Well & Septic: what do I need to know?

PurpleTowel

PurpleTowel

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We have been in a 3-month process of searching for a new home, and today we put an offer in on the house that made all of our warm & fuzzies surface. My detailing business is a weekend hustle, and I will finally be setting up a garage detailing shop of my dreams. The ONLY think I'm not thrilled about is that this house is in an unincorporated area that has well water & a septic system. There is a water softener in the house, but it's not piped through to the garage or outdoor spigots, obviously.

After watching Larry at AMMO walk through his new garage build with his water filtration system, I'm wondering what you guys with well water are using for your car washes? How extensive of a system are you using, and what have the results been like? What are the costs involved?

The new garage would be a blank slate—it's unfinished, just waiting for me to construct the perfect shop. I want to do it once, and do it right, but I also don't have a bottomless pit of funds (the house will do a great job of eating that up).


What are my options?




doug
 
First: Congrats on the new home! This is very exciting!

In my area, homes with wells have pretty hard water. I would most definitely look into a killer system for your garage/shop especially since it will be a fresh build/clean slate. That's all I can offer!
 
I would look at getting the softened water to be plumbed to the garage. When my water softener was installed the installer asked if I wanted the outdoor spigots bypassed. Oh course, I told him not to bypass the spigots. The treated water is so nice to wash with.
 
The house was built in 1971, so my guess is that all of the water issues have been ironed out, so to speak. It does have a softener, not too far from the garage, so I may have a plumber out to run a dedicated copper line directly to the garage for a softened spigot inside the garage. I have about 40 tabs open in my browser, and it looks like the CR filter system is also a great product to consider. Seems like cheap insurance to me.
 
I guess it depends on your water but I have very high iron and I do have a water softer in the house but not for outside. I wash my cars at least once a week, blow them off then dry and have never had a problem with my water. I have been washing my cars without softeners or filters for 40 years and so far so good. One option you have is wash your car as is and see if you have any problems.

Don't get me wrong the spotless systems are nice but not worth the cost of the unit and media changes for me. I guess if I was a professional detailer maybe but for a weekend warrior I'll wash and dry as normal.
 
I have a softener and my own home-made spotless system. The softener does not eliminate spots, just reduces them. The spotless system does but the spotless system needs to bypass the softener according to what I've read. It will actually be more efficient if it processes hard water. Has something to do with the resin and ion/cation balance, but I'm not a chemist. I haven't recharged my spotless system yet but I have the acid and lye to do it whenever the meter starts climbing. I will consider it just another fun weekend project. Plenty of youtube videos describing how to do it.

My home-made system mimics the CR Spotless system but is 3-stage. It was expensive, much more expensive than I anticipated and it would have been cheaper to buy the CR Spotless system. Lesson learned, but I had fun building it.

If I had to do it again I would have opted to just buy a tank and run a single stage system.

I won't post links here but I will post search arguments to find the parts. Everything is available on Ebay, Amazon or mail-order websites. It uses the same H/W as a standard water softener except you are making deionized (DI) water in this case. Get a TDS meter ($10-$20 or more) to monitor

Media Tank - search "media resin tank"
Media - search "deionized water media resin"
Riser - search "water softener resin media tank riser tube"
In-Out Head - search "media tank in and out head"
TDS Meter - search "TDS meter"

Choose the biggest tank your budget will allow. You won't regret it. The tank is not that expensive, the resin is. Budget for your resin and then buy the appropriate tank. The secret sauce in the system is the in-out head which screws to the top of the tank and has a riser that dips deep into the resin media. All water softeners use this secret sauce.

If you have basic plumbing skills (I do but I'm not a plumber) then you should be good to go. I have garden hose fitting in and a hose bib out and it just sits inline with my hard water source. I put mine on a handtruck like the CR spotless system.

The media can be regenerated. It can be dangerous and care must be taken. But, a detailer should have the basic skills to pull it off. You are using acid and lye to do it. When my TDS meter starts climbing I'll take a shot at doing it.

search "regenerate di resin lye acid reef" and read the articles that salt water aquarium enthusiasts post about regeneration.
 
Here in AZ the water is amazingly horrible. For the house I have an IR system, for the garage, I looked into an Industrial Water company that supplies UN-drinkable water sources for exacting scientific process, such as CNC machines, industry etc... They're called PureTek Industrial Water. Most of their tanks stand as high as a house, but they make wee-bitty little ones for folks with small shops. It is absolutely spot-less! I can wash a car on a 94 degree (AZ SUN) day and the car will dry spotless.

I have a quarterly lease, then when the light on the top turns red, I call them and they do a tank exchange with delivery and pickup (additional cost to the quarterly lease). Pictured here is a 10" circumference tank. I recently upgraded to a 14" circumference tank which should provide 1000 gals.

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Now onto your septic. When I lived in Derry NH, I was on Septic system. Here are some do's and don'ts.

Do have your system pumped at least once a year to every 15 months depending on how many in the household, daily showers, laundry etc.
Do NOT rinse pans with oil in them down the drain. Use a paper towel to wipe all the oils out of the pan before washing it. Oils will clog the baffles and not allow natural enzymes in the tank to break solids down.
Do NOT use a garbage disposal. Same reason as above. As a matter of fact, I had mine removed in NH.
Limit laundry - no more than 3 loads per day -- too much water going into the septic will not allow natural enzymes to break down.
Obvious stuff, don't pour chemicals, paint, or other foreign substances down the drains or toilets...
For toilet bowl cleaners or drain clog chemicals, make sure they are septic safe.

Mainly all the above is so you don't clog or deteriorate your leach field. Those can be expensive to replace or repair.
I lived in a house with a septic for 14 years and had zero issues, but followed all the rules I was given.

Good luck and congrats!
 
My previous home had very hard well water. I never encountered an issue but I washed in the shade and blew the water off immediately when I was done. However you had to be quick for sure which is why I started doing primarily rinseless washes using distilled water.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
 
I have hard water in my well but it is not an issue washing my cars. Yes, I do have to blow dry or it right away or it would leave water spots but I imagine this would be the case with any water to some degree. Just the pollen and dust in the air would settle on the car if it did not dry it right away. I do wish I could get better suds Just not sure it is worth the expense of a water softener just to get better suds. Of course this is just for my own cars. If I did this for a living, I may have to research the benefits little more closely.

Dave
 
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