tap water problems

[tuffluck]

i run a hose from my kitchen sink, out the door, and use it to wash my car. my kitchen tap water is what caused the water spots (when it dried). i know the simple solution is to just dry the car fully (duh), but i'd kind of like to completely rid myself of washing my car with unnecessary minerals in the water. anyone have any suggestions for some type of water purifier to prevent this? thanks.

[Prometheus]

Home depot or Lowes sometimes has filters you can screw inline in a hose that *should* take most of the minerals out. Never tried it myself, but it seems like that may be a workable solution.

[Lowejackson]

Whenever I use the hose, I get terrible water spots but if I use a watering can (from the same tap) - no water spots

[kompressornsc]

Do a search for the discussions on RV Water Filters-they seem to be the most economical. Next time I'm near an RV store, I'm picking one up-I think they were around $50-$60.

I spent the morning washing & claying my car & pulled it out into the sunlight & about cried-gray waterspots everywhere & QD barely touched them. Even ran down to the self spray wash & used their filtered water rinse & it only took off about 1/2 the spots. I wish I could run a hose from the sink inside-it's run through a water softener and is so soft it's next to impossible to rinse shampoo out of your hair. The outside faucets don't go through the softners, though.

[TOGWT]

~One mans opinion / observations~

This is what I use Lowes has similar products-

Water Filtration:
Use a filter unit to provide spot-free vehicle washing and/or to remove hard water chemicals ((PW-SOF Sodium) from your vehicle washing hose. Utilizing standard softener resin, with a life span of approx. 90 gallons (dependant on water hardness / chemical content) between regenerations, a standard filter cartridge (9.75-inch x 2.5-inch) is contained in a clear polyurethane filter housing (HF-2) allowing you to see when the filter requires changing, unit connections are standard ¾-inch hose fittings, complete with a filter wrench and mounting bracket. .

The filter resin (PW-SOF) can be regenerated indefinitely using readily available water softening salt. Place the used cartridge in a container with the water softening salt / water solution and soak for 12-hours or more. The salt will displace the calcium replacing it with sodium.

With two filter cartridges you can use one while the other is in the regenerating solution. Filters available (PE-SOF) Sodium, for hard water (PW-CAL) Calcite to neutralize the pH and (KX-1) for Chorine removal. (See section 03 Vehicle Washing & Drying)
http://www.pwgazette.com/gardenhosefilters.htm


~Hope this helps~

Knowledge unshared is experience wasted
justadumbarchitect / so I question everything/ Jon

[Eliot Ness]

A short/long term solution is the Mr. Clean Auto Dry car wash system. I don't care for the soap, but if you do your final rinse with its filtered water it will make drying a bit easier (i.e. you won't have to rush and dry your car as quickly).

Mr Clean Auto-Dry