After long-distance bloodeliveries, I rarely have time to wash our Expedition, especially when arriving home at 2 a.m. and 20° F.
When I cannot wash with soap, I still try to spray road grime off with the garden hose.
Much minerals in the water dry on the vehicle.
I’d like to rinse the mineral-laden water off with clean water and let the vehicle air dry.
Do these water filters really work?
Thank you.
They do help but they are not miracle workers. I used a filter when I lived in Kansas to fill my hot tub (recommended by the manufacturer). The water is very hard there and I had two water softeners for my home system. I filled the tub and my kid’s swimming pool with “unsoftened” water that went through the mineral filter only. I’m fairly certain that you will get water spots even with the filter. It all depends on the quality of your water.
If you’re talking about getting a water softening system for your home’s plumbing, yes, they absolutely do work. I’m sure there are filtering systems for hoses too, but I’ve never had any experience with one.
Thank you.
I was considering installing a water softener with a branch line to a dedicated garden hose spigot for rinsing. But that’s a lot of trouble.
Filters do not take out dissolved minerals. The best solution is to dry rthe car with a chamois immediately after using the spray.
The best solution is to dry rthe car with a chamois immediately after using the spray.
Try a California Water Blade sometime and you’ll never go back to the chamois!
It’s true that regular particulate filters don’t take out dissolved minerals, but there are filters that contain a substance that absorbs the minerals.
They’re not filters in the regular sense.
I have one on an ultrasonic humidifier to prevent a white dust coating on everything nearby.
It has little beads inside which swell over time with the minerals and eventually clogs.
I’ve also seen similar ones for use with steam irons.
I think the water has to go through at a slow rate to be effective so I’m skeptical of one that can handle the flow rate of a garden hose.
Water softeners exchange the minerals with salt (sodium or potassium), and you wouldn’t want to spray that on your vehicle.
" Water softeners exchange the minerals with salt (sodium or potassium), and you wouldn’t want to spray that on your vehicle. "
I don’t know everything about water softeners, but I had one for many years before getting a new 350’ artesian well and not needing it, I sold it a yard sale. I now have naturally pure and soft water flowing from the ground.
It didn’t exchange the minerals for salt. It used some sort of resin beads to take minerals out of the water. The salt was used one time each week to flush the minerals out of the resin beads, not to treat the water.
My softened water worked great for car washing and the dish washer, too. Spotting on cars and dishes was not a concern.
CSA
CSA, that was my understanding of how they worked too. I looked into a system once, and seem to recall that the process is as you describe.
The OP might be well served to do his own research if he considers a water softening system.
Yes, a water softener uses beads which absorb minerals from the water. NaCl allows the minerals to be stripped from the beads and flushed down the sanitary sewer. As a GREEN tree-hugger, I wish that recharging water could be discharged onto our lawn rather than wasted.
CSA, that was my understanding of how they worked too. I looked into a system once, and seem to recall that the process is as you describe.
I have a water softener…mine uses Sodium. My water isn’t hard…but it contains Magnesium…which if left untreated will etch ceramic (i.e. toilets, showers, sinks).
I have a Carbon filter attached to my hose to remove a lot of the impurities. It will NOT remove minerals dissolved in the water. That alone made a huge difference when I wash our vehicles. My water-softener is NOT attached to any outside faucets.
This reference might give you some ideas:
http://www.coleparmer.com/Category/Water_Purification/7159
Either a deionizer of reverse osmosis system is probably what you want. This company is a reseller, and there are others that resell products, too.
“It used some sort of resin beads to take minerals out of the water.”
See my link above about “ion exchange resin”.
I recall several friends being impressed with the Mr Clean wash system that included a filtering element in the wand. My brother has a home filtering system and the water spots his car but using the Mr Clean wand eliminates the spotting. I’m not so meticulous myself.
Robert tongue in cheek as you do seem to really obsess about finer points I let go, let’s see my last car wash, oh yeah the big rainstorm. Why not make your own distilled water and wash your car with that? ps thanks for the volunteer work!
Why not make your own distilled water and wash your car with that?Rarely does a rain storm occur when one is needed. But I have returned in time to wash the Expedition in rain and the rain rinsed it with its distilled water! Then a hospital called for an emergentransport and I returned dirtier than before.
A vegetarian friend gave his old distiller to me and I considered making distilled water.
Would not take much to wash off the garden hose rinse water used to flush off the soap.
If you live on a dirt road, the minerals will find us regardless of home many filters we use. I wish I could contribute something to proper car finish maintenance…but that’s just a distant memory. Rust prevention on cars that always look like mud is as far as my experience will take me.
Late, but I would say that if the filter doesn’t slow the water down it doesn’t work. If you run into one of those garden sprayers with the pressure pumps on them, maybe you can fill it with filtered water. You will be able to rinse the bad water off in about three minutes. That’s about what the car wash will do when you use it on anti-spot.
find a self wash or drive thru that you feed $ bills in then drive in and a spray arm goes around car with soap then rinse water. maybe even a 2am the you may find one.
find a self wash or drive thru that you feed $ bills in then drive in and a spray arm goes around car with soap then rinse water. maybe even a 2am the you may find one.Just retuned from a delivery. Now 01:52. Often dead-tired and do not want to wake up even more. Also too cold and too cheap and no car washes on the way home. Now I'll watch the computer time change and the cell phone clock change.