Since 3 years we have an ECHOTec installed like most cruisers we know. After more than 25.000 liters produced, we as well as all our friends have no problems with your desalination system. Therefore, we have decided to use an ECHOTec watermaker again on our new project: The first circumnavigation on an electro-powered catamaran without sails and any fossil fuel. (http://www.siteworld.de/solarwave/).

Please send us an offer including all optional equipment, shipping charges to Vienna, Austria and your delivery time.

Kind regards,

Michael Köhler
www.michaelkohler.net

Dear Sir,

We bought a 260-DML-1 watermaker from you in 2002, we were in PB.

We are now in Malaysia and need more biocide.
Have you an agent in either Singapore, Malaysia or Thailand we could contact for more of the above?

We would like to mention that we have been very, very pleased with the watermaker.

Since 2002 it has had much use and always has been trouble free and easy to operate.

Regards,

Sharman Gowing and Cliff Wayne SY "Sara"

Having recently passed Captain Cook's "Thirsty Sound" inside Australia's Great Barrier Reef it seemed a good time to send a note thanking you for my excellent water maker. Given the choice I shall never sail without one.

There are surprisingly many boats with your equipment on board and without exception we are all very happy with our water-makers and the excellent and prompt back-up you have given us.

Very best wishes
John Kirkus

s/y Bluesipp

Hi John,

In a few words: best Product, best service, best price...

We had the watermaker delivered from Trinidad to Panama, installed it ourselves and it works perfectly.

Good luck

Hanspeter & Nathalie

SY "NatHape"

http://nathape.sailingsite

In 2000 we purchased an Echo Tec. AC Watermaker from you and could not ask for a more dependable piece of gear on the boat. I have not kept track of how much water we have produced, but would guess it is around 10 to 15 thousand gallons. After four years I had to replace the high pressure seals in the pump but other than this the recommended regular maintenance has been sufficient to upkeep a highly productive desalination system.

Water making with the 500AML-1 is so easy, we wash down the boat after long passages, shower, do laundry on the boat, and always have full water tanks.

Throughout our travels through the Caribbean, we have been proud to recommend Echo Tec. Watermakers . We'd also like to thank you for a superb product well used and appreciated.

Best regards,
Carl Bernhardt
S/V My Dream

Hi Michael,

We fired up the 500 BML-1 yesterday and it worked perfectly, producing just under 100 l/hr!
More than its rated output at 1450 RPM. The water is perfect, 190ppm salts.

All of the parts supplied are top-notch and the whole thing went together without a problem.

Thanks very much producing such an excellent watermaker.

Richard Chesher
Rocket Guides
Noumea , New Caledonia
http://www.log-of-the-moira.com

Dear Michael,

When we left Sweden in 2002, we hade no watermaker and could not see any reason to install one as our boat has a freshwater tank of almost 600 liters which was sufficient during our Atlantic passage. Still, there where always concerns about the quality and saving water becomes a major concern.

Also we recognized while traveling towards the Tropics that it becomes more and more difficult to obtain a fair amount of good water as our consumption raised.

The decision to install a Watermaker was easily made when we reached Trinidad. We choose the model 500-AML-1 that produces 80 liters/hour, while running on our 220 Volt genset. Doing the installation ourselves was simple and made us familiar with every item involved.

Our live on Board changed a lot; not only did we get all quality drinking water we need but having a shower two times a day turned from luxury into normal. Dishwashing was no longer a salty issue and we also started to flush our head with fresh water which saved a lot of unpleasant maintenance in the future.

During the four years cruising we had no trouble with your system. Four years in which we slowly sailed the Pacific, often staying in remote and uninhabited anchorages, as long as we want, without any concern in areas where the only drinkable liquid comes from coconuts.

Our freshwater production is still as high as 80-100 liters/hour and we hope that our membrane element will last for some more years.

Kind regards,

Peter and Ulla Lütze on SY”LOVINA” in Singapore

Hi Guys, Since you installed the AC driven 900-AML-2 the unit has performed faultlessly. 

The indicated minimum output of 38 gallons per hour at 800-850psi is conservative and in fact production in my installation is around 40 gph at only 800 psi. So far the statistics are very impressive: 350 running hours without problems (except for an easily remedied small leak) and a production of 14000 gallons of very good water. 

The reason for choosing an ECHO Tec. water maker is the well thought-out simplicity of the system, the rugged components that are used and the availability on site of knowledgeable technicians, along with a competitive price.

In the last 4 months I took in water in a marina only twice and that was because we couldn't run the watermaker in polluted marina water. I find the combination genset/watermaker very well matched: the diesel engine of the genset (a fischer-Panda 6.5) needs a bigger load than just charging batteries and this is supplied by the requirements of the watermaker, and the watermaker itself likes to run frequently. Running the genset one hour every day (with a little help from the wind generator) charges the batteries to run the fridge, freezer, lights and so on and produces 40 gallons of water.

I have recommended ECHO Tec. to many cruising friends and would not hesitate to do so again to anyone interested in a reliable, efficient and economical watermaker made by an established company that in addition offers a comprehensive and helpful after sales service.

Sergio Mauri

Hallberg- Rassy 42" Alba"

(Queen of Hearts is a Swan 47, designed by S&S and built in 1977; cruising Europe, Brazil, Carib, USA, since 1996; normally there are 2 persons on board).

In 2003 we replaced our PUR80 that was producing 12,5 liters of water per hour by the ECHO Tec. 900-BML-2, producing 143 liters per hour.

The PUR used 8 amps at 12, 6 volts. The ECHO Tec. runs directly of the engine and so dc power consumption is both negligeable (only the electro-magnetic coupling takes some dc power) and irrelevant.

