Spectra Ventura 200t Watermaker report

We have now used our new Spectra Ventura 200t watermaker for 3+ weeks and I wanted to file this report from the cruising field. We are currently in Cambridge Cay, Exumas and we left Florida on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb 5, 2017 with a full tank of water. We have made water every day, running the Spectra an hour to an hour and half per day. Doing this, we have no need to back flush the unit which would take 4 gallons of fresh water. We understand that if we run the unit every 5 days then there is zero need to back flush it. So, we plan to run the watermaker every day, usually around 1200 to 1400 when we have peak solar. Right now we are making 15 amps off solar, we are using 8 amps to run the spectra feed pump and we are left over with 7 extra amps to run the frig and freezer when it comes on and off. The battery bank is at 12.75 volts with the spectra running because the solar is adding its 14-18 amps.

The other day we were sailing in 15-18 knots of close reaching and the MK450 wind turbine was making 8 to 10 amps, so we fired up the Spectra and it took 8 amps of that leaving enough left over power to run the nav system, autopilot and extra. What we are seeing is that this 8 amp draw of the watermaker is easy to produce from alternate energy, solar and wind. We do not have a gen set and we do not want a gen set, we designed this boat to run fully off 12 volts and with the wind and solar we are now seeing the system at full capacity. We make 8-12 gallons of water a day, and we use 7-10 gallons of water a day. We shower every day, and doing dishes and coffee and drinking water, we are finding that this spectra 8 gph unit is working great.

The install was very easy, I rate it a 3 out of 10 on difficulty to install. We decided to NOT have the Spectra MCP autop flush auto run $1,500 additional option because we will be aboard 100% of the time the unit is running and we can easily turn on the toggle switch to the pump and then dial up the clark pump pressure dial. That is all you have to do to run the unit. It is crazy EASY to run. The Spectra Ventura 200t is not cheap, it cost us $6,100.00 and we did the install ourselves while on a mooring ball in Stuart Florida, it took 3-4 days, that was it.

Knowing what I know now, I would do exactly the same thing again. This install took zero space, we lost nothing. It is all up high out of the way in the sail locker. The product water is plumbed into the hand pump hose and that works great. IT also was easy, and no back pressure issues.

So, if you are going off cruising for the Exumas or Caribbean and you plan to be onboard for a length of time, then the Spectra Ventura is a great unit. Note they make a 150 and a 200t. The 150 is for waters colder than 50 degrees F and the 200t is for waters 50 degree f and warmer. Well, I am never planning on being in waters colder than 50, so it was the Ventura 200t for us, plus it makes more water because it can run at a higher pressure.

We blogged in detail about this install. Here are the postings.
islandspirit35.blogspot.com/2016/11/spec...all-day-1-day-2.html
islandspirit35.blogspot.com/2016/11/spec...atermaker-day-3.html

Here are some photos...


Hayden in Cambridge Cay with very limited bandwidth testing out IPYOA and my WeBoost cell booster...Works great!

Here is another report on our Spectra Ventura 200t watermaker. WE LOVE IT. It works great! It is very simple to run! I would install this same unit again the same way.

We are now in the BVIs and we are running the watermaker on longer runs, keeping it on for 2-4 hours every 4-5 days. We DO back flush the unit with our fresh water as recommended by Spectra. Above in this post I said I would not back flush the unit because I was planning on running it every day for 1-2 hours. Well, we have leaned that the unit prefers to be run longer than one hour, so 2-4 hours is best for use now. Then at the end of the run, we close the sea water intake and divert the pump to our water tank and flush out the sea water. When this is going on you can see the pressure in the unit will drop slowly to 30-40 PSI and then is when you can tell the unit has no more salt water. This takes about 1-2 minutes.

This unit makes 8 gallons per hour and it draws 8 amps of 12 volt DC power. We run it when we are motoring or when the wind is blowing 15+ or when the noon sun is strong. We have and we do run this unit of wind and solar many times.

AS for our install. I would install this the same way again as we lost zero space, NONE! The pump and the filters are up high in the sail locker bolted against the cockpit seat ice box that no one uses for ice. The clark pump in mounted on a shelf over the our B&G autopilot where we stored nothing. The new sea water intake is in the galley floor next to the engine intake and the discharge is the T-ed into the ice box cockpit drain that no one uses. It worked out great.











Hayden in Trellis Bay, Beef Island