Any one here using de-ionized water for washing?
 

I have been reading about the benefits of using de-ionized water for washing, for spot free drying, but the systems are quite expensive. they remove all the minerals from the water, which is the cause of water spotting, so you can virtually rinse and walk away.... I believe I can build my own setup for a great deal less than the commercially available units. Wanted some feedback from real world users...

Yeah, I have one. I have no shade to wash my car in so with a black car, when I first started washing it, I would have a water-spot covered MESS when I was done, and it would take me an hour or more with quick detailer to clean it up. I mean, it's usually half-dry by the time I can even get a towel out. Sometimes even the soapy water dries on the car while I'm doing the other side, if it's July and sunny.

So I got one of the CR Spotless setups. I use the cheapo Mr. Clean filter to fill the bucket (water is hard as hell) I use for soap and wash the car, and just try to keep it wet. Then rinse with the CR Spotless, I do a kind of half-assed job of drying it and it comes out great every time. Usually I go take it for a drive and come back and maybe I get a little bit of spots around things like door handles but it takes just a few minutes to clean up with Quick Detailer.

You could build such a system for quite a bit less than they sell it for, if you just made a simple filter, but it does have an indicator to let you know when the water isn't being effectively deionized and is engineered to restrict the flow to an appropriate amount given the amount of filtration material.

Anyway, I really like it. It took my Saturday car wash from a long frustrating experience to relatively trouble-free. I have rinsed the car and let it sit in full sun and had zero spots. If you very thoroughly rinse you won't even have spots after you drive it, but I don't mind detailing it a little when I'm done anyway, and I get a few more washes out of the cartridge before I have to refill it.

yah, if my water was really hard i would use the filteration system, but these days, unless your car is filthy dirty with mud or salt, i would use the waterless wash instead.

i personally have had great success with griot's spray-on car wash. i use it all the time in the summer. hose wash only in the spring to rid salt on my dd's.

Products like optimum no rinse are worth looking into as well. When used correctly, you wash and dry panel by panel. No need to worry about spots.

I have seen DI Resin that changes color when no longer effective, and was planning on incorporating that into it.

I use many other griots products, and love them all.. I will have to look into the spray on wash as well.

I have never heard of optimum. I will have to give it a look see.

I wouldn't trust quick detailer or waterless car wash to remove anything more than a little dust or a few water spots from accidentally driving through your neighbor's sprinkler. If you actually drive your car instead of leaving it in the garage when it's less than guaranteed spectacular weather, you're going to have to wash the car.

That said, I think the Optimum stuff is worth looking into for generally keeping the car looking good, and I could actually use it instead of the CR system when the car is actually dirty, by spraying the wheelwells and such out with a hose, then following up by cleaning each panel with Optimum.

I think I'm going to buy some. I'd rather not have to deal with the CR system if that works just as well.

Optimum no rinse works amazingly.

I'm kinda going with Davey on this one. The spray on wash looks risky, especially with dark colors like the black cherry, which show scratches if you breathe on it wrong.
I'm gonna do more research on the optimum, though. All that being said, my car is garage kept, and never really gets very dirty, in fact, I wash it so often I should be more concerned with wearing through the paint than anything else. I grew up watching my Father wash his cars every sunday, without fail. there is something therapeutic about spending time with the bucket and hose for me........ but the lure of a better mousetrap has got me looking.

:icon17:

Well I live in the land of muddy-water-filled potholes in spring. My car looks like it's been off-roaded at the moment. :ugh2:

It is garaged, as well... But it gets dusty, even just sitting in the garage. And then, there's all the pollen, or when it's getting dark and you have the lights on and 8000 suicidal bugs are plastered on your bumper, or it rained the day before and there are puddles or the landscaping crew at work mows the lawn and gets wet grass all down the side of your car or... I tried to avoid all that stuff but then I never drove the car all summer, and that's just lame.

So usually I can keep it clean with a little quick detailer to get the dust/pollen off every week but sometimes I need something a little more heavy-duty. The CR system worked well for me last summer and I do have another refill of resin for it, but I did order some of the waterless wash and some Optimum No Rinse to try that out, for the "not off-roaded, but more than dusty" times. :)

ROFL! Enjoy all that micro marring!

Explain...... How is using the optimum product different than a normal wash, minus the final rinse?

Without soap and water the chance of micro scratches are high. Dust is abrasive and dry washing will almost always leave these clear coat spider webs. Using a duster on a garaged car is fairly safe but after you hit the road the dust can "lock in". Black shows spider webs the most but you white and silver guys have them but they are hidden. Two bucket washing, doing the wheels first are just a start to keep scratches and water spots at a minimum. Washing in the bright sun is a bad idea. Try to wait till dusk or dawn.
JMTC

Who the hell is getting up at dawn to wash their car :icon17:

Do you know what optimum no rinse is? You definitely use soap and water, it's not bucketless.

My buddy built his own set up a few years ago. But it's not the set up that's expensive. Well, they can be if you just buy one. But it's the cost of carbon refills and such that make it expensive to use. Even the raw materials in bulk was expensive. I don't remember his exact numbers, but he calculated the cost per wash after a year and decided it wasn't worth it and sold the set up on craigslist.

I use the Mr. Clean system with filters and can get about 4-5 washes per filter. But I'm down to three filters left and it's long since discontinued. You can find them on eBay and such, but they're stupidly overpriced at like $10 per filter. So I'll be switching to the two bucket method with hose water once I'm out.

ummm. me for one. my days start around 3:30am. weekends included.

As I'm researching further, I'm finding that your friend is correct. I was planning a setup using bulk DI resin, and best case is $10 a pound. The media's life span, obviously is shortened depending on the amount of sediments in your water. Although the parts to build such a setup would run me under $50, the number of rinses I would get from each pound of media, coupled with the effort of consistently changing it would not be worth the cost, or effort to me, being on well water with high contaminants.

I currently use griots spray on wax after rinsing, and leaf blower, along with waffle weave towels to dry. Until something better comes along, this will be the regime.

Yeah I figured it's around $5 a wash if I only use it for the final rinse and more like $10 if I use it to fill the bucket, too. I have seen cheaper refill material but I haven't tried it.

Sorry to hear about the Mr. Clean discontinued, guess I'll toss mine after I use up the last 2 filters I have. Hopefully the "hose the mud off and Optimim No Rinse" thing works out for me, because there is no way in hell I am getting up at 6 AM to wash my car or dealing with 10,000 mosquito bites from doing it at dusk. :icon17:


You poor bastard. :shakes head:

:icon17:

Or lucky, I suppose, depending on how you look at it.

Yah, I think you'll like it. If you have amazon prime, get the gallon with free shipping. Their car wash green towels are superb. Remove tag before use.

Well for one, a normal wash to me is pre soaking the paint two times then using a pressure sprayer to remove nearly 95% of the gunk attached to the car.