Spotless Car Wash

[renjaminfrankln]

Interested in putting a water filter canister in my garage. To keep me from having to towel dry. Im good with PEX. Probably mount the canister in the garage then run the tubing to a post outside.

Any experience here with this? From NC with city water.

 

[StreetGLi]

I bet you'll still have water marks...

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[SmartShoe]

I don't towel dry anymore. I simply break out the leaf blower and blow off my whole truck. No more water spots.

 

[StreetGLi]

I feel my previous post was not helpful in the least.

What I meant to say is that you have to have something that deionized the water as well as filters out the minerals. You need a double (or triple) filtration system.

So this is available

https://crspotless.com/

Though this is one of the best options, I find I still get spots/streaking. The key to minimize that is to use a ton of water on the rinse. I mean like 10 minutes of rinsing.

Its like 500 bucks and it can be mounted on the cart that comes with it or on the wall.

Its a hefty price that uses alot of water but it mostly works.

I still towel dry..

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[jonshonda]

^Good job coming back with detailed info and experience.

I don't think you'll ever get away with 100% never having to towel dry. I use a leaf blower and still need to get a few spots here and there.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

It's not really any help because it's no longer available, but believe it or not, the Mr. Clean AutoDry wash system worked really well for me.

If you don't have some sort of DI/filter system, quick drying is what seems to be the most helpful, even if I don't bypass my water softener. I use one of those silicone water blades, then blow out body joints and gaps with compressed air and chamois any leftover drops.

Tommy

 

[zmotorsports]

I purchased a tank and resin from DI Rinse and fabricated a cart for it because of the amount of time it was taking me to wash our coach and chamois it. Nearly cut the time in half and I even use it for my other vehicles not as well.

Mine is not hard plumbed in however, it is on a cart that I fabricated and I roll it outside near where I am washing. I only run a chamois around my windows and maybe a little trim or bright work is all and it is pretty much spot free.

I show the cart in my Project 2.0 thread as well as a two part video on my YouTube channel both have links in my signature.

 

[Matt M PA]

I had a CR Spotless system years ago. They were very good with support, answering emails, etc...but I just didn't get the completely spotless drying that was reported. We also tested the water and found that the DI water produced by the system was slightly more acidic than the water feeding the system. (A friend has a tropical fish store)

When I got mine, it was the early version that had a light on the output side that would show if the system was still functioning. Later, I upgraded to the one with the TDS meter.

I got tired of changing out the resin, and the cost was up there, too. I used to buy a cardboard drum of the resin from CR Spotless and refill the canisters.

Maybe my expectations were too high, but it just didn't give the spot-free rinse I expected and I wound up going over the car quickly with a towel anyway, especially on difficult to dry cars like the old Viper.

I currently have my car wash hose bib tied to the water treatment equipment in the hose. If I get spots, they easily wipe off. I also use an Air Force Master Blaster from Metro Vac to get most of the water off. A quick wipe with a good towel and some Duragloss Aquawax finishes the job.

A note about leaf blowers. Electrics are OK for blowing off the car...but gas blowers often put the exhaust into the air flow which may get some oil spots, etc on the car.

 

[Colin Len]

Here's some really good DIY DI (Deionized) Water information: https://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2832232

Personally, I have not used one of these setups yet but am intent on building one primarily because I get water spots in my engine bay. I'd love to not have to towel dry the exterior, but it's something I can deal with. What I cannot deal with is the left over minerals (water spots) in the nooks and crannies of my engine bay. Even if it only prevents 90% of them I'll be happy. Our water is very hard so it's a pretty big problem.

I purchased a tank and resin from DI Rinse and fabricated a cart for it because of the amount of time it was taking me to wash our coach and chamois it. Nearly cut the time in half and I even use it for my other vehicles not as well.

Mine is not hard plumbed in however, it is on a cart that I fabricated and I roll it outside near where I am washing. I only run a chamois around my windows and maybe a little trim or bright work is all and it is pretty much spot free.

I show the cart in my Project 2.0 thread as well as a two part video on my YouTube channel both have links in my signature.

Thanks! I'll have to check that out. I've been wanting to build a small detailing cart setup. I have the cart already just need to buy the pressure washer and all of the DI stuff.

 

[Mike70]

To all of you that use DI water to rinse and towel dry after washing:

Do you do this after it rains? Why or why not?

 

[Allsystemz]

I use Jet Dry dishwasher rinse in a bucket of clean water after washing, works good with the well water I have

 

[CJ7VFR]

It's not really any help because it's no longer available, but believe it or not, the Mr. Clean AutoDry wash system worked really well for me....

