The Spot Free Water Softener / Filtration System
A Review by Rockpick
© 2006

Disclaimer – I have absolutely no affiliation with any of the vendors or manufacturers mentioned within this review. The information contained herein is solely of my own collection and presentation. Any variations, suggestions, or incurred information should be used at your own risk.


After several posts in the past with me griping about the water quality that I have present in my neck of the woods (Example #1 / Example #2), I have finally opted to bite the bullet and purchase the Spot Free Water Filter and Water Softener System. I purchased this unit from Auto Detailing Solutions a few weeks ago while gathering some other goodies. At this point in the game, I was ready to try just about anything out there on the market in an effort to attempt to reduce the calcium carbonate levels in my tap water. Owning two ‘dark’ colored vehicles (black and Eddie Bauer dark green), the necessity was clear and present. Add that to the fact that I detail vehicles on the weekend as a sideline and the choice was clear.

I weighed a few options for a household water softening system but decided against it because I wanted something specifically for washing the vehicles. Further, I couldn’t justify the expense involved with the installation of a water softening system for the house as I simply don’t see us in this house more than a few more years and the tremendous lack of space for such a system…

With that in mind, let’s take a look at this system from a standard review standpoint…

1. PACKAGING – Bomb proof. This thing comes packaged in a box that could double as a casket. Further, the pre-filter, filter, hoses, test strips, and salt cartridge come zip-tied to a piece of painted plywood. The filter itself is secured at both the inlet and outlet with pieces of wood that are wood screwed to the plywood. Additionally, there is a metal strap that extends across the top of the filter from wood piece to wood piece to hold the filter in place. I really feel like you could give this thing some SERIOUS abuse in shipping and it would actually survive. On a scale of 1 – 10, this thing is packaged along the lines of a 15. It literally took me about 5 full minutes to just get everything out of the box – and that required the use of a pair of Craftsman snips and some elbow grease with a Phillips screwdriver. It’s a little bulky from a shipping standpoint – I honestly thought they had goofed and had sent me a ‘case’ of filters as it was packaged within another box for shipping. I don’t know the exact measurements but, it was large and it was around 40 pounds.

2. INSTRUCTIONS – These are only average. Honestly, I’m disappointed in the level of instruction that they provide as this is a high dollar piece of equipment. The instructions consisted of a single page with a few bulleted/numbered items. I suppose they consider the purchaser to be of above-average confidence and intelligence when it comes to water filtration because, one could, pretty easily, be a little bit intimidated by making this thing work. In a nutshell, the only thing that the instructions really tell a person is to let it run for 2 minutes before initial use and to use the salt canister to recharge it around every 1000 gallons. To me, this seemed way too generic. I believe it would be beneficial if they would add a ‘packing’ list of some sort that showed a picture of the pieces along with descriptions. Also, a nice picture of the thing all hooked up would be nice (although, there is a generic schematic printed on the casket – urrr, box. On a scale of 1-10, the instruction packet gets a 4. Fortunately though, I felt confident enough to put it all together and make it work without having to go through much heart ache. One tip, if you do go with this filtration unit, unwrap the carbon filter that is in the pre-filter unit. It’s stuck in there but, it has plastic wrap on it.

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3. PARTS AND PIECES – There are seven pieces in the box. This consists of: two hoses (one two footer, one four footer), a salt cartridge, a carbon filter, a pre-filter housing, a bottle of Hach Hardness Test Strips, and, of course, the Spot Free Water Filter. All of the items are of impeccable quality and seem to be top notch. Everything feels sturdy. The hoses are very nice grade with brass fittings – the filter even has two ‘caps’ that screw on the inlet and outlet for storage. Long story short, it’s a very high quality product and, in my eyes, they didn’t skimp anywhere. On a scale of 1 – 10, everything, from a product quality standpoint, gets a 10.

