Blue Streak1976

Last year I bought a house that has well water and the whole 3 barrel water softening system. Last summer, I was washing my Regal in the driveway and my neighbor said I was nuts and the well water will leave a residue on the paint. Turns out it did and I had to scrub and scrub it to get it the residue off. Something not ideal.

Now I am thinking when I wash the new C7...I dont want to wash at home, nor drive it through a car wash or the manual wash. The only other option is a touch less car wash, but the closest one to me is like 25 miles that I know of.

Any suggestions?.

KenHorse

We're on a well but we have very good iron/calcium/manganese filtering and have never had a problem washing any of our cars. And this is since 1997 at this address.

I just don't wash in the direct sun, never allow the water to dry on the car until I'm done washing (keep wetting down already washed areas if I have to).

No problems

tentorium

Is there a way to add further in line filtration?

Agreed as above, use shade to your advantage and don't let the water sit too long. Maybe ramp up your routine by regular use of clay bar or the new fave nanoskin, ph balanced car shampoo and good MF towels.

Glen e

go to autogeek.net - store - they sell in line filtration systems...

LT1xL82

If it were me, I would get the water both before and after the softener tested by a competent lab. That will tell you what is in the water, how well the softener is working, and what needs to be changed, if anything.

NSC5

Post softener it should not be a problem. I am on a well in central IL and use a separate iron filter followed by a softener. I certainly wouldn't use it when flushing the cooling system but it has never been a problem washing vehicles or anything else.

You could always do a final rinse with distilled water, it wouldn't take much but I doubt if it is needed if your softener is doing its job. I do some vintage electronic restoration and in the few cases where a chassis cleaning is needed I use distilled for that but I have never needed it for vehicle washing.

Much "commercial" water starts as well water anyway in many parts of the country

Whataguy

I don't know if it's the same problem you have, but due to the hard city water we have here, I sometimes get water spots if I have to wash it in the sun. What I've found is that if I use a spritzer bottle with 5-10% white vinegar and 90-95% house tap water (which runs thru a filter and softener), it allows me to dry the car and the water spots go away. Might be worth a try.

14 Red Z51 Vette

I have a well also and use a water softener with salt. I have washed cars with the water softener and without. The main thing is to get the excess water off asap by either using a leaf blower and shammy rag or microfiber towels or some combination of them. I them usually use a quick detailer asap. Never had any issues unless I was in the sun and in that case, no matter what method you use, you will have water spots which are a whole norther problem.

Modshack

Try this...It's very nice stuff, meant to be used while the car is still wet..

http://www.autogeek.net/prima-hydro-spray-wax.html

Second Vette

If the Well is wide enough, get some nice strong Chain and rent a Crane.

z51vett

Water softening in NJ uses salt so you are washing with salt water that will remove wax in a hurry.
z51vett
Doug

KenHorse

wtf????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????

pcara

Move to a new house with softer water!

00247

Double check to see if your outside hydrant is plumbed through the water softener. Often they are plumbed direct from the well bypassing the softener to cut down on salt usage and use of the unit overall.

For the uninformed, salt regenerates the system, it doesn't create full time salt water. Unless it's f'ded up. The salt that gets in the usable water is minuscule.

NSC5

Not quite, the salt used in the softener in conjunction with the ion exchange resin replaces calcium and magnesium ions in the water with sodium ions. If someone is on an extreme sodium restricted diet and the softener water input is very "hard" then there might be an issue from increased sodium but this is not salt water.

If you have salt water coming out of your softener either a valve seal has failed or buildup is preventing proper rinse. With ion exchange softeners the resin bed is exposed to the brine mixture during regeneration but the brine draw cycle will continue to draw fresh water after the brine mix is consumed rinsing out most of the salt from the resin bed and this is followed by a vigorous backwash cycle to flush any remaining salt from the resin before the softener goes back into service.

KenHorse

People hear "sodium" and immediately think of salt whereas in most water softeners, we're dealing with sodium ions, not sodium chloride and the back flushing brine solution is used to only to replace accumulated minerals with sodium ions.....

(hence my post about WTF!)

SimpleC6

Check out something called the SpotlessCR. It gets pretty good reviews from what I've seen. It might work for you.

NSC5

Ken,

This misunderstanding brings back fun memories of the dihydrogen monoxide hoax on the internet

The only time I have had salt water come out of a water softener was at a friend's cabin equipped with a Kinetico dual tank system run completely by water pressure and it looked like the metering/control system was designed by a crazed ex cuckoo clock designer. He had it repaired 3 times in the first 4 years of ownership and it would still intermittently dump quite a slug of salt laden water in the house supply after regen. He stubbornly kept having it fixed because he paid so much for it in the first place. If it was mine it would be awaiting garbage pickup.

$$$frumnuttin'

This is what I have been using for years...de-ionized water...rinse, then walk away..no need to even dry the car....no spots at all...just like rainwater...not cheap but great for cars and for washing windows on the house too.