I just tested my water and found out that its got tons of calcium. I'm afraid to wash my car because it might leave white calcium spots. Anyone else have a problem with hard water?

 

Just about everybody has hard water thanks to modern filtration and treatment.

The trick to dealing with hard water is to not let it dry on the surface of your paint. After washing and rinsing, you need to dry it, preferrably with a waffle-weave microfiber towel. Never wash in the sun as that will dry it and leave hard water spots.

 

Hey!

hard water here too!

the wash is always done in the garage...I have a big garage with nice drainage...so it's always in the shade

I wash the car only when it's totally cool (to keep the car from cooking the water off too fast and drying prematurely)

I keep the car wet everywhere while I'm washing..... it's sometimes an acrobatic act to do this....keeping the whole car wet... and with the wax, the water dries off pretty fast on the vertical surfaces...

When I'm completely done washing / rinsing I take the end off of the hose and use the water stream to make a nice "layer" of water on the horizontal surfaces...capillary action takes over and the water gets pulled off the car by gravity... the roof and hood dry in about 60 seconds...with only a couple of small water droplets (2-3) left behind...

Now that I got all long-winded about this...I guess I could have said:
I try to keep the car as wet and cool as possible until I'm ready to dry it...I never let the water sit and "air dry"... that's what causes the spotting, the water evaporates and leaves the microscopic residue behind...

and keep it waxed, it's much easier and faster to dry a waxed car...

(ok feel free to bash me on my methods)
SO

 

dude...you beat me to it....lol

 

thanks......I'm going to wait for a cool evening this week.

 

Car wash contains water softeners.
Wash the car in the morning or evening. Not in the sun.

 

Now, if you really want to take it to the next level, this is what you need:



http://www.dftowel.com/orderfilter.html

 

I read the link & saw nothing about the components of hard water the plus 2 elements, with a plus charge of 2 electons...calcium & magensium found in most municipal water systems throughout the country.

In the industry these are not removed, but by adding sodium NaCl (salt) convert the positive electrons and thus soften the water so that we leave no nasty minerals on our Z's. A typical water softener softens water by ion exchange, which involves the exchange of the hardness minerals (chiefly calcium and magnesium) for sodium or potassium minerals. The exchange takes place by passing water containing hardness minerals over ion exchange resins in a tank.

As the calcium and magnesium contact the resin in their travel through the tank, they displace sodium or potassium ions. The displaced sodium or potassium ions pass downward through the resin “bed” and out the softener drain; thus, the softener delivers “soft” water.Therefore, a softener merely exchanges one group of non-toxic elements for another group of non-toxic elements
The amazing thing is that common sense tells home & business owners to only use water softeners on the hot water (showers, baths, washing machine & dishwashers). I have yet to run into a home or business owner who treats the the water used for watering the front & back yards of our homes.

So I guess the only solution would for the best water to wash your car with would be with a completely seperate and dedicated reverse osmosis water supply, & even with a dedicated r/o system you will still need a absolute filtration unit to at least 5 microns, and at least 2 filters for backflushing the system before & after r/0 membrane replacement.

I really doubt any of us is this fanatical, so at least wash your car in the shade when the car is cool to the touch, using a quality car was solution. Common sense will work for most owners, take your time, use quality products, and using a chamois for best results

 

not having hard water is a task in itself.
I just dry my car good after washing it with "The Absorber"
If I have any small deposits I hit the whole car with meguiers wet wax, or quick detail. whatever that stuff is called.
You can feel how sexy smooth the car is after that. makes me nipples hard. lol

 

Grab a Mr. Clean car wash kit. Best investment you can make. Has a filter so you can avoid water spots, etc. from crap in the water.

 

I tried my friends MR Clean. He swears by it. But I didnt care for it too much.
I had a deep burgundy car and it left spots on it.
Then again it was sunny out too.

 

Could have needed a filter change as well. I usually get about 3 uses per filter.

 

+1....Dry it in the shade or wash the car @ daybreak...

 

Yeah I get about the same. MrClean autodry works really well every time I do it. I do wish the rinse setting (the one that autodries) would have a little more flow through it though. It's hard to do when it just kind of "mists" like it does. Anyway it still works really well and it's better than drying it by hand.

Maybe I'll get a bunch of distilled water from the chemistry lab and rinse my car in that. That should work awesome uh?

 

+1

You'd probably need quite a lot of distilled though in order to really rinse the car.