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  1. #1

    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Location
    San Diego, California
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    I see lots of mobile guys around here detailing in the middle of the day, in direct sunlight. They even detail black cars without apparently worrying about water spots.



    Now I know they`re using de-ionized water (I`ve asked several), but how is it "special" enough to let you do this? Is it 100% spotless?



    Just curious...
    Ben

    2000 Estoril Blue M Coupe

    2002 Le Mans Blue M5

    1988 Alpine White 325iX

    1985 Chrysler Green 325e

  2. #2

    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    UK/Cheshire
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    23
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    De-Ionised or De-mineralised water contains no minerals or salts and is usually ph7 (neutral) in Acidity/Alkalinity.

    since water spots are caused by salts/minerals drying on the car when left alone.

    So de-ionised water vertually eliminates them altogether.

    I am lucky and have a de-mineralisation unit and reverse osmosis unit at work(which makes water as pure as it can possibly be) and have time to wash my car using it :xyxthumbs



    Mike

  3. #3

    Join Date
    May 2011
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    i buy distilled water, non-drinking type and use it to clean my windows w/ a MF...works great!

  4. #4

    Join Date
    Jan 2011
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    is there a portable unit to make de-ionised water? where can you buy the distilled water? thanks

  5. #5

    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    Salt Lake City
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    468
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    Dont get confused between `types` of water.



    The most common and easy to get is `softened` water.



    It used a resin bed to remove the calcium ions in the `hard` water and replace them with sodium ones.



    It means water will dry with very few mineral deposits and is cheap and easy to do.



    The next step is de-mineralising, which is done by two methods.

    Distilling (hence distilled water), where the water is boiled and condensed, or by Reverse Osmosis where a semi-permeable membrane filters out the minerals.



    The final and most expensive step is de-ionising, where EVERYTHING is removed, producing pure water.

    This uses Anion and Cation beds to extract both the + and - ions present in the water, leaving it as close to pure as its going to get.



    The purity of water is usually measured by its conductivity, expressed in Siemens, milli-siemens or micro-siemens.

    The closer to 0 it is, the purer it is.



    I`ve used softened water to wash my car, and it works great, tho never had a chance to try de-ionised.



    Most power stations have a de-min plant to provide boiler feedwater free of anything that will leave deposits in the tubes when its flashes off into steam.

  6. #6

    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    Northern California
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    570
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    I also use distilled water in a hand sprayer for the final rinse. No spots. I just bought a 1 gallon insecticide sprayer at Sears (on sale for $15) and I`m looking forward to using it going forward.



    Distilled water is easy to get at any supermarket. Most people use it for their clothes irons.

  7. #7

    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    UK/Cheshire
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    Smoker

    we use an organic scavenger unit which uses resin to take all the solids out of the water down to about 10 micros which uses brine as a flush medium.

    We then use an anion and cation resin bed to take out alot of the salts/minerals/ions out of the water using an acid and alkaline flush for each one, but this very rarelly gets the microsemen level bellow 3, so we have to use a reverse osmosis unit to remove the remaining solids/ minerals.

    if we used the RO unit before the anion and cation resin beds, then the RO filter mediums would need to be cleaned and back flushed every 5 or 10 minutes which would be a waste of water and down time for the RO.

    The RO on its own with a scavenger would be very costly to run and substituting the Resin beds berfore the RO works a treat.

    mike

 

 

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