The best way to eliminate water spots is to prevent them. Many people who live in areas that have hard water will purchase water deionizers to remove dissolved minerals from the water. I live in an area with a TDS of >550-600...that's hard enough to etch into the clear coat if you wash your car on a sunny summer day...and a water softener doesn't help much either as it doesn't reduce the total dissolved solids from water.

A deionizer will allow you to wash your car and leave it to air dry with no spots. The down side is the replacement resin can be pricey. My calculated cost is about 0.64 per gallon after buying resin by bulk...fairly cheap compared to the cost of a detailing professional to fix a serious etch.

You can calculate yield of resin with my following exmaple.

My tap water runs about 500 ppm prior to my softener. After the softener, it increases to about 600.

If you consider that CR Spotless's DIC-20 system uses 0.33 cubic feet as an exchange resin basin, 235,000/500 ppm * 0.33 cubic feet yields 141 gallons each time you refresh the cartridges. At $90 per refill, that comes down to 64 cents per gallon.



bob

 

+1 De-ionized water is the way to go.

 

I've used both products (ONR and CR Deionizer) and I drive a black car which as most people know is like a second job to keep clean, even in Southern Cal.

Despite my very best efforts, I still continued to get micro scratches when using ONR. I washed my car very carefully using the following technique,
1. very lightly apply ONR with a grout sponge.
2. repeat step 1
3. dry with a clean micro fiber and change micro fibers each quarter.

So I changed to an CR deionizer and wash with p21 and let it air dry in the garage. It probably eliminates 95 percent of all water spots. I still get an occasional or very faint spot.

My conclusion was that my scratches were caused by the drying/buffing of the ONR, possibly because some dirt was not completely emulsified by the ONR and I was grinding it into the paint.

As far as time is concerned, it really is the drying part that is time consuming so the difference in time to wash the car is negligible. I THINK that I am getting fewer scratches with the CR method....
JMHO

 

BTW for the OP
since you appear to be driving a silver car, microscratches and faint water spots would seem to be hard to notice anyway....

 

I think every time you dry your car, or rub it with even the softest microfiber cloth, you introduce swirls.

After washing with a CR (or even a spot rinse to get rid of dust), I dry my car with this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UlMO7P_704

 

just started using my CR20.
U N B E L E I V A B L E !

 

Believe me you can notice them its all on the top of my car and the frunk

 

I hate ONR.. It's the worst stuff on the market... Who ever thought this stuff up is crazy...
By the way, what is ONR?
a typical Yahoo.....

 

trust me, nothing compared to black. I'd get the clay bar out and then use a Flex buffer or Porter Cable. I have a Flex and love it! But next time I'm getting a white car!

 

ONR = Optimum No Rinse car wash. Basically the solution will encapsulate the dirt on your car and prevent it from scratching your paint. Wipe on and wipe off.

But like I said in an earlier post, I've decided that I prefer the CR Spotless water de-ionizer. It really works well

 

 

Bob,

thats the way to go or

 

I hate to be the only one, but I don't get it. Please explain to a not so hip old guy what the guy with the big bag of popcorn means.

 

^^^^^^^^

I was laughing @ the run around between the 2 members going back and forth......I figured I would bring a BIG bag of popcorn to sit and watch the thread

 

I figured it was meant to be funny, I was just a little slow figuring out why. Worth a rep point for sure.