The world’s CHEAPEST RO Watermaker WITHOUT Sacrificing Quality, How do we do it?!

For Starters what is a Reverse Osmosis Watermaker (or Desalinator)?

To answer that we first need to ask what is Osmosis?

Well Osmosis is the natural movement of water molecules through a semi-permeable membrane from an area of low salt concentration to an area of high salt concentration, In nature water naturally wants to mix with salt because of entropy and molecular attraction. (More in-depth explanation in FAQ page)

Now that we understand Osmosis, what is Reverse Osmosis? Well, it’s exactly what it sounds like! Naturally water and salt want to mix, however in RO we are opposing that reaction and stripping the water from the salt using high pressure to force salty water through a microscopic filter, trapping salt and letting only pure water pass. Not only does it remove the salt, creating fresh water but it also removes, Bacteria, Virus, PFAs, Microplastics, Heavy metals, and more!

Now that we have a broad overview of how RO Desalinators work lets dive deeper into our key components and their roles in RO Process.

The First major components of a RO system is going to be our Pumps, since we need a way to transport/pressurize the water through our system.

We have our first stage pump which is also referred to as the Boost pump, this allows us to flow and lightly pressurized ocean water or raw water from our seacock or pick up to our main High pressure pump. Most boats use Boost pumps for all types of applications, from AC units to deck wash downs, etc. allowing for a large range of boost pumps to choose from.

However, let’s consider our design factors.. What we need from our boost pump is to ensure that we are providing enough Flow to the High-pressure pump so it does not cavitate, enough Head to be able to pump the water out of the bilge of your boat, and of course impervious to salt water.

We could (and can) use any off the shelf pump for this application, but we meant what we said about not sacrificing quality! Which is why we chose our Brushless DC motor 2 stage magnetic drive pump with variable speed control. This pump draws under 150W and outputs over 500GPH and over 100ft of Head. It is magnetic drive motor, so the impeller and motor are completely isolated from one another, allowing for great reliability against corrosion. It is also IP68 and can be submerged and run under water.

After the Boost pump the raw sea water will go through a series of prefilters which consist of a 20 and 5 micron filter to remove sediment and debris before being fed to the High Pressure Pump. In the Watermaker industry there are two types of systems, “Low output High efficiency” or  “High output Low Efficiency”.

Lets take a look at the Low output High efficiency first, These are also known as energy recovery systems or Clark pumps, Etc. They work by taking some of the waste brine water that has already been pressurized and recycling it causing less power consumption in the next cycle. They are great for efficiency, especially back in the day before lithium batteries came into the picture! An efficient system produces around 6 GPH while consuming 100 Watts. This is impressive, however if you have to fill a 60-gallon tank everyday your system will be running for over 10 hours a day and the more time a machine operates the more potential for parts to fail. Also, these High efficiency systems can cost exponentially more with parts that can’t be easily replaced off the shelf in remote locations.

Now for the High output, Lower Efficiency systems have the same objectives, which is to be able to meet the membrane flow and pressure requirements, be as efficient as possible, and be able to withstand the marine elements. In theory any high-pressure pump will work if it meets the flow and pressure requirements of the membrane. For example, you can even build watermakers from a gas or electric pressure washer, as they are perfect candidates for cheap high pressure pumps. However for our case we want to maximize the efficiency and longevity of our system, which isn’t the best option with a pressure washer. P.S. If you would like to use your own high pressure system or a Karcher pressure washer please reach out, and we will be happy to sell you a DIY System!

For high output systems the industry standard is the use of a Triplex pump commonly found in industrial power washers but slightly modified for corrosion resistance to salt water and optimized for membrane pressures and flows. All VECTECH WM will come with a Annovi Reverberi Triplex Pump which is a High-quality Italian pump that has a proven track record in the marine desalination industry.

The next major component after Pumps is Electric Motors, these are responsible for driving your high-pressure pump. We will offer an AC 120v electric motor and DC 12v & 24v electric motor. The 2 key design factors for the electric motor are Highest efficiency possible and Corrosion Resistant. Our AC motor only draws 9 Amps at 110V which makes our system incredibly efficient for its class. It is hard to source high quality high efficiency motors in this class of motors, that is also dual capacitor unit to prevent major start up power spikes. With the entire water maker running (High pressure and boost pump) it consumes around 1100 watts! This allows our AC units to run off inverters over 1500w, 1500w+ Power Stations, Honda 2000, Etc. At 1100 Watts you should be able to produce ~40 GPH! (Depending on sea water conditions). Referring back to our High efficiency system break down earlier, our VECTECH WM will only have to run for around 1.5 hours vs their 10 hours to fill a 60 Gallon tank. The motors are also fully enclosed with corrosion resistance coatings.

For the DC motors, high quality LEESON 12v and 24v dual capacitor motors MADE IN THE USA will be used. Due to the nature of a DC motor the 12v will be able to draw under 700 amps but will only be able to feed one 2540 membrane, restricting its production to a 20GPH system. Also, DC motors require a lot more copper in the windings and due to market demand copper prices are very high hence why a DC unit is more expensive than an AC unit.

After the Raw water passes the High pressure pump it arrives to the membrane housings and this is where the magic happens! Of course we need to consider what kind of membrane housings we wanted to provide at VECTECH with the two main factors being Size and Materials. RO membrane housings can come in all different sizes from industrial units that fill whole warehouses to small tubes that can fit in a suitcase. The most common in marine application is a 2540,2541 or even a 4040. The first two numbers I.e. “25” stands for the membrane Diameter of 2.5 Inches and the second two numbers (“40” or “21”) stands for the membrane Length in inches. Each membrane has a certain flow and pressure requirement, and you can also stack these membranes in series to increase the output of fresh water by using the left of brine water from the first unit. The more you stack in series the less brine water you receive after each membrane, think of it as diminishing returns, just because you have 4 membranes in series doesn’t equal 4x the output of fresh water. Also bigger membranes require more flow and higher pressure causing the High pressure motor and pump to be larger which mean more power consumption. This is why we decided to stick with the sweet spot and industry standard of a 2540 membrane. We also only use the highest quality authentic FilmTec/DOW/Dupont membranes MADE IN THE US.

Membrane housings are susceptible to high pressure and violent loads, it is crucial that your housing is rated for high pressure Saltwater applications 800+ PSI and not the low pressure residential brackish or fresh water. You will notice a lot of companies use the white fiberglass Housings that have had a reputation of cracking and are normally made overseas, while our membrane housings are made here in the USA. They are also fiberglass housings but use stainless steel 316 threaded rods to retain the end caps which act as dampeners if any shock like loads is applied to the housing. The end caps combine a hard-anodized 6061 aluminum retaining plate with a PVC thermoplastic plug, preventing saltwater from contacting the aluminum and providing excellent corrosion resistance and long-term durability.

Lastly, all the miscellaneous fittings, valves, clamps and high-pressure hoses we apply the same design philosophy and only use high quality materials and 316 SS sourced from local distributors.

Now that we have established an overview of our design philosophies and you have an understanding of the level of quality we use for our watermakers, you can see we have not cut any corners when it comes to quality!

Now you may be wondering—how is THE cheapest watermaker also one of the most efficient of its class without sacrificing quality?

The answer is simple: we're boaters too. We know exactly what BOAT stands for—Break Out Another Thousand—and we built VECTECH Watermakers to help you break out fewer of them. By engineering an efficient system, sourcing proven components, and eliminating unnecessary markups, we deliver a premium watermaker at a price that makes sense.

Less money spent on equipment means more money for fuel, adventures, and time on the water.