DIY Spectra watermaker rebuild - Sailing Exodos, ep.47 

Well, you are welcome 🙂 Spectra should pay me? Nah. The technical department of their factory in the States has helped me a lot by providing all info I needed, so I could do a good job on our watermaker, instead of me having it to send it to a dealer and pay way too much money. So in a way they have payed me already!

You are welcome! 😊 I hope in your system it's a matter of seals, and not of internal damage, like ours. Good luck!

Thanx for the nice words! :-)

You're welcome, Dale 🙂 Always happy when somebody can make good use of our videos. Or just enjoy them. Good luck with yours!

@@DoubleUThings I just finished rebuilding my Clark pump and it works great! Your video was SO MUCH more helpful than anything Spectra provided. I literally could not have done it without the help of this video. THANK YOU!!

Thanx! I tried my best again to not do any stupid things, haha! Happy greetingz, Wim

Thanx! 🙂 And you are welcome!

Thanx! And happy you liked it :-)

You are welcome! :-) And thanx!

Well, thanx! And you're welcome :-)

Thanx, Nena! But filming and editing was approximately ten times more work than the rebuild itself, haha! Happy greetingz, Wim

Haha, well, thanx! :-) And you're welcome.

Thanx! But the patience didn't come natural. 30 years ago I would have thrown that thing overboard halfway the process, haha!

Haha! Well, you'll have to have some patience, because we are in a total lockdown in a marina, so we wait with renewing the membrane till we can travel again, which won't be soon.

By the way, it does work, but because of the old membrane the ppms are way too high.

Thanx! Well, good luck! :-)

Thanx! :-)

Thanx! Well, they helped me a lot with good and clear information :-) Very helpful technical department. But I wouldn't even know how they could support me now. The thing is working, and I have a brand new membrane laying around from the previous owner that I will install as soon as the total lockdown is over and we can start to travel again. Happy greetingz, Wim

Thanx! :-)

Haha, "only" two years? 😂 Yeah, I know how that works. And yes, using easily and cheaper replaceable components is a very good idea. We could buy this whole system for cheap, though (1/6th of the price of a new one, including a brand new original membrane, chemicals, original filters, and some other stuff). And it uses 8.5 amps max at 12V, so we can easily run it on solar we don't use when the batteries are absorbing. Happy greetingz, Wim

Thanx, man!

Efcharisto poli (thank you very much in Greek 😊 ) I could have done the job 10 times faster without filming it, though, haha!

Haha, I'm sorry for the utter disappointment! 😁 I'm going to do another video about the testing and all. This video was already more than an hour long, and I don't want to put the new membrane in before the total lockdown over here is over and we can travel again. The watermaker is working, but because of the old, shot membrane we have 2000ppm fresh water, and only 21/22 liters per hour fresh water production, instead of 31ltr/hr. And thanx! Happy greetingz, Wim

Haha, thanx! Yeah, I am saying that too often in this video, right? 😂 You never know - "BUT YOU SAID TO DO IT LIKE THIS!!!" Happy greetingz, Wim

Hoi, Roelof! Blij dat we mensen blij kunnen maken met onze video's :-) Soms heb ik er de schurft aan om ze te maken, omdat het letterlijk tien keer zo lang duurt om de video's te schieten en ze te editen dan het eigenlijke werk dat we filmen, haha! Maar als ik dan lees dat mensen ervan genieten of er iets aan hebben, of beide, dan ben ik toch weer blij dat ik er een video van heb gemaakt. Tja, in het Nederlands gaat altijd een stuk makkelijker, ook al red ik me aardig in het Engels (zie onze Nederlandse pre-boot blogs op RU-vid kanaal "Wim Keesmaat"), maar met Engels heb je gewoon een veel groter bereik, ook al betekent dat veel meer editwerk, haha! We hebben bij sommige eerdere zeer goed lopende videos's op dit kanaal soms viewers uit meer dan 125 landen. Is toch leuk :-) Gaan jullie zeilvlogs maken? Of wat zijn de plannen? Groetz, Wim

@@DoubleUThings Uiteindelijk wel. We hebben nu nog een motorboot(Fri-Jon Contessa 40) in Friesland. We zijn ons aan het oriënteren voor na 2021. De bedoeling is wel om een zeilboot aan te schaffen ipv de motorboot en daar langzaam op het IJsselmeer/ Waddenzee ervaring mee opdoen. De volgende stap zal dan Noordzee worden en verder. Tegen die tijd zullen de kinderen niet meer mee gaan. We willen videos gaan maken vanaf het moment van zoeken naar een geschikte boot. Ik heb nog wel wat vragen over het aanschaffen van een boot in het buitenland, wellicht dat als dat aan de orde is, ik je nog bericht :). In ieder geval een goede vaart en tot de volgende video. gr. Roelof

@@roelofvanleeuwen Je vraagt maar, hoewel ik waarschijnlijk geen zinnige antwoorden voor je heb, haha! Want we hebben de boot van een Nederlander gekocht en zoals je weet koop je een Nederlandse boot net zo makkelijk als een zak aardappelen :-) Succes met de zoektocht later, in elk geval!

