On Mon, 28 Nov 2005 22:36:37 -0800, Evan Gatehouse
wrote:

Silt plugs up the pre-filters sooner and may foul the
membrane too.

Yes to the former, no to the latter. The no is from the experience of
two years, as I had mentioned. Pull the cartridges, wash 'um out with
the sal****er hose, check their condition and stick 'um back in or
replace them if need be. Just takes a few minutes.


In many parts of the world, potable fresh water isn't
available conveniently on shore in marinas or otherwise so
you may want to make water in coastal waters.

True, and as I wrote in the previous post, some of us spend months
away from "civilization".

However, I wouldn't run a watermaker in silty water if
avoidable.

Why not? Been there, done that and will do it again. As an aside, our
Louisiana oil and gas platforms use huge watermakers now. Plenty of
them are in coastal waters and believe me, our coastal waters are as
muddy as can be, with usualy 0 to 1/2 foot visibility. Those platforms
clean their prefilters daily. Oh yes, the make around 10,000 gallons a
day!

Rick