas earlier this year, I let the watermaker sit for three months knowing I should run it every few weeks to make sure the Reverse Osmosis (R/O) membrane didn't get ruined by just sitting and growing bacteria.  In July, I finally decided I needed to run the unit.  After running it for several hours, Renne' smelled an odor originating from our watermaker a/c motor/high pressure pump locker.  Accessing the locker, I discovered high pressure salt water spewing from a crack in the output hose connector from the pump housing to the R/O membrane.

Water was everywhere, and the heat buildup in the locker had evaporated the saltwater on the motor housing, in the housing, and on everything around the motor housing, including most of the electrical connections (ac and dc).  I quickly turned off all of the electricity serving the watermaker and began the cleanup.  But that was Summer.

We had a two week trip to make, and I called the AquaMarine Watermaker Manufacturer, asking him for advice.  Dan suggested pouring a gallon or so of fresh water over the pump and all connections to flush the salt away to ensure minimal corrosion.  I was hesitant, but got a couple of gallons of water and literally drenched the motor, pump, connections, locker, etc., and left on our trip.

In September, I again contacted Dan, at AquaMarine, and arranged for him to send me a new high pressure connector to replace the cracked one. It arrived. I again procrastinated with the repair.  Today is October  9th. I began work on the watermaker again. I called Dan one more time about replacing the connector, and with his guidance, I removed the inner, faulty hose fitting, dipped just the new inner fitting in Glycerin, and reinstalled the connector, hand-tightened the connection, and turned on the motor. Voila', it worked! I did have to tighten the nut with a wrench slightly, per Dan's recommendation, but it was finished. As I added pressure, I did notice a bad water feed hose and replaced it and another hose with a better grade, and turned the motor on again.

We are now making 23 gallons of wonderfully sweet, fresh water an hour and filling the port tank with 75 gallons.  I again am surprised the R/O membrane continues to make fresh water with less than 275 ppm at very near the rated 24 gph that it did when we first installed the unit 3 years ago.   And that with letting it stand unattended for nearly 5 months.  From here on out, we will be filling both tanks as the starboard one empties, and continue making fresh water vs using city water here at the marina.   I am amazed sometimes, that I can do things like this!  Oh, and so is Renne'. LOL!