Testimonials

I've had 4 watermakers aboard our yacht Moira during the 35 years my wife and I have been cruising the South Pacific. I consider a watermaker to be absolutely essential to any active cruising yacht, not only to save time and effort lugging water around in little jugs, but primarily for health reasons. These days you can NEVER rely on public water supplies in most parts of the world to provide potable water. I bought an ECHOTec watermaker 3 years ago, installed it myself (easy) and fired it up. It has worked perfectly, with absolutely no problem at all every day since (we are not marina people). I can truly say that this is the best watermaker I have ever had and I never hesitate even a second to recommend it to anyone and everyone.

Dear Peter,

Just a short note, to let you know how delighted we are with our new ECH2O Tec 390-AML-1 water maker. The installation was very straightforward due to the great technical advise given by you when required. The output of the system is fantastic and the amount of power required to run it is well below my expectations. This will totally transform our cruising life. We are now ready to go as far away as we can without ever having to worry about fresh water. Once again, thanks for all the fantastic telephone support.

Kind regards.

Robert & Sylvia
'SY Phoenix X'

I have had 3 watermakers on different yachts over the years. I know what I need, and that is a robust,simple,and efficient machine. My Ecotec 260-DMl-1 is all those things. In recent voyages to the Louisiades, the Solomons, New Caledonia, and Vanuatu I have enjoyed reliable, easily made water. In the Solomons, where the sea water is very warm, I was getting a litre a minute from my 260-DML-1! I had a couple of queries when installing the unit and was greatly helped by Peter from Blue Sea Machines. I unreservedly recommend both his service and the product.

Lawrie Gubb 'Tropicali' a Cavalier 37.

Hi Peter,

I have been using my ECHOTec water maker for a couple of years now as I live full time on my yacht Tesca in Hervey Bay area. It is reliable, easy to use and does an excellent job. Other yachties are amazed when I tell them how much water it makes - far more than comparable units! I am very happy and would recommend it to any serious cruiser!

Harry Threlfall 'Tesca'www.tesca.com.au

Dear Peter,

We purchased our ECHO Tec water maker nearly 12 months ago. It is the best thing we ever did, no more worrying about our water use or waiting for the rain to fill our tanks. The machine is easy to operate and runs off our inverter or generator. The water we operate in is Bay water, not ocean water, and the filtration system has been adequate with hardly replacing the filters. We looked at different manufacturers but ECHO Tec won hands down. Peter was a great support and nothing was to much trouble.

We have no hesitation in recommending this product.

Thanks for the great service Peter.

Ross Mason & Jo Barratt

Regards from the good ship 'DOLLY'

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Hi Peter,

As a sailor and setting my boat up for cruising I do what every other sailor does and I ask as many cruisers and live aboard's as possible about what they have and what other cruisers say and think about what to buy.
I was speaking at length to a circumnavigator who took 5 years to do his circumnavigation and as he was a member of my club we had a great chin wag about everything. My big item list had a water maker on it and asked him what he thought would be a good one to buy. The conversation went much like this.
Q. So what water maker do you have?
A. I have an XXXX model (not a ECHOTec) which did do the job ok.
Q. What brand would you recommend and why?
A. Well most cruising sailors are using the ECHOTec, they are very simple, you can get parts anywhere, no electronics to play up, and they will eventually, ask me. They just seem to be incredibly reliable.
We all know that there are many brands out there and as I have worked very closely with the marine industry as a sailing instructor I have heard of other brands of water makers causing problems.
My biggest problem was where to install the water maker. Once I had decided where it should go I took the water maker down in modules and played the try and fit game. It eventually went under a settee seat under the TV The membrane went where the 3 dozen bottles of wine were kept, took up no room at all. The control panel was installed behind the back rest of a settee where the cake mixers and rice were kept. All areas were flow coated from time of manufacture so any water spills when cleaning filters is not a problem. The instillation was very simple as I read and identified all the parts and how they went together with which tubing.
I called Peter on several occasions with questions that might seem and were straight forward, but I wanted every thing to be perfect. I found Peter to be very helpful which is rare these days when someone has their money they forget you very quickly, but not Peter.
We have used the water maker consistently without any problems. We make 50 to 60 ltr a day as this is our daily usage and the water maker goes on when we start the 2kva Honda which heats the water for showers, charges the batteries and makes water. When we are motoring and need water we turn the water maker on and travel at 5 knots max (to prevent cavitation) so we run it till the tank overflows. We use the water maker as an insurance policy so we can have as much water as we like but we still try to be careful. I know some are going to say that 50-60ltr is outrageous and rightly so, but we have the water so we do that. We make 49ltr per hour for 39Ah. That is the 260 model.
I can recommend the ECHOTec to any prospective buyer as it is robust, easy to install and maintain. I have been using my ECHOTec commercially with students on board so it has had a work out.
My yacht is Splash and is in Pittwater, NSW, so if you see me at anchor and would like to have a look at the installation come on over.

