Tried A Leaf Blower Today

A

alexjn1

New member
After reading about how everyone likes using a leaf blower for drying vehicles it suddenly occurred to me that we had one in that my father had owned in our spare shed buried way in the back. It turns out it is an electric Toro 225 mph blower. :2thumbs:



I used it after washing my truck and all I can say is WOW WOW WOW. I was absolutely giddy with excitement at how amazingly well that works. :woohoo:



I had to fight off the temptation to spray water on my truck a second time just so I could watch it blow of again with the leaf blower. :lol



That was one great tip. Thanks everyone. :thx
 
I LOVE using a leaf blower to get to all the little cracks that love to hold water! It works exceptionally well when your car has a fresh coat of wax on it; however, I have found that it is best to blow off the wheels and all the little cracks and then follow up with a WW MF so I don't the little water spots it can leave behind. :2thumbs:
 
Yeah, the electric leaf blower and a CR Spotless have me spoiled. I can't imagine using "just" a mf towel. LOL



I'm just waiting for an autopian to figure out how to mount several leaf blowers on some type of rack to duplicate the ones at the automatic car washes. If only.........
 
Olny way to go. I have 2 a high powered blower that I use if I am washing my car late afternoon or early evening. (its very loud)If im washing my car in the early morning I use the quieter one from CG.My car is waxed often paint and windows so the water flies off the car, then I touch it up with a large WW. its the only way to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
i've never considered a leaf blower a complete means of drying a vehicle (use it in conjunction with a waffle weave and/or microfiber towel and flooding method), but more to help aid in iin getting into all the areas where water trickles into (head/taillights, in/around emblems, door handles, seams/gaps, wiper blades/air vents, wheels, etc, etc)...
 
jb1 said:
Yeah, the electric leaf blower and a CR Spotless have me spoiled.
Click to expand...
....same here. Prior to buying my CRS (DIC-20) system I wouldn't dream of using just a blower to dry. It worked well for chasing water from crevices but over panels it would just atomize (quickly drying & resulting in small water spots). For best results I would blow out the nook and crannies and follow up with WW MF's. To be honest, I simply couldn't understand how others were able to use only a blower and not get water spots. In my case I was even using inline sediment & soft water filters.



These days it's a completely different story for me. With DI water I may still get a couple of random spots caused during the wash process and/or left over non-DI water, but 99% of the car is spot-free. .....1 minute with a QD and a walk around the car is all it takes for the rest. It is definitely shaping up to be one of the best tools I have purchased.
 
Kean said:
....same here. Prior to buying my CRS (DIC-20) system I wouldn't dream of using just a blower to dry. It worked well for chasing water from crevices but over panels it would just atomize (quickly drying & resulting in small water spots). For best results I would blow out the nook and crannies and follow up with WW MF's. To be honest, I simply couldn't understand how others were able to use only a blower and not get water spots. In my case I was even using inline sediment & soft water filters.



These days it's a completely different story for me. With DI water I may still get a couple of random spots caused during the wash process and/or left over non-DI water, but 99% of the car is spot-free. .....1 minute with a QD and a walk around the car is all it takes for the rest. It is definitely shaping up to be one of the best tools I have purchased.
Click to expand...



Now all we have to do is find resin at a cheaper price. Water in my area is right at 300 TDS which isn't as bad as Florida and other places, but it burns through my resin quicker than I'd like.



Someone posted a link on here a while back for 1 cubic ft. of resin for under $100 from a window washing place IIRC and I might end up giving that a shot when my current supply runs out. :hifive:
 
Renew your Resin.. """""""The good news, though, is that you can renew it through an easy, inexpensive process, and that it will last virtually forever.



Here’s how:



Buy a bag of standard water softener salt. It usually costs about $5 for a fifty pound bag. It’s sold in feed stores, home stores, and large discount stores.



Pour a generous amount of softener salt into a large pan or bucket. We used a plastic dishpan for our experiment. Fill the pan with water until it covers the salt. But don’t overdo it. You want to make some very salty water.



Put your spent softening cartridge into the pan of salty water and let it sit at least overnight. (It won’t hurt it to stay there indefinitely, so you might just store it there between car washes.)



The salty water, brine, will dislodge the calcium (hardness) buildup on the resin and replace it with sodium. It won’t quite make the resin “as good as new” (not even a commercial water softener does that), but it will recharge the cartridge considerably, and you should be able to reuse it almost indefinitely.



You might consider buying a spare cartridge or two so that one can be recharged while another is in use.



The useful life between regenerations, of course, depends upon the hardness of your water.""""""""





jb1 said:
Now all we have to do is find resin at a cheaper price. Water in my area is right at 300 TDS which isn't as bad as Florida and other places, but it burns through my resin quicker than I'd like.



Someone posted a link on here a while back for 1 cubic ft. of resin for under $100 from a window washing place IIRC and I might end up giving that a shot when my current supply runs out. :hifive:
Click to expand...
 
MDRX8 said:
Renew your Resin.. """""""The good news, though, is that you can renew it through an easy, inexpensive process, and that it will last virtually forever.



Here’s how:



Buy a bag of standard water softener salt. It usually costs about $5 for a fifty pound bag. It’s sold in feed stores, home stores, and large discount stores.



Pour a generous amount of softener salt into a large pan or bucket. We used a plastic dishpan for our experiment. Fill the pan with water until it covers the salt. But don’t overdo it. You want to make some very salty water.



Put your spent softening cartridge into the pan of salty water and let it sit at least overnight. (It won’t hurt it to stay there indefinitely, so you might just store it there between car washes.)



