Having received the water maker from Florida over two months ago, and been through the usual Greek VAT & Import hoops to get in on our yacht. It lay lifeless because we weren’t able to get tools to begin the install. So in the last week the marina electricians and workers are all back on deck so work was able to start on the install.

With the huge help and ingenuity from Polly’s ex-owner Armando, we found a place to lay out the long membrane and super heavy high pressure pump and motor. Aft of the engine down in the bilge we set out the Sea strainer, the boost pump and the high pressure pimp and motor. The Filters all went in the engine bay for easy access, the waste brine water outlet went into the portside aft sink and the product water got diverted into a breather pipe for the aft watertank.

Armando’s electrician expertly wired it all in and we set to for the big test. Our Honda EU22i generator was fired up, the new high spec lead attached to it and the shore power socket… then…… brrrrrrrrrah .. cough. stop.

We tested the exact same model generator belonging to Dot & Jonathan King from SV Sunday.. and yes in fact their’s powered the water maker beautifully

Seems the recommended generator wasnt up to the task. Calls to the generator supplier and Mike the water maker supplier drew a blank until Dimitris the generator supplier mentioned that perhaps our generator needed to be “run it a little” to achieve max performance.. a long shot but maybe worth a crack.

We ran the generator for around an hour on the foredeck making toast and heating our water..placing a good load on the system. We then turned off the toaster and hot water cylinder and switched on the water maker.. waaallaaaahhh! Wew have water.!! .. Im so happy.. another step closer being ready to leave.. which, hopefully will be in just 2 weeks!.

The water maker we choose came from Mike at Seawater Pro in Florida. Two reasons made this a good choice. One was because of the price even though there was a huge import and VAT component when it came into Greece, but secondly because most of the parts were “off the shelf” and easily accessible to replace. Mikes installation guides and videos were excellent and all parts were supplied pretty much ready to install. Check out his range and contacts at his website https://seawaterpro.com/

A footnote:
The only issue we found was that, as expected we needed extra hose etc and some extra fittings and it became an issue mixing American standard sizes with European sizes.. so if you intend to install this watermaker just ask for more hose than is required and any addition parts from Mike Im sure he’ll be happy to supply.