Does anybody use water deionizers to wash their cars ? If so, did you spend $400 ish bucks on one ? Anybody build their own ?

 

Costco usually has the best prices on the CR spotless and the resin bag refills. the CR has a built in water hardness tester. totally worth it. If you consider DIY, getiing as close to
0ppm hardness is basically what you should be after.

 

Look into Rennlister Matt's offering at Obsessed Garage.

 

The ones that use coils are bull**** as the effect only works within feet of the unit and dissipates. I just put a water softener in and it can be done reasonable. Had the CR but the water pressure was so low and changing resins a hassle. I'm posting on this topic on a new thread.

 

we have a softener and it makes washing (and cleaning the house / bath) super easy. Detailer I know down the street with a small shop, he does full RO, but he has a 250 gallon tank with a pump for washing the cars as the process for fully deionized water makes pressure pretty low and especially at the volume he uses it.

 

you don't really need to add pressure to the water coming out of the CR system. If you do want pressure, then go with a low PSI electric washer, like Money mentions in OG.

 

Rinsing the car off with a pressure washer is way easier than just a hose. But yes, I do notice a reduction in pressure when the CR Spotless system is hooked up (I use the Double Chuck). I do have the pressure reduction valve/fitting on my water spigot though. The instructions say to use this if you don't know your water pressure. It's supposed to be under 70psi. I don't know what would happen to the Double Chuck if the incoming water pressure exceeds 70psi. But I might try it and see what happens.

Also, it's not the water pressure of the pressure washer that matters. It's the flow rate (GPM). Many electric pressure washers have high pressure (like 2,000psi+), yet low flow rates, like 1.2 GPM. You really want something with a higher flow rate.

 

I've had my CR Spotless unit for 6 years now. I've only had to replace resin 2x's and I wash at least one car a weekend. I don't understand how it's actually lasted so long, but I do a TDS test weekly with a meter seperate from the built in one. It's single handed the best vehicle washing product i've ever bought.

 

Yeah, a lot of people say they can only get a handful of washes from theirs. But I use mine hooked up for the entire wash (not just the final rinse). And I've washed my car every weekend for the last two months and there is zero sign of the resin changing color. But I think it really depends on what your incoming water TDS level is. I think mine is pretty low, like around 30-50 right out of the spigot. So I'm sure it'll last a long time. If your TDS is upwards of 200, then the resin will wear out quicker.

 

ironically, my TDS out of the tap is generally in the 300 hundreds. But for some reason I can always make the resin last longer, not sure what the reasoning is. I also have a separate RO/DI unit for my fish tanks, i get 3-4x out of it compared to what other people see.

Good to see another bay area local