Real hard water here in Mesa, deionize of soften?

Welcome to Arizona, we have a portable water softener we use to wash our vehicles.

Ours is similar to this one.... http://www.amazon.com/SoftSpot-Portable-400-Blue-Softener-Reducer/dp/B00B4T0COK/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1384658002&sr=8-5&keywords=portable+water+softenerthis....


We also use it to put water in our tanks when we are on the road (or before we leave).

Try 3-4 capfuls of generic baby shampoo in your wash bucket instead of the regular car wash soap.

Duplicate post

Here are some hints for washing a vehicle in AZ. Do not wash your vehicle in the sun. Either just when the sun is gong down or first thing in the am. Do not use the "shower setting" on a hose nozzle. The droplets will cause water spots. Use the full flow setting and flood the vehicle. Wash a small area and dry immediately with a towel or chamois. I learned this from a fellow who lived in a hard water state. Works for me. I can hook up to our water softener and that helps but still will water spot unless I do as a above.

Moisheh

Long term deionize. No salt problems.
We stayed for a couple of months west of Tucson. The water was very hard.
I used whole house carbon block, silver sediment filter cartridge and a follow up .9 micron ceramic,carbon block filter. Probably over duplicated.
A lot of the harness from calcium s suspended and it gets that. Soluable it won't. They will get the sulfur iron and lead etc. Had no problem washing the coach with it nor clothes. an overkill filter system under the sink for faucet and ice maker. The water tasted good from the secondary filter and it probably would from the first. However it was something like tweny five micron, I think, and I thought I needed more perhpaps. The ceramic filter did have some discoloration and took some scrubbing to clean.
They have ceramic/carbon block with silver cartridges on the net now, for any 10 inch canister now. the best spec is like 79.00 I think.
A primary that is less costly to catch the bulk of the nasties and the best one with down to .5 micron Is what I have in the bay awaiting next trip. It doesn't flow but 2 gallons a minute but I can fill the tank and get all the pressure from it that I want.
We still had some very small traces of lime but not enough to cause any problems. The softener thing, I'm thinking if I get one I may have to fill a bay with good pre filter and softener and something to get the salt afterwards. :)

Bob,

Actually, there are two problems with the water - high hardness and a high level of dissolved ions (Total Dissolved Solids, or TDS). A softener will remove hardness ions and replace them with sodium ions, but the TDS will remain high.

When you wash your MH with hard water, hardness can combine with the detergent to produce soap curd. When the water evaporates, the soap curd remains as well as hardness scale (primarily a form of limestone).

With soft water, there should be no soap curd, but there still will be deposits due to the high TDS after the water evaporates. These deposits are sodium salts, like table salt and baking soda. Unlike hardness scale, sodium deposits dissolve easily in water, but then that water evaporates...

With deionized water, there will be essentially no hardness and no TDS. The problem is that, unlike a softener, there is no practical way for you to regenerate the deionizer resin, so you have to replace it. That gets expensive!

Consider doing what car wash operations do. Use a softener for the washing process, which uses the most water. Then use a deionizer for a final rinse.