INTERVIEW
We are a french couple sailing in a monocoque ELAN 434.
We bought a 25 splash in June 2016 and it has been running for 14 months for an hour at 1:30 a day on average.
The user manual is very clear just follow the guide and the circuit diagram.
The installation is very simple with some Serflex collars and some fixing screws.
We installed the filter and motor system in a box of dimensions (length 65 cm wide 53 cm and depth 50 cm) next to the kitchen and the desalinator (membrane) under the sink. The fact that it is compact makes it very easy to house.
It took us 8 hours from the opening of the packages to the end. This includes the electricity pipes for the evacuation and the entry of water.
We need to dedicate a seawater inlet valve. We use the existing seawater inlet valve for the sink and add a three-way valve.
A 10² power supply for the electric cables (depends on the length of the batteries) and a 25 A fuse.
He is a very simple mechanics.
Produces regularly between 28 and 30 l in the western Mediterranean and up to 33 l in the Antilles. The energy consumption varies between 15 and 20 A maximum.
There is no adjustment to make. It can be stressful, but since we have it everything is going very well and we are calm.
What we do is clean the prefilter every 3 or 4 days, a little soap is enough and 15 minutes of work. We changed the filter 5 microns every two months on average.
The 5 micron filters are easy to find, the documentation recommends 10 ” but we find especially 9”75 that are perfectly adequate.
We do not have an automatic rinsing system.
If we stay 3 days without running the water producer Rincons the circuit of sea water circuit that means that the water producer turns and recover pure water in a bucket of 10 liters that closes we have it vacuumed by the circuit. After a month, we put a biocide in addition to protecting the membrane.
The advantages: very low energy consumption that leads to a very good ratio of liters produced per ampere. Ease of use and installation. Very compact system. We forget that the system is, very little noise and we put a small timer.
Disadvantages: if we can talk about inconveniences is the fact that we can not act in the configuration, but we rely on the material throughout the days.
