Re: [Amel Yacht Owners] Watermakers for dummies
Ian Shepherd <g4ljf@...>
Hello Roy.
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the later SM's don't have the water tap on the water maker control panel. It has been relocated to the high pressure pump to make draining the oil easy. A good idea. I never did find the tap on the control panel that useful, much as I would have like to use it to fill the kettle with taste free water. It s position was just too awkward. I got around this by installing a Seagull water filter with it's own tap at the sink. There is space to drill the fixing hole in the sink top just to the right of the existing tap, and once fitted, water from the keel tank tastes wonderful, even when the boat is new and the smell of the tank lining has not worn off. The filter is so fine that even Giardia bacteria are prevented from getting through should be unlucky enough to upload some from a shore supply. Today I took Crusader to sea and did a test. I ran the water maker normally then shorted the salinity sensor. Nothing happened! So it looks as if what you said below is true. The sensor may have been deactivated in the quest for easy maintenance. This I find quite extraordinary and if true, irresponsible. Why disable a 'belt and braces' system for the sake of trying to make the system appear to be trouble free? Imagine this scenario. You are on a long ocean crossing and your membranes go bad. The water maker keeps running as the salinity tester is deactivated, and in the meantime you are polluting your good, and maybe only source of drinkable water. It just not make sense to me. I just hope that my test was not done properly, but I did try it several times. Maybe the terminals needed to be shorted for a minimum period of time? Surely all Amel needed to have told it's customers is that if the unit shuts down for reasons other than over pressure or overload of the genset, check the sensor for dirty contacts. It's extremely easy to get to and a cinch to remove. Roy, if you do know how to wire the salinity tester back into the circuit board, then please let me know. I want to do this right away as I rely 100% on RO water to fill my tank. I forgot to bring the circuit diagrams back home with me. Maybe it's obvious what to do, but any help would be welcome. Finally, I am glad that I have a water testing instrument. It's the only way of being sure that your water is safe and that the membranes are in good order. Best Wishes Ian Shepherd
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From: rbenven44 Date: 12/29/04 19:34:40 To: amelyachtowners@yahoogroups.com Subject: [Amel Yacht Owners] Watermakers for dummies A few years ago, when we were in the Med, we met another Super Maramu that had discovered that the watermaker had a 2-minute delay at start- up, and an inoperative salinity sensor. The owner was told by Dessalator that Amel had requested the units be installed that way so that owners would not have to clean the salinity sensor, and so that occasional sensing errors would not shut down the system. This was part of Amel's "low-maintenance" approach. This owner then rewired the control panel to activate the sensor, and I believe that it has worked fine since then. We did not do it to our boat, as I was happy tasting the product at the control panel faucet (don't the new boats have this?) to verify proper operation. By the way, we have 875 hours on our watermaker over 8 seasons with no problems other than the leaks in the old membrane plastic end cap fittings (which Dessalator replaced with SS ones a few years back). Rather than post this owner's name on the web site, I will contact him directly and ask him to post on the web site how he rewired the unit to activate the salinity sensor. Happy New Year to all. Roy Benveniste SM Excalibur #195 Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ADVERTISEMENT Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/amelyachtowners/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: amelyachtowners-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. ---------- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.298 / Virus Database: 265.6.6 - Release Date: 12/28/2004
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