At the recommendation of Moe at Glistening Perfection, I ended up purchasing a small unit to deionize the water I use to wash my car. For those that don't know, which included me until Moe suggested it and I looked into it, is the system removes the hard particles from the water. This gives you the advantage of washing your car with a foam cannon (using the deionized water), you can just spray the foam and if the ceramic coating does its job, you can then rinse using the deionized water and walk away even while drying in the sun because it shouldn't leave behind any water spots from particles. In theory, it should help with minimizing the scratching of the surfaces since it's supposed to remove all minerals and such.

I didn't test the walk away part because it's been engrained in me for so long to actually dry the car, so I used my mircofiber towel. Once I'm done rinsing the car, I actually take it for a quick run down the main road to get up to about 60 mph to air dry the car as much as possible and then finish off drying with my microfiber towel. Again, I'm not affiliated with this product in any way. Just passing on in case someone else might be interested.

 

https://crspotless.com/product/simple-chuck/

 

I've thought about one of these, but I never get water spots. My car has OptiCoat Pro Plus and I finish every wash with Bead Maker Pro. I just wash the car normally, blow it dry, touch up a few spots with a microfiber towel, then apply Bead Maker Pro. Car is slick as ice when done; water rolls right off it.

 

i can foam my car and rinse with regular tap water and there are no water spots. Nanolex Si3DHD was applied by Detailers Domain.

 

I got a similar device a few months ago after getting water spots after washes and taking forever drying every last drop. Same company, I went with the DIC-20. It's great. Houston water was about 80 ppm and this takes it to zero. I just give it a cursory blow dry with my electric leaf blower but am happy I don't have to worry about getting every last drop. I find the big benefit is when I'm washing 2 cars in a row, huge timesaver just giving the first a quick blow dry and moving to the second.

 

80 ppm?!!!! Dang that is low. CA has hard water and SoCal has some seriously hard water. As you can see in the picture, my tap water is 442ppm. I also have a hand held blow dryer that I've used on my other cars. Still trying to figure out the routine for drying my car between using doing a quick drive around the block to air dry, using a micro fiber towel to finish any last wet areas and/or using the air dryer to get all of the crevices.

 

442??? Yikes. Better stock up on the filter resin, you will be burning through it.

I bought that same TDS tester before ordering my unit so I could prove to my wife that it was necessary. She said it was the nerdiest thing I've ever done.

 

Unfortunately, I know I will be using a lot of that resin with 442ppm. With 442ppm, that is why I bought the deionizer but I only use it to wash the Spyder and not the other cars. My wife just shrugged her head when I bought it.

Something that I just thought of right now, is the next time I wash my car using the deionizer, I'm going to spray some water into a cup and check the ppm reading. I guess it should read zero. If not, I guess I just bought some snake oil.

 

Have you guys tried rain water ? That's what I use and it leave it spotless...

 

Our water is +/- 200 PPM...got one of the DI units with by-pass valve from Clean Garage in PA. With the by-pass valve I start with regular water and then move to DI water for foam and rinse.

 

Next time it's pouring I'll make sure to grab the wash mitt and soap bucket and give this a try

 

You get them wet? Don't they kick you off the island around here for things like that?

 

I haven't measured it, but the municipal water here in the SF Bay Area (San Mateo County) leaves almost no spots.

The main problem I have if I don't dry the car off, is water coming out of various crevices that are impossible to wash, and carrying dirt with it that itself leaves spots. Lots of brake dust manages to hide in panel and trim gaps in the rear around the taillights, etc. But the water itself leaves minimal deposits, if any.

 

I use an E-GO cordless electric leaf blower to dry my car. Takes less than five minutes to do the whole car. Get any last drops with a microfiber towel.

 

You are on groundwater with TDS that high. The 80 would be from a surface source.