Is my new CR Spotless working? Still really high hardness

**craigdt** · 05-10-2022, 10:00 AM

Hi all,
I just received a new CR Spotless DI-20 system.

The hardness of my city water supply is about 280 PPM TDS.

I hooked up the CR Spotless, and the reading on the machine shows about 102-130.

I was expecting it to read 0, being brand new.

Are my expectations out of line?
I know my PPM is pretty high, but some of the charts I've seen make it seem like thats well within the range of this system.

Some pics:

Car was a bit dusty, but still left some pretty bad waterspots:

**Azure** · 05-10-2022, 10:59 AM

My water is ~450ppm TDS and my system will work at least up to early fall. It's not a CR Spotless, but it's the same method. I would make sure you are going in and out of the system in the right direction. The other issue you could be having is that your cartridges have been used prior to your purchase or have been contaminated in some way. Were your cartridges already in the CR Spotless when you bought it? I don't know how they ship, but I would hope that the cartridges are wrapped and you would have to install them when you get your system. If this is what you had to do upon receiving your setup, check to make sure your cartridges are securely in place, meaning watermust go through them and can't get past the seals inside. Hope this is helpful.

**Bruno Soares** · 05-10-2022, 11:55 AM

My water going into the CR is around 225 ppm and the water coming out is 0. It goes up when the resin is spent. Once it starts moving, it's fast, only takes a few washes to go from 10 or so to 80. So as soon as it moves away from 0, it's time to order more resin.

Did you get it new? Is your water flowing the proper way (into the left side, out of the right side)? Did you let enough water to pass through and get rid of all the air and fill the resin cartridges?

Maybe you need to contact CR, I haven't had to but heard they're pretty responsive.

**luckydawg** · 05-10-2022, 12:37 PM

Originally Posted by Bruno Soares

. It goes up when the resin is spent. Once it starts moving, it's fast, only takes a few washes to go from 10 or so to 80. So as soon as it moves away from 0, it's time to order more resin.

So if you would-- can you tell us how much it costs ( excluding the up front cost of the system) per wash?

**Bruno Soares** · 05-10-2022, 01:53 PM

Originally Posted by luckydawg

So if you would-- can you tell us how much it costs ( excluding the up front cost of the system) per wash?

Hard to measure unless your water is exactly like mine. For the amount of washes I do, it lasts me a year. If you wash more often or wash more cars, it will go by quicker. Same thing if your water is worse.

Due to covid and me being home so much, I haven't washed as much so for 2021 and now 2022, I haven't purchased resin. When I wash, I just make sure so dry quick enough so no spots are left behind. The resin also seems to expire after a year or so, even with minimal usage so it wouldn't be worth spending $100+ in resin and washing just a few times in the year for me.

When I washed weekly (and used CR during warm weather - in the winter I do rinseless with tap water), I'm guessing about 30 washes per year and at around $120 for a replacement set, I guess it costs $4 per wash. It's not cheap.

**Bill D** · 05-10-2022, 02:03 PM

My buying a CR Spotless was one of the biggest mistakes I ever made. Too frustrating and expensive. I chucked mine and mourned my loss

**driverman1** · 05-10-2022, 03:58 PM

You could have a internal leak allowing water to bypass a cartridge. Did you use the little wire rings that go around the cartridge? They are to center the cartridge
so they line up correctly.

Sent from my moto e5 go using Tapatalk

**craigdt** · 05-10-2022, 04:19 PM

Originally Posted by Bruno Soares

Did you get it new? Is your water flowing the proper way (into the left side, out of the right side)? Did you let enough water to pass through and get rid of all the air and fill the resin cartridges?

I did get it new. I did check the left to right orientation, had that correct.

Think enough water has flowed thru to push the air out- probably ran the thing for 10 minutes thus far.
Thanks!

Originally Posted by Azure

I would make sure you are going in and out of the system in the right direction. The other issue you could be having is that your cartridges have been used prior to your purchase or have been contaminated in some way. Were your cartridges already in the CR Spotless when you bought it? I don't know how they ship, but I would hope that the cartridges are wrapped and you would have to install them when you get your system. If this is what you had to do upon receiving your setup, check to make sure your cartridges are securely in place, meaning watermust go through them and can't get past the seals inside. Hope this is helpful.

I do have the orientation right. It seems like the resin was new, but they were just sitting in the blue cases, so I just screwed them onto the unit. They weren't wrapped individually- just in the box. Thanks for your help!

Originally Posted by driverman1

You could have a internal leak allowing water to bypass a cartridge. Did you use the little wire rings that go around the cartridge? They are to center the cartridge so they line up correctly.

Sent from my moto e5 go using Tapatalk

You mean these things that I didn't install?

Let me try them, see what happens.

Thanks!

**craigdt** · 05-10-2022, 05:02 PM

Update:
It works!

@driverman1 was correct, I did not have the cartridges seated properly, because I didn't initially use the wire rings.

Now reads "0" as expected.

Probably burned $20 of resin trying to take this picture

**Bobbykart** · 05-10-2022, 06:09 PM

OK, couple of things. That number is way too high, something is amiss. I only use mine for the final rinse, then I remove the cartridge and drain all the water out, or it will just absorb the resin.I really like my set up, had it 8 years or so, the company has been wonderful, only 2 miles from me in San Diego, last Year the battery died on the monitoring device, went in they gave me a new one.