I got a CR spotless and yes it got most of the water to be spotless but NOT 100%. So now I'm going back to washing in the shade but with the CR spotless and using my shop vac for prelimary drying followed by MF towel and detial spray combo. I have a black car so every bit counts .It's real easy to mess up in the hot So Cal sun and not worth the risk. Already have some nasty little waterspots here and there that don't want to come out. :/

 

Been following this post, and found it very informative.

So what are you all finding as your baseline TDS prior to filtering?

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 * 0.33 is about 141 gallons. At $90 per refill, that comes down to 64 cents per gallon.

Thought this was high, until the last time I inspected my black 997TT and found hard water spots etched into clear coat. Still working on getting rid of them...3 weeks later, still working on it. Pretty upset, considering it's a new car.

 

follow up please.

Deputy Dog, did you ever get your DI system into production? Are you still using it, and how is it working out? Would you consider making me one for the right price, whats 5 traffic lights of your time worth?

So from what I gather from this old thread, the initial system that was posted is not worth 80 bucks. The water softener from autogeek still leaves spots, and the CR spotless is very expensive and still leaves little spots if you are washing under the sun.

I'm looking for a good system that will not require the use of a MF towel or chamois... I want to limit the amount of touches to the paint.

thanks

 

Last I checked, Deputy actually recommended the CR. The CR isn't expensive at all considering the unit works and starts at $349; it comes down to how much YOUR time is worth. I haven't had any spotting when using the CR all the way through. The spotting may be soap residue that isn't washed fast enough if you're washing in the sun. To avoid this, wash early morning or later in the evening to avoid the heat and the rays of the sun.

 

I've got an RO system on my house- for ice, drinking water, etc. Two storage tanks- just runs 24/7 and keeps them pressurized.

How much water would I need to rinse? IN other words, wash and rinse with regular well water (or softened water) but then a final rinse with the RO? I could just fill a garden sprayer with 3-4 gallons and use that to rinse of the last of the 'dirty water'

Thoughts?

(And yes, I know RO is wasteful- the waste is routed to our landscape anyway!)

A

 

Not sure if that'll work. You need enough pressure to flush off the "bad" water from all the nooks and crannies and not to mention all the car. Worth a try. I'll find out if RO is safe on the paint.

 

R.o system will not do well rinsing your car as d.I system. Coming from my three years reef experience, d.I is 100% pure water than R.o water. I will rather go with d.I because r.o contain TDs and may leave fine micro marks on the car. You can keep 100% pure water if you maintain you system under 1ppm.

 

I know this is slightly off topic, but I had a question for the experts.

Do you guys use a foam wash gun like this http://www.autogeek.net/foam-gun.html or somthing similar?

What are the pro's and con's with using this to get extra suds? Is there any value added to this, is it worth getting?

Thoughts and recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

 

The foam gun is a great tool to do a pre-soak. I would not recommend it as your only way to wash. You would pre-soak and let the soap dissolve some of the dirt. Then wash as you normally would.

 

would one of those pressure washers that's roughly 1500-1800 psi be too much for the car? Ive saw one at home depot for 70 bucks, you can wash cars, sidewalks, driveways, etc.. It also comes with a bottle and adapter for soap/foam.

I'm thinking this might be a better deal then just the foam gun, which is just that, and not a high pressure washer...

 

A pressure washer is used for a different purpose than the foam gun. You can use the pressure washer to limit the water consumtion of the cr spotless...so your resin will last longer. You will need the foam gun if you want to use it as a pre-wash soak.

 

Moe, why you don,t recommend using the foam gun as normal wash? Isn't that what is made for? To cover the car in a thick foam of soap so we can wash it.

 

The problem with using just the foam gun is that most people just use a mitt and wash the whole car and then rinse. This is an issue because your mitt is never clean after the first panel. By dragging all the dirt around when washing the rest of the car, you're now causing major scratching of the surface since the dirt particles are mere microscopic rocks. I don't use a foam gun as I simply rinse, wash, rinse mitt, and repeat all around the car assuring me a clean wash mitt and clean bucket of soap during the entire wash.