The reason for choosing a belt driven unit on our main engine (55 hp Yanmar) is that we don't have a separate generator and a DC water maker that produces a fairish quantity of water (say over 100 liters at a time) requires too many amp.hours. (i.e. so that usually the engine or a generator must be run).

Furthermore we have to run our engine anyway for 2 hours every 4-5 days in order to assist the solar panels in keeping the batteries charged.

We run both a fridge and a freezer and use about 130-140Ah per day. Our solar panels generate about 80-100Ah/day. 

Our total (gel) battery capacity is 570Ah at 12.6volts. Our total alternator (charging) capacity is 260 amps. Our solar panels are 8 x 30 watts Solarex, horizontal.

So essentially we make use of the unavoidable battery charging every 4-5 days to produce about 300 liters of fresh water at the same time.

The reason for choosing an ECHO Tec. water maker is the well thought-out simplicity of the system, the rugged components that are used and the availability on site of knowledgeable technicians, along with a competitive price.

For our installation Echo Marine only manufactured and installed the mounting bracket required for the high pressure pump. In the way of assistance Echo provided the installation guidelines and advice and did the supervision and the commissioning.

In our installation we are only using 1 pre-filter, without a booster pump for the feed water. A second filter  with a carbon filter element is used for flushing the system with fresh water after every production cycle. The flushing takes about 5 minutes (including the back flushing of the pre-filter) and is quite simple to carry out.

The installation proved to be straight forward and the services rendered by Echo's management and technical staff were excellent.

The end result is a very neat and well functioning installation that has no trouble to produce the specified amount of fresh water and is easy to operate and maintain.

John  Van Logchem

s/y "Queen of Hearts"

Hi,
  
You installed a modular engine driven system in my Peterson 44, Endymion in 2002.
It has worked wonderfully ever since. I am still on the original membranes and I don't treat them very well.
A robust system.

Boat is on the hard here in St Croix. Wondering if I should be doing some preventative maintenance or rebuild
of the HP pump (Model 500-BML-1, serial 6172) so it will continue to treat me well.
  
Best regards,

Jim Nealon

When I purchased land and run-down buildings on Gasparee Island, Trinidad in 2001, I realised immediately that I would need a regular supply of inexpensive clean water. Of a number of options considered I chose an ECHO Tec. 900-BHL-2 Reverse Osmosis Desalination system which I recently upgraded to the system 1200-BHL-3. The engineering standards impressed me, as I am a qualified chartered engineer. I was specifically looking for a reliable operating unit that would optimise the life cycle, or lifetime costs.

I calculated the cost of water from all other available sources neglecting the chance of collecting rainwater, which is quite small on the island, particularly in the dry season. I amortised the capital cost over a period of 10 years, taking into account daily running costs and preventive and corrective maintenance costs. The resulting calculations indicated that the system would meet my requirement to provide precious water for human consumption, household and building needs.

The installation needed a strong sea-water feed pump in order to overcome the 40 feet height from the sea and restrictions of the sand and cartridge pre-filter. The rocky coast made it impossible to locate the entire plant close to the sea level. A small pump house was built as near to the sea as practicable. The seawater is supplied via a sand filter to the standard factory fabricated desalination plant, which includes the pre filter, the high-pressure pump, the RO membranes and the control unit.

I have used the system for more than four years for between 10 and 24 hrs per day to supply water for normal household and building needs and finally a 15000sq. ft. garden maintenance with lawns, fruit trees and vegetable garden. My average fresh water production is 700 gallons per day, for a total of over 1 million gallons to date.

The system has been very reliable. Careful attention to the regular oil change for the high pressure pump and normal consumable replacement at intervals is all that is required to maintain a high quality of product water.

The capital cost of my desalination plant was completely 'paid for' by the non-purchase of shipped water in the first 9 month period only. There are now many others on the Island whom have taken my initiative. Access to seawater is essential of course and only owing land too far from the sea has prevented some homeowners from taking advantage of this exciting and economical supply of clean water on command. 


Colin Schofield     

Gasparee Island, Trinidad

Hi Will

You may recall, about a year ago, I purchased an Echotec engine-driven watermaker (20 gph) for my Spencer 44 ketch, "Candine". We have now safely crossed the Pacific, and enjoyed Mexico, the Marquesas, Tuamotu, Society Islands, Cook Islands, Niue, Tonga, Fiji, and are now en route to New Zealand.

The Echotec watermaker has performed flawlessly. In fact, I have relied on it to fill my tanks 100 per cent of the time, and never had to take on water anywhere. I have made thousands of gallons in the past year and have had not a single problem so far.

I have recommended it to many cruisers, especially those I see hauling water jugs in their dinghy, or waiting at the customs office to clear more spare parts for your competitors' brands. It is one of the few systems on board that I have not had to fix or modify in some way. It was easy to install, easy to operate and simple to maintain, and best of all, it provides refreshing, crystal clear water.

There are very few cruisers who can enjoy the luxury of daily hot showers at sea.

Thank you for a superior product.

Tim Russell

s/v Candine

Victoria, BC

http://www.findingcandine.blogspot.com/

We have just returned to Noumea from a couple of months of cruising and uploaded comments on the ECHOTec on our cruising website: http://www.cruising-newcaledonia.com/water-makers-desalinators-comparisons.html

Still working just great – I can’t tell you what a pleasure it is to have good gear that serves an essential role in our cruising life.

Richard Chesher
Rocket Guides
BP 2568 Noumea CEDEX 98846
New Caledonia

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