4. EASE OF USE – Ultra simple. Once you figure it out, there’s NOTHING to it… nothing. Basically, drop the carbon filter in (unwrapped), screw some hoses together, screw on your hose from the house and you’re good to go. As recommended and aforementioned, I allowed it to run wide open for over 2 minutes before the first use. I believe this is so all of the resin material in the filter unit is able to start becoming active and ‘wet’.

5. OVERALL OBSERVATIONS – Impressive. When the folks who market/manufacture this (Sport Masters) item came; they came to play. It’s literally as simple as hooking up a couple of hoses and you’re running. My water, I knew, was going to be challenging. After using the test strips, I was able to determine that my water was, at least, 425 ppm CaCO3. I should add that the test strip went ‘red’ just as soon as the water hit it – not after the recommended couple of seconds before reading the strip. I suspect that the concentrations are actually much higher than what this strip test was able to indicate.

I screwed on my hose to the Spot Free Filter and pulled it over to the truck. The weather was a balmy 50 and it was sunny. I started around 3 pm. On the other end of the hose, I donned the Ultimate Hose Nozzle and I was set to go. Using my two-bucket system, I put in a pre-measured amount of Meguiar’s Gold Class shampoo (my old standby workhorse of a shampoo – look at my truck and you’ll understand why it needed to be a workhorse – HA!). I put a stream of water to the bucket and, IMMEDIATELY, noticed a difference in how many suds were forming. For those of you who have a filter system or soft water, you know what I’m talking about here. The soap looked different… it actually sudded up very quickly and in a very free-flowing fashion. Heck, I didn’t get that much water in the bucket before the suds were overflowing. This isn’t something I was used to. Once I finally got my buckets filled, I moved towards a pre-rinse on the truck.

Honestly, at this point, I really didn’t notice much. I did, however, notice that the hose pressure was still just about the same as what it was typically off of the outdoor spicket. My water pressure is really lousy and thus, I think I would’ve noticed a significant pressure drop across the filters – there wasn’t one.

From here, I begin to wash from top to bottom. With typical fashion with the two-bucket method, I did half of the roof and went to my rinse bucket. I thought I noted that the mitt (a SM Arnold Sheepskin Mitt) felt a little different but I couldn’t convince myself of this – maybe it was just in my head. I went to the other half of the roof and went back and noticed the same thing. Sure enough, this water actually ‘FELT’ different. I confirmed this repeatedly as I went forward with the washing cycles on each panel.

After completing the wash – twice (yes, I washed my truck twice – look at it! The salt was THICK!), I went for a final rinse with the Spot Free treated water. This is where we were going to test to see if it was, indeed, spot free.

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I waited a few minutes and circled the truck. I listened to my neighbor gripe about how horrible his car looks now and how great it looked after I detailed it for him(the Maxima). I then watched the same neighbor drag out his hose and wash his Isuzu Rodeo – with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. Needless to say, I was cringing. Keeping with the task at hand, I didn’t go over and offer much advice. About 5 to 8 minutes had elapsed and I was starting to see VERY (and I mean very) light spotting. I can’t stress how light they were.

Upon recognition of this light spotting, I proceeded to pull out the waffle-weaves and blot the rest of it dry but, I left the roof as that was going to be my testing ground for total drying without a towel or other mechanical method – I wanted to see how it would do…

Just for giggles, while the roof was drying on its own, I turned the water off and disconnected the hose from the wall. I then took one of the water hardness test strips and did a quick experiment. I then took one from the filtered water directly out of the hose…Here’s the result…



Obviously, the right is the untreated and the left is the treated. In short, the filter was actually knocking down the hardness to the tune of over 400 ppm and I suspect much more. I should also add that I used a LOT of water during this single wash as the truck was unbearably filthy. Not exactly sure of the total volume but, I’d estimate it somewhere in the vicinity of around 300 gallons – very rough guesstimate… mind you, the filter is rated for around 1000 gallons. With my water, I suspect it’ll be considerably less.

Well, the water on the roof dried eventually and it yielded much along the lines of what I was seeing when it was air-drying elsewhere; that being very very slight water spotting.

