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Deionizer inquiry

G

guitardiva

New member
Hi everyone.

In doing a search for 'Deionizer' I came across a thread that said this forum is mainly for pros, so I hope this Q is ok here.

I have a private well, and a uranium mitigation system (it's not RO), and that includes a water softener. My TDS meter reads 220. I have had people tell me that a deionizer is for hard water, so the Q is, do I get one for my water, to stop the water spots from appearing on my car when i wash it?

Thanks in advance.
 
I think that description for DI is correct. I don't think DI has been used in the car wash industry for decades. I'm now retired, but spent 50 years in car washing, and never saw a DI system. You will most likely get spots at 220 PPM. Most RO systems can get it down near 0 PPM, but I think below 30 or so is good enough for spot free.
 
"A deionizer is for hard water..." Not really.

A water softener does contain ion exchange resin - it is a special sort of cation resin than can be recharged by sodium.

When you use the term Deionization Resin, you're typically referring to a resin bed that has a mixture of cation resin and anion resin. The cation resin releases H+ ions, and the anion resin releases OH- ions. Put those two together and you have H2O.

In my experience, reverse osmosis is typically enough to bring tap water down to sufficient purity that it won't leave spots.

We sell a fair amount of DI resin... but none of it goes into the car wash market.
 
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As I look back 40+ years Spot Not and ROBO both sold systems as well as Culliagan water softener did an exchange system. When DI was used, in the carwash market there was always a problem with the consumables, acid and alkaline. they both had to be replaced. The easiest way was to just pour them down the drain together thinking they neutralized each other. That became and is a problem with cities and a lot of operators were fined. You should check out a small RPO system as it should be cheaper to operate and maintain than DI system.
 
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