Tommy

I actually have two of these and I love them also! I bought out the Mr. Clean Autodry stuff from our local Walmart a few years ago when they said they were going to stop making the refills. You can actually still get the soap and filter refills on Amazon, but you will pay BIGTIME for them!

I just looked, and one guy is selling just one filter refill for $122.00!!! Holy ****!

It is the filters that actually do the autodry part. The soap is just pretty much a generic type car soap.

I just looked in my basement and still have several filters and two bottles of soap. Maybe I will sell them on Amazon for $500 and see if anyone bites...

Jim

 

[Dadillac]

I have a water filter for the house that gets a sediment filter. I also have a three filter set up in the garage for car washing. That gets three more sediment filters. When I wash and dry whatever spotting is there is minor and wipes right off. No more hard water spotting that requires buffing. In the three filter set up I used to have a small water softener cartridge. It worked great but needed new resin after about every 10 washes. Got to be a major PITA so I chucked it and added the third sediment filter

Don

 

[Colin Len]

I have a water filter for the house that gets a sediment filter. I also have a three filter set up in the garage for car washing. That gets three more sediment filters. When I wash and dry whatever spotting is there is minor and wipes right off. No more hard water spotting that requires buffing. In the three filter set up I used to have a small water softener cartridge. It worked great but needed new resin after about every 10 washes. Got to be a major PITA so I chucked it and added the third sediment filter

Don

Do you have any additional info about these sediment filters? Do they need to be changed? Cleaned? If I could get away with filters instead of DI I'd definitely look to that option if it's cheaper/easier.

 

[openwheelracing88]

Prep the car (will take a long time), then coat it twice with Cquk 3.0, then use Hydrosilex as top sacrificial coat every 6 months. You'll enjoy washing your car forever because it is so easy. Highly recommend a pressure washer, foam cannon and flower.

 

[Gil Rubio]

To OP: You mentioned the post was outside of the building, would you bury the line? I think the line freezing is the biggest concern.

 

[renjaminfrankln]

To OP: You mentioned the post was outside of the building, would you bury the line? I think the line freezing is the biggest concern.

I'd bury it, use pex and put in a valve so I can blow most of the water out of it with shop air if I needed to.

A blow gun nozzle fits nicely into a 1/2" ball valve.

 

[Dadillac]

Do you have any additional info about these sediment filters? Do they need to be changed? Cleaned? If I could get away with filters instead of DI I'd definitely look to that option if it's cheaper/easier.

I use these https://www.lowes.com/pd/Whirlpool-10-in-Whole-House-Replacement-Filter/1189021 mounted in these https://www.lowes.com/pd/Whirlpool-84219910-Single-Stage-Whole-House-Water-Filtration-System/1201339. I have one at the entry point into my house. From there I have a water line plumbed into my garage. I installed three of these filters in series with a bypass for lawn watering. The bypass was necessary when I had the water softener cartridge installed but isn't needed now. I still get water spots if I do not dry fast enough but they wipe right off with my microfiber.

Don

 

[Dadillac]

I took a pic so it will make more sense

Don

 

[Colin Len]

Thanks! Although if spots are still an issue then this won't work for me I'm not worried about the exterior of the car which I can dry relatively easily. It's engine bays and other nooks & crannies which are difficult or impossible to dry which I'm concerned about.

 

[CJ7VFR]

...It's engine bays and other nooks & crannies which are difficult or impossible to dry which I'm concerned about.

Do you have an air compressor? As a few others have suggested, using compressed air and a long wand with a rubber tip on the end is a great way to blow out water from an engine bay and all the nooks and crannies water tries to hide.

I use my air compressor and wand all the time when I clean things, and not just on the vehicles. I use it on bikes, mowers, parts I cleaned up before I put them back together again, and stuff like that.

It works great. The wand I have is about 3 feet long with a nice cone shaped small rubber tip on the end so it won't mark up or scratch anything.

Jim

 

[jack stand]

Interested in putting a water filter canister in my garage. To keep me from having to towel dry. Im good with PEX. Probably mount the canister in the garage then run the tubing to a post outside.

Any experience here with this? From NC with city water.

You need a RO or reverse osmosis system. I had a self serve car wash, the "spot free rinse" was (city) water in a 800 gallon tank that had been through this "RO" filter.

 

[Colin Len]

Do you have an air compressor? As a few others have suggested, using compressed air and a long wand with a rubber tip on the end is a great way to blow out water from an engine bay and all the nooks and crannies water tries to hide.

