HARD water...what is the cure

[Lobo1186]

So i live out in the monterey bay area in cali and well... the water here is hard as hell... if any dries on the car it is a ******************** to get off... also it makes it damn near impossible to get a spot free shine are there any tips out there to fix this? also i have tried so many different rags towels etc and none of them absorb the water effectively in time

[944boy]

Move somewhere that has soft water! :-) There is no perfect cure. There are a few devices that remove the minerals and soften the water. They are kinda expensive but might be worth it if the problem is that bad. As for towels, I find that a water blade to remove the majority and some microfibers to do the detail work seems to do well. However around here the water is so soft I could let it dry on its own without spotting.

Also make sure that your washing in the shade or when it is cool *cloudy, night, dawn* to prevent the water from drying too fast. You could also put up a pop-tent to shade the car when your washing. It sounds like a PITA but prevents the elbow grease of removing water spots. Which by the way, detailing clay takes care of those easily, but requires waxing afterward as a minimum.

[sd_boxster]

944 has the answer - wash your car at dusk or in the shade. Otherwise, especially on a dark car, you'll never get the water off in time. My wife's Jeep is black, and if I try to wash it during the day, it looks like absolute crap. I can't wash it fast enough to keep the water from drying on the part I do first.

[CaptainObvious]

You should be able to dry it quickly if you rinse properly. You have to take the sprayer off of the hose and then rinse with the hose close to the car. This causes a sheeting action. Then a small towel will dry the entire car.

[eightsandaces]

Griots garage makes an insanely expensive filtering car wash system. The Mr. Clean unit that came out a couple years ago works on a similar principle for a bout a third of the cost, you might want to google it and see what peeps are saying.

[schnellman]

I put in a whole house water softener for obvious reasons. I then had the plumber hook up two outdoor faucets. One has untreated water for the lawn, garden, etc. The other goes through the softener to provide water for car washing. I washed the Box yesterday and in addition to using the leaf blower to dry the wheels, I also blew the excess water off the entire body before drying with microfiber towels.

[Frodo]

Originally Posted by CaptainObvious

You should be able to dry it quickly if you rinse properly. You have to take the sprayer off of the hose and then rinse with the hose close to the car. This causes a sheeting action. Then a small towel will dry the entire car.

Yeah, I've read about using that technique. I tend to do the opposite: As I progress with the car washing/rinsing, I keep wetting down the areas that I've already rinsed, so that it doesn't dry. When I'm done, I use a chamois---a technique that some advocate and some (including our resident expert in the area of detailing, Perfectlap) condemn. As long as it's a quality chamois (and replaced from time to time), I've used them year after year with (far as I can tell) no adverse effects on the finish. I don't seem to have water spot problems. Two things that might come into play in my case: (1) I live in Ohio, and it's obviously not as hot and dry as it is in southern California; and (2) while our water is moderately hard, it may be less so than yours.

Though there's clearly more work involved, I would also think that you could do the following after washing: Take a quality microfiber towel, spray it with a quick detail product (I use Optimum No Rinse) to the point of being moist, and quickly wipe down the finish. I would think that would remove spots as long as they hadn't baked in the sun for too long.

Also, regarding claying. There's a clay made by Sonus (don't remember the name of it, but it's light green in color) that is soft/gentle enough not to adversely affect the wax. Ie, one that would remove the spots without removing the wax.

[blue2000s]

CLR and Limeaway will remove hard water spots. You might try a final wipe with some of the product.

[SeanZ4]

Use a diluted amount of CLR on your spots and problem areas. Spray it on and just rinse it off. I don't know if you have that product in your area. It's common here. We have high levels of lime in our water. I use it for lots of different applications. I found out that it rinses off hard water spots 10 years ago. If anyone else has used this with success, chime in!

Sean

step 1 - wash car

step 2 - rinse

step 3 drive car at 65mph for 20minutes

Problem solved

Originally Posted by Lobo1186

if any dries on the car it is a ******************** to get off... also it makes it damn near impossible to get a spot free shine are there any tips out there to fix this?

[Lobo1186]

Originally Posted by Fred Demara

step 1 - wash car

step 2 - rinse

step 3 drive car at 65mph for 20minutes

Problem solved

sorry fred but this is just bad advice. (no offense of course) it may work where the water is a little softer but the fact is with hard water you will get spots doing this

[Cloudsurfer]

I've never been