Filtered water
Artemis has two 500 liter watertanks built into the hull. Inspecting them through the easily accessible hatches revealed like new inside, some loose silt sat on the bottom of one of the tanks that was all. Good news.
Since we got Artemis we did initially not take on water from the marinas in Greece and Italy, reputedly this was risky and no one would actually warrant the water quality. Instead we let the watermaker produce what we needed. Soon we learned that neither of the water level meters worked, they showed full all the time...sorting this out is post in itself so I leave it at that for now.
The watermaker product is almost sterile water, no taste from natural minerals at all. However, the glassfiber tanks imparted a very slight, vague plastic aroma to the water. This is very common but annoying. For cooking, no problem, but for drinking plain, it was no pleasure. When it is above 35deg C, a lot of water is consumed by the crew all the time resulting in a bottle carrying routine that becomes more than annoying because one does typically not have access to transportation as a temporary visitor.
When sitting still in a marina and living on board you cant make your own water because the marinas seawater is not the same as in open sea... It would clog the prefilters fast. So, we where thus forced to fill up with marina provided tap water, but only after checking the quality. Where Artemis sits now, the water is in fact very good, and it is free. We thus decided to use the port tank for marina water and leave the starboard tank for home made water. There is a selector T valve.
There is a story about that valve too, for another posting.
After touting heavy drinking water bottles form the shops and as a result producing significant amounts of plastic, we thought of solving this once and for all. Hence decision to install a proper carbon filter to a separate "drinking water" faucet by the kitchen sink. Here is how it was done.
To begin with, my thinking with all items boat is to try not to source this in boating shops, many items are not just inferior but also very expensive. Common sense will take you a long way. So for this project I went not to the chandler but to the "home depot".
Final installation, turning on the water pressure revealed several leaks...a lot more PTFE tape solved this.
The cost for the filter housing is around 14EUR, two braided hoses with R15 threads 8 EUR each, the faucet 28EUR plus
fittings and the filter itself. All in all around 75EUR... The result...no more plastic taste!
Since we got Artemis we did initially not take on water from the marinas in Greece and Italy, reputedly this was risky and no one would actually warrant the water quality. Instead we let the watermaker produce what we needed. Soon we learned that neither of the water level meters worked, they showed full all the time...sorting this out is post in itself so I leave it at that for now.
The watermaker product is almost sterile water, no taste from natural minerals at all. However, the glassfiber tanks imparted a very slight, vague plastic aroma to the water. This is very common but annoying. For cooking, no problem, but for drinking plain, it was no pleasure. When it is above 35deg C, a lot of water is consumed by the crew all the time resulting in a bottle carrying routine that becomes more than annoying because one does typically not have access to transportation as a temporary visitor.
When sitting still in a marina and living on board you cant make your own water because the marinas seawater is not the same as in open sea... It would clog the prefilters fast. So, we where thus forced to fill up with marina provided tap water, but only after checking the quality. Where Artemis sits now, the water is in fact very good, and it is free. We thus decided to use the port tank for marina water and leave the starboard tank for home made water. There is a selector T valve.
There is a story about that valve too, for another posting.
After touting heavy drinking water bottles form the shops and as a result producing significant amounts of plastic, we thought of solving this once and for all. Hence decision to install a proper carbon filter to a separate "drinking water" faucet by the kitchen sink. Here is how it was done.
To begin with, my thinking with all items boat is to try not to source this in boating shops, many items are not just inferior but also very expensive. Common sense will take you a long way. So for this project I went not to the chandler but to the "home depot".
I spent some time checking out placement of the filter for best servicing, hose reach and practicality. Measure twice, cut once y´know.
The filter is a basic domestic unit using 10" (25cm) standard filters. It has 1" in and outlets in brass. this was reduced with fittings to 1/2". Instead of hosebarbs, hoses and hoseclamps the boat way, it was way more practical to use the ready made braided PEX hoses with crimped 1/2" or R15 thread connections that are so common nowadays. These typically come in 30cm lengths and that was just what was needed.
By doing this I could easily Tee into the cold water line to the existing faucet. Having a good selection of 3/8", 1/2", 3/4" fittings and lots of PTFE tape before you begin the work saves a lot of time not having run back and forth to the shop. Still, I had to go there... Below is the faucet with hoses already in the 30mm hole. As this faucet only supplies filtered cold water, the hotwater inlet had to be plugged. This plug is visible in the picture above, to the right.
Final installation, turning on the water pressure revealed several leaks...a lot more PTFE tape solved this.
The cost for the filter housing is around 14EUR, two braided hoses with R15 threads 8 EUR each, the faucet 28EUR plus
fittings and the filter itself. All in all around 75EUR... The result...no more plastic taste!
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