Spot Zero Reverse Osmosis System on my boat

[Fish Tales]

Previous owner disabled my Water Makers fresh water maker, and installed a Spot Zero water purifier in its place. He did fish the boat a little, but mostly used as a second home.

This Spot Zero is a large completed machine, takes up alot of pump room space, and according to the placard, takes 6.5 hours to fill the 480 gallon freshwater tank using dock water.

I have always filled the boats tank through the gunwale fill, so I never keep a hose connected to the fill valve in the cockpit. Thus I have not turned this Spot Zero on. It was working when I bought the boat, but I never liked leaving dock water supplied due to risk of pipe breaking and overwhelming bilge pumps. I rotate enough fresh water through the holding tank as to keep the water supply clean. Also use just a little bleach.

This is my Question:
Should I keep the Spot Zero and integrate into the Water Maker, or just remove it and just use the Water Maker? I can still fill dockwater on the bow.

The membranes are removed from the Water Maker, and my mechanic said he can re-plumb back into freshwater loop, and get it operational again.

So I need some help on this.

Thanks,
Tim

 

[Scarlett]

Maybe I am wrong but I thought a Spot Zero was a deionizer for washing the boat so it does not water spot, not for filling tanks. John

 

[oscarvan]

Maybe I am wrong but I thought a Spot Zero was a deionizer for washing the boat so it does not water spot, not for filling tanks. John

Keeps your plumbing from scaling up too.

 

[Fish Tales]

Previous owner was a Trauma Surgeon and crashed on the boat when on call on long duty hours. He wanted the cleanest water available while there, not wanting to put faith in dock water. He has it plumbed from the stern fresh water hose inlet, through the Spot Zero, and into the fresh water tank. The water maker is pickled, and hoses removed from it to the holding tank. He didn't have need to make water at the dock.

I have read that it is great for washing boats, but he relied on is ability to remove all impurities for 100% potable useable water.

So those of you with water makers: How clean is the water produced by the water maker? Would it benefit me to also pass desalanized water through the Spot Zero? It is there, but as with anything else on a boat, filters and membranes are expensive for this unit, as well as the water maker.

It takes up alot of room in the pump room, so if it is not really redundant, or needed, should I remove it?? i have no experience with either, but want the water maker back on line. The Spot Zero is there, should I incorporate it??

I also do not know what the amperage usage would be with both units running at the same time. Would it be a great draw on the generator while at anchor?

The Spot Zero produces 83 gallons per hour, does anybody know what a Water Makers brand water maker makes per hour?



Thanks for the help,
Have a great weekend,

Tim

 

[Pascal]

I m not familiar about SpotZero but as the watermaker, yes their high Press pump uses quite a bit of power. Watemakers Inc make good units in different sizes so you need to look up the model number to find out it’s capacity and power

Your profile say you re in Daytona. Inshore water is silty and while the watermaker will work, you will be replacing the pre filters very often. Could be as often as every 10 hours especially if you have the smaller standard size pre filters.

 

[takefive]

we have the portable unit, they are made by dometic. Takes our city water @ 365 ppm down to 12-15 ppm, worth its weight in gold, we use for washing boat.

 

[Scarlett]

I agree with Pascal, but ballpark if it is a 110 or 220 watermaker with one membrane the output would be around 25 to 30 gallons per hour, with 2 membranes it could be as much as 40 gal per hour. Depends on length and diameter of the membranes but I also agree that you should not use in dirty water due to prefilter clogging and never use in water with any petroleum products in it. John

 

[Fish Tales]

Thanks for the help.

I do not intend to use this system at the dock, Blue water cruising only. When I fish off shore, cleaning after catching fish, washing tackle, and a good cleaning on the way in eats up almost all fresh water, so the water maker will be beneficial. Also starting to cruise more with other boats and want to start venturing out to some better remote spots. Sounds like with the 2 sets of membranes on the water maker, my hourly output will match what the Spot Zero needs to process.

I guess I need to start each machine separately and do some load calcs.

Might be over kill, but "GO BIG OR GO HOME".

More input would be helpful, as I am re-doing the pump room this winter when it cools off a little.

Thanks again,
Tim

 

[nautibake]

Your water maker should make perfectly pure, clear water. As for that part of your original question, I don’t think you need to run RO water back through a purifier, JMHO. That would seem to be redundant / unnecessary.

 

[sgharford]

If the water goes from dock to Spot Zero to storage tank as described, may be a disservice if removing chlorine or whatever else city water adds to keep wee-beasties from growing. This was astute observation picked up by another member in water business on another thread I have always hung onto. Think it would be better to have Spot Zero after the water tank pump so purifies right before use.

 

[tonytrakovich]

The Watermaker will desalinate down to about 200 ppm. The Spot Zero takes desalinated water and brings it down to under 20 ppm. Totally unnecessary in my opinion. The RO filters on the Spot can be much smaller for that high output because it is already starting with desalinated water. You should not be using the spot for seawater. If space in the pump room is of concern, then remove the spot. May have some value if it is in good shape.

 

[Dan Mapes]

I get the impression that Spot Zero takes dockside water down to almost pure. Our R/O system ran around 250 PPM total dissolved solids when processing water from sea water, not dockside. Dockside water might be 400-500 ppm total dissolved solids. Ocean, or salt water is WAY over that. 10K to whatever. Could be 35,000.
I would not expect SZ to process salt water to a level of 10 or 30 ppm.
There are different levels of membranes for RO processing. Salt, Brackesh etc.. The less salt there is in the water, the less aggressive the pumps and membranes. And in those less aggressive environments like dockside sourced input, I would expect much higher product water output rates. Hopefully the waste output at that level does not get you in trouble with the marina. The rejection rate in sea water is quite high. I have no idea what it is like dockside.

 

[Fish Tales]

Dan and Tony,

I am sorry I just saw these replies. I have bypassed the Spot Zero because I want the chlorine and other chemicles provided by city water. I use the holding tank, not a hose hookup due to possible line breaking and flooding bilge.

I am going to pull the system out, I am sure it has some value, probably going to just give it away.

I want to un-pickle the membranes and bring the water maker back on line, parts are still availalble for it.

When the system is out, I will post, someone might have a use for it.

Thanks for the replies,

Tim

 

[tonytrakovich]

If you unpickle, make sure you run the watermaker at least every 2 weeks, or fresh water flush every 2 weeks.