Neautralize water tank?

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jvriii1942

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I am looking for a way to reduce or eliminate water spots. I am trying to avoid expensive inline filtration.



My tank is only 65 gallons. Is there a product that I can add maybe a small amount of bleach?
 
jvriii1942 said:
I am looking for a way to reduce or eliminate water spots. I am trying to avoid expensive inline filtration.



My tank is only 65 gallons. Is there a product that I can add maybe a small amount of bleach?
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Waterless Wash



No bleach, no water spots. Still need the tank!
 
You need to remove minerals from the water to avoid spots, not add something in.



Adding a chemical doesn't help unless it binds with the dissolved minerals, forms into big solid molecules, precipitates out of solution and leaves no solids of its own. There aren't any cheap, safe, easy to use, easily available compounds that can do that (I don't think there are any compounds that can do that at all). That's why large scale industrial water producers use the same expensive techniques, RO, deionization filters, distillation,...





PC.
 
the other pc said:
You need to remove minerals from the water to avoid spots, not add something in.



Adding a chemical doesn't help unless it binds with the dissolved minerals, forms into big solid molecules, precipitates out of solution and leaves no solids of its own. There aren't any cheap, safe, easy to use, easily available compounds that can do that (I don't think there are any compounds that can do that at all). That's why large scale industrial water producers use the same expensive techniques, RO, deionization filters, distillation,...





PC.
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It seems I read something about emulsifying surfactant acting as a water softener or a sheathing agent. Maybe a bunch of BS, I haven’t a clue ???
 
Not BS, just big words for what soap does, getting dirt off the car and into the water. But now that all the stuff is in the water you need to rinse it off, or at least towel it off (as is the case with no-rinse washes).





PC.
 
Well there is two things water softener there salt is added and the other is polymer that is added to the rinse water to hide the water spots within the polymer. (repeated what others have said but said differently) Water spots is caused by calcium & magnesium which no filter can filter out calcium & magnesium.

There is a few ways to get spot free water without (or less of) the calcium & magnesium buy it from a source. Roof water collection, Ground springs water or some times river water sometimes is w/o calcium & magnesium you have to run a test. Buy a machine that makes spot free water but that can be expensive too.

Go to a large car dealer and ask them how they wash there cars for spot free washes, I have seen a large car dealer use a tank and a pressure washer and they just towel dry the hood & trunk.



In any case I think cars look better when they are dried off with a towel (even if you are using spot free water) and I can not justify using spot free water cost to much plus there will always will be minerals in water even in spot free water. But I do use a carbon filter to remove the chorine and some minerals from the city water supply.



Did you know that pure water without any minerals at all does not taste good!

Coin op car washes uses the same water over and over again (most places here in Calif)

Rain water has minerals even in at the middle of the South Pole

That it may seem so I drink more beer then water to wash cars

ScottWax uses just a few gals of water to wash a car and one pint of water then he takes a shower j/k
 
the other pc said:
Not BS, just big words for what soap does, getting dirt off the car and into the water. But now that all the stuff is in the water you need to rinse it off, or at least towel it off (as is the case with no-rinse washes).





PC.
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Thanks PC



Assuming this is true could a emulsifying surfactant acting as a water softener be used as a rinse agent to prevent water spotting on dark paint? Maybe add it to a tank of rinse water? If I remember it can be inexpensive in 5gl container?
 
Thanks for all the input. This is some great information and educational..



I still do plan to dry the vehicles just trying to avoid the spots through the summer.



The reason for the bleach was that I used it to kill algae in the tank once. Very small amount did the job and didn't cause any problems.
 
doged said:
...Assuming this is true could a emulsifying surfactant acting as a water softener be used as a rinse agent to prevent water spotting on dark paint? Maybe add it to a tank of rinse water? ...
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No, sorry. The surfactant does help pull junk off the finish so a lot of the dirt on the surface will get carried off and won't contribute to your spotting. By using your mitt and soap you'll get pretty much all of the loose dirt off and it will rinse away. But you'll still have the water itself and whatever came with it.



By adding the surfactant to your water you now have a mixture of water, surfactant, dissolved minerals (calcium. magnesium, salt, sulfur, ...) and maybe a few other things, CO2, chlorine, etc. Those are in the water already and when the water, CO2, chlorine and other volatile molecules evaporate all those solids are left behind. That's what water spots are.





PC.
 
the other pc said:
No, sorry. The surfactant does help pull junk off the finish so a lot of the dirt on the surface will get carried off and won't contribute to your spotting. By using your mitt and soap you'll get pretty much all of the loose dirt off and it will rinse away. But you'll still have the water itself and whatever came with it.



By adding the surfactant to your water you now have a mixture of water, surfactant, dissolved minerals (calcium. magnesium, salt, sulfur, ...) and maybe a few other things, CO2, chlorine, etc. Those are in the water already and when the water, CO2, chlorine and other volatile molecules evaporate all those solids are left behind. That's what water spots are.





PC.
Click to expand...



Thanks again!!!

That’s a lot of great information.
 
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