Water Softener Questions

clm65

clm65

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I have a fairly large vehicle and not much shade for washing. This means I have to be pretty quick with the drying towel to prevent water spots. I've been looking into water softeners to try to minimize spotting. Most of the smaller ones seem to get mixed reviews, while the bigger ones seem to do much better but are kinda pricey. Sooo, I looked around and found a new surplus softener tank on Ebay that I hope will do the trick. It is poly tank, 8.7 gallons, with 1 cubic foot of "standard water softener and deionization" resin. It basically looks like a scuba tank, and is 8" diameter x 45" tall. I will probably only use this for the final rinse.

My questions are:
1. does this sound like the right resin to use?
2. should I add a sediment filter? If so, upstream or downstream?
3. anything wrong with my approach? I really don't mind spending $$ on worthy items, but I am a DIY'er and like to tinker and build things, so this should be a fun little project. The tank with resin only cost me $63 delivered, so if my approach is flawed, I'm not out too much money.

Thanks for any feedback!

Craig
 
Craig,
Sound like you have the right tank. As you know, the "water softener" vs. actual DI are two different animals. I would just verify that you have the correct resin as DI resin is different from water softener resin.
Check this website - in my research they seem to have a good deal going -http://www.thefilterguys.biz/bulk_di_resin.htm

I have a whole house water softener system in which I added a hose bid for car washing. I live in San Diego and our water is pretty hard. The softener is a major improvement over the standard water, but I still have to dry or I will get spots.

I found one of the larger CR Spotless units on Craigslist for cheap. I can tell you that when I use this, I do not have to dry and no spots. I now feed the CR from my water softener and this really helps make the resin last a long time.

One thing you will need to get is some sort of TD meter in order to monitor when your resin need to be changed.
As you stated, if you just use the DI water for a final rinse it will last a long time.
Good luck....
 
Now you will have small salt particles drying on your car. It's still better than hard water spots. I have a whole house softener. I pull my cars in the garage preety quickly to dry them.
 
Swede,

Thanks for the filter guys website. Using their DI resin will cost me over $200 to fill my tank (1 ft^3). I'm hoping the resin that comes with the tank will be fine. I will at least try it for awhile to see how it works (shouldn't harm anything, right?). I'm also wondering if I could use the CR Spotless system resin that AG sells, even though I don't have a cartridge.

I'm also hoping the volume of it improves the effectiveness due to increased contact time. I'm not sure how much resin is in the CR Spotless system, but per "the filter guys" website, one gallon of resin will fill 4 cartridges. Since 1 cubic foot is about equal to 7.5 gallons, I will have the equivalent of about 30 cartridges. I suspect the cartridges they are refering to are small, but still....

Once I start seeing results, I will looking into the TDS meter. I have one that looks identical to the one on the CR system on my SW aquarium RO/DI unit. I can add one of those easily enough down the road. And since this is basically a whole house unit that will be dedicated to washing cars, it should be awhile before it is exhausted.

Thanks,

Craig
 
Lou,

I think I can deal with that, but since my system will not have an automatic regeneration system like I assume your whole house system has, I'm hoping there will be no salt crystals left on the cars. But we'll see.

Thanks,

Craig
 
Craig,
My CR DIC 20 takes about 1/3 pound to fill both filters. I found that Costco.com carries the replacement resin cheaper than anybody.
Here is what I have found works for ME:
Yes the replacement is expensive, but if you use it only for the final rinse (meaning after you have already rinsed the soap off with regular water) and you also use a pressure washer on the output of the DI tank. Also make sure that with the last rinse of regular water you are getting all of the soap off. Then use the DI to wash away the regular water and there will be nothing left to spot.
I figure I can get a year of spotless cleaning of all my cars with one refill. So IMO $75.00 a year is not bad.
If you simply run a hose off of the output of DI tank than you will blast through a lot of resin.

Also, I have found that when I was washing with only the water softener, that there was not any salt left on the finish. The amount of salt coming out of the softener is very small (roughly 25mg per 12oz of water). It is not like you are rinsing with salt water from the ocean or something.

Anyway, my advice is keep tinkering and you will find something that works for you like I did. Unfortunately there are not a lot of cheap options out there that really work well. IMO if the end result does not let you just walk away after rinsing, then you might as well just scrap it and dry the vehicle.
 
Dumbswede said:
Also, I have found that when I was washing with only the water softener, that there was not any salt left on the finish. The amount of salt coming out of the softener is very small (roughly 25mg per 12oz of water). It is not like you are rinsing with salt water from the ocean or something.
Click to expand...
You may not have seen it, but I have it at my house. Dry drip lines are even more pronounced since having the water softner installed. The amount of salt would depend on how hard your water is of course. The city wells in my town are horrible.
 
Thanks for the feedback! We'll see how it goes....
 
You can also add a little ONR to your soapy water to help soften it.
 
might I also suggest one of those cheap pop up canopy type tents ?? I got mine and love it for hot afternoons.
 
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