A little help regarding hard water...

Well the first of this month I bought my first home. For the first 3 weeks I've been in the house I had no problems with hard water. For what it's worth I have never dealt with hard water myself, but I have read a few stories about it. Now it appears all of the sudden I have hard water, how does it all of the sudden happen... :shakehead:

Well this past Friday I was washing my black 2000 Civic. I washed the car late in the afternoon after the sun was below the houses around me. As I was drying the car I noticed some spots on the paint that were not there before. She is just a beater so I really didn't care. Well the spots didn't go away after QD'ing. Saturday I was washing my GF's 2008 TC with the fear of this happening again. So I washed the vehicle quickly just in case. As I was flooding the car with water I noticed the minerals forming on the all glass roof. I think I got the car all dried and QD'd without any spots. Maybe one or 2 on the paint but none on the glass... :shrug:

Anyways, now I've noticed some spotting on silverware and dishes in the house. My question is as far as washing cars, is the CRSpotless system my only option do fix this? I want the system anyways but don't wanna fork over the money just yet. Is there any quick fix besides switching to ONR? And also what about for in the house, any thoughts to soften the water?

Thanks,

Kyle

 

Sounds like you need a water softener for the house, and a CR Spotless for the cars! It sucks that you have hard water, but if you do, then you might just have to bite the bullit and get the two systems.

By the way, I hate taking a shower in a house that has a water softener. It's like you cannot ever get yourself dried off!

 

It's just weird how it's all of the sudden. I don't know how it would, but could it have something to do with all of the fires we have in California right now?

 

Somewhere in the ask-this-old-house episodes you can find information on a hard water softener installed in Arizona (or Nevada can't remember). It is basically a really large tank that uses salt and a big filter to 'soften' the water. They were frustrated with more than just spots, something like crazy deposits all over the place, the yard and everything. Looked like a pretty professional piece of equipment, that probably set them back 5k with install at the very least.

Also, the way it was setup, you would get the 'soft' water to the spigot for the car as well, but you still may want to go the CR system for washing the car if it's black and the softening doesn't do what you want it too. then again, it might be just fine for your process. Others who have a system will need to chime in.

IB

 

^ With what little findings I could about it said that with using the salt type softener, using it on cars is similar to using salt water. Obviously not the same, but that wouldn't be good for the car either...

 

I only know about water chemistry from home brewing so I'm no expert but....You might want to look into a reverse osmosis system for the house if it's that bad. As for washing the cars - CR Spotless or ONR + distilled water ?? Not sure if the RO system will feed the outside and inside or just the inside.

 

Water softener:
Salt does not directly soften water; salt is only used to regenerate water softeners. The salt creates brine, which flushes the resin bed in the water softener to restore the univalent sodium ions. The sodium does an ion exchange with the hardness metals (calcium, magnesium, etc), so basically the hardness metals are replaced with sodium.

The water to be treated passes through a bed of the resin; negatively-charged resins absorb and bind metal ions, which are positively charged. The resins initially contain a divalent (single) hydrogen, sodium or potassium ions, which exchange with divalent calcium and magnesium ions in the water. This exchange eliminates precipitation and soap scum formation. As the water passes through both kinds of resin, the hardness ions replace the hydrogen, sodium or potassium ions which are released into the water. The "harder" the water, the more hydrogen, sodium or potassium ions are released from the resin and into the water


For mor information on water filtration etc see - Water Filtration - Water Filtration - DetailingWiki

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For hard water you need a water softener. One like this here.
Water Softener | Resin Water Softener | Culligan Gold Series | Culligan Gold Seriesâ„¢ Water Softener

I have one in my house, it's a different brand then the one from the link.

Before I installed mine I had rusty water which left me with spots on dishes, fixtures staining, etc.

If you have your water tested they can tell you whats needed and you will not need the cr.

 

I had a Kenetico whole house water softener put in for the same reasons when doing my car but we were having problems with staining (calcium deposits,etc) inside the house. It really is nice. Car soaps work better (more suds, cleans better) and you can use less detergents inside the house (laundry, dish washer, etc). When they tested my water initially it was at least 7 grains hard (one guy said 9) which is considered hard water. Most sellers of softeners will test your water for free but get several people to do the reads since they can vary.

Watch out for Rainsoft salespeople in since it is a high pressure and high price sell job.

If you read the internet stuff, there is a debate on the health of salt (NaCl) since there is salt added to the water (just not from the pallets themsleves but through the process described above). Potassium Cl is 3x as expensive has no "health" concerns but there is a FUD. The amount of salt added is supposedly no more than a soft drink (oz for oz). I did take the advice (just to be safe) and not have the purge water (when the resins clean themselves) dump into the yard instead of the septic tank. This recleaning process can use a lot of water == some systems are much more efficient than others.

 

The more I think about this. Why the heck I don't have one is beyond me. If I can wash my car and not worry about drying it, that would be the best. Not to mention less chance for scratching the paint.

I see at Sam club online they have the cr but just one filter and it's good for 200 gallons. Also this filer isn't on the cr website. Is this one ok to go with if I want to buy local?