Does anyone use Water Treatment Systems for washing your trucks?

[Pitboss02]

Interested in hearing if you folks are using water de-ionizers or other treatments for water spots when washing your trucks.

If so, do you find its worth it? Any particular product you recommend?

For ex: This system from Amazon

 

[RamseyF]

city water and a hose. so I guess thats a no for me

 

[Pitboss02]

Yeah, water is pretty hard around here, so was just curious everyone’s thoughts!

 

[melvimbe]

Yeah, water is pretty hard around here, so was just curious everyone’s thoughts!

You don't want to use that to wash your truck, it's for air drying. The idea behind these and similar products is that it deionizes the water to the point that water that air drying won't leave spots, so you won't have to go through the effort of drying or potentially leaving swirl marks, etc. The filters aren't cheap and you'll go through them too fast if you use it for washing and rinsing, just use it for rinsing.

That said, I believe your link is the brand I've seen others on here recommend. Haven't tried it myself, but have considered it. Don't buy through Amazon though, you can buy direct. https://crspotless.com/

If your water is too hard to wash the truck, I'd probably look at a whole house water softener?

 

[smurfslayer]

I’ve got at least half a dozen folks around me who do mobile detailing, would set me back about 80 bucks IIRC. I hate to admit it, but I’m considering it.

I hate washing Lucille. I have gauge the sun, and if it’s bright, I’m constantly spraying the truck to keep it from sun spotting. I don’t have anywhere that’s really “full shade” so I have to time this so I’m not fighting against the sun as I do this. Then there’s the waxing... wax on, wax off...

One time a few years ago, I spent about 3.5 hours washing and waxing the truck. The next day, my ****** neighbor ( no seriously, he’s from Russia so he’s O.C. not some wannabe ****** like Bernie, though Mike’s really a libertarian ) anyway, his yard care folks come for the annual leaf pickup.

Ho.
Lee.
$hit.

You have seen less dust at Raptor Assault. seriously. EVERY nearby vehicle was covered by a 1/8” layer of dust, driveways, houses, the surrounding street. They had this 3 axle truck with a vacuum like nothing I’ve seen before. It passed all the yard debris through this cloth cover - because it wasn’t filtering $hit.

damn that was aggravating.
Of course, now I have over 300 days of sun / year and I can create a dust cloud that can be seen from space just mowing my grass :-/
#FirstWorldProblems

 

[DINOZR]

Yes, and it works as advertised. I wash my truck and then let it dry. No blowing it off. No drying it. Nothing. And it dries spotless. It's a serious first world problem, but I really do enjoy the solution.

The CR Spotless system you linked is the one I use.

 

[PK37]

My business is water treatment, I have quite a few people that want the outside faucets with raw water …. Until I ask them if they wash the trucks at home …. Then the soft water goes to the outside bibbs

 

[Ryno8551]

Do people hook these up to the pressure washer or just to rinse?

 

[Raptor Vet]

Do you use to wash the whole time or just hook up to rinse?

 

[melvimbe]

Do you use to wash the whole time or just hook up to rinse?

Rinse is the recommendation. It's really the only time you'll get a benefit, and your just wasting the filter media, and money, otherwise.

Do people hook these up to the pressure washer or just to rinse?

Since it's for rinsing, no pressure washer would be needed. Perhaps you could use less water doing it that way, but I would think the longer water line would introduce more containments in the line potential. Not sure, but I would guess it would be worth while to have a dedicated hose for this for that reason?