Help w/ CR Spotless - only got 2 washes out of it??

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efnfast

New member
Bought a CR Spotless unit 2 weeks ago - I cleaned 2 cars with it (using it only on the final rinse so as to not wear out the resin too quickly), both dried spotless. Fast forward 2 weeks to today - cleaned my Z06 with it on final rinse, turned around, and it was spotting like crazy.



I looked at the TDS meter and it was reading 50! Figuring maybe I let the water sit too long in it, I opened up the blue cans and drained all the water out. Then I hooked it back up and ran the water through it. For the first 20seconds or so the meter hovered between 0 and 10ppm, then shot up to 100ppm, back down to 40ppm, and hovered between 50 and 55ppm.



Is my water that filled with **** that it only takes 2rinses (~4gallons of water total) to kill the resin cartridge? That can't be right! Did I get bad/old resin cartridges?



I figure I'm going to re-fill them with my backup resin and see what happens. I'll also add in an inline filter to see if that helps at all.....I remember reading about some inline filter you can buy at home depot (???charcol filter???) but I can't remember what it was now. Any advice would be appreciated.....
 
That doesn't sound right. Are you restricting the flow enough? Depending on which one you have you need to be at or below 2GPM for the DI-10 systems, and at or below 4GPM on the DI-20 systems.



Do you know much about your water at your house?





CRSpotless.com - Wash, Rinse, and Walk Away



Check out this chart at the bottom of the page.



If you have a DI-10 system, you can get as little as 100 gallons if your water contains 400PPM of TDS in it. So, if you are getting 4 GALLONS it seems like your water wouldn't be much like water at all.. :eek:
 
Yea, I get a yearly report on it (acreage - it's from a water table). it's *very* hard and very mineralized, so its not city water. But itshouldn't be this bad.



I did not restrict the water at all, as my initial pressure is very weak (however, I don't know what exactly is it). How can I measure the pressure going into it, or, alternatively, how can I restrict it so I know that it's only 2gpm or less?
 
The instructions mention using fan or flay spray patterns on your hose nozzle. This should keep your GPM under 2. Alternatively the manual suggests buying a flow restrictor.. which leads me to :



However, I seem to remember folks mentioning the units coming with a flow restrictor, I think it's just a small washer or something that goes between your nozzle and the hose.
 
Hmm, i found a 1/2 gal. jug and tried filling it up. Ended up doing ~4gpm with their nosel (set on center, as the directions say)



I blocked off the flow of water, installed new resin, and got it down to 2gpm. Washed another vehicle and the TDS showed 0ppm throughout the entire wash - I suppose this is a positive sign, as the first time I used it last time, it was showing 10ppm constantly on my first use.



I guess time will tell; still, I can't figure out (for DIC10) why 4gpm would kill the resin after 2 washes, but 2gpm won't (or maybe it will, I'll see) :nervous2:
 
Did you try pushing 2gpm or less through your old resin to see your TDS? Maybe call crspotless monday! I know they did have some bad resins go out the door.
 
Yes, that was my first thought to do - at 2GPM the TDS meter was reading, on average, 90PPM. If I went back to 4GPM, it dropped to 50PPM on average. Very weird!
 
With my boosted pressure I put a flow restricter on the inlet side (they're made for RVs, cost about $10). And yeah, the proper nozzle/spray pattern/etc. seems mighty restricted to me...not nearly as much water as I like. Rinsing takes forever with the thing.



IIRC it was SaintlySins (where *is* he these days?!?) who had trouble with his CRS going through resin too fast...he called them up and they solved the problem. He said they were very nice, helpful people.
 
Spoke with Chuck today - apparently going over the GPM will kill the resin really quickly.



So although my GPM was 3 1/2 to 4, and the DIC-10's recommended is 2 - 2 1/2, I ended up murdering my resin. :cry:



However, he agreed to ship me a resin replacement and told me to be more careful next time .... but damn, never in a million years would I have thought going +1-2GPM over the recommended limit would kill it that quickly (but apparently it does according to Chuck) :wow:





However, CR seems like a standup company so no complaints here! :heelclick
 
BTW, does anybody know where I can buy an add-in for a garden hose that will restrict it to 2GPM? Right now I'm doing it by manually turning the valve between closed and open and measuring, but it's a real pain in the ***. Unfortunately I can't find anything I can screw into the hose that will restrict it.
 
efnfast- just get a low-output nozzle, like the one that came with my CRSPotless system. You could ask them what models qualify if you can't determine it on your own (I dunno how *I* would figure it out if it didn't say on the nozzle's label or something).



Heh heh, when you use the right nozzle, at the right pressure, rinsing off, oh...say a Mazda MPV or a Denali XL ;) takes *forever* compared to a high pressure/high-flow setup! Yeah, I'm whining, just washed the MPV last night :D



Glad (but not surprised) to hear how helpful the CRSpotless people were. Everybody seems happy with their customer service.
 
I used the nozzle provided - still gave me far too much GPM (Chuck thought it had something to do with my pressure - higher than normal - not certain about that since I draw water from the watertable and I never thought my pump was all that great - takes forever to fill up my ponds)
 
Mindflux said:
I think efnfast mentioned he was using the CRSpotless nozzle.
Click to expand...



OOPS... :o Note to self: read more carefully.



efnfast said:
I used the nozzle provided - still gave me far too much GPM..Chuck thought it had something to do with my pressure..
Click to expand...



I'd go to your local RV dealer and get a ~40psi pressure limiter. It's a brass gizmo that screws onto the supply hose. I got a simple one (without a gauge) and it seems to work OK even with my high/boosted pressure.



Are you using a smallish-diameter hose? The one that came with my CRSpotless is a lot smaller than the hoses I normally use, and that probably helps too.
 
Seems this problem’s been solved, and I swear by mine and by Chuck, (who has my respect for running a company that stands behind what it sells 101%). There is a procedure that’s not emphasized enough – you MUST depressurize the canisters before taking off the hose(s)! Stupidity on my part, but a lesson I hope you all learn from my mistake; I had recently changed out the filters, rinsed a vehicle, and forgot to take the pressure off the canisters when I pulled the supply feed and as suspected, the water shot out the supply side. (I use quick connect/disconnections). When reattaching everything to rinse the next vehicle, the system was compromised and it allowed a lot of impurities through and the car spotted! I just KNEW it was because of the volatile reverse surge that shot through the filters and disrupted the entire filtering process. Switched out the filters again and it was back to perfect “spotless water�.

Over the last year or so, I’ve done this twice (please, keep the snickering down, I can hear you :grinno: ), and both times the filters where compromised. Sad and expensive mistake :mad: .

Hope this helps.

Accumulator: I’ll be back a little more often after Labor Day Weekend, explanation another time.
 
SaintlySins- Howdy :wavey



Thanks for mentioning the need to depressurize. I have mine sorta permanently hooked up on a multi-line fixture, but I woulda forgotten to do that had I found need to disconnect it...maybe I'll keep it in mind after seeing your post.



I *have* been depressurizing it after rinsing, but not 100%, dunno if that would be enough for a disconnect.
 
For best results, buy an electric power washer

It does not have to be expensive

Many have outputs as low as 1.2 GPM, but rinse much more effectively than a hose end sprayer at the same GPM


I don't think running too many GPM thru the unit "Kills" the resin. My understanding is that the water just has to spend a minimum amount of time in contact with the resin, so it can bind with the solids in the water. If the GPM is too high, contaminated water just flows past the resin.
 
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