De-Ionized water washing system - Does it really work as good as they say?

We talking about this???

IF so, I used one for a while, works, but I found that the filter has to be replaced about every 3 or 4 washes. Saves a couple minutes drying time, but, that's not really a big deal, and it takes much longer to rinse the car.

Of course you do reduce the risk of scratches and swirl marks I guess.

Dave M.
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The Mr. Clean thing acctually works. Shocked the hell out of me but A friend turned me onto it.

It's a good product.

 

I started with the Mr. Clean and moved to the Spotlesswatersystem. IT WORKS EXCELLENTLY! I use it on all my cars. I live in a very hard water area, drys with no spots at all. I use Groits Speedshine after the car drys. Looks fantastic. Worth the money in my book.

 

at a coat per gal, it's cheaper to use distilled water from the store. and yes distilled is cleaner than de-ionized water, de-ionized water doesn't remove organics or impurites, but you're not drinking it so it's not an issue.

 

How much is for Mr. Clean?

 

I manufacture appearance products and I am completely suspect of company claims regarding water spotting. I own the Spotless system and I have no complaints. It works excellent.

 

Given the descriptions and the images, the Spotless System uses ion exchange technology. IX resins 'exchange' hard water positive ions, calcium and magnesium, for soft water ions, typically sodium. Hard water ions are much more prone to water spotting than sodium. However, eventually, the resin is exhausted and you have to replace it...that's where they make their money...just like razor blades and printer cartridges.

Their resins may also exchange negative ions for another negative ion less prove to scaling, e.g. rreplace phosphate with sulfate.

Rinsing a car with DI water and not drying will still leave droplets that will eventually evaporate. As the amount of hardness in your original water increases, the amount of sodium will increase, since the exchange is on a 2 sodium ions for one hard ion basis. I suspect that for really hard water (like here in Texas), the amount of sodium might be sufficient to leave a spot as well; although much less noticeable than hard water spots.

If you want water that has NO ions whatsover, then buy distilled water, as already mentioned, or buy a reverse osmosis system. These are much more expensive if you want one large enough to generate sufficient flow to wash a car (2-5 gpm).

You may see ads for activatedd carbon filters. These do a good job of removing organics, but will do little or nothing for hard water.

 

Water softeners replace calcium and magnesium with sodium.
The DI water system REMOVES the calcium, magnesium and sodium.
I use it on my cars, and I do not dry them.
NO water spots.



From the CR site
http://crspotless.com/index.php?tpl=


Fundamentals of Deionization by Ion Exchange.

Deionization is a method used most often by laboratories to produce purified water on demand. All naturally-occurring water contains dissolved mineral salts. In solution, salts separate into positively-charged cations and negatively-charged anions. Deionization can reduce the amounts of these ions to very low levels through the process of ion exchange. Cations are removed by cation exchange resin. It replaces sodium, calcium, magnesium, and other cations with hydrogen ions (H+). This exchange produces acids which must be removed or neutralized by anion exchange resin. Two general types of anion resin are used for deionization: weak base resin and strong base resin. Weak base resin adsorbs strong acids, while strong base resin exchanges chloride, sulfate and alkaline anions for hydroxide ions (OH-). The hydrogen ions from the cation exchange process combine with the hydroxide ions from the anion exchange process to form water (HOH or H2O). Because the deionization process is so effective, the water quality is usually measured by the water's resistance to electric current (in OHM-cm). The end result is purified water that won't leave mineral deposits - water spots - on your car!

 

Agree.

 

I just used mine today for the first time. I bought it at Costo on-line (it's not in the stores). It may be a little cheaper and maybe has a couple extra knick-knacks thrown in.

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11201522&search=water%20deionizer&Mo=0&cm_re=1_en-_-Top_Left_Nav-_-Top_search&lang=en-US&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&Sp=S&N=0&whse=BC&Dx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntk=Text_Search&Dr=P_CatalogName:BC&Ne=4000000&D=water%20deionizer&Ntt=water%20deionizer&No=0&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Nty=1&topnav=&s=1


I love it. The will still dry the car w/ super-soft detailing towels. My big deal is avoiding spots accumulating is the black area in the front of the door jambs and under the hood and engine compartment.

