water softeners ?

9

93zder

New member
I was wondering how many of you use soft water to wash your vehicles ? I do and find it much better than the regular hard water - much less spotting ! I was curious if the salt used to soften the water could harm the vehicle at all ?
 
I don't recommend soft h2o for the rinse as salt is left in places where it can cause rust. I do wash with soft as my h2o is so hard i can't get suds, and I delude myself that suds are good.
 
Hard water causes a scale of dried minerals to form on your paint when it dries. Calcium and magnesium precipitate out of the water and stick to the paint. It also causes soap to form a scum, and causes the soap to have hardly any suds.



I have been using softened and filtered water for washing my vehicles for over 25 years and can tell you that the softened water has not caused any of my cars to rust. The amount of salt in softened water is pretty minimal. Now salt on the roads in the winter is another matter.



I also use a de-ionizing filter for the final rinse.
 
I'm sure that where h2o is relatively soft to begin with you are correct however in the southwest it is not uncommon to have 60+ PPM hardness to contend with. This inturn results in 60+ PPM salt in the rinse h2o.

I switched after pulling an inner fender panel and finding a salt deposit over 1/8 thick. Good thing it's dry here.
 
A salt deposit over 1/8" thick from softened water? No offense, but I find that very hard to believe. Softened water is not saltwater and a salt content of 60 ppm (using YOUR information) is hardly worth a second thought. Heck, those of us that live on the coast are exposed to more salt in the air than in our softened water.



Typical salinity of classes of water:



# Fresh water - less than 1,000 ppm

# Slightly saline water - From 1,000 ppm to 3,000 ppm

# Moderately saline water - From 3,000 ppm to 10,000 ppm

# Highly saline water - From 10,000 ppm to 35,000 ppm



http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/Water/dissolved_salts.html
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Ocean saltwater has a salinity of roughly 35,000 ppm. Even our salt chlorinated pool with a salinity of 3,000 ppm does not cause any harm to metal pool equipment or maintenance tools. Calcium and other mineral deposits are what have been causing problems.
 
Smoky14 said:
I'm sure that where h2o is relatively soft to begin with you are correct however in the southwest it is not uncommon to have 60+ PPM hardness to contend with. This inturn results in 60+ PPM salt in the rinse h2o.

I switched after pulling an inner fender panel and finding a salt deposit over 1/8 thick. Good thing it's dry here.
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Actually 60 ppm is only slightly to moderately hard water in my area. Hard water is classified as having 120-180 ppm and very hard water is over 180 ppm. I've also got a lot of iron in the water to contend with here.



For perspective, here is an example at 60 ppm or 3.5 gpg.

The softening process adds sodium to water. Water that has 3.5 gpg (60ppm) of hardness will have about 112 mg/gallon of sodium after treatment. (One gallon of skim milk contains about 2000 mg sodium.)



I've not had any salt buildup on my vehicles and like I mentioned I've been washing my vehicles for 25 years here with softened water. Like yours, my water is in the 60+ ppm range - 3.5 gpg range of hardness. I would not even consider washing my vehicles with hard water.



Regardless, the benefits of using softened water for washing cars and just about anything else far outweighs the use of hard water IMO.
 
jfelbab said:
..I've not had any salt buildup on my vehicles and like I mentioned I've been washing my vehicles for 25 years here with softened water. Like yours, my water is in the 60+ ppm range - 3.5 gpg range of hardness. I would not even consider washing my vehicles with hard water.



Regardless, the benefits of using softened water for washing cars and just about anything else far outweighs the use of hard water IMO.
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Same here. I *have* started using potassium chloride in the garage softener (rather than the regular sodium chloride, dunno if it'll matter), but I've *never* had a rust problem. And, heh heh, if anything were gonna rust from using soft water it'd be my Jaguar ;)
 
Funny what you people in the midwest call hard water, mine runs 400-450 ppm. Even with a filter I might get it down to half that.
 
I'm sorry I ment to say 60 gr not PPM. My evaporative cooler has over 1/4 in built up of scale in approx 3mo use.
 
buellwinkle said:
Funny what you people in the midwest call hard water, mine runs 400-450 ppm. Even with a filter I might get it down to half that.
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HeHe, You pump that stuff with a concrete pump? :LOLOL
 
Being in the limestone capital of the world, I know our water is horrid... any worse it wouldn't be a liquid. I am going to get a TDS tester to test it, but I do use the pwgazette filters and it does help quite a bit. I am thinking of getting a CR spotless to run after the softner next year.
 
softners do not "add salt" to the water.The salt is used to clean the filter when it regenerates.The salt content is negligable increase when checked before and after.If you have one you will see it helps alot.
 
cardsfaninky said:
softners do not "add salt" to the water.The salt is used to clean the filter when it regenerates.The salt content is negligable increase when checked before and after.If you have one you will see it helps alot.
Click to expand...





Actually they do. The softener contains a bed of plastic beads (zeolite) which has an affinity for calcium and magnesium ions, the things that make the water hard. When you regenerate the softener it uses the brine solution to replace the calcium and magnesium and ions with sodium ions. In normal use, as the water passes through the bed it exchanges it's sodium ions for the calcium and magnesium ions in effect adding sodium ions to the water that wasn't there before. That's why people on strict low salt diets must avoid drinking softened water. It is also the reason that many (most) homes with a softener are plumbed to have the cold water tap in the kitchen bypassed by the softener. The amount of sodium added is normally extremely low however.
 
I agree it must add some. A good friend was just diagnosed with high blood pressure. His doctor told him he wasn't allowed to drink softened water.
 
I live in Vegas and the city water is notoriously HARD. We bought our current house about a year ago and we installed a water softener to get rid of "water spots" on the dishes, after using the dishwasher, etc. Well, the fact is that the water spotting is just as bad, or worse, with a softener. I have tried all various setting and did research ointo it online but nothing will diminish the water spots. I own a black Dodge truck and handwashing is a nightmare.
 
Also, water softeners will KILL your indoor plants. I know from experience. Since going outside to the garden hose outlet to get water that bypasses the softener, plants that were on the verge of death from the softened water are now vibrant and healthy.
 
Concerns about the sodium levels prompted me to have the RO unit (for drinking water) plumbed into the garage softener line (potassium chloride instead of sodium chloride in that unit).



Sometimes the spotting continues (or even gets worse) because the softened water is clearing out years of deposits from the previous hard water. We had that in a few of the lines at our house but after five years it's a *LOT* better.
 
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