Water softener vs CR Spotless confusion

[rc10mike]

First post here, been lurking this site for over a decade but now finally have a legitimate question.

First, allow me to explain my experience with washing my vehicles over the years, Ill admit Im a noob.

Ive owned 2 cars in the last 11 years, both black.

Some years ago I tried the Mr Clean Auto Dry system and was pleasantly surprised how well it worked and left no spots. After that I got lazy and never tried to use it again until it was discontinued:(

Then I moved to NE Florida. The water from my house was terrible, even though it came with a water softener already installed. I couldn't get the Mr Clean thing anymore, so I searched around and found Auto Geeks Clear inline hose filter. I figured maybe my hose outlet didnt run through the home water softener. I got the single filter and used the softener cartridge. Still had bad water spots. I was kind of upset for wasting about $100 on this filter and it didnt remove spots like it clearly stated in the description. (This was about 8 years ago, no hard feelings)

Fast forward to now. My CR Spotless DIC-20 arrived today and I gave it a try. Guess what...NO SPOTS. I was happy it worked, but Im confused as to WHY the CR Spotless worked when its essentially a smaller version of my house water softener?

Whats really going on here?!

[wolfpacker92]

The CR is a demineralizer not a water softener. Minerals left behind when water evaporates are what leave spots, so you need pure water (no minerals) to ensure no water spots. To do this you need a system that employees a mixed bed resin that brings the total suspended solids down which would be exactly what the CR does. The softener doesn't remove minerals.

[rc10mike]

The CR is a demineralizer not a water softener. Minerals left behind when water evaporates are what leave spots, so you need pure water (no minerals) to ensure no water spots. To do this you need a system that employees a mixed bed resin that brings the total suspended solids down which would be exactly what the CR does. The softener doesn't remove minerals.

Thanks for the reply. Perhaps they should make this more clear for the average car washing noob, because I fell for it.

So does the CR have a special kind of resin compared to my house softener?

[chet31]

Don't blame your water softener. It is 99.99% likely that your outside taps are straight hard water - not hooked in with your water softener. Most homeowners do not want to water their lawns with soft water. It would add a lot to the salt bill. Softeners use a bead system to replace calcium and iron in hard water with sodium, which I would argue is demineralization. If you could hook your hoses up to softened water, you would see much less spotting.

[WRAPT C5Z06]

Soft water still contains minerals. However, different minerals are exchanged; calcium and magnesium(high spotting) for sodium or potassium(spotting should be less). Deionized water has all minerals extracted. As a result, there should be no spots.

[chet31]

^ Correct, depends on one's definition of demineralized and how it relates to "spot-free."

[rc10mike]

Wow, was searching around the web and found my own thread from 6 years ago lol. Anyway I have another question related to softener. Should the CR Spotless be installed before or after the softener? Right now, I believe I have the CR water tapped BEFORE the softener. Wouldnt it make more sense to feed the CR already processed water by the softener?

I remember reading something about this dilemma in the past but I cant find it now. I just want the CR resin to last as long as possible.

[Bruno Soares]

Wow, was searching around the web and found my own thread from 6 years ago lol. Anyway I have another question related to softener. Should the CR Spotless be installed before or after the softener? Right now, I believe I have the CR water tapped BEFORE the softener. Wouldnt it make more sense to feed the CR already processed water by the softener?

I remember reading something about this dilemma in the past but I cant find it now. I just want the CR resin to last as long as possible.
Test the TDS of your water before and after softener. The lower TDS you feed the CR, the longer the resin will last. But having CR before softener makes no sense as DI water doesn’t need to be softened and if you do, you’ll introduce solids that remained in the resin after a backwash.

[rc10mike]

Test the TDS of your water before and after softener. The lower TDS you feed the CR, the longer the resin will last. But having CR before softener makes no sense as DI water doesn’t need to be softened and if you do, you’ll introduce solids that remained in the resin after a backwash.

Ok I tested all water sources in my house:
Kitchen sink (softened) 444
Bypass softener 425
RO Faucet 49
Fridge water 374

What I meant by having the CR before the softener was that it's tapped before the softener so my CR is receiving straight city water.

[Bruno Soares]

Ok I tested all water sources in my house:
Kitchen sink (softened) 444
Bypass softener 425
RO Faucet 49
Fridge water 374

What I meant by having the CR before the softener was that it's tapped before the softener so my CR is receiving straight city water.

In this case you’d benefit from bypassing the softener as your city water has lower TDS.