Hard water quick fixes?

**RiverCityAutoSpa** · 09-21-2017, 06:55 PM

I recently acquired a high end customer with about 2mil in his vehicle collection. The customer was an absolute pain in the a33 to work with(would of used $$ but he didn't pay well). I go and do 8 vehicles without moving any so tight spaces. He complains that my water is hard and leaving water spots, yes in reality it is a bit hard but never had any complaints As I don't leave spots. ANYWAY he says there are tabs I can put in my water tank to soften the water? I have a 100 gallon tank.

I have looked into the cartridges for $150 I think it was with the 2 canister filters.
I have a water softener hooked up to the house on the other side with no outlets. I do put salt in it often.

MY QUESTION: could I technically pour let's say just for example 6lbs of salt in my water tank and that make the water soft?

Trying to gin a way to make the water in my tank better for everyone

ALSO a rv water filter on the end of hose to the tank as well as pouring salt inside.

Let me know what you think.

**Route246** · 09-21-2017, 07:15 PM

Salt does not soften water. Salt is used by water softeners to regenerate to resin in the softener tank. You need a resin tank to get truly soft water. Ideally you want DI (deinonized) water.

**RiverCityAutoSpa** · 09-21-2017, 08:18 PM

That's what I was thinking I just ended up with a 100 gallons of salty water. What is my best avenue to explore? I haven't normally cared about water and honestly still don't care, meaning I don't need it perfect. I would like to improve the water I am using but it does not need to be 100% perfect. I can live with 20% better than before.

**Route246** · 09-21-2017, 08:31 PM

Originally Posted by RiverCityAutoSpa

That's what I was thinking I just ended up with a 100 gallons of salty water. What is my best avenue to explore? I haven't normally cared about water and honestly still don't care, meaning I don't need it perfect. I would like to improve the water I am using but it does not need to be 100% perfect. I can live with 20% better than before.

CR Spotless system is probably the best. It uses mixed bed DI resin. I'm building my own version now but I've spent many hours acquiring the components wholesale because I want higher flow rates than CR can handle. I'm doing this because I like tinkering and hacking, not to save money. I just bought a cubic foot of mixed bed DI resin and that alone was near $200. A cubic foot is good for about two full 20" 3-stage batches. My TDS is about 290 PPM (hard water) so I expect to get about 800-1000 gallons from $100 worth of resin before I have to regenerate it. I think I'm going to have upwards of $400 into this project to get 150% capacity of a $350-$400 (depending on options) CR Spotless system. I did not have a budget when I started. I just started ordering components (I'm not done yet) and the costs have escalated a little beyond what I would have preferred.

I've never used de-ionized water before. I'm taking things on faith that I will not be disappointed.

**RiverCityAutoSpa** · 09-21-2017, 09:39 PM

Luckily my roommate is getting his phd in chemistry and trying to help me achieve good water idk what he can do though. I saw the $140 2 canister thing online but my tank is 100 gallons and I fill up probably 3-4 maybe 5 times a week so looking for something that doesn't require constant filter changes etc

**LSNAutoDetailing** · 09-21-2017, 10:37 PM

You may want to see if there is an Industrial Water Supply company near you. It may be more cost effective to have the resin tank delivered to your shop/garage. The company I deal with here in AZ has a $35 quarterly rental fee, and every tank swap is about $45.00 for the 10" tank, (roughly 400-600 gallons). It's demineralized, DI & RO. It has two systems working. Depending on heat and temperature will dictate life of tank. My first tank with them lasted 4 months, the second tanks (August in AZ) lasted a month, but they made up for it. They gave me 1/2 off the latest tank and dropped off a spare tank to boot! The little light on top is (Green Good, Red Bad). They also do emergency call deliveries.

You could fill 5 and or 7 gallon containers of water. I found 7 Gal containers with spigots today at my local Walmart (AGO does not sell industrial 5/7 Gal containers as far as I know so I'm safe here).