Well, I'm happy you could use the info in our video :-) Yeah those bronze fittings... The oxidated bronze that came off, partly ruined the cylinders, so we have less liters of fresh water per minute, but hey, the watermaker was cheap, so I can't really complain. As far as I remember, the J-tubes were clean. The stuff on those bronze parts was no gunk, but purely oxidized bronze.

Thanx! 🙂 $990.-?!!!!! I got the kit for €150,- including tax in Europe. So that would be $161,-. Although that is a few years ago, of course and in Europe. But the company is in the States, so I guess that local rep of yours earns a lot of money! Below you'll find the address in Greece that I bought them from. Drakos Yacht Services PC 263 Agiou Dimitriou Avenue | Agios Dimitrios Athens 17342 | Greece | T: +30 216 700 50 49 M: +30 6947 89 88 72 E: iraklis@drakosyacht.gr W: www.drakosyacht.gr

Hi. The reason that not all the fittings are stainless steel anymore, is because the ss ones expand and crimp with temperature differences. The old ones were all ss, but the factory started using these nickel-bronze ones because the ss ones sometimes cracked the pump. Because the nickel-bronze hardly expands and crimps with temperature differences, they don't crack the pump. I explained that in the video, but you probably skipped that 😎 By the way, I don't make this up, but the technical department of the factory told me. And another by the way, the pump is perfectly leak proof, with the teflon. Yeah, those annular ring seals were really gone! Happy greetingz, Wim

@@DoubleUThings Greetings back at ya. Take my word for it. (I didn't skip any of your video. Which you did very well by the way) Change all the fittings to SS. The corrosion you showed in your video of the NB fittings will destroy far more of that pump than the very rare occurrence of any cracking of the pump. Even if the fittings cracked the pump (again very, very, rare) it would only be either the center bottom block or the top center block. These are far cheaper to replace, about 25% cheaper, than a total re-build of a pump that suffers from scoring issues because of the NB fittings. Scrap the Teflon. The SS ferrules are not meant to have tape here. It really does get in the way of the ferrule seating properly in the con cave part of the fitting. PS, I've done a Clark pump or two in my time.

Hi! And you are welcome. I don't remember precisely, but something was not totally right, then. I believe the new membrane that came with it, was so old (and the plastic around it had a hole), that it totally was dried up and unuseable. So we needed to find a new one. Took some time. But (much) later we got a new membrane. The watermaker didn't deliver enough liters of fresh water, though, because the cylinders were a little damaged. But it worked! And just a week ago i have added a second pump to it, and it gives us 38 liters per hour, so that is nice, especially because we can run it on the solar panels.

Thanks for the quick reply. I have a considerably newer unit that only had 970 hours on it but it was laid up for 4 years, pickled but not used. Working with a great dealer in FT Lauderdale US, Halden Marine, he has determined what I need over the phone and with pictures. your video was extremely helpful in the take apart and I will follow it as I put it back together shortly. thanks again!!!

You are welcome! :-) We were in Greece at that moment, and there is only one dealer, so no choice but buying it there. The kit cost me €186,- including VAT. And yes, there are new check valve seal springs in it, and the new (better) ones are steel springs. Happy greetingz, Wim

A little late, but thanx! :-)

😂😎

That won't work with those narrow and deep little cylinders, though :-)

Hi! You are most welcome :-) But do you mean at the end of a cylinder? Because for the rest you don't need to have a special tool to dismantle. You mean to take the caps off the cylinders, maybe? If that's what you mean - I cannot get that tool over here either... It's like a half circle with a notch at the end of the circle. But that's a tool you should be able in a good hardware store. If that is what you mean, it's called a C-spanner. See Amazon link: www.amazon.co.uk/Spanner-Adjustable-Wrench-51-121MM-Vanadium/dp/B00Q4B95ZU Happy greetingz, Wim

@@DoubleUThings Thank you very much! I think - that is what I want. Yes, I meant end of tube. Plastic part inside is cracked (and water leaking from it) and I need to disassemble this side to remove it and order new from Spectra or draw in 3d editor and order 3d printing.

@@bepa_sailing Yeah, I heard that is a known problem. I don't dare to remove mine :-) Luckily they are not leaking! And yes, that would be nice, if you can 3D print it.

@@DoubleUThings in case of success will make video :)

@@bepa_sailing Haha, good plan! Charasjow!

Geduld, geduld! :-) Ik heb al wat beeldmateriaal geschoten, maar ik wil wachten met het verwisselen van het oude membraan voor een nieuwe wanneer de lockdown over is en we weer kunnen reizen. Want een nieuw membraan erin terwijl je in een haven ligt is niet echt handig. En zolang dat nieuwe membraan er niet in zit, krijg ik geen goede waarden.

Ja dat snap ik. Wij gebruiken onze watermaker ook niet in de haven. Teveel olie en andere troep in het water. Prima filmpje verder en ik bewonder je geduld!

@@Eric-mo8mm Dank je, mijn waarde! :-)

😎😁

😂

De band? Of kijken hoe een ander werkt? 😂