Mr. Clean Auto-dry Car wash?

Groebuck:



Have you tried it just as a final rinse yet? That would be the way I would want to use it (assuming the mist dries without spotting under that scenario).
 
that's when I learned my filter was a one time only ;( -



I was to p*ssed to go in the house and get the other filter and replace it - so I took the nozzel off ran a slow steady stream to sheet and then used the trusty Absorber for the rest.



My NEXT wash will be with MY car wash soap in the unit (yup there goes my warranty and 30 bucks) and the new filter to see if that combo works...



it just too cold this week to wash here in NC...

Monday is supposed to be 60 and I am leaving tuesday for holidays so I will wash her then! and report back of course.
 
this is what I switched to:

A deionizer filter, that has a bypass and decent flow. Per the seller, it can do 5 full size RV's, so I'm guessing ~ 9-10 car washings, IM sure more if you use it for final rinse only.

Cost was $57.00 for the housing and filter and $22.95 or $17.00 for replacement filters. Beats the "mist" setting.



RV Filter Store



filter.jpg
 
pcar996TT said:
this is what I switched to:

A deionizer filter, that has a bypass and decent flow. Per the seller, it can do 5 full size RV's, so I'm guessing ~ 9-10 car washings, IM sure more if you use it for final rinse only.

Cost was $57.00 for the housing and filter and $22.95 or $17.00 for replacement filters. Beats the "mist" setting.



RV Filter Store
Click to expand...



How did it work when you used it? Was it really spot-free? How's the spray with the Ultimate Nozzle (I have that too)? Also, where do you find the $17 replacements? I didn't notice that on the site. How are you supposed to tell when to replace the filter? I noticed they also sell a TDS meter and am wondering if it's worth it. Thanks for the link and info! :)
 
The power of the spray is somewhat reduced (in bypass mode as expected it's normal flow) but it can give a fairly firm stream or spray. Love that nozzle.



The results were a spot free dry. I have a black car and any drop that gets overlooked usually leaves a nice white mark, I've used it twice with none of the spotting of the past.



The filter came with a sheet that said" In some areas a more economical cation cartridge may be effective, available for $17.00", I guess in areas with low TDS ?



They mention a relation to flow rate and minerals dictating life. And a formula using 7337/TDS=capacity in gallons. Guess where the meter would come in handy. Not sure if it's like other filters that have a reduced flow or turn color when they're used up, but I figure I'll see how it is in 9-10 washings.
 
pcar996TT said:
The power of the spray is somewhat reduced (in bypass mode as expected it's normal flow) but it can give a fairly firm stream or spray. Love that nozzle.



The results were a spot free dry. I have a black car and any drop that gets overlooked usually leaves a nice white mark, I've used it twice with none of the spotting of the past.



The filter came with a sheet that said" In some areas a more economical cation cartridge may be effective, available for $17.00", I guess in areas with low TDS ?



They mention a relation to flow rate and minerals dictating life. And a formula using 7337/TDS=capacity in gallons. Guess where the meter would come in handy. Not sure if it's like other filters that have a reduced flow or turn color when they're used up, but I figure I'll see how it is in 9-10 washings.
Click to expand...

Thanks pcar. I think I will give them a call this week. Your mentioning TDS affecting filter life is pretty straightforward, but I didn't really focus on it at first. I wonder if that double-filter one would be worth it in the long run if I used a cheaper, longer-lasting pre-filter in the first one and then the de-ionizing one in the second. That might extend the life of the de-ionizing one enough to be more cost-effective. Plus, then when in bypass, I could still have some filtering if I wanted. I'll see what they have to say about it. Thanks again! :wavey
 
Excellent idea, Aurora40......please let us know what they say about using the double-filter one as you discussed.
 
That sounds like an excellent idea, but you may want to find out what kind of flow rate to expect from two filters.

Let us know.
 
MSOsr said:
Excellent idea, Aurora40......please let us know what they say about using the double-filter one as you discussed.
Click to expand...

