the Schenker zen30 watermaker

“Water, water everywhere and all the boards did shrink
Water, water everywhere nor any drop to drink”
–Rime of the Ancient Mariner

One of the biggest limiting factors for me over the years has been my bougie usage of water while on Hemispheres. I am not a great conservationist when it comes to water usage on a boat. Many times I’ve left Cape Lookout and gone into Beaufort because I was low on water and went to a dock to fill up. In Ocracoke, having to do the gerry-jug shuffle daily with two five gallon cans, filling them at the public docks, back in the dinghy, dead lifting back onto the deck then filling the tank. No more!

Took the plunge and decided on the Schenker Zen30. Main reason is that it’s a 12 volt, low pressure pump that draws only ten amps, so it can run from the batteries and actually, in the middle of the day, on solar. It outputs eight gallons an hour so just two hour a day with free energy is really appealing.

Hemispheres has a spare thru hull in the head from when I converted to freshwater flush for the electric toilet. But also thinking of tee-ing from the AC thru hull as it’s lower int the water and can make water while sailing when the boat is heeled over.

So the location for the pump, where I want to place it, decided to remove the old, original battery charger. I had just left it there for years as a backup. It’s a Sentry 20amp charger and it’s so old, circa 2000, that it’a actually compatible with lithium batteries because it just a two stage charger, bulk and float, and is within .2v tolerance for both stages. So I left it in. But, needed to come out finally while had provided an unforeseen benefit. I don’t need to run wire to the pump, I get to use the existing wiring as that already runs back to the battery selector switch and ground. I lucked out. the wiring is gauged for 30amps at the run length.

But they shipped the wrong pump, sent a 24v by mistake so it’s being expedited. So slightly delayed with this installation. And for the system itself, it’s dimensions are perfect for it to be placed right behind the forward water tank under the v-berth.