Water conditioner additive?

Shade Tree

Shade Tree

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I'm curious as to your opinion(s) of adding a water conditioner (such as Calgon) to a tank capacity of 125 gal. I'm wanting to use soft water & this seems to be a great alternative to a filtration system ....... which I have no room for on the existing setup. Besides, the filters wouldn't last long enough to be cost effective.

Thanks for the advice!
 
I do not think it will work that well. The principle in Calgon is the following: Calgon is a sodium based complex, the Calcium and Magnesium that make the water hard, take the spot of the sodium in the complex and that complex is soluble.
What this means is this: in a washing machine, it prevents most deposits (on the heater for example) because the residual water is very little and noone cares if a little product and salt stays behind. But to detail a car, my guess is the residue from the complex and the sodium salt formed will still make a water spot.

Your best bets would be a resin based ion-exchange system, or, for smaller amount of water, something like ONR or DP RWG (sure, for 125gal, that would be expensive)
 
Yeah, I had a feeling I would receive a response outlining what I didn't want to believe. Hmmm, guessing I'll figure something else out for the time being then.

Thanks Tex!
 
Again, I'm not Mike and I'm not an expert, but you might find a product other than the Calgon system that might help.
Both Optimum ONR and DP RW&G are touted to help with the problem and while they might not be cost effective, possibly some of the chemicals in those products would work for you.
They both do a lot of things and probably have various ingredients to aid those processes where all you are wanting is the softening effect.
Take away the Polymers and cleaners and the softening agent may not be that expensive.
 
CharlesW said:
Again, I'm not Mike and I'm not an expert, but you might find a product other than the Calgon system that might help.
Both Optimum ONR and DP RW&G are touted to help with the problem and while they might not be cost effective, possibly some of the chemicals in those products would work for you.
They both do a lot of things and probably have various ingredients to aid those processes where all you are wanting is the softening effect.
Take away the Polymers and cleaners and the softening agent may not be that expensive.
Click to expand...

No worries as Mike hasn't offered up any advice to me anyway.
You're correct in what "chemical" I really need and not so much what I don't need. Trying to find specifics on what I'm looking for out on the web is next to impossible (and I'm pretty good about researching!).

Guessing I'll keep at it & see what I come up with. Thanks fellas!
 
Can you buy filtered or deionized water at a decent price dispensed into your tank?
It seems like I have read about some Mobile Detailers doing that.
 
CharlesW said:
Can you buy filtered or deionized water at a decent price dispensed into your tank?
It seems like I have read about some Mobile Detailers doing that.
Click to expand...

I'll have to look into that! I'd never thought about it before, but it would make sense for someone to be offering it for some reason or another.

Good idea!
 
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