Our 3000 liter a day watermaker, a Village Marine Sea Quencher 800, gave us good service and worked trouble free for 5 years. Lately, the water started to taste salty. Even our guests in January this year, Renata and Bogdan from Toronto, noticed this. Investigating, we discovered that the watermaker membranes only have a certain lifespan. I was told they only last 2 years if used in the lagoon of St. Martin or Curacao, but out in the ocean they could last 5 to 10 years. So we got 5 years of good use out of them. We made the decision to change the membranes. I went on the internet and discovered that the 40 inch membrane could cost as little as US $176 each. We needed two membranes. But now comes the hammer, the Village Marine Watermaker pressure vessel accepts only Village Marine propieratory membranes which are a little shorter of 40" (the industry standard) and cost a whopping US $480 plus $70 shipping each. We were looking at a membrane replacement in the figure of US $1100. Shoot! What to do.
Here in Curacao is a local watermaker expert and manufacturer with the name of Barry Day (www.watercraftwatermaker.com). We consulted him and he advised us to change the pressure vessels to the industry standard 40" version, which he would supply incl. membrane for US $700 each. This would mean at a future membrane replacement we would be in the clear again and actually saving money. This is what we did. Our handheld TDS salinity tester now reads 117 ppm (human consumption permits 500 ppm) Before we changed the membranes we had a reading of a shocking 2200 ppm. Brrr! We didn't need any salt in the soup. With the new membranes, as an added bonus, we now make 3800 liter/day, 42gal/hr, 800 liter more.