"Marc Andelman" wrote:

I would be very interested in knowing people's
experience with commercial watermakers.

Everyone I know who has one more or less endorses the consensus of
recent reviews: they're good, if you need them and if you use and
maintain them correctly, depending on the conditions in which used
(e.g., in the Caribbean compared with mid- or north-Atlantic? just
intermittently and, if so, every few weeks? months? basically
continually or, at least, long-term? etc., etc.)

What do people like and dislike about these?

They can save one's life, make crusing more comfortable in terms of
water availability than if one doesn't otherwise have access more or
less predictably to fresh water, and require a reasonable degree of
attention/care.

What are their characteristics, such as Reliability, energy
per given volume of water produced. Maintenance issues,
s ize, noise, price, etc. Regards, Marc

It depends. They pretty much do what they are advertised to do,
comparatively reliably, providing one reads and adheres to the
instructions for use.

Query, however, whether you're an ocean going/crossing or otherwise
long-term cruiser who, because not basically doing coastal cruising,
really needs one (even if price and electrical consumption were not a
consideration)?