Steve: Hi, We are one of those sailors who bought one of these machines and found out the not immediately apparent serious limitation of these machines: There is high volume of water consumption not for washing but to accomplish the condensation: there is a constant stream of cold water is piped to cool the drum.
And there is another big problem: the temperature of the cooling water. In the tropics the 85+F water temp may not accomplish the condensation at all?! We decided to forgo the installation all together and go to manual machines with clothes lines…John
Hi John: Our experience is the same. However, in colder climates condensing drier seems to work OK (and there is typically lots of water available then. In the tropics we also use clotheslines outside! Regards-Steve
Posted by Steve Dashew (November 30, 1999)
