Has the Navy ever considered using saltwater for showers and lavatory sinks rather than evaporated water?

[Ridgerunner]

I was not in the Navy... The gentleman who spit out these words of wisdom below was wise beyond his years...

(Edited to add … what follows was written by a friend, and shamelessly stolen. It was specifically written in response to a concept of floating solar panels to generate electricity.)

Lemme break this down for you landlubbers, again: saltwater hates metal. And moving things. And especially metal moving things. And basically, anything that isn't salt water. And you.

Salt water is functionally condensed hate.

Has the Navy ever considered using saltwater for showers and lavatory sinks rather than evaporated water?

Answer (1 of 34): I served on a US Coast Guard cutter which was a converted Navy fleet tug. The ship was WW2 vintage and I served on it from 1987 to 1989. The ship came with a saltwater flushing system which also supplied the fire main. During normal conditions the flushing pump pumped seawater ...

www.quora.com

 

[Damaged Eagle]

The salt water system on ships is supplied directly from the ocean/sea.

Do you really want to take a shower or brush your teeth with untreated and/or unpurified salt water especially near a harbor of filthy area in the ocean?

Then there's the salty scum left behind all over your skin/teeth to get into any open wounds.

*****SMILE*****

 

[occupied]

Soap does not really work in salt water.

 

[1srelluc]

Soap does not really work in salt water.

Saltwater soap - Wikipedia

 

[WinterBorn]

The saltwater is death to the plumbing. And the freshwater is sea water that has been through desalination. Our submarines ever use sea water to make oxygen.

Plus regular soap does work in saltwater.

Decades ago the ship's laundry didn't have to do all the work clothes. Enlisted men would gather on the fantail with their work uniforms in a mesh bag tied to a long rope. They would then throw it into the wake of ship. Let it "wash" for a while and then pull it back in.

The father of a childhood friend of mine told me about doing it hungover. He said he realized he forgot to tie a rope to his bag of laundry just a moment after he tossed it overboard.

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

With the systems we have today it's not a big deal to make saltwater into fresh.
You can use them in most any size boat.

This unit makes 2100 to 3400 gallons a day.

 

[Seymour Flops]

Salt water is functionally condensed hate.

Having just gotten back from a cruise, I marvel at the courage of Navy sailors and of people who boat on the open ocean in small crafts. You are literally riding on death, hoping that the brains of the vessel's designers, the wisdom of the captain, and your own skill set will keep you out of that death.

Fall over the side of a large ship and it will turn around to get you. Not like mamma screeching the brakes on the station wagon, but a long, slow turning circle of hundreds of yards at least. They will fish you out, hoping you haven't died of hypothermia, shark bite, or drowning by then.

 

[toobfreak]

The saltwater is death to the plumbing. And the freshwater is sea water that has been through desalination. Our submarines ever use sea water to make oxygen.

Plus regular soap does work in saltwater.

Decades ago the ship's laundry didn't have to do all the work clothes. Enlisted men would gather on the fantail with their work uniforms in a mesh bag tied to a long rope. They would then throw it into the wake of ship. Let it "wash" for a while and then pull it back in.

The father of a childhood friend of mine told me about doing it hungover. He said he realized he forgot to tie a rope to his bag of laundry just a moment after he tossed it overboard.

Saltwater could still be used for many things. They used to sell a thing for cars that charged your car frame with an electric charge to cancel out the corrosive effect of salt. Some variation of that reverse ionization might be used on Navy ships along with using 316 stainless in key systems.

 

[WinterBorn]

Having just gotten back from a cruise, I marvel at the courage of Navy sailors and of people who boat on the open ocean in small crafts. You are literally riding on death, hoping that the brains of the vessel's designers, the wisdom of the captain, and your own skill set will keep you out of that death.

Fall over the side of a large ship and it will turn around to get you. Not like mamma screeching the brakes on the station wagon, but a long, slow turning circle of hundreds of yards at least. They will fish you out, hoping you haven't died of hypothermia, shark bite, or drowning by then.

The bigger ships, like carriers, when doing OPs in the North Atlantic, will launch a helo or throw a lifeboat out. For the ship to turn around takes way to long in cold water.

There were a few times in my time in the Navy that were unnerving. But mostly boring.

 

[Damaged Eagle]

Having just gotten back from a cruise, I marvel at the courage of Navy sailors and of people who boat on the open ocean in small crafts. You are literally riding on death, hoping that the brains of the vessel's designers, the wisdom of the captain, and your own skill set will keep you out of that death.

Fall over the side of a large ship and it will turn around to get you. Not like mamma screeching the brakes on the station wagon, but a long, slow turning circle of hundreds of yards at least. They will fish you out, hoping you haven't died of hypothermia, shark bite, or drowning by then.

If you're in the Persian Gulf you might want to worry about snake bite if you fall overboard.

The Navy has man overboard and retrieval drills all the time.

Be a little hard to do if you're attempting to go through the eye of a hurricane though.

*****CHUCKLE*****

 

[whitehall]

Years ago as a young Marine, I spent about a month aboard the USS Boxer LPH4 which was a vintage WW2 flat top. There were too many troops for the fresh water systems to handle and we went on "water hours" which meant salt water showers. You might as well stay sweaty as take a salt water shower. I guess today's nuke powered ships do everything but offer breakfast in bed.

 

[Dayton3]

I remember a story about how a U.S. Navy surface ship during WW2 had been low on fresh water for some time , to the point that the crew wasn't allowed to shower. Suddenly they came through an unexpected rainstorm and hundreds of sailors quickly made it out on deck with soap and shampoo for improvised showers.

They finally cleared the storm and the ships commander's voice came over the loudspeaker.

"Prepare to come about! We're going back for a rinse."

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

I remember a story about how a U.S. Navy surface ship during WW2 had been low on fresh water for some time , to the point that the crew wasn't allowed to shower. Suddenly they came through an unexpected rainstorm and hundreds of sailors quickly made it out on deck with soap and shampoo for improvised showers.

They finally cleared the storm and the ships commander's voice came over the loudspeaker.

"Prepare to come about! We're going back for a rinse."

At sea, saltwater covers the ship. The best way to keep down the corrosion by washing off the salt is doing a freshwater washdown. As an Officer of the Deck one variation were were often allowed to make on our own was to change course to do a fresh water washdown by pursuing the little pop-up rainstorms which were fairly common at sea. Making freshwater to wash down the decks and aircraft was very difficult as the evaporators just could barely keep up. You usually did that when nearing port so you could replenish your water supply from shore.

 

[para bellum]

I've spent a lot of time on small boats (dad was a commercial fisherman). When I could get a shower it was a "boat shower". Turn on the water, get wet. Turn off the water and soap up and scrub, then water to rinse. That was a luxury.

Tooth brushing is from a cup. No running faucets. Ever.

I ran a 105' sportfisher in '03-'04, Alaska to Central America. It had 2 Village Marine watermakers (similar to the one in the pic posted earlier). They were 2000 gpd. ea. I alternated between them to keep the hours matched, but I only ever ran one at a time.

9 people on board was pretty normal trip on that boat, I had to make 500 gal of fresh water a day. That was a huge amount of water to me! I had to run a watermaker for about 5 hours every day to keep the tanks full.

Everything was freshwater. Toilets, showers, icemakers, washdowns. I had a saltwater washdown on deck but I always rinsed with fresh. It's the only boat I've ever been on that I felt like I had unlimited fresh water. Or at least almost. I didn't have to take a "boat shower", lol.

Those watermakers are really nice, but they take a lot of power, and they are loud, and they need a lot of servicing. It took me a good hour to service one, and it was a pretty smelly job. I'd get about 10 days running until I had to get after it and clean all the screens and filters and membranes. And I backflushed them every time I ran one. Saltwater has a lot of crap in it.

But they make good water. They don't work in fresh water! I was anchored in a little bay in B.C., right in front of a big waterfall. The salinity was really low from all the freshwater dumping into the bay. My watermaker was barely putting out, I had to move the boat out where the bay was saltier. It seemed counterintuitive to me. They also work better in cold water, I don't know why. But I got more out of them in Alaska than I did in Costa Rica. Cold, salty water is what they seem to like.