Regards

Peter Wilson 'Splash'

Hi Peter,

We are into our second year cruising aboard FIRST LIGHT III. We have travelled over 12,000 miles, cruising Tasmania, western Pacific islands, Indonesia and Malaysia. I installed an ECHOTec 900 BML engine driven unit before departing and it has reliably provided ample water for all our needs. My philosophy when equipping our yacht was to try to keep the weight down. By installing a high capacity watermaker, we don't need to carry much water (150 litres) as we can make it whenever we want and fill the tanks in an hour. We have cruised in company with other yachts that don't have watermakers and it has made us appreciate the freedom we have by not having to cruise from one water supply to the next, not having to ration water and not having to lug heavy water containers often containing water of unknown quality. We often reflect on the systems we have installed on the yacht and rank them based on their value to our cruising life. We consistently rank our watermaker a close second, just behind the autopilot!"

Cheers

Bernie & Dianne McGoldrick 'SV FIRST LIGHT III'

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After six months of research I finally found the water maker that suited our requirements for use on our cruising catamaran. We required minimum power usage for a 240volt Ac unit, which could be driven by our Honda 2 Kva power plant and from our 1800watt pure sine wave inverter (while travelling). The only unit that met our needs and was competitively priced was the Echo-Tec 260-AML-1, supplied by Peter Coleman at Blue Seas Machines. Being a modular series I was able to mount the unit easily into our vessel without compromising space. We are living on our boat and have been using the water maker regularly for the last 4 years without any major failures, travelling from the Whitsunday Islands, Qld to Broome and the Kimberley region, WA and return. During the warranty period we had an O ring failure on the flowmeter. The complete unit was replaced after consultation with Blue Seas Machines. Any parts that have been replaced under normal maintenance requirements have been supplied by Blue Seas Machines promptly.
I have no hesitation in recommending Blue Sea Machines and Echo-Tec Watermakers for a great product and more importantly after sales service."

We installed an ECHOTec Watermaker three years ago knowing we would be cruising in remote areas of South East Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Borneo, where it would be difficult to contact suppliers or get parts or help and where the water supplies are notoriously unreliable. Therefore we wanted a system that worked, had utmost reliability and no need to get supplies, parts or help from supplier.
I am delighted to say that after initial commissioning, where assistance from the company was extra-ordinary, all our criteria of reliability, performance and ease of use have been more than met. To say the least we are delighted!
It is also great to be able to use water freely without constraint, to shower and wash, and even wash the boat down in the tropics without concern for water.
We used to carry a 1,000 litres of water, now we just carry an emergency supply and make it as we go.

I purchased a DML-260-1 2 years ago and installed it all myself. The manual, particularly for the installation was very simple and straight forward and everything was supplied except for the bits needed to connect up to our existing water system.

I had one problem initially as the endcap on the membrane cracked and was leaking. When I contacted Peter at Blue Sea Machines, he immediately had a new one air freighted to me under warranty, no questions asked.

Whenever I have had any questions, Peter has always been quick to provide answers and suggestions. When he was not able to help he put me in contact directly with Michael Bauza at ECHO-Marine in Trinidad who did answer all my questions.

After two years of nearly continuous use, mostly in very warm tropical waters, our watermaker is still producing good water at specified rate of 49 liters per hour.

It is a good product and both Blue Sea Machines and ECHO-Marine are great customer oriented companies to deal with.

We have had an ECHOtec water maker for about 2 1/2 years. The first 2 years
we did not use it very much, but in the last half year we started using the
water maker and the HP pump motor developed problems. After several emails
between ECHOtec, Blue Sea Machines and us the issue was resolved amicably
with the replacement of the motor with a better quality one. Since then the
system has been working above specification and without any problems. Based
on our experience I would recommend ECHOtec because of its quality equipment
and its service.

We upgraded many systems on our 10.8m sloop Tryphena for our trip from the
east coast to the Kimberley. The Echo Tec 49L/hr water maker was probably
the best investment we made. It is a beautiful piece of engineering and
lived up to our every expectation.

We recently installed an ECHOTec 690–AML-2 in our yacht, having had two previous smaller watermakers over the years. Our primary requirements were simplicity of operation and installation, no electronics, and high quality components. Having researched on line, it was great to be able to talk to Peter to further answer many questions we had before committing to the purchase. The installation was carried out ourselves and was straightforward with all required parts supplied. We had one minor issue on commissioning and this was quickly followed up by Peter and a small replacement component couriered to us and replaced by us.

It is early days with the ECHOTec product, but in the few weeks since commissioning, it has operated as well as we could have hoped and exceeded stated design production specifications. It is going to have a major workout through 2012 as we plan to have it in operation for the full 12 months as we continue our cruising.

We went with ECHOTec after a strong recommendation from another cruising couple. We have found our 260-DML-1 simple to operate, easy to maintain and successful in keeping our tanks full of fresh water. Peter said to ring him anytime we had an issue and because of some errors in our initial installation, we really put him to the test. Together, we gradually sorted out the problems and we were very grateful for his patience and commitment to the product. All in all, very happy with the unit and with a competent installer you will have a simple, low maintenance system that meets your fresh water needs.