mdrums

I am looking at portable spotless water conditioners.

www.crspotless.com
www.spotfreeh20.com

I am leaning towards the spotfreeh20 model because for $375 I get 1000 gallons of use before a recharge. The recharge is flushing the unti backwards with Salt Brine and Water. The crspotless model comes on a handy cart for $349 but you only get 100 gallons of water and have to spend money on there recharging kit.

Anyone here have any experiance with these products? Which would you choose and why. They are confusing on how they work.

thanks, Mike

cr2000

Rather than bother with some portable solution, why not just have a water softner installed?

The town we moved to a couple years back has terribly hard water which made for a very unpleasent car washing experience - especially on black cars. I bought a GE Water Softner, and had a local plumber install it (total cost around $400). It handles the entire house and also feeds the outside water spickets. I fill it with salt every year and a half or so and forget about it.

My wife is happy that the shower doors don't spot, and I'm happy with spot free (and almost drying free) car washes...

mdrums

Must be a Florida thing but none of the plumbers will conect it to the out side spickets. I have a 4200sqft home and the whole house water conditioners for the size I need all seem to be around $3000 and up. I will probably do a whole house but right now I am busy getting the whole house Gen unit installed and that is quite a chunk of change. Next is storm shutter more major money then maybe a water softner.

1999Porsche911

The size of your water softener system is not determined by the size of your house but by the amount of water used daily. You can get an electronic controlled system, such as GE that will deliver you 400 gallons a cycle of soft water for less than $400. If you wanted to go with a cam controlled system, you would still spend less than $1200.

That is if you have very hard water. If your water is not that hard (less than 20 grams) systems cost even less.

SamG

I have a CRSpotless unit and am very happy with its performance. I have it connected to an inexpensive pressure washer which really reduces the amount of water needed to wash and rinse the car. I bought the larger unit with the 24"(?) filters and have used it at least 25 times so far, still getting great results.

loliver

I have 2 of the spot free units, 1 on my boat dock and 1 by the garage. It works very well. I have washed my boat 50 + times and have not recharged the unit yet. As you pointed out, when it needs recharged it cost only a few dollars for salt and a new paper pre-filter. It really does leave the car and boat spotless.

1999Porsche911

Just wash your boat down with 20% vinigar solution and you won't have spots or any hard water minerals on the surface.

mdrums

I tried the vinigar idea and it worked ok but still left some spots. Not sure about doing that with the cars though.

Cowhorn

Anyone use that Mr. Clean car wash product. I heard it's pretty good.

1999Porsche911

Vinegar will remove even lime scale from the bottom of your boat, just like Muriatic acid will but without the harshness and danger. If you had spots after a wipe down with vinigar solution, you did not use enough vinegar.

Another advantage of using vinegar, if you wife likes Italian salads, is that you will smell like one when you are finished and she'll be all over you.

cr2000

As was pointed out, the size of the house isn't important it's the water usage. We've got just over 3600sq/ft, but the key is that it's just my wife and I in the house so the water usage is low. The sprinkler system is on it's own feed, but the house and outside spikets are fed off the water softner.

The unit I bought and had installed:
http://www.geappliances.com/smartwat...fs.htm?GXSH39E

That should be more than adequate for 4-6 adults with reasonably hard water. In general you don't want the unit to recharge more than once a week. Our unit recharges every couple months. Arguably it's oversized for our water consumption.

Anyway, soft water really makes washing the car a pleasure.

Fast40th

I used it for a while with very good results. I bought a kit from Costco, and used to get refills (filter and shampoo) from there as well. Unfortunately the local Costco doesn't offer refills anymore and the local autoparts store doesn't carry a good stock. The one thing I don't like about it is that you can only use the Mr. Clean shampoo, not your favorite one.

I eventually ditched the Mr. Clean and went for a CRSpotless unit. I'm glad I did. I have been using the CRSpotless for the last 4 months and love it!. It works great! You can even wash your car under full sun. The quality of the product is top notch and their staff is very pleasant and professional (I'm not affiliated with them). I get more time doing the things I like to do, and can wash 3 cars in the time I would spend washing only 1. If you order one don't forget to ask for a discount if you're a PCA member.

Cheers.

pl

rennlist knows it ALL:

http://www.geappliances.com/smartwater/

mastiffdog

I also have a CR Spotless, it's great. They just updated their units with a new look ...

nkhalidi

CRSpotless works very well for me. Your mileage may vary though; I'm in south Florida and I get only 5 or 6 washes (using DI water for the whole washing process) per pair of filters. I've heard of people getting 20+ washes per pair of filters, but that depends on the water quality (or lack thereof) in your area. Also, I'm told if you have a water softener feeding your outside spigot, the CR unit has to work harder to deionize the water, thereby using filters more quickly.

If you do the math, each wash is costing me $5 or so worth of filters, which is still cheaper than taking the car to a car wash (shudder) and the result is ALWAYS better than towel-drying (no missed spots, no film on the car). Highly recommended.