To say the least, I was AMAZED. If I had let my ‘tap’ water dry in that fashion, I would’ve been moving towards a chemical mixture to remove water spots or I would’ve been polishing it because of the etching that my water would’ve introduced. Trust me, this thing was working and working VERY well. I suspect that if you had only slightly hard water that you could, potentially, not dry with mechanical means (aka: only air dry).

6. RECHARGING – One of the really nice things about this system is that it can be recharged over and over again. I’m not sure as to the limitations on recharging but, according to the box, this thing can last for years. To recharge, I’m assuming I simply take the salt cartridge and place it in the pre-filter in the place of the carbon filter. From there, I believe I just turn the water on and allow all of the salt to run through the Spot Free filter. I will, of course, allow this water to run on to my road rather than into my yard – I’d prefer to not have a great big dead spot due to saline water. Also, you’ll note that I say “I believe” and such through that description. Honestly, because of the lack of instructional information, I can only assume here. I believe it’s a safe assumption but, again, I really feel like it should say it.


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7. PRICE – Well, it’s not cheap. I gave around $300 from Auto Detailing Solutions. Is it worth it? ABSOLUTELY. Every last Penny from what I can tell. I had been hesitating on buying this thing as I had researched several other brands including ion-exchange units and even a reverse osmosis unit. Both of the others that I researched were CONSIDERABLY more expensive and brought the additional expense of filters. After over a year of debate, this was the way for me to go. Unfortunately too, I could find NO reviews of this thing on the internet from a perspective that I really trusted. It was mentioned in a few places but, overall, no one was really discussing this unit at all. Hence, my long review… Pricing, on a scale of 1 to 10, it’s an 8.5. Sure, I’d love to see it be cheaper but, you’re really getting what you’re paying for.

8. SUMMARY – This is a keeper. The unit comes packaged in a bomb-proof container and is constructed of very high-end materials. The unit performs as promised and makes a HUGE difference in how the water feels, reacts, and works. The mineral concentration drop across the filter was SUBSTANTIAL whereas the water pressure drop across the filter was nearly non-existent. Recharging appears to be a snap from start to finish. By this simple recharge (with common water softening salt in a cartridge), you’re able to recharge the resin material within the filter unit so that you can use it for ‘years’ to come. The price is reasonably fair for what you get and, overall, is much cheaper than comparable units out there. The only true weakness that I was able to isolate on the system was the bulky nature of the unit. Getting it from the garage to the hose spicket will take a trip or two but, overall, again, it’s worth it. The instructions that come with the unit are poor. I would really like to see Spot Free / Sport Masters come through with something that is more indicative of this high-quality unit. Other that that though, this thing seems SOLID. On a scale of 1-10, I’m going to go out on a limb here and give it a very solid 9.5.

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Here are a few pictures:



This is what the unit looks like out of the shipping box. As you can see, it’s a rather large box (my pooch’s tennis ball is there for scale). I found it beneficial that the packaging was rather plain. Honestly, I hate paying for flashy graphics on the outside of a box. Also, note the zip-ties in the box holding everything in place. You *COULD NOT* move anything that was on the wood board without cutting zip ties. As I’ve said in the text, this thing was bomb-proof… definitely UPS and FEDEX proof – if that’s even possible.



Same deal here. Tennis ball for scale. Again, note the zip ties and wood/metal binding over the filter unit. They package this thing for serious transport.



Here’s the test subject. Note the heavy salt build up. Honestly, this is the dirtiest that my truck has EVER been. Obviously, this was a great test to be this dirty and on black paint… Double whammy. Oh yes, look at the snow in the reflection…



This is the unit in action. From the house, there’s a four foot hose into the pre-filter. The pre-filter contains a carbon cartridge. From there, a two-foot hose goes into the main filter unit. From the unit – to the hose. I should note that the main filter is bi-directional in that it doesn’t matter which end is the inlet / outlet.

