I wanted to bring this one back to the top...

Is anyone using one of these? The calcium in my water is about to drive me to drink...

 

RP,

Why not try one of these?

http://www.waterfilters.net/culligan...gan-RV-600.htm

For $20 it might be worth a try. If you have an RV place nearby, most of them handle Culligan.

 

I've considered it and, actually, have looked at that exact one on ebay.

I think what I may do is get a dual-cartridge hose filter and use a carbon and a resin filter inline. I have to do something.... This is out of control.

RP

 

Yep, even if they only "reduce" the calcium... it will be better than nothing. I think just about any of them will help. The issue might be with enough water pressue.

Good luck, and keep us posted RP.

 

I'm still in the evaluation stages of this thought but, for $100, I might just toss it at the hose filters. Like you mentioned, I too am concerned about pressure drop across the filters.

I'd love to have 'softer' water in the house but, the systems I'm exploring are a bit pricey. While I know you get what you pay for with something like this (like most things in life), I'm just not ready to invest over 1K in a system for the entire house. Plus, I don't see us in this house (our first house) for more than 4-8 more years if all goes as planned. I'd hate to dump a bunch of $ and time into something that we, ultimately, had to move and reinstall or leave in place with a minimal return on the money...

I don't know... maybe I'm thinking about this all wrong but, I just see this as another item in my detailing aresonal and thus, I struggle to spend that type of $...

The US FILTER guy that I had on board to try to help me out vanished from their company. They now bounce me to some girl's desk when I call for support and she doesn't seem to know what in the world is going on. Plus, that guy and I had a pretty good deal going because of some filtration equipment that I had bought from him for a BIG groundwater remediation site up in South Bend, Indiana... long story short, with the commission he got off that sale, he could've probably done something for me at a low cost. Oh well...

RP

 

Ion Exchange! The resin is charged with the salt...the sodium ions attach to the resin during re-generation. As the hard water passes through the resin, the calcium ions exchange place with the sodium ions (same thing for KCL).

The best thing to do is to spring for the whole house softener! Plumb it to the cold water side of the water heater. Then you get softened water in the house for the important stuff like laundry, dish washing, and bathing. Use the spigot on the water heater to wash your car, and it's a done deal! I haven't had a softener in many years, but that is what I did at the time.

You cannot irrigate your yard with this water!!!!!
Do not buy a Culligan softener! You will pay twice as much!!! Try Fleck or others like it.

It can also help if you have family members with skin conditions like eczema!

Just my two cents worth!

Regards,
Kevin

 

Rock Pick,

Culligan is a US Filter Co, or at least they were! Check Grainger for a Fleck unit (about $ 700), or Sam's club for a GE unit ($ 400). You can probably find some good deals at the local home shows!
Until recently, US Filter was a French owned company (Vivendi) you know the Universal Studio's people...and all of the public opinion regarding the French...Just my littlte soap box!The are now owned by Siemens.

There are so many benefits to a softener. Reduces the water spots in the shower, reduced need for soap...and like I mentioned previously the medicinal benefits for the skin!

When I purchase my next house I am putting one in.

Regards,
Kevin

 

Argh... I can't irrigate with the water?

That's a deal killer by itself. I'm just about as picky about my yard as I am about my vehicles (if that's possible) and thus, with no subfloor or basement (I'm on a slab), there'd be almost no way to differentiate between what water goes where without some MAJOR work.

Thanks for the insight but, it looks like I'm VERY limited on what I'm going to be able to do... it looks like a hose filter is in my future.

-RP-

 

I'm on a well (lots of calcium in the water).

I switched over to a Mr. Clean Auto Dry two weeks ago. Not a bit of spot on the truck and I don't have to dry it.

Works great. The glass was as clear as could be, I didn't have to get out any glass cleaner and newspapers.

Sams club had their "mega-pack" for $34, came in a hard plastic carry case and extra filter and soap.

I wouldn't wash the car with anything else now. I think the manual says it de-ionizes the water in the filter on the last spray down step after washing.

www.mrcleanautodry.com says they are using a PuR filter:

"Filter Technology
Mr. Clean AutoDry features filter technology from the makers of PUR®. The Mr. Clean AutoDry Filter removes water impurities, which can cause spots. When you spray your car with filtered water, make sure to look for the microbeads that dance across your car, then evaporate without leaving spots.

The filter works together with the Mr. Clean AutoDry Soap to dry your car to a spot-free finish every time."

 

I'm familar with the MrC AD system but, I'm very worried about blowing through filters like no body's business. Those darn things are pricey!

But, then again, I'm looking at dumping nearly $100 into a hose system...

 

The mega pack came with the starter filter that says it will handle 3 washes and a normal filter that will handle 10 washes, with the note that the number of washes is somewhat arbitrary and your mileage may vary. It says the way you know the filter needs to be changed is by the restricted flow when it's on filter mode. The normal filters have a sort of display area on the side where you can see when enough particulate/whatever has filled it up.

I'm still on the starter filter after washing 5 times. I had a bunch of myakka fine sand stuck to my truck and other vehicles.

I really have a lot of calcium in my water. When I filled up my pool it took a lot to reduce the hardness and not see the calcium precipitating out in the test vials.

The auto dry has 4 settings:
Jet rinse (higher pressure, lower volume, unfiltered)
rinse (lower pressure, higher volume, unfiltered)
soap (unfiltered)
final spray (filtered)

The wash steps are like this:
-rinse everything down
-soap small sections and use mitt to wash
-rinse sections as you finish each
-After all soaping/rinsing is done you final spray (which is the only time it uses the filter) from top to bottom about 12" away from the vehicle to displace all of the unfiltered rinse water

If you go really slow you would probably fill the filter much sooner. It doesn't take me long to final spray the vehicle so I guess I'm getting longer life on the filter.

I don't have to chamois or wipe/dry off anything. It just dries without any spots at all, which saves a ton of time for me.

(They also like to tout that you can carry the wash case with you and was your vehicle at your destination to keep it clean since all you need is access to a hose and won't have any wet chamois/towels to deal with and it's quick)

 

If I were to purchase this system, it'd be strictly for water filtration... I'm pretty desperate at this point... maybe I'll give it a try.

 

Rock Pick,
You can irrigate if you hook the softener to the inlet to the water heater. It is isolated to the hot water system at that point.

The hot water cleans the car pretty good!

Regards!

 

I'm on a slab and thus, I have nearly no accessibility to my water lines short of ripping through walls... that's my drawback to really doing this the way that I'd like for it to work.

RP

 

The soaping portion, they claim, is very mild and just lays on top of your wax, and aids in the displacement of water.

Here's what they claim in their section on softened water versus Mr. Clean (http://www.homemadesimple.com/mrclea...ies_manual.pdf):

"What is the difference between the Mr. Clean AutoDry Filter and softening water? Mr. Clean AutoDry Filter is actually de-ionizing the water! Most conventional water softeners remove calcium and magnesium ions by replacing them with sodium ions. Therefore, “softened” water contains sodium chloride, or salt, which leaves visible water spots on your car. Mr. Clean removes cations AND anions in the water like calcium, magnesium, sodium and chloride such that the water left behind does not leave a water spot."

And about the soap:
"Does it leave a film behind? Does it affect the polish or the wax? Mr. Clean AutoDry doesn’t leave behind a film, just a temporary, thin layer of the Dry-Rinse Polymer molecules that are replenished each time the car gets washed. These do not strip the wax, or harm the paint or clearcoat in any way."