A letter from the real world, the need for better liars, and Mylène Paquette became the first North American woman to row solo across the North Atlantic Ocean...
A perennial thing jockeying for position on my need/want list is a watermaker. What can I say? It sorta/kinda seems like a needful system. So, every year I run it through my need/want mark three computer and it always comes up firmly in the something I want but not something I need category.
As it happens, this ad for a used watermaker came up yesterday and it does tell a story if you do the math...
"We are done cruising the Caribbean. Slightly used (50 hours) Village Marine Little Wonder Modular 200 Water Maker purchased 2008 asking $3000/BO plus shipping or pick up near Jacksonville, FL. New pressure vessel and membrane. 12 volt DC system rated for 8.3 gallons per hour. Complete with spares, rebuilt kit, custom SS motor mounting bracket, complete for your installation, etc..."At first look it's not a bad price so it caught my interest but, once you read it a second time, it starts telling a story all its own...
For starters, since it's only been run for fifty hours the most the system has made is 415 gallons of water (8.3 X 50 = 415). Now for comparison, we pay 10 cents a gallon for water when needful in the Caribbean so 415 gallons would cost us less than $42. Which is hardly going to break the bank but what did water actually cost the guy who has the watermaker for sale?
Since the best price I can find on this particular watermaker new is around $5000 we'll use that as the operative number (and we'll forgo the higher mind numbing math inducing costs of shipping/installation/chemicals/repairs/custom bracket/spares/replacement parts which, I suspect are substantial) so the number we get is a little more than $12 for the cost per gallon.
Can you say OUCH?
Then again, since he's selling it for $3000 he might actually get the price down to something like $4 or $5 a gallon which is quite the improvement but still a helluva long way from the 10 cents we pay for water...
Which is not to say I've completely given up the idea of a super-frugal-less-than-$500-DIY-watermaker based on a cheap Harbor Freight pressure washer but still that's going to cost a lot more than 10 cents a gallon when all is said and done..
Listening to Doug and the Slugs
So it goes...
