header photo

Melissa & Dave - Adventures at Sea

PureUV

One of the challenges outside the US is clean water.  Everyone in the cruising world has their own thoughts on this.  Some people just drink the dock water and figure they’ll get used to it.  Other people never drink anything but output from their water maker.  Most take a middle path where the dock water isn’t drinkable – sometimes getting water delivered in 5 gallon jugs, and other times making their own if the water in the marina is clean enough to allow that.  Some have elaborate filters and try to clean the dock water before putting it into their tanks.  We are fortunate in that Apsaras is equipped with a somewhat unusual system that allows us to use dock water and not fill the tanks with it.  So when we are at a marina, we can use dock water for showers, toilets, and dishes, but not for drinking.  But at the same time we can maintain clean water in our tanks – filling them only with water maker water or with water delivered clean when available cheaply.  The challenge in all of this is trying to ensure that the main tanks stay clean.  With the heat down here it can be tricky as even a small amount of bacteria is likely to grow fast.

Enter a new gadget.  It’s called a PureUV.   Its an ultraviolet water purifier.

Dave installed it just before the main water pump so that as water is sucked through the pump into the plumbing systems, it first gets run through the PureUV unit.  Dave wired the electrical directly to the water pump so that the unit only turns on when the pump is running.  That way the PureUV kills any bacteria in the water immediately before you use the water as it is pumped into the boat plumbing systems.  So even if we mistakenly get bad dock water into our tanks, or any kind of contamination gets into the tanks, its killed before you use the water.

Cool huh?

The challenge was that whoever engineered the PureUV unit wasn’t exactly familiar with marine plumbing systems.  So the input and output were of some oddball size Dave never did figure out.  At first he thought it was 1/2 inch but all the 1/2 inch fittings Dave had aboard didn't fit.  So then he figured it must be 3/8's but we couldn't find fittings anywhere in Mexico.  So Dave had Uncle Bob bring with him what he figured would be the right fittings and hose.  Dave even emailed the company twice but they never responded.  And ours doesn't look quite like the pictures - so its possible our unit somehow came incomplete.  Alas, even the 3/8's fittings didn't work.  Then it was quite the puzzle.  So Dave ended up ordering some 5/8" inside diameter tubing that was 1/2" outside, plus some 5/8" outside diameter tubing which Melissa returned with from the US.  By putting the two tubes together with hose clamps,  the idea was to clamp the whole assembly to the 1/2" water pipe leading to the water pump.  But... it was a hack at best.  So Dave experienced a moment of hesitation before slicing open the water line.  That first cut is the scariest.  The moment of no return so to speak.  He plunged ahead anyway.  He hooked up the unit, turned on the water, and splash - water everywhere.  Ug.  He turned off the water, tightened everything up again.  And voila!

 

 





Go Back

Comment