Deionized car washing system

Good news, I thought you would be happy with the results.

Kevin Means said:

If anyone's interested, I did my first test-wash with my new deionizing system, and it worked great. I used it to wash my black Chevy Tahoe after it had been sitting in the sun all day. It was filthy, and when I washed it, it was 85 degrees in direct sunlight. After rinsing it off with deionized water, there were literally no water spots at all after it dried. I did a short video review of it, which you can watch if you've been thinking of getting one. I guess it's time to wash the motorhome now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkyBdioChyI

Kev

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85 degrees eh?
Sunshine eh?
Is my guest room ready? 8)
I cleared snow again yesterday.....
Anywho....I'd like to learn more about this system when we hook up in AZ. I'm on a well.

Kevin Means said:

If anyone's interested, I did my first test-wash with my new deionizing system, and it worked great. I used it to wash my black Chevy Tahoe after it had been sitting in the sun all day. It was filthy, and when I washed it, it was 85 degrees in direct sunlight. After rinsing it off with deionized water, there were literally no water spots at all after it dried. I did a short video review of it, which you can watch if you've been thinking of getting one. I guess it's time to wash the motorhome now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkyBdioChyI

Kev

Click to expand...

Great video Kev!  I will be interested to see how well it works with the RV wash. Also wondering if you attempted to figure out the "cost per wash" basis with the 4000 available gallons of use as it relates to the amount of water necessary to complete one RV wash.  Also, when you do the RV wash, will you climb up and do the roof with the DI water also?

Alpena Jeff said:

85 degrees eh?
Sunshine eh?
Is my guest room ready? 8)
I cleared snow again yesterday.....
Anywho....I'd like to learn more about this system when we hook up in AZ. I'm on a well.

Click to expand...

Clearing snow!!! Tell Judy it's waaaay past time to head west!  Good question on the cost per wash Marty. I have no idea. As often as I wash it (about once a month) it won't be nearly as expensive as having a good mobile detailer do it. Water is like gold here in San Diego, so it's not just the $10.00 a foot I'm paying them, it's also the cost of the water.

When we're not traveling, the coach is in the garage, so the roof doesn't get real dirty. When I do wash the roof, I just use the carwash stuff. I see no need to used DI water on the roof itself, because water spots just aren't a problem up there. They are a problem on the solar panels though. I normally just tilt the panels and squirt them off from the ground, but every so often I have to get up there and scrub the spots off. Now I'm hopeful that they'll just air-dry spotless. I'll keep you posted.

Kev

Kevin. wow, fantastic job on the video, I have seen a number of the yuotubes, but yours stands out.  Hope you get something from the folks that make the unit. 

Looks great Kev.  Our 2001 Infiniti SUV is black and showing its age.  And even with its premium paint job, I'm thinking an ionized bath may spruce it up a bit.  The best part is how it keeps the water spots off the windshield. 

Thanks all. One final update... I washed the RV today, and as expected, the deionizing system did very well. It was so against the grain to wash it in direct sunlight, rinse it off and then just walk away. In the past, it took me about five to six hours, but today it took only two hours and the outcome was noticeably better than before. Soooo much less work!

One thing I noticed was, there were a few water-spot stains from areas that normally continue to drip after washing - like the areas under the ends of the rain gutter and some door handles. I'm guessing it's the sediment that's gathered in them, and it just takes a while to run off. That's hardly the DI system's fault though - just something I had to wipe down with a chamois.

One area that's been hard for me to wash has always been the radiused edge along the sides of the roof. I either have to stand on a high ladder to reach over the awning and awning topper covers, or get on the roof and reach over/around the solar panels. It's always been a real PITA. I finally came up with a device that lets me easily reach it from the ground. It's a modified "O-Cedar Hardwood Floor 'N More Micro Fiber Mop" on an extendable pole. I used a heat gun to shape the plastic head of the mop, so it matches the radius of the roof. It's also very close in shape to the radius of the awning and awning topper covers, so I can clean the tops of them too - all from the ground.

The micro fiber is heavy duty (it was designed to clean floors) and is washable. I just rinse down the roof edge, place the mop head on the radius of the roof, walk along the side of the RV and then rinse it off. What used to take me 30 minutes, now takes five minutes. Anyway, I thought those of you who clean your own RVs might be interested in it. It's easy to build with parts from Home Depot.

Kev

Great write up Kev! I really like the radius edge cleaner idea. So how did you judge the appropriate radius for the roof edge? I battle the same issue with my roof radius. I may have to try to make one up. 

Honestly Marty, I just eye-balled it. I figured that I just needed to get close dimensionally, because the wash pad and foam underneath it have so much padding that they easily conform to the radius. It works great. I had thought about building something like it for years, but just never got around to it. Now it's SO much easy to clean those areas.

Kev

Now, was Cyndi really washing the roof radius or did you just con her into posing for the picture?

This DI thing is interesting. But I'm a little slow to catch on to it all.

I may need a demo when I get to your area in April. 

8 degree here this morning. I won't be washing soon...

Kev, thanks for the pix and video.  Great job.  I'm not sure if the less expensive units work as well but I'm not sure I willing to give up $600 for the big one.  I've seen some advertised for maybe $300.  Did you consider any of those less expensive units and if so, why didn't you buy one?


Tom, when it's 8? I don't do much of anything. 

You caught me Tom... she was just posing  Gary, I bought the higher capacity system for two main reasons - I didn't want to have to replace the resin as often as I'd have to with the smaller systems, and I liked the idea of having a bypass feature, so I wouldn't waste deionized water. The truth is, I'm finding that the bypass feature isn't quite as useful as I thought it would be. It helps by not wasting deionized water on the initial rinse, but it's not really needed after that.

I wash the RV in sections, and by the time I'm done rinsing the soap off one area with deionized water, the overspray from that rinse pre-rinses the next area to be washed. So after the initial rinse, I've found that I'm just leaving it on the deionized water setting.

Deionized car wash systems have been around for a long time, and they're not very complex. I have no reason to think that a smaller, less expensive system would be of lesser quality, or not perform as well as the one I bought. I just wanted more capacity for less frequent resin changes.

Kev

Thanks Kev.  One more question.  We have significant water pressure at the house.  Maybe 150 lbs that over the past 15 year has damaged two pressure regulators at more than $500 a piece.  The pressure regulators reduce the pressure going into the house to about 60 lbs.  But the outside hose bib is not regulated.  Is there any information on the maximum amount of water pressure that should not be exceeded on these units? 

Good question Gary. There was no max water pressure listed in the documentation that came with it. However, they DO recommend that you only use as much water pressure from the spigot as you need. Apparently, excessive pressure can force the water past the resin too quickly, making the deionizing process less effective. I ran it at the same pressure I normally use to wash the RV and it was fine.

Kev

Just put one of these on the outside faucet Gary. Problem solved. 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N7JZTYX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1