T&T: Aqua Whisper Watermaker Boost Pump

[Pauline and Rod]

Gday



We are Australians, weve toured North America in a motorhome for the past
eight years and once made the mistake of parking near the ICW.
Consequently we recently purchased a 2003 Nova Scotia 47 Pilothouse Trawler,
in Punta Gorda, FL, we hope to now tour the North American inland waterways
and eventually do The Loop. Ours is a real unique vessel, one of only
four built before the Canadian manufacturer went broke, so getting
construction information is difficult, as is getting information from other
owners of similar vessels.    As newbies to trawlering we have a number of
questions that we know members will have answers to, first well start with
one question please.



Our vessel has an Aqua Whisper watermaker (350gpd), it was installed in 2005
and never used, other than at commissioning and a later servicing, 6.5 hours
total use. Yet over the past years the booster pump 1/3rd hp electric motor,
supplied with the watermaker, has rusted out and seized twice. The first
time involved a $2500 replacement, with a similar pump/motor. Now we need to
replace that booster pump/motor again. Aqua Whisper want $1000 to $1500+ for
a replacement pump/motor, a price that seems to us to be far too high for
such a simple pump.  Someone we met told us theyd managed to buy a
replacement motor for around $110, reusing the original pump, but we didnt
find out where that motor was obtained.


Have any of you addressed this problem please, and if so what can you advise
us?



Thanks from Pauline and Rod (The Aussies)

Two by Two  2003 Nova Scotia 47 Pilothouse