Spotless Rinse

mliebs

We have very hard water in Houston and I've been thinking about buying some type of spotless rinse for years but never did it. I'm curious to know what everyone else is using (if you're using one at all). I've looked at the CR Spotless but it's pricey for the larger unit and the reviews seem to be mixed. Has anyone had any luck with other systems? I've thought about a reverse osmosis system for the house but the price is getting ridiculous since I'm really only wanting it for the car. Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

madwi

I was just reading a thread related to this the other day...
here it is:
Any one here using de-ionized water for washing?

mliebs

Thanks for the link

madwi

Zed-Hed

I have the CR Spotless DIC-10. My cars are black and this system works as advertised. Had it for 5 years and I change resin twice a year. Worth every penny!!
Regards,
Mark

SwissCheese

Years ago I had that Mr. Clean car wash system that used de-ionized water for a spotless rinse (a.k.a. no drying required). Not quite as intense as what you're talking about, but the thing I took away from it was that it took just as long to hose down every inch of the car with the de-ionized water as it did to just dry it. In the end, I just went back to drying it by hand.

Again, that's with the cheap Mr. Clean kit. I have no idea how that compares to the beefy kits you're talking about.

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Davey

I had the Mr. Clean thing (still do, use it to fill my wash bucket) and I agree, the flow rate was ridiculously slow on the rinsing.

I have the DI-120 CR Spotless. Here's how the math works out for my area... Apparently our water is like 388 ppm so it's about as bad as bad gets.

1. CR Spotless claims 100 gallons at 400 ppm for my unit
2. It costs $45 for a resin refill

If I use the CR to fill my 5-gallon wash bucket plus 15 gallons of rinse water, that's 20 gallons per wash or around $9 a wash.

If I only use the CR to rinse and I was very conservative with the water, I could probably do 10 gallons per wash or about $5.

Now let's examine the alternatives... Do you know what happens when you wash a car with 388 ppm water on even a cool, sunny day? Even in the shade, you are getting streaks all over the car and anything trapped in the crevices leaves water spots/ runs all over the car.

Probably the water and soap is drying on the car as you try to rinse it off, so you wash it in sections, but every itty bitty splash of that 388 ppm hose water that you get anywhere you have already washed is leaving water spots.

Then you are going to get out a $5 detailing towel and a $10 bottle of quick detailer and go to town for about an hour or two, and I don't know about you but my time is worth money.

So you have to wash your car at the right time of day and be very careful and what you end up with is a car with no dirt but a lot of water spots you need to clean up, which takes time and effort and supplies.

So people can complain about the CR system being expensive to buy and the resin not lasting that long, but I love mine. It took a 2.5 - 3 hour hell of car washing and turned it into something enjoyable and frustration free.

Here's how it goes for me... Of course I do the wheels first if I'm doing them.

1. Fill bucket with soap & hose water
2. Hook up the CR
3. Wash the roof & rinse
4. Wash the front & hood and rinse
5. Wash the sides and rinse
6. Wash the rear and rinse
7. Clean the glass with diluted vinegar

That's it. No drying. Leave a black car in full noon sun on a 100-degree day and if you find anything on it at all, it's probably a little soap you didn't manage to rinse off. I love it.

JARblue

I use the Mr. Clean system. But I don't bother with the drying function. I just use the full rinse - it's still filtered water even if not de-ionized. And I use a leaf blower to dry. It does pretty well at not leaving water spots if you are careful about it, but I clay and wax most every time I wash making it a non-issue.

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JARblue

An hour or two for some QD? More like 15-20 minutes. Those towels will last for years with proper care, and a bottle of detail spray lasts me at least 5 full clay sessions (QD sessions use even less).

Also, I hate that expression, "my time is worth money". Are you really working billable hours 24/7? The answer is no. My time is worth money, too. But my free time is worth far less than my billable work hours. You sleep at least a few hours a day, so that's wasted time. Do you read? Watch TV? Clean up or work around the house/yard? Do anything that uses time and doesn't bring income into the house? I bet you do. If you do any of these things, do you consider that time wasted? I bet you don't. So to think that time you spend doing any menial task is worth money is just a pretense.

I can do a decent wash in a little over an hour. Full detail with clay/correction/finish/wax takes closer to 4-6 hours. It is a labor of love for me. Regardless of how long it takes. In fact, I would say I actually relish the work taking a little longer because I do it all by hand. But that's just me and may not be for everyone.

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Davey

You're not getting water spots like these off the entire car in 15 minutes. And I have limited time, so my time is worth money, as in, I'll gladly pay $50 to save myself a few hours.

I'm not sure why you're so concerned about how I wash my car. I'm just giving my opinion about the CR spotless system.

JARblue

I just find it humorous how people exaggerate when they are making arguments. Don't worry I do the same thing

I have absolutely nothing bad to say about your system. I have only commented on your statements regarding your detailing steps without said system. FWIW, I think the CR Spotless system is pretty bada$$. But after doing the research, I cannot justify the cost. I'm glad you can, and I'm sure that it is awesome for you. I can understand your position on time because as I get older, I am finding more and more things that I am willing to pay for as a convenience. But that's very different from claiming your spare time spent on the toilet is worth money

My experience is if the water spots don't come off with a simple wipe of QD, then you will need to polish them out. But a simple wipe down with QD definitely should not take more than 30 minutes of your time for the entire car - two hours is a laugh

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Davey

My detailing steps are an illustration of the same scenario which shows what the CR spotless system allows me to do. You're comparing the steps, I think, to washing and rinsing with your Mr. Clean system. Maybe when your last two cartridges are gone and you try washing your car with water straight from a hose on a hot sunny day, you'll see what a mess you have.

"Oh but I would never do that, I would wash my car in the shade, or do it in the evening" you might say, but that was the point - I don't always have the chance to choose when I can wash the car, and I have zero shade to wash it in without the sun being most of the way down.

So it's not so much an exaggeration, but an illustration of one case vs. the other, washing the car on a hot sunny July afternoon with or without the CR Spotless system.



I never made such a claim. That phrase simply means that I am willing to spend a little money to save time or avoid doing something I find unpleasant, which you clearly understand based on your "my time is worth money too" so what is with this ******** argument.

While I do enjoy working on my car and cleaning it up, it shouldn't be too hard to understand that I might enjoy washing the car and detailing it in an hour or so, so I could, Oh, I dunno, DRIVE the car, or even just spend some time on something else enjoyable.

It's one thing to enjoy spending time cleaning your car, and another to spend a lot of time to get something that you could have gotten in less than half the time, with the proper equipment. Imagine spending 3 hours to get a car that looks like you spent an hour washing it... How happy are you with that? I have better things to do with my 2 hours of free time.

I didn't say a simple wipe down with Quick Detailer, I said I would take a bottle of quick detailer and a towel and spend and hour or two cleaning the car up.

The point is that with the CR Spotless system you can wash your ******* car whenever and however the **** you want to wash your ******* car instead of having to wait until 7 PM on a Saturday night when you would rather be ******* your wife instead.

JARblue

touche

moar wife fuckin!

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