The salty water, brine, will dislodge the calcium (hardness) buildup on the resin and replace it with sodium. It won’t quite make the resin “as good as new” (not even a commercial water softener does that), but it will recharge the cartridge considerably, and you should be able to reuse it almost indefinitely.



You might consider buying a spare cartridge or two so that one can be recharged while another is in use.



The useful life between regenerations, of course, depends upon the hardness of your water.""""""""
Click to expand...



MDRX8,

Thanks for the information. One question, will the resin (after it's re-charged) leave sodium deposits when I rinse the car?
 
I stopped using the leaf blower to dry my car. Now I only use it to dry up my wheels and hard to get areas. I was noticing a film of dirt building on the paint after I would dry it. Im guessing it was the gas fumes. I just stick to drying with a MF towel.
 
My leaf blower (Redmax 7000) weighs 20 pounds and is great for leaves, but it's tough for us old farts to be climbing up and down with that on your back drying a big SUV, and most things I detail have ZERO water beading after the wash so they dry quickly. My own cars: I don't mind using MF towels, although I would like one of those small pancake air compressors to blow out the water around mirrors, emblems, door handles, etc.
 
jb1 said:
Now all we have to do is find resin at a cheaper price. Water in my area is right at 300 TDS which isn't as bad as Florida and other places, but it burns through my resin quicker than I'd like.



Someone posted a link on here a while back for 1 cubic ft. of resin for under $100 from a window washing place IIRC and I might end up giving that a shot when my current supply runs out. :hifive:
Click to expand...
....yeah. If you do find one, please let me know. I haven't tested the TDS from the spigot directly but I already had a sediment + soft water filter that I am still using during the wash process and pre-deionizer for the final rinse.
 
jb1 said:
MDRX8,
Click to expand...
jb1 said:


Thanks for the information. One question, will the resin (after it's re-charged) leave sodium deposits when I rinse the car?
Click to expand...
....good point. I use this method for my soft water filters (since it is recommended) but I didn't think the resin used in the deionization process would have the same characteristics? The only successful "re-charging" process I found for this type of resin included the use of lye (IIRC) and some other unpleasant processes. Frankly, I stopped reading at that point. I believe the advice in MDRX8's recommendation is geared toward recharging soft water filter cartridges like the ones you would find at Autogeek.



btw, interesting point about the sodium. I have been wondering myself if my pre-filtration (soft water filter) may be more detrimental to the deionization process than tapping directly to the spigot. I'm guessing it's not since it is helping to remove some of the other nasty minerals. In either case, I have washed the windows around my house twice and used the system 5 times for car washes and the TDS meter is still reading "0" so far.
 
Kean said:
....good point. I use this method for my soft water filters (since it is recommended) but I didn't think the resin used in the deionization process would have the same characteristics? The only successful "re-charging" process I found for this type of resin included the use of lye (IIRC) and some other unpleasant processes. Frankly, I stopped reading at that point. I believe the advice in MDRX8's recommendation is geared toward recharging soft water filter cartridges like the ones you would find at Autogeek.



btw, interesting point about the sodium. I have been wondering myself if my pre-filtration (soft water filter) may be more detrimental to the deionization process than tapping directly to the spigot. I'm guessing it's not since it is helping to remove some of the other nasty minerals. In either case, I have washed the windows around my house twice and used the system 5 times for car washes and the TDS meter is still reading "0" so far.
Click to expand...



I've had several people tell me that they use soft water (I assumed softened with salt) and it made their resin last longer. If we weren't moving to a new house in the near future, I'd get a softener installed where I am.



Does the pre-filtration you're using now restrict the water flow in any way? I hook my CR up to an electric PW so I'm fine.



I wouldn't mind finding a relatively inexpensive set up to use for a "pre" filter. I actually wanted to get a duplicate CR and use the "expired" resin in one as a pre-filter and have it flow into another CR unit with new resin.
 
MDRX8 said:
See:



Soft Water for Washing Your Car



That should help.
Click to expand...
....yeah. That's essentially the same process I use to recharge my soft water filters as well. However, we're talking about DI resin. Here is just one article among several I ran across when exploring the possibility of recharging:



How to Recharge DI Resin by David Sanders - Reefkeeping.com



....not a pleasant or simple task (and certainly not worth it in my case). I'm also providing a link below to a thread showing an unsuccessful attempt by a member trying to "recharge" their DI cartridges/resin with salt and (later) a decent explanation of the differences:



Recharging the CR - Detailing Bliss Forum
 
jb1 said:
I've had several people tell me that they use soft water (I assumed softened with salt) and it made their resin last longer. If we weren't moving to a new house in the near future, I'd get a softener installed where I am.



Does the pre-filtration you're using now restrict the water flow in any way? I hook my CR up to an electric PW so I'm fine.



I wouldn't mind finding a relatively inexpensive set up to use for a "pre" filter. I actually wanted to get a duplicate CR and use the "expired" resin in one as a pre-filter and have it flow into another CR unit with new resin.
Click to expand...
....the pre-filtration has no affect on flow. In fact, I have been searching for some sort of restrictor that I could use to regulate flow from the spigot. As it is now (since I don't have a PW) I have to use the provided nozzle on the "flat" setting as recommended by CR. I also am very careful when introducing water through the system when hooking it up and also when depressurizing. .....I actually have been bottling the water that drains out so I can use it when mixing products, in wiper fluid, etc.



I found this (Amazon.com: Toro Flow and Pressure Gauge #53351: Home Improvement) which was the closest I could get to a valve that would regulate flow but haven't purchased one yet. I figured I could remove the end cap and insert a male hose thread piece and hook it up to the bib. ....I know it's intended for testing purposes but it might work for my needs as a full time regulator when washing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top