My Schenker 100 water-marker is squeaking a bit and not sure how serious this is. Seems ever other cycle of the piston. We’ve been using it quite regularly for the last 5 months with no issues. Maybe a gasket is going?
Will be in Trinidad in a month so can get it looked at. Just not sure how serious this?
I have had this issue with a previous watermaker - and it it is an indication of wear.
What we are hearing on the video is very high pressure water getting past one of the piston seals and making that squeaking noise. It is probably the quad-ring seal on the main piston.
In addition we only hear the “squeak” every other “clunk” - each clunk is when the piston reverses direction. This suggests the leak is only occurring in one-direction so only one end of the barrel (or seal) is damaged.
When I had this happen the bore of the main piston housing had some scoring - probably because dirt had by-passed the 5 micron filter and as the piston moves back and forth caused scoring on the wall/bore. I ended up replacing that cylinder.
The seal between the piston and the wall of the cylinder is a specialist o-ring - it looks like 4 o-rings bonded together. Whilst the quad-ring might wear and cause the leak it is probably less likely.
It is possible to strip the watermaker down and put a little silicon grease (food grade) on the quad-rings. It might make a short term difference. You could try replacing the quad-rings - but if you see any longitudinal scratching or lines in the cylinder wall it is probably that. It might be possible to get them re-surfaced but I doubt it is worth it.
In my case it seemed to get worse over time. As it gets worse, the ERS struggles to get the water to the correct pressure because of the leaking. The result of the lower pressure is lower product water volume and higher PPM (so lower water quality).
We all rely on our watermakers - so I would address as soon as you can. I would think
Trinidad would be a good place.
Do you think it might be ok for another month? How serious is this? I’m in Martinique but would rather head out south as the insurance will only give me till june 1 to Grenada.
Yes you will probably get another month out of it.
Could you also post a video showing the pressure gauge reading as the unit runs - say 4 or 5 clunks worth? That will help to confirm my diagnosis.
Videos added to the WhatsApp site
The video of the round pressure gauge shows that the pressure doesn’t drop too much during the “squeak” - so not too much water is getting past. Which should also be good for the PPM not increasing too much.
If it gets worse you will probably start to see that gauge fall during the squeak.
I reckon it will get you there!
Added by Ellie to the WhatsApp group with the comment
“Hi Don, I have the same watermaker and my squeek was awful.
I eventually opened it up and found the large O Rings on the pistons were totally stretched.”
If anywhere near St Maarten, have it checked out at Titan Marine Air @ St Maarten. They will be able to assist you. They are an authorised distributor for Schenker in the States.
Smontaggio ERS_eng.pdf (1.3 MB)
Exploded view with codes 100LT.pdf (1.5 MB)
Helpful diagrams and instructions
I had to rebuild our watermaker in the Bahamas and the diagrams were the saving grace. It took arm twisting from Schenker to get them.
We had a bad experience with Titan in Florida. They made things worse and knew we had bad pistons but didn’t change them because they were not in stock and just wanted to send us on our way. The owner was not supportive.
This is a really useful Facebook group for Schenker. I think it was set up by Rich Boren but it’s not overtly “sales” based.
Got this from John Elliot. Of coarse this is NOT applicable to a water maker that is pretty stressed, but we did this and it worked. Ours was not too bad and pressured did not show anything bad.
“The squeak is not a concern. When you have a minute. Pickle the WM with SC1, but use warm water of 35 degrees Celsius. Leave for 48 hours and the squeak should disappear.”
Rich is the best. I ordered parts from him after I had a bad experience with Titan. He’s very supportive and knowledgeable.