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The Spot Free Water Filter.



It’s a crummy picture but, I took this because of the suds. I can’t really totally explain to you how ‘different’ the water felt and worked. For those of us who have hard water, it’s a joyous occasion to have soft water.



The roof of my truck before everything had dried. If you’ll note in the near portion of the picture, you can see the VERY light spotting that I had noted. I’m honestly blown away by it being that light. As I said in the text, if that was straight ‘tap’, I’d be chiseling off the white calcium spots.



A blurry end result. Sorry about the poor picture… the light was getting lower and the camera didn’t get tight on the focus. I should note that I had a couple of ‘runs’ (as usual) from the window seals. These runs were very typical as to the roof spots. A quick hit with Poorboy’s Spray and Wipe and they were history. I finished with a full wipe down with 4-Star Ultimate Gloss Enhancer and it was done… and it looked EXCELLENT.



Feel free to ask questions if you have them. I may not know the answer but I’ll do my best to try to help and/or get the answer.

I hope you enjoyed this review!

-----------Rockpick------------
f150online.com Super Moderator
© 2006

 

That's great,, However I would have spent the $300 on a water softener for the house.. so that the hose + showers have "soft" water..

have you tried the "Mr. Clean" equivalent... i wonder if the filter on that product is capable of adequately filtering the water.

 

Different strokes, different folks. I don't have the space nor the desire to spend the additional cash on a system for the entire house. Also, as I mentioned, I bought it for what I wanted it for -- that being vehicles. Portability is also an issue for me as a detailer who does, on occasion, do a detail at the clients' location with their water.

The Mr. Clean isn't an equivalent... not even REMOTELY close. Not in the same realm... Apples and guava fruit...

Yes, I've tried it... some like it, I thought it was clumsy, lacked pressure and was generally cheap as cheap could get. In a nutshell here, I'm obviously a little more serious about this than going with a $15 flimsy plastic piece of crud.

 

Wow RP. what a review!! Ive been toying with the idea of buying one of these things for a while. Being I do some mobile detailing I was really interested how mobile it was. Excelent review! Your making my want to spend money I dont have.

 

Great review RP....

One comment though, if you think your truck was dirty, you should take a trip up here to the Northeast. You truck is nothing compared to what mine is right now. I am embarrased to say it, but my True Blue truck is just about totally white. I hate to look at it, but hopefully saturday morning I will run it into the shop and give it a quick wash at least.

Thanks again for the thorough review!

 

Brad,

As usual, a very honest and complete review. If the water here was as bad as yours, I'd have one of those bad boys in a minute. (By the way, do you drink that stuff?) One possible suggestion though. Why don't you hard mount (and plumb) all of the pieces to either a board or a small cart so the whole system not only looks more professional, but prevents damage and makes it easier to move into place - like at your neighbor's house. Keep up the good work!

 

Nice review RP. Now I'm going to have to add one of those to "The List". My water isn't too bad here, but bad enough. I'm currently using the Mr. Clean, but I agree that it is somewhat cheaply made.

 

Glad to have posted this guys... my pleasure.

Obviously, it took me a while to write it up and I did it at 1am so, please excuse the grammatical and spelling errors if you find them.

2stroked -- They advertise on the box that it'll produce 'cleaner tasting water' so, I'd guess that you can drink it. Also, the cart idea is something I was considering...maybe I should save that board that it came mounted to eh?

Feel free to toss questions if you have them...

 

Great write up, I hate using the Mr.Clean. I ended up getting a softner that cost alot but it worked great. My problem was more the sprinklers leaving spots. I also got a new spray nosal with 7 settings that also help on reducing spots like the Mr Clean kit.

 

Well, darn. I have tried a couple of other products and have not been satisfied. I guess it boils down to "you get what you pay for" This system would work great for me in Arizona. Also my front spicot does not go into the house. It comes straight off of the line into the house.

Hey, Rock. Maybe this would be something we could put together a group purchase.


Thanks for the info.