ACUVA FRESH WATER DISINFECTANT SYSTEM
Fresh water management and hygiene is one of those perennial boating issues with few really good solutions. You can drain the water tank every time you leave your boat and refill with fresh upon arrival, but who has time for that? You can add purification tablets and/or fit an inline filter and cross your fingers. Or you can do what most of us do, which is bring bottled water aboard but, it’s heavy stuff when transported in bulk, takes up a lot of space, isn’t very environmentally friendly and there’s never enough.
However, there is a new and high tech solution. The Acuva on-demand UVC LED disinfection system uses UVC lamps which, in itself, is nothing new. UV has been used to disinfect water for 100 years. The big news with this system is that it has been designed to combat the two issues most relevant to boating - compact size and low power draw.
Solid state UVC LEDS replace traditional mercury based glass bulbs to kill up to 99.99% of harmful micro-organisms such as listeria and E. coli, and crucially, it does so just at the point prior to use, rather than then sending it through questionable existing pipework.
Two systems are available, the Arrow 2 which can disinfect two litres of water a minute and the Arrow 5 which can disinfect five litres of water a minute. Both systems require the same installation requirements, a 12v DC supply, and both can be fitted either inline with the existing drinking water tap or connected to the optional dedicated tap.
What’s brilliant about the Acuva is that, being an on-demand system, it’s not a heavy power drain. The system contains an integrated flow switch, so the UVC is only powered while the tap is turned on. Standby power is 0.1W (about 8ma) and this rises to 60W (Arrow 2-9W) while the tap is running - similar to that of a typical water pump.
The Arrow 5 measures 280mm X 160mm X 90mm, while the Arrow 2 is just 250mm X 105mm X 47.5mm.
It’s not a cheap solution, but it is a fit and forget system that should give a decade or more of use.
CONTACT: www.jenton.co.uk
PRICE: £400