It has a lot more pressure and volume than the Mr. Clean which was my #1 problem w/ that unit

 

Given the info that Brian explained, do you wash with regular water and then use the spotless system for rinsing only?

 

I just bought the above system. I washed the car like normal then used the $ 400 CR Spotless system only to rinse. I purposely left all the water beading up on the car alone, no removal from the windows or anything. There was a lot on the car but it was the rinse water from the CR Spotless system. It was in bright sunlight. When it dried it was, well, spotless. It is the only way to go.

aehaas

 

Thanks for the link, very interesting product. It's tough in the summer, even in my cooler climate with morning marine layer to dry fast enough to keep the water spots away. I'm wondering how often the resin has to be replaced in these systems to keep them working. It's not cheap to replace it it seems. I could get a lot of bottles of distilled water and pour it over the car to rinse for the cost of the resin refills. A pain to do that but if the resin has to be replaced a lot then maybe worth it.

Jeff

 

The unit from Costco comes with an extra resin to replace the used materials when needed. I've used mine about 8 times, works great and still no indication of any degradation of materials. There is a monitor on the unit to give the user information about units effectiveness. I'm still at 0. Don't know how many washes I will get, but using it only for final rinse, seems like it will last for some time.

 

As we were just discussing this in the coolant thread....what about corrosion? DI water, and distilled water (now that a I’ve actually though about it ) are corrosive to any metal parts….but maybe not enough to really be concerned about???

Anybody have any thoughts about this???

 

I have thoughts. For several years I have considered purchasing one of these type units but I hesitated. I was worried about the corrosion. As it turns out the water evaporates fast enough not to be a problem even where it collects inside the car.

When you use the distilled / DI water in your house plumbing on a constant basis you will get accelerated corrosion but only somewhat more than city or well water. It makes a difference in the long term but not in the short term. I feel it is a non-issue for car washing.

aehaas

 

My corrosion book lets me down a bit here….everything in the book deals the charge transfer via ions thought the water which is clearly not the case with DI water, which for all practical purposes is non-conductive. I see nothing in the book that applies.

It appears to be more a solubility problem than a standard electochemical corrosion issure.

I found this in a discussion about DI cooling loops:
http://lytron.com/support/di.htm

"Care must be exercised when using DI water. The very lack of ions also makes this coolant unusually corrosive. Called the "universal solvent," DI water is one of the most aggressive solvents known. In fact, to a varying degree, it will dissolve everything to which it is exposed. Therefore, all materials in the cooling loop must be corrosion-resistant."

The time thing might be right though, unless the water collects anywhere, like on the engine



Care must be exercised when using DI water. The very lack of ions also makes this coolant unusually corrosive. Called the "universal solvent," DI water is one of the most aggressive solvents known. In fact, to a varying degree, it will dissolve everything to which it is exposed. Therefore, all materials in the cooling loop must be corrosion-resistant.

 

I agree, DI water can be very corrosive. But, what applies to pipes in your HVAC does not really apply to washing a car.

I would be more worried about getting a good calcium carbonate spotty film on the paint and then grinding it around when you rub it dry!

And, of course, in your radiator you will be using an antifreeze with a corrosion inhibitor - right?

 

In the radiator, I'm not sure how effective the corrosion inhibitors would be, at least at first. All the corrosion inhibitors I've seen are design to prevent/reduce electrochemical reactions....but DI doesn't appear to fall into the category, it appears to act as a solvent. It won't stay DI very long though, then it should stop acting as a solvent and since the water stays in generally for a year of more at a time, I'd guess the effect is negligible

Probably right about the paint, my main concern would be the DI water that puddles on the engine (at least on a 308 with big vents right over the engine)….and unlike the radiator example you get fresh DI with every wash…it’s still probably negligible I guess.

 

Agreed again...and I don't want to get into an industrial water treatment debate here, having already been told that I don't know what I am talking about. BUT -

The point is well taken - it won't stay DI very long, and after a little dissolved material gets in it, then the conductivity goes up and you can get the usual dissimilar metal electrolysis. The formulas for inhibition in radiator water I have seen usually have some kind of organic additive that tends to have a filming effect to insulate the surfaces from this - but I always worry about it wearing out on engines like ours which are aluminum alloy. I have my ZR1 flushed out once a year, and I guess I may do that on the Testarossa, too.