So why is a moisture vaporator needed when you're right next to the ocean?

[Reverend]

In theory, sure it could be anything. But this isn't reality, it's a movie and it's not a coincidence that those things look almost exactly like the things in ANH that we know are moisture condensers. They're deliberately there to evoke that image.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

It's seen in the latest Rogue One trailer when Le Chiffre is recruited by Dark Knight Rises lisp guy-seriously, do we really need this slipshod dis-attention to detail with the Disney machine?

Maybe it's a cheap easy way to get drinking water as opposed to desalinization required to turn ocean water into drinking water.

Exactly. I live right next to the ocean too but I can't just live off of drinking saltwater. Using the vaporators to extract drinkable water (or water suitable for agriculture use) from the atmosphere is an inexpensive (in Star Wars terms) method for Hannibal and Felicia Hardy to live off the grid in an isolated home so it makes them more difficult for the Empire to track down than if they were connected to a region's water and power services.

 

[Hippocrates Noah]

It's seen in the latest Rogue One trailer when Le Chiffre is recruited

I'm glad I'm not the only one who is going to have a hard time thinking of him as anybody but Le Chiffre. On the flip side I can't watch For Your Eyes Only without thinking of Kristatos as General Veers or that Smithers would look cooler in some Mandalorian armor.

 

[publiusr]

People have tried to build these for real:
http://up-ship.com/blog/?p=33397

I have seen similar looking heat pipe thermosyphons used along rail/road-beds in the permafrost.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

And who knows, maybe the vaporators are needed because the nearby ocean is actually methane. Or oil. Or Dr. Pepper. Because science fiction!

Mark