I use my air compressor and wand all the time when I clean things, and not just on the vehicles. I use it on bikes, mowers, parts I cleaned up before I put them back together again, and stuff like that.

It works great. The wand I have is about 3 feet long with a nice cone shaped small rubber tip on the end so it won't mark up or scratch anything.

Jim

Yes, I do but unfortunately I can't wash cars in the back yard where the garage (and compressor) is due to puddling of water. So we have to wash in the front yard. I suppose I could get a really long air hose. Still seems like it'll be tough to get the water fully out of the nooks and crannies though.

 

[NUISANCE]

Make a spotless rinse setup like I did. I put it together over 2 years ago and use it every time I wash the car including earlier this week. I also made one for my best friend for his Bday last year. I bought a water tester and I test the set up after each use, it starts out reading 0PPM with fresh resin, when it hits 5ppm I change the resin. I have white canisters so if you buy clear ones with color change DI resin you don't need a water tester.

It's a simple setup with 2 10" whole house filter canisters connected with a short piece of PVC, that I use as a handle, and hose connections on each end. Inside are 2 refillable canisters that I fill with DI resin. Buy the whole house filter canisters from Amazon, will run you 10-20 each and you will need 2. Buy the refillable canisters and DI resin from www.bulkreefsupply.com Get the PVC and hose connections from a hardware store.

After I wash the car I connect the hose to the input and I have a 3ft hose on the other end with the nozzle set to mist. I carry it around by the short piece of PVC connecting the 2 canisters and rinse from top to bottom. I have left it baking in the sun after doing the rinse with absolutely no water spots but I do dry off the door sills cause I know it's hard to get the DI water in there.

 

[NUISANCE]

Work off of what is below and it will run you $100 to get you started and after that it's just the cost of the resin when it needs to be changed. I have also bought DI resin from ebay and amazon before with no issues.

2 of these, $30- https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CFOGE3K/?tag=atomicindus08-20

2 10" refillable canisters, $16- https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/clear-refillable-cartridge-for-di-resin.html

2 resin refills, $26- https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-bulk-deionization-resin-color-changing.html

Get the connections from the hardware store, will run you around $10.

When the resin changes color empty the canisters and put in new resin or buy this for $15 to keep a closer eye on the PPM coming out of the set up- https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002C0A7ZY/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[NUISANCE]

Lastly, if you do the same set up did get canisters with 3/4 inputs because that's a easy conversion to a hose which is also 3/4 albeit a different thread. I usually get 12+ washes out of my set up but my water is super hard to start with so if your water is softer you can get more washes than I get.

 

[Colin Len]

Lastly, if you do the same set up did get canisters with 3/4 inputs because that's a easy conversion to a hose which is also 3/4 albeit a different thread. I usually get 12+ washes out of my set up but my water is super hard to start with so if your water is softer you can get more washes than I get.

So, with the resin refills being $26 and getting 12 washes out of one setup seems like the resin cost is ~$2/wash. Am I looking at that correctly? A little more expensive than I'd hoped but I think I can deal with that. Our water here is VERY hard as well.

 

[NUISANCE]

So, with the resin refills being $26 and getting 12 washes out of one setup seems like the resin cost is ~$2/wash. Am I looking at that correctly? A little more expensive than I'd hoped but I think I can deal with that. Our water here is VERY hard as well.

I should have been more clear but when I wash my cars I wash all 3. With 2 of them I use the set up I have, the other is my beater so it's dried with a towel, so in the end I am able to use is 24 times or so before a resin change. You can also buy the resin in bulk and save money that way.

Buying 7.5lbs of resin from bulk reef will cost you $54 and you get 6 refills. Buying 6 individual refills from them will run you over $66. Keep in mind that the resin does have a shelf life, if I have any left over after a refill I use my vacuum sealer to get the air out before I put it away until I need it. You can shop around and find the resin for cheaper too, I just used them as an example.

That's also the reason why I built the set up to carry when I rinse the car. If I used a long 30-40 foot hose the water in the hose in the end, even though it's not much, would be wasted.

 

[NUISANCE]

I bought this before with good results. Cost $38 for 5lbs, will get you 4 refills.

Another thing to keep in mind is the flow rate of the resin which varies with each resin, generally. You can't have your hose on full blast, use the mist setting or you can overload the resin and have bad results.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/DI-RO-COLO...057.m570.l1313.TR11.TRC2.A0.H0.Xdi+resin.TRS1

 

[nehog]

Go to amazon.com and search for DI filters. A standard filter won't help, a DI filter will.