Hard Water Spots-- What to do ?

[ford_truck_guy]

I have very hard water ( well water) at home and getting tired of always drying the trailer after washing.

What are some tips , secretes you all may be doing to make it easier ?? I am NOT getting any younger ! 🙂

I have heard of using a leaf blower to blow off excess water , does that work ?
I also heard of folks using soap (Rainex) that says it stops water spots?
How about inline hose water filters ?? any suggestions there ??

Joe

[down_home]

Calcium in suspension will be taken out by a good filter. Dissolved won't but the stuff the filter catches that is in suspension will gather some of the dissolved. A good filter helps a lot, particuarly with, iron magnesium and sulfur and other things that make for the real bad spotting.
Use the car wash that says no spotting or fights spotting.
Some use dishwasher water spot remover like Jet Dry in the bucket but it must be after washing the first round.
I think I would try first the good filter and no spot car wash. It has something, like Jet Dry, in it, I'm told and wash one side rinse and dry quickly then the other side, after doing the roof first.
It helps to wash real early when dew is on the coach and dry before sun does.

[lynndiwagon]

Use 50/50 water and vinegar to get them off. Rinse. If your only source of water is hard then you will have to get a softener. They are easy to install and you can buy them off of the internet. I have bought two from this place and had real good luck.

[JoeH]

Winged One wrote:
I have been in the same house for 24 years. Terrible well water. Softener, the best that Culligan has, brings the well water down from over 1000 ppm to right around 195 ppm. That water still leaves the vehicle dirtier than when I started.

Putting another whole house water filter gets it down to 145. Not good enough, not by far.

I hated taking the trailer 20 miles to a wash bay, that I had to turn the trailer around to get both sides and it still needed work when I got home.

Finally decided to try Spotless water system.

It worked as advertised. I wash, rinse with the water from the system, and let dry. Absolutely clean. Zero spots. Amazing clean.

Downside: Expensive. They advertise that you should get 300 gallons of clean water from the largest system (DIC-20 that I have). No way I got that much. I washed 1 car, 1 truck, 2 motorcycles, and 1 40ft 5th and the resin was done. I used the water as directed (only as a final rinse).

I contacted them and they said the 300 gallons is based on their San Diego water that they claim is 400 ppm. They said I should get 500 gallons. No way I used that much water. They have a 30 day money back guarantee.

I did decide to keep it and am going to use additional measures to stretch out the amount of clean water you get.

Summary: Spotless works perfectly. However, do everything you can to use as little as possible, as the resin is expensive.

I have a spotless also and wash my motorcycle,pickup and 43ft MH with it. Truck gets washed about once a month, the MH 4x a year and the bike as needed. It lasted 2 years before I had to replace the resin. Bought the unit at Costco and it came with a resin refill.
Works great.

To the OP, I also pour a bit of Calgon water softener ( available at Wally World) into the wash water bucket. I was reading that some recommend a bit of vinegar in the water also..... I'll try that next time.

[LarryJM]

I use a Ca. "water blade" when washing both my Van and trailer that removes 95% of the water and then a quick finish with a micro fiber cloth or towel and it's dry.

Larry

[debaets]

I've heard that adding some JetDry to the wash water helps with spots, haven't tried it though.

[Winged_One]

I have been in the same house for 24 years. Terrible well water. Softener, the best that Culligan has, brings the well water down from over 1000 ppm to right around 195 ppm. That water still leaves the vehicle dirtier than when I started.

Putting another whole house water filter gets it down to 145. Not good enough, not by far.

I hated taking the trailer 20 miles to a wash bay, that I had to turn the trailer around to get both sides and it still needed work when I got home.

Finally decided to try Spotless water system.

It worked as advertised. I wash, rinse with the water from the system, and let dry. Absolutely clean. Zero spots. Amazing clean.

Downside: Expensive. They advertise that you should get 300 gallons of clean water from the largest system (DIC-20 that I have). No way I got that much. I washed 1 car, 1 truck, 2 motorcycles, and 1 40ft 5th and the resin was done. I used the water as directed (only as a final rinse).

I contacted them and they said the 300 gallons is based on their San Diego water that they claim is 400 ppm. They said I should get 500 gallons. No way I used that much water. They have a 30 day money back guarantee.

I did decide to keep it and am going to use additional measures to stretch out the amount of clean water you get.

Summary: Spotless works perfectly. However, do everything you can to use as little as possible, as the resin is expensive.

[Hank_MI]

We have a well and whole house softener. I re-plumbed one outside faucet so I could switch between straight well water or softened water. A hose filter, even a whole house filter won't remove the dissolved minerals (calcium, lime, etc.) in the water. They'll remove small particles from the water but not the dissolved minerals.

[donkeydew]

i use one of the cheapy camco in line water filters on my wash hose and a leaf blower. it helps but still needs a little wiping.

[ford_truck_guy]

gbopp wrote:
You're from Pennsylvania. BEER is the answer. The more you drink, the less you care about the water spots.
And, you're helping the economy at the same time. 🙂

That's my issue now... I drink and see twice as many spots ! I am never done ! ! :B

[gbopp]

You're from Pennsylvania. BEER is the answer. The more you drink, the less you care about the water spots.
And, you're helping the economy at the same time. 🙂

[fla-gypsy]

Water softener is the answer

[westend]

This Mr Clean auto wash system has a dispenser you attach to your hose and it dispenses ionized water (no spots). I have one but now what I do is clean and rinse the car with buckets of softened water. If I want to dry any vehicle, I use a silicone squeegee and micro fiber cloths.

[2oldman]

Cottontop wrote:
Use a leaf blower after washing to get all the water off best way to dry it.

Great idea!

[coolmom42]

ford truck guy wrote:

Ranger Smith wrote:

ford truck guy wrote:
I have very hard water ( well water) at home and getting tired of always drying the trailer after washing.

What are some tips , secretes you all may be doing to make it easier ?? I am NOT getting any younger ! 🙂

I have heard of using a leaf blower to blow off excess water , does that work ?
I also heard of folks using soap (Rainex) that says it stops water spots?
How about inline hose water filters ?? any suggestions there ??

Joe

Why don't you put in a whole house water softener for like $400. We did that in Arkansas when we lived there and no more hard water

That is a possibility , but the house is hooked into the city water... Its just the 2 outside hose bibs that are still drawing off the well water.. I may try hooking up to the in house sink and see if that's better ??

Your city water may be hard, too, depending on where it comes from... but it's worth a try.