Article by Capt. Steve Katz
What is ElectroSea?
Did you see the ElectroSea name during recent fishing tournaments and wondered what it is all about? (We try not to promote products or brands in this column, though we felt the technology and implementation of this new and unique product is worth a review here.)
ElectroSea is a new company with a new product for the saltwater marine market. They make a product called ClearLine, designed to reduce or eliminate marine growth in raw water systems for boats operating in salt water. The most common application would be for a boat with a salt water cooling system for on-board air conditioning and other seawater cooling systems.
If you happen to see one of the ElectoSea ClearLine units, you will see that it looks simple, just a few components. So how does a compact simple system do so much work that it can keep the raw water lines clear of growth?
The ClearLine system is a biocide generating system for inhibiting biofouling within a water system of a watercraft. The heart of the system is the electrochlorinator. Using a small amount of electricity, the electrochlorinator produces a controlled amount of chlorine from sea water. This small amount of chlorine inhibits most marine growth in the piping systems without harmful chemicals.
Up until now, there was not a simple way to keep these seawater plumbing systems clean. Depending on the season and location, a seawater cooling system can become clogged in just a few weeks, requiring a descaling to keep the components operating properly. The descaling process can be complicated and expensive, using popular chemicals products geared to boaters such as Barnacle Buster and Rydlyme. Many of you may have heard the horror stories where a boat owner thought it would be a good idea to use Muriatic Acid or similar harsh chemicals to descale the cooling system and the acid ended up eating away or damaging the critical components of the cooling system.
If you have ever descaled your cooling systems, you know it is a laborious job taking hours and lots of costly chemical products. In Florida, there are companies that specialize in descaling of a boat's seawater systems, this service could cost upwards of $1500 for a large sportfish boat. Cleaning of these systems can be short lived depending on how often the systems are operated and other environmental factors, with many boat owners descaling their systems a few times a year.
Maybe you decided to drop a pool chlorine tablet into the sea strainer, a once popular idea to help eliminate fouling of the downstream water lines. This method does not allow you to regulate the amount of chlorine in your system and many have found out that excessively chlorinated water can damage plastics and metals used in onboard systems.
As with many modern products, technology is the key to the ClearLine system. The system monitors water flow and automatically adjusts the amount of chlorine generated to match the water flow. The system is designed to operate continuously when there is water flowing throughout the system. The system also carefully measures the amount of chlorine in the system, keeping it at predetermined safe levels at all times. If you are wondering if the Chlorine is safe for your on-board systems, many municipal drinking water systems have a higher concentration of chlorine than the ClearLine system produces.
Incorporating a ClearLine system to your boat is simple and straightforward. You continue to use your existing intake, strainer and pumps, the ClearLine electrolytic cell is housed in its own strainer that is installed after the sea water pump and generates the chlorine in this unit and disperses it at a controlled rate into the downstream components. A small computer controller, with status lights and a display provide real time system status. The system is automatic and only operates when seawater is flowing through the system. The controller has the ability to tie into with other shipboard systems and can easily be temporarily inhibited if you are using this sea water for live wells etc.
The ClearLine system won’t descale your cooling system, it is designed to maintain a clean sea water plumbing system. Just before installing the system a professional descaling is required. Then after that your boat should never need a full descaling. While this product is new, historical testing during the R&D stage and installations within the last few years has shown nearly all growth eliminated using this system.
There are an abundance of products designed to attract boaters and anglers, from fishing lures and gear, marine electronics and appearance accessories, this ClearLine product can actually save you money by reducing your maintenance costs and offer a better performing vessel. At the moment there are no other similar products in the marketplace and this patented system is destined to become a must have option on board many boats.
Until next time... Stay Grounded!
