I may be confused and I am away from my boat, but it seems to me that
the operating instructions are to switch the watermaker on with the
highpressure valve fully counterclockwise UNTIL the quality light
turns green, and then adjust the high pressure to the green range. I
never did understand exactly what quality the green light is
'measuring' since in theory the watermaker would not be making any new
water at that point. Certainly hope this all gets clarified, and in
English as well as French.

Jim Wiggin
ANTARES SM 378

--- In amelyachtowners@yahoogroups.com, Anne and John Hollamby
<hollamby@c...> wrote:

I have had an alarming Email from the owner Yves Martin d'Aigueperse

SM

311, Blue Marine, which I copy below. Can anyone provide helpful

input

which I will forward as, for some strange reason their attempts to

join

this site have been rejected.

Dear Anne and John,
Thank you for your last mail together with the technical details.
As to my salty water, I am sure it comes from the Watermaker, a

220/24V.

with less than 500 hours.
A few weeks ago, I took water at the outlet of the equipment and

the salt

rate was so high that the test meter was saying: immeasurable, which

means

2000 ppm. Mixed in the tanks, I had at that time 1335 ppm, but

certainly

more when not mixed with marina water.
I had noticed, several months ago, that the good quality light was

put on

after 2 minutes, even with no H.P, so with no production. I was

told by

AMEL that it was normal. At that time I was inclined to believe

AMEL.

At the same time, Another S.M. 2000, a Swiss, told me that the

salinity

automatism, which is supposed to survey the salt rate, alert in case

of bad

quality and send the water back to sea, was not connected. I could

not

believe that. Now, I am pretty sure it is the truth.
I wrote Patrick WAGNER, M.D. of Dessalator (dessalator@w...) asking
a few technical information. He always replied without answering

precisely

my questions. He finally had to admit that I was right, it was a

deliberate

choice to send water, even salty, in the tanks. All that, without

any kind

of alarm, and leaving the Good Quality light on. Till when????
You can imagine the disasters it can cause on equipment which are

not

designed for salty water: pump, pipes, expansion tanks, faucets and
thermostats, anti-bacterial ceramic filters Some happened to me

without I

could understand why.

The entire equipment is not in conformity with promotional and

technical

docs and explanation which were provided on commissioning of the

boat.

I asked Dessalator to put my installation in conformity with the

spec. I am

still waiting for the answer.
Taking into consideration the high level of risk, I suggest that

everyone

should test his equipment: It is easy to see if the good quality

light gets

on according to a chronometric basis (~2 min) even without water
production and if there is no voltage arriving at the salinity

probe.

Fortunately, it is not as bad as your salt water problem.

As to your HP pump problem, you have to be careful that no air gets

in when

in function: cavitations with high pressure destroys the valves;

This can

happen if your anti-pulse device is not functioning well, or if air

enters

because the boat is listed(?) on portside; The recommended primary

pump is

not installed on our boats, and all the water (Engine, genset,

toilets, .)

enters by the same hole.

As to the forum question, I got connected, filled an internet

application

form, had an acknowledgement of receipt, and a few days latter,

received a

mail saying : Not admitted, without explanation.
Another friend of mine was, also, most surprised of this rejection.
I will try again, but..???? I dont understand why they rejected me.

A French speaking forum could also be useful for non English

speaking

people. An exchange/ translation could be interesting, but probably
difficult to organise.

My insurance company just advised me of a new increase of price

(+70% in 4

years). As for you??? Do you know, through the forum, of a

comparative

analysis?

Hopefully, we will be able to leave Puerto la Cruz shortly , when we

will

have received the watermaker parts, and we will not be connected

before

Bonaire, in 3 to 4 weeks.

Greetings from Marie-Christine and Yves.


P.S. Should you be interested, I join my detailed correspondence

exchanges

with Dessalator. Your are not obliged to read. It is in French, but

I am

quite sure yours is good enough to understand, and you could find

some help

from other Yachties.