On Fri, 25 Aug 2017 08:43:04 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 8/25/2017 8:00 AM, wrote:
On Fri, 25 Aug 2017 07:25:12 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

The evaporators could never keep up with the demand for fresh water so
we were always on water hour rationing while underway. Taking a real
shower became a once in a great while deal.

===

I'm surprised they didn't have reverse osmosis systems, wonder if that
has changed?


Don't know what they use now. Both of my sons spent time on larger,
more modern ships and according to them they never had lack of water or
rationing.

My only experience with reverse osmosis was with two smaller systems we
had at one of the houses in Florida. One was in the kitchen that
produced drinking water. Water was blah. The other was a somewhat
larger system near the hanger. It had a 5 gallon storage tank that I
used as a final rinse when washing the cars. The problem with both of
them was that it took forever to replenish the water when the tanks were
empty. Very slow process.


It all has to do with the amount of membrane you have and the pressure
you run at. Sanibel and parts of the Cape are on RO systems now but
they are using brackish water from wells, not salt water.
I have a small RO here, just for drinking water and ice makers. It
makes about 8 gallons a day with new membranes and filters. As they
age, that falls off. I get about 2 years out of a membrane and filters
go about 6 months. I did put in a bigger cartridge filter with cheaper
elements in front of the proprietary filters the RO uses. I have
gauges throughout the system so I can monitor the operation.
You can put a booster pump in front of the RO and increase your
output.