How to get rid of the minerals from water?

[FiveAinOne]

I know water will leave spots on the car if its left on there too long.. but the water from my hoses are getting rediculous! The problem is after I finish rinsing off the shampoo and proceed to dry the car, the water dries so fast that I don't have to time dry the whole car(im in southern cali). What's worse is that it leaves marks so deep that I can't even get rid of using detailing spray! I mean the water splashed on my glasses and I almost couldn't get it out!
The only thing I've heard of that can "filter" the water is from the tv infomercial's "water ionizer".. attaching a filter thing in the front to rid of the bad stuff in the water.. but does it really work? I doubt anything from infomercials will work.. what can I do?
I searched and found a thread on spot free water? what's that?

[BW]

I live in So. California and the water here is also very bad. I would recommend you to wash under the shade. Bugs, and unidentified flying objects from the tree may land on your car, but its still better than water spots.

Spot-free water is often found in self-carwash places. It supposed to evaporate without leaving spots.

I wish I had spot-free water when I washed this car: http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/bw325i/vw...c=ph%26.view=t

[YoSteve]

My house has a water softener system (and a water filter), but it still leaves slight spots (but they aren't hard water deposit spots). They come off with some QD if necessary. You might want to look into the system or throw water on your car with someone who has a water softener system in your area. Keep in mind that water softeners remove mineral deposits dissolved in the water (calcium, iron, etc), while filters remove particulates (rust, sediment, color).

Make sure the water doesn't evaporate on your car and or take the nozzle off your hose in the final rinse so that the car doesn't have little water dropletts all over the place. Lastly, sometimes I spray some QD on just washed wet cars to put some shine without fully QDing (maybe it'll resist spotting too). -HTH Steve

[Edited by YoSteve.Com on 08-15-2001 at 02:45 PM]

[DavidB]

Home filtration systems are pretty good and easy to install.

db

[FiveAinOne]

so where can I get this home water softener system? where is it installed? I have the drinking water filter.. is it similar?

[darbh]

Hi. I totally understand. I live in So Cal, also. Here's the data I have on the various matters touched on in this thread. I will present randomly.

The Problem. Is that the water has minerals in it, so, when the water evaporates, the minerals are left.

Filtration Systems: Most of these filter out particulates - little pieces of stuff -- through a mechanical type filter. Most minerals are completely dissolved, so they pass right through a particulate-type filter.

There are filters that target specific contaminants, but we are looking to avoid all minerals that would leave a visible or damaging residue, not just, let's say, reducing the amount of iron to safe levels for drinking.

Water Softeners. I believe that water softeners themselves do not remove minerals (or, if they do, they do not remove much). They alter the mineral balance of the water (replacing calcium, which make the water hard, with another substance, I believe). The benefit is that soap and detergents work better, etc., when the calcium is gone, but the water still has minerals in it.

Distilled Water. Has no minerals. It would be great to have a large tank of distilled water to use. We would not have any of these problems. It would also be very expensive to rinse your car with distilled water (and, lets not even discuss the cost -- or appearance -- of installing a large tank in the back yard!). I use it in spray bottles for cleaning windows, the car paint (in certain instances), wiping down the interior, etc. but not for rinsing.

Reverse Osmosis Device (makes "purified" water). Produces water that is nearly free of minerals. Cheaper than distilled water. Typically found under the kitchen sink, and used for drinking water. Note, however, that some cities rely on sea water than has done through desalinization plants that use this technology. I don't know anyone who uses this tech in the home for anything other than drinking water, but I am certain that some people do.

I am not that familiar with deionization (where the water is run through resin beds) and how good the deionized water is. I think this is what certain car washes claim produces "spot free rinsing." I doubt a device on the end of a hose would give such a result, but I do not know 100%.

Solutions. Rather than installing a reverse osmosis device and holding tank for the purified water, spots can be avoided by washing the car when the water will not evaporate before you can dry the car. In So Cal, this means the early morning or early evening or washing and drying in a protected space. I used to go the early morning route. But, if I was slow, or it turned out the day was going to be very hot, sometimes the day heated up faster than I thought it would. If I can, I now try to start washing around 7 PM. Its pretty cool AND its only going to get cooler. I make sure to keep "watering" the car as I wash it and after I finish washing the last panel, I water the whole car again. Then, I immediately begin drying, using a Toro Pro leaf blower (use a quick wipe of a towel to get the few, remaining small drops). So, the car was completely wet to begin with, then I rapidly blew the water off it, before it could dry. No spots.

[Edited by darbh on 08-16-2001 at 12:26 PM]

[James A]

Right on the money darbh, I was getting ready to write the same thing. If you want the disolved solids out you have to get a demineralizer system and they are EXPENSIVE!
I live in Houston and the water is terrible, so I wash very early or very late and avoid the evaporation as much as possible.

[YoSteve]

our home water softener (made by kinetico) uses an ion exchange system that replaces sodium and calcium ions with salt ions (sodium and potassium chloride ions)

soft water isn't soft water if it has minerals in it

anyway read all about it here click on the hard/soft water part. You should find local system in your area (ask the neighbors).

I hope this does remove the hardness because we paid over a grand for it. (our white clothes stay white during washing) Last thing, if you get one, make sure it's connected before the outside water lines.

[darbh]

This is from the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Department of Water and Sewerage Services http://www.nashville.org/ws/soft_h2o.html

"A water softener is not designed (nor is it effective) to remove lead and other metals, chlorine, taste/odor compounds, nor chlorine by-products. Its purpose is only to make a hard water soft.

WATER SOFTENERS

Besides making the water more corrosive and aggressive at leaching metals from your lines and fixtures, the zeolite beads from water softening systems may back-siphon into your toilet tanks, and the soft water may attack vital plumbing parts. While supposedly solving one set of problems, the softener could possibly introduce other problems which you may or may not be aware of! A water softener, besides leaching lead and other metals from your plumbing, can increase your sodium intake.


IN CONCLUSION...

Soft water is great for laundry, bathing, steam irons, and auto batteries, but definitely not for anything else. If you are contemplating installing a softener, there are serious questions you should ask: who will test the effectiveness of the softener, how often will these tests be run, and how will my drinking water quality be affected?"

YoSteve, I don't know if you do, but I would not drink the softened water. At my home, we drink distilled water. At work, we drink purified water. The soft water is good for cleaning.

As to the cars, and water spotting, I would suggest an experiment, to test your water. Fill the tallest pot you have with the softened water. Bring it to a low boil. Continue until all the water has boiled off. Check to see if there is a residue. This experiment is not conclusive, but if there is a residue, it would show that your equipment is not removing all the minerals from the water.

[YoSteve]

my water situation may be a little different, I have a community well water system (which the community monitors) so it doesn't have lead or chlorine.

But the kinetico tech guy for 6 years, I talked to this morning (now a coworker) said that it does remove lead and doesn't increase corrosion or salt content. He said that if you're concerned about the salt then use potasium chloride. He also said that water to your home (unless contaminated by you own water system) is not allowed (by the city) to reach the levels of lead that nashville dept of water have to deal with anyways. (but that's him and not me)

All I can speculate is that it does what it is supposed to do, becuase all the apparent effects (like you said cleaning and soaping and stuff) hold true. There isn't a reason for me to believe that all the non apparent claims are false (or the affinity to lead leaching is true). Before you venture off getting a system, ask a butt load of questions. I'll try to do the experiment sometime but I guess I would need a lead tester to test the amount of lead in the water. If it works on cleaning our laundry, ourselves, so why not our cars. Whatever once made our laundry yellow is what I want when cleaning my car (or at least my miracle towels. )

According to the provided theory it works great at cleaning, just not at drinking which was the question to begin with correct?

[RH]

Reverse Osmosis systems are very slow, like on the order of 15 gallons per day produced. They are expensive, and for more output, even more expensive. Nearly perfect water, but impractical for washing cars.

[DETAILKING]

Add a few heaping tablespoons of white vinegar to your wash bucket before washing. This should help. The other thing you can do is wash and dry one panel at a time.