Washing the car

[skiph]

I have to admit, I did not start thinking about which water to use when washing my car until I saw the thread on hard water rings on the paint.

 

I have two choices:

- Straight from the City, and that is pretty hard, and tends to leave some water marks

- Run a hose from the back of the house, that is after the water goes through a water softener.

 

I've been using the straight up city water, and now I'm thinking about if it might be better to use the water after the softener. But, the water softener does use salt. A minute amount, but that's what I fill it up with regularly.

 

So thoughts, comments?

[07 NAJA]

Perrier....

[TexasShelby]

I live in a town that you have to not only have a watersoftener, but an RO unit as well. Or buy bottled. And to think I pay over $150/month for the crappy city water.

 

If you wash your car with soft water, you're doing nothing more than washing it with salted water. You need a filtered or RO type water for the best results when you do your final rinse. And never let it air dry.

 

I've used a little car wash sprayer from MR. Clean that works very well for a single car type of application. I load it with ICE brand car wash liquid and use a synthetic brush to wash it with and dry it immediately with a SPRITE chamois from NAPA. (I've had one cloth 15 years with no signs of wearing out anytime soon). I limit the rinses per filter to about 3 for my car and never wash it in the sun.

 

Here is a larger application if you have more cars around the house to wash. It works great. NOTE: even with this sysem, I would still take care to dry my car in the shade and not let it air dry.

 

Car wash filer system

 

Hope this helps

[07-2937]

I always use soft water I put a separate spigot in my garage for this. Cars dry so fast here If i used city water water spots would form so fast i couldnt dry it quick enough....its the same as a spot free rinse!!

[doogie65]

I live in a rural area and my well water is very hard, thus making it not suitable for car washing. As with the previous post, I use a soft water spigot in my garage and never have any spotting issues. I figure if the softened water is good enough to drink, it should be fine for washing the cars.

 

I accidently used unsoftened water on one of the DD cars once and it made a mess on the paint.

[skiph]

Sounds like running a hose from the back of the house where the softened water is best as it's a bit pricey to buy a filter. Yea, my better half would love the idea of buying something like a reverse-osmosis filter system for the car..

 

It's super humid here, so do my best to never let it air dry, but things happen.

 

Thanks all!

[Slabo]

I live in a town that you have to not only have a watersoftener, but an RO unit as well. Or buy bottled. And to think I pay over $150/month for the crappy city water.

 

If you wash your car with soft water, you're doing nothing more than washing it with salted water. You need a filtered or RO type water for the best results when you do your final rinse. And never let it air dry.

 

I've used a little car wash sprayer from MR. Clean that works very well for a single car type of application. I load it with ICE brand car wash liquid and use a synthetic brush to wash it with and dry it immediately with a SPRITE chamois from NAPA. (I've had one cloth 15 years with no signs of wearing out anytime soon). I limit the rinses per filter to about 3 for my car and never wash it in the sun.

 

Here is a larger application if you have more cars around the house to wash. It works great. NOTE: even with this sysem, I would still take care to dry my car in the shade and not let it air dry.

 

Car wash filer system

 

Hope this helps

 

 

 

+1 on the CR spotless system. works great. Only way I can wash my car without spots.

[ilmor]

I use Mr. Clean Auto Dry - otherwise I get those damn spots!! :jackinbox:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Mr-Clean-AutoDry-System-Starter/dp/B0006M56CE/ref=sr_1_1/190-9155883-9019608?ie=UTF8&s=automotive&qid=1284542600&sr=8-1