Frequently asked questions

The origins of Rainman established our reputation as the “portable watermaker” in the blue case. Although many customers will prefer to install their Rainman Watermaker, many benefits exist for keeping your system portable.

Portable benefits:

• The system can be operated without an installation process. Ten minutes after receiving the system, you can be making fresh drinking water.
• If you are a cruiser and a racer, you can easily offload about 2/3 of a crew member weight by putting the watermaker ashore.
• No extra holes in your hull.
• If you are space-constrained, you can remove the system to fit more people or gear for short trips.
• If maintenance is required, you bring the system to a technician rather than bringing a technician to your boat.
• When you upgrade your boat, you take the system with you. Installing a system in your boat will not add significant value to your boat.
• You can loan it to a friend.
• Reduced cost due to avoiding expensive and invasive installation process.
• You can fill your neighbour’s tanks with the product water extension hose.
• Moving the system around is easy if you have an RV, live near water, or have another boat.
• You can easily resell the system if you are no longer getting use out of it.

You have maximum flexibility in power sources if you wish to keep your system portable. Any of our three platforms can be used as portable. In order of popularity, these include:

Rainman built our reputation on inventing and commercializing portable watermakers. However, over the years many of our customers prefer to permanently or semi-permanently install their systems into their boat. There are many reasons for this:

Installed benefits:

• You can operate the system without the need to pull it out on deck.
• No hoses thrown over the side of your boat while the system is in use.
• Less concern of hoses getting kicked out of place while in use.
• Easier to use while underway.

Read more about the Plumbing Install Kit ›

How to install your Rainman Watermaker ›

If you decide to install a Rainman watermaker, you can choose from any of our electric systems. We do not recommend you install our petrol (gasoline) powered watermaker.

Options include:

Both the case and naked systems can be installed and plumbed in various configurations. Below are high level schematics of four possibilities (click on image for larger view).

The core components of the installation are:

• Dedicated or shared through the hull for intake of seawater.
• Ability to draw water out of a bucket for flushing or pickling the watermaker. Using our autoflush option means you will rarely, if ever, need the pickling bucket.
• Control product water flow for testing or filling your tank.
• Brine waste water goes overboard.

If you plan to fully install your Cased Rainman system, the plumbing kit can be purchased as an option.

Read more about the Plumbing Install Kit ›

How to install your Rainman Watermaker ›

The system can be purchased either as the traditional blue case version or in the modular configuration. The performance and power consumption are identical between the two options, so your specific requirements control which is best suited for your application.

The option to choose between the cased and modular versions only applies to the Rainman AC (Electric) Watermaker and the Rainman VDC (Electric) Watermaker. The Rainman Petrol (Gasoline) Watermaker is only available for purchase as a cased option.

To see the differences between the cased and modular options for the Rainman AC (Electric) Watermaker or the Rainman VDC Watermaker, please take a look at the table that summarizes the differences between the two options on their respective product pages.

AC (Electric) Watermaker – Cased vs Modular Options ›

Rainman VDC (Electric) Watermaker – Cased vs Modular Options ›

Please note:  The pricing for the cased and modular options that are available for the AC (Electric) Watermaker and the Rainman VDC (Electric) Watermaker, respectively, are the same.

We offer three standard reverse osmosis (RO) membrane options, all of which are designed to be compatible with either the electric or petrol (gasoline) versions of our pressure supply unit. The RO options were designed to suit a wide variety of customers, catering for economy, compact, and high output requirements. We have three standard options that cater to the vast majority of customers, but we can make custom configurations on request. Please contact us for discussion on custom configuration or size.

Many customers ask which RO option suits their needs best. A couple of things to think about include power consumption and physical space requirements. If you can fit the 40″ RO membranes, we recommend either the High Output or Economy system as the most cost effective solutions. However, if you are physically limited on space, then the Compact system is the best option. The pressure supply units will consume the same power regardless of which RO unit is attached, so the High Output RO case is the most energy efficient.

Both the AC (Electric) Water Maker and the Petrol (Gasoline) Water Maker are available in three options for the reverse osmosis (RO) unit, depending on your water requirements, space available, and budget.

Due to the lower flow rate of the VDC Watermaker’s PSU, only the single 40″ membrane configuration of the 34L Modular RO unit is supported for this option.

After a few uses, it will take about two minutes to set up your watermaker for use. More detail is available in the operations manual, but the steps are:

1. Set the systems up. You may choose to leave the systems in a locker and only move the hoses around.
2. Hook the black high pressure hose from the reverse osmosis case (RO) into the quick connect coupling on the pressure supply unit (PSU).
3. Put the intake hose into seawater.
4. Put the green waste brine hose overboard.
5. Turn the system on.
6. Slowly pressurize the system to 55 bar (800 psi) using the control valve. Fresh water will begin coming out of the white product water hose.
7. Let it run for a short period of time, then put it in your tank.
8. When the tank is full, depressurise the system and put it away.

While there is limited maintenance on your Rainman watermaker, there are a few things that should be looked after to ensure a long life of your system.

When storing system:

Fresh water flush and pickle the system when storing it for more than a couple days. This may sound complex, but it is an easy five minute process with no specialist knowledge required.

5-50+ hours of use:

• Change the non-proprietary pre filter after 5-50+ hours of use, depending on cleanliness of the source water.

1-2 years:

• Change non-proprietary impeller in the lift pump after a year or two, depending on use.
• Change the high pressure pump oil each 300 hours of use, using SAE-30 weight oil.

5-10 years:

• Change the non-proprietary sized reverse osmosis membranes after 5-10 years.
• If your system starts losing performance, the non-proprietary pump seals may eventually require replacing.

Rainman desalinator pressure supply unit and RO membrane units are guaranteed to be free of manufacturer defects and to perform within the published specifications for a period of two years from the date of shipment to the original purchaser.

In the event of a warranty claim, Rainman Technology will inspect the defective component and repair or replace at our discretion. All shipping charges are the responsibility of the purchaser to and from our office in Sydney, Australia.

The warranty is void if the system was mishandled, abused, or not operated / maintained as directed by the user manual. Consumable items, such as the pre-filter cartridges, lift pump impeller, high-pressure pump oil, high-pressure pump packings, high pressure hose, engine lubricant, or RO membranes are not covered under the terms of this warranty.

The Honda engine within the Rainman pressure supply unit has a three year Honda warranty. The system can be brought to your local Honda dealer for engine warranty issues.

Rainman Technology’s liability under this warranty is limited to repair or replacement of our systems to the original purchaser. Under no circumstances is Rainman Technology liable for consequential damages related to the failure of the system to perform.

For the USA – the price billed on checkout will be the Landed Cost (includes freight, import duty and sales tax),

For all other countries – the price billed on checkout will be the item cost + freight rate only; the recipient will be liable to pay import duty and sales tax (if applicable) in their country.