Will do. Just doing some quick figuring in Excel, it looks like assuming a $15 pre-filter that will last a long time, and assuming 10 washes per DI filter from the 1-filter setup, and 15 from the 2-filter setup, it would take about 60 washes before it paid off. So, maybe in a year if you wash a few cars pretty frequently (and would be about $2.85 per wash for the dual-filter, and $2.88 for the single). The price per wash excluding the initial hardware (this is the price per wash as you approach an infinite number of washes) would be $1.53 vs $2.30 for dual vs. single.



If it's possible to get 20 washes (or twice as many) from a DI filter with the dual-setup, then it would pay off just about right away. After 40 washes, or the use of the two DI filters that are included with the dual-setup, you'd already be saving money over the single setup. It would be about $3.12 per wash vs. $3.17 for the single-filter (and the three extra DI's you'd have to buy). For comparison to the previous example, instead of 60 washes, you'd get 80, and the price per wash would drop to $2.14 per wash. Excluding the initial hardware purchase again, the price per wash drops to $1.15 vs. $2.30.



I'll let you all know what they say. Hey, out of curiosity, how much are the replacement filters for that Mr Clean jobbie? It would be interesting to compare the price per wash for that thing (assuming it worked well, which may not be a fair assumption).
 
Well, I heard back from the RV Water Filter Store (I sent a mail since the number they list is a cell phone, and it is Sunday...). Sounds like the pre-filter would only be useful if there were non-dissolved solids in the water like dirt or sediment. Then the pre-filter would prevent those from clogging up the DI filter. Otherwise it wouldn't cut down on dissolved solids. He mentioned that the DI filter uses a non-rechargable resin bed to pull dissolved solids out of the water.



He did say one advantage to the dual-filter setup is that you are less likely to exceed the .5 gallons per minute flow max that the filter can handle (as you may be able to flow 1 gallon per minute and still get adequate filtering).



He also said that he sells more single units, but gets more repeat filter orders from people that bought the dual units. Of course, he doesn't know if it's because people weren't happy with the single (he mentioned possibly because they flow too much water through it and the filter can't work quickly enough). He mentioned he did some testing with very hard water in Arizona as a rinse on an RV and even on windows there was no spotting. So it sounds like the single should work just as well as the dual, but the dual might have more forgiveness to flow rate.



So I will have to think about which one to get. I think I will ask a follow-up about using as a pre-filter the $17 filter that pcar mentioned could be used if your water isn't very TDSidy... ;)



Pcar, it sounds like the filter won't actually slow down the flow, but that rather you need to slow the flow down to a point that the filter can work properly. The way he mentioned it, it sounds like you could flow more water through it if you want, but that the filter may not be able to keep up with it. He said it should be a low-flow final rinse like the kind at DIY car washes. I wonder if the Ultimate Nozzle is the best candidate for that... :(
 
The Mr. clean refills were about $17.00, and supposedly you can do 10 cars with it depending on water conditions.



That's interesting, I didn't pay attention to the flow rate, it's that whole read the instruction thing. But I rinse with the wide open dribble mode on the nozzle to sheet the water off. I found it worked well; in the future I'll try slowing it down a bit, and maybe get more life out of it and even better results.



Great research, I'm sure we'll all benefit from the additional legwork and cost analysis that you're doing. I'm just glad i finally found a way to keep the water marks at bay, even if a wash cost $2-3.00
 
At best I get about 1 1/2 car rinses out of them on my Acura TL-S (which is not that big of a car to expect a crappy amount of reuses).





I did a wash today with the unit but substituted Platinum Car Wash for the Mr. Clean - I looked at the Mr. Clean soap more closely - right on the label it says it includes a dry rinse polymer in the soap, which aids in the spotless drying (so it does leave something on the car even after rinse - hence the rainbow effect I and others have seen and the weird things products do after washing with it - like my QD getting sticky). When you fill to the fill level with the Mr. Clean soap it's all gone after a wash, when I used my Platinum soap, there was still about 3/4 left after use!! and I was getting great sudsing from the soap setting..



the spot free rinse was not so spot free must have been becuase I did not use the polymer soap...which I think does more of the work than the filtered water.



I think I will get the RV filter thing....sounds like it works much better...
 
pcar996TT said:
Great research, I'm sure we'll all benefit from the additional legwork and cost analysis that you're doing. I'm just glad i finally found a way to keep the water marks at bay, even if a wash cost $2-3.00
Click to expand...



Well it sounds like the single-filter is actually the lowest cost per rinse. I heard back from Rick at the RV Water Filter Store, and he doesn't think the $17 filter would really work as a pre-filter. It is for filtering out cations, but the DI filter has a cation resin bed and an anion resin bed. So unless you have water that is special or something (only hard minerals or only soft ones), the cation prefilter wouldn't really help, as the anion resin bed of the DI filter would still get used up in the same amount of time (plus, the cation filter isn't such a deal if it only removes half the stuff the DI filter does, but at 3/4ths the price).



So it seems like the dual filter design just has the benefit of possibly flowing more water through it (though it may not also, as it may be the water either flows by slowly enough for the beds to pull stuff out or it doesn't, making it sort of all or nothing filtering). That said, I'm now not really sure which I'll go with. I suppose with the dual filter one, you can still always just run one of them (though with an increased initial cost) and maybe if for some reason you wanted some basic filtering for hosing stuff down or something, you could do that...



I'll have to see. I think I would like to get a TDS meter just so I can get a quantifiable look at how the filter is doing. I just hope this works out better than my garden-sprayer full of distilled water idea... :( Though, at least that didn't leave some film on my car! :eek:
 
Had a chance to try my freebie this weekend on 2 cars. Would give it a C grade. The soap seemed to leave a film (was mentioned before) on my Grand Prix. The filtered rinse did seem to help some, was slow, such a fine mist it took a while. 2nd car was my son's Silverado (Pewter). Used my normal soap in a bucket and rinsed with unfiltered then did a final with filtered. It seemed to help but just doesn't seem worth the trouble.

Maybe if it was $9.99 ok, but $29.99 is just too much. :down
 
Used it for the 3d time today on my 350Z. Although the final rinse was still a "mist", I noted some water stains when it dried.



I wiped back over those areas with a wet mitt and noticed that when I tried to dry with my Big Blue, it was almost like the towel did not want to soak up the water. It seemed to smear the water over the surface instead of absorbing it. I think this was a product of the surface film left by the Mr. Clean soap.



I'm going to wash the car tomorrow with my regular car wash and the 2 bucket method, followed by a California Water Blade/Big Blue drying.



I agree with Aurora40 that the RV deionizing filter may be a better alternative than the Mr. Clean.
 
FIrst post in this form, I have 2 Black vehicles in Phoenix, AZ and I go to war with the "water spots" enemy evert time I wash my cars. I have bought the Mr Clean device and I used it once on a silver Audi TT, it came with a "starter filter" that they say is good for Approx 3 washes... Well I am here to tell you that by the time I was finished with the final rinse the filter was black, and the Audi is a small car. I would hate to see what would happen on my suburban. 1st impression is not that good. I am however going to install one of those filters on my outlet that I use to wash the cars. Here is AZ its a "Beiaaach" to keep the water spots off the black cars. Any tips will be greatly appreciated:bow
 
QEW and water from a store. I am washing my black bike and my dark blue metallic Avalanche with QEW and water from the local "water store'. It's only .25 / gallon and I only use 2 gallons per wash.



I use the Rubbermaid 2-sided bucket, each side with 1 gallon of water. One QEW side and one "dirty side". Workis like a charm.







Oh...and...uh....wanna trade your 87 GN for an 87 Aerocoupe? No? Oh well, I tried... :D
 
I've actually had very good results with the Mr. Clean auto dry.



I dont follow the instructions completely...as I used a nice big sea sponge in a bucket of the Mr. Clean soapy water and use it like I normally would to wash the car. So...the soap function combined with the 2 bucket approach (soap water, rinse water) works very well.



While the misting function is a little weak, i have yet to see one water spot on my black car. I picked up some extra filters for 5 bucks (10 washes), and am quite pleased with the results.



The best thing about this system is that I never have to worry about using compressed air to get water out of the mirrors, etc. as the water that comes out of those areas dries spot free.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top