A good desalinator doesn't just make waterIt makes independence
Make Water = Stay Healthy
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| Make Water = Stay Healthy |
Water has two main ways of ruining your day
1) You don’t have enough
On passage, in remote anchorages, or anywhere “shore water” involves a dinghy, jerry cans, and a long walk to a suspicious tap, the math gets real very fast. Tanks run down, showers become “navy rinse interpretive dance,” and suddenly you’re planning your life around a faucet you haven’t even found yet.
2) You have water… but it’s the wrong kind
The most dangerous water isn’t always a muddy creek. Sometimes it’s the polite-looking dock hose. Municipal supplies can be compromised. Pipes can be ancient. Pressure fluctuations can pull in groundwater through leaks. And a local telling you “it’s fine” may simply mean: it’s fine for locals who’ve been drinking it forever—not necessarily for visitors.
If you want a sober overview of how often public water systems can be associated with disease and contamination events, the CDC maintains a good primer here:
https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/public/water-diseases.html
And yes—contamination isn’t just microbes. It can also be metals and chemicals. My wife and I once got lead poisoning from “sealed” rainwater storage in PNG that had been painted years earlier with lead-based paint. We very nearly died and it took 3 months to recover enough to sail to Australia and 6 months to feel healthy again. That experience permanently cured me of the idea that “clear” water is automatically “safe” water. Want to read the whole gory story? It's in our ebook: To Change: Harmonizing Empathy (Moira's Pacific Expedition Tracking Destiny in the South Pacific Book 2)
The real upgrade a water maker gives you:Control
A reliable desalinator flips the whole cruising water story on its head.
Instead of:
- hunting for water,
- hauling water,
- wondering what’s in it,
- and then disinfecting your tanks because you should have wondered what’s in it…
- you make your own fresh water when you need it, where you are, and you stop living at the mercy of shore infrastructure.
Comfort is the obvious win: showers, dishes, laundry, deck rinse, happy crew.
Health is the deeper win: you dramatically reduce the chances of getting taken out by contaminated water when you’re far from good medical care.
The golden rule:Offshore simplicity beats dockside cleverness
The best cruising water makers are the least automated ones.
Electronics, sensors, and complex control logic can be great—until salt, humidity, vibration, heat, and time do what they always do at sea: turn “smart” into “temperamental.”
When you’re anchored in a place where shipping a part takes three weeks and customs wants to discuss your package like it’s a diplomatic incident, you don’t want a system that requires:
- multiple sensors to agree with each other,
- a controller board to stay in a good mood,
- and expensive proprietary parts that only exist in one warehouse on Earth.
You want a water maker that is:
- manual enough to understand
- simple enough to service
- standard enough to find parts
- predictable enough you can tell something’s wrong before it becomes “we’re rationing again.”
Offshore, reliability is a personality trait—and it’s usually found in the gear that doesn’t try to be too clever. We installed an ECHOTec water maker in 2008 and it is still working perfectly in December 2025. We have run the desalinator in muddy mangrove rivers, in harbors and at anchor. We are almost never in a marina and have not added any shore water to our tanks in over 15 years. That's right, ALL our fresh water needs over the last 15 years have been met by our ECHOTec water maker. It has produced more than 700,000 liters of water. We generally run it just one hour a day and it's 80 to 100 liters an hour output meets all our water needs, including pressure water showers, washing dishes, clothes, dive gear, and even hosing off the deck once and awhile.
Sheer joy.
Other than backflushing with fresh water for 1 minute after we run it and cleaning and changing the pre-filters every week, we have done practically nothing but turn it on and off when we run the engine. My “make water, stay happy” routine (simple, boring, effective)
If you want a water maker to keep loving you back, do the unglamorous things consistently.
1) Fresh water flush after every use
This is not optional if you want long membrane life and fewer weird problems. Flush after every run. Make it easy in your plumbing so you actually do it.
I flush mine for 1 minute using a powerful 12vt SEAFLO 33 freshwater pump that cleans out the entire system, prefilters, pump, and membrane.
2) Prefilters: treat them like the guardians of the kingdom
Prefilters do the dirty work so your expensive membrane doesn’t have to.
Weekly routine:
Exchange/clean the pleated sediment 20 micron and 5 micron prefilters every week in a properly sized container with 2 tablespoons per liter of sodium percarbonate (e.g., Napisan), let it sit for 24 to 48 hours then rinse well with fresh water. Exchange them after the week is up.Prefilters eventually break down - usually after 3 or 4 months. Don’t wait for dramatic failure. If the paper is torn or worn toss it out.
3) Don’t run the intake in gucky water
I never run the water maker if there’s oil/diesel sheen on the surface, or if the water is so dirty I can’t see clearly half way down the rudder when I look over the stern. If you feed the beast garbage, the beast will eventually return the favor.
The “glass bottle trick”: how to stop your tanks from becoming your weak link
Boat tanks can slowly become their own little ecosystem. Even if you mostly make your own water, tanks can accumulate biofilm over time, and any one bad shore fill can haunt you for ages.
My solution is delightfully simple:
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| Tank water for washing. Bottle water for drinking. Simple. |
- Plumb a valve so your water maker can send product water either to the tanks or to a sink outlet.
- After you top up the tanks, switch the valve and fill 1-liter glass bottles directly from the water maker.
- Drink from the bottles, not from the tanks.
- We have 8 1-liter bottles, two in the fridge, 6 in a cloth wine holder plus a 2 liter glass interior thermos that lives on the dinette. Every drop of water we drink is safe and delicious. It’s one of those tiny habits that quietly removes a whole category of “mystery stomach” issues.
“But what if it breaks?” — carry spares like a grown-up cruiser
A water maker will eventually need attention. That’s not pessimism—that’s boating.
Here’s a practical cruising spares list that matches the “manual and fixable” philosophy:
Consumables
- Extra 20 micron and 5 micron prefilters (lots)
- because they clog, and
- because they degrade after months of use
Pumps and critical bits (as your system requires)
- One or two booster pumps (if your system uses them)
Most desalinator companies have a "cruising kit" with recommended spares.
A spare primary pump. You can repair most of these pumps if you have the correct parts and repair manual but that can take time and you may need to order new parts. So having a pump you can use to replace the damaged one in minutes is good insurance if you are cruising the world far from your home base.
The most important spare: knowledge
A repair manual with full details on how to:- maintain and rebuild the pump
- service the regulator
- maintain, store, and replace the membrane
A fancy system with no manual (or a manual written just for installation and a users guide) is not “premium.” Offshore, it’s a liability.
Want the full “stay healthy offshore” playbook?
If you want the complete guide—water risks, prevention routines, and the practical habits that keep cruising enjoyable—here’s our ebook:
A Healthy Sailor is a Happy Sailor
https://mybook.to/HealthySailorGuide
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