After 2 years and 600 under hours, my Spectra Newport 400 needs to be rebuilt. The symptoms were that the production of water went down from 61 liters (17 US gallons) to only 25 (6 US gallons) per hour. There were no leaks.
Spectra rates the Newport 400 at 61 liters per hour (17 gal) with an energy consumption of 4.8 watts per liter (18 watts per gal).
We could not determine if the Clark Pump was asymmetrical, since we didn’t have an analog pressure gauge mounted. We suspected the Annular Rings were worn out and needed to be replaced. But at a closer inspection, the annulars were just fine.
We replaced the Annular Rings, the Spool Assembly and all the o-rings anyways. Then we inspected the cylinders, and we found out that one of them was seized.
We found out that there was a lot of build up around the piston coming from corroded Nickel Bronze fittings.
We replaced the piston only, not the cylinder (we didn’t have a spare one). We also replaced all Nickel Bronze fittings with high quality Stainless Steel.
Finally, we added an oil filled 0-200 PSI pressure gauge on top of the pump. This gauge is paramount to identify if the feed pressure to the Clark Pump is asymmetrical from one stroke to another. The electronic gauge is useless. Asymmetries are very important to make diagnosis.
Here is a video of the rebuild:
All in all we are happy with the Spectra Newport 400 but we are really surprised that they didn’t use Stainless Steel for their fittings. The Clark Pump (pressure intensifier) is a very nice piece of engineering:
But for some reasons, Spectra used cheap Nickel Bronze fittings that corrode and clog the system instead of more expensive Stainless Steel ones.
In 600 hours of operation, I had to change once cylinder after 200 hours because it developed a crack in the thread at the end cap, and now a piston (plus annular rings, spool and all o-rings).
Not sure how it compares to other popular brands, for example ECHOTec made in Trinidad and Tobabo, or the HRO and the Schenker.
If you own one of these brand, please feel free to drop me a line with your feedback.
Great post. That diagram would have taken me a full year to create!
We have a Spectra 380c system onboard Morpheus purchased in 2003 and have had very few problems with it. None with the clark pump cylinders, or corroding fittings. Its difficult to tell what fittings you had trouble with, but on our pump some of the fittings that look like your picture are actually plastic. In any case, over 17 years of pretty constant use, we’ve rebuilt the clark pump via a service location twice, replaced the membrane once, and replaced the feed pumps twice. That sounds like alot, but its over 17 years and lots of use.
Your issues seem abnormal given the age of your boat and system. Check in with Spectra they have always been very responsive on the service side for us. Do you know that before being purchased a couple of years ago, they were headquartered in Marin? It used to be very easy to get spares!!! ha ha.k
Congratulations to you guys for having the spares onboard to do the repair!!
Spectra used to use Stainless Steel fittings on their water makers many years ago. If your model is from 2003, probably has stainless fittings. And on the low pressure side, fittings are plastic Parker fittings. Spectra used to make very good products until some “bean counters” joined the company. Yes, they’re in Petaluma, but if you go there they will not sell anything to you now. You can only go through their dealers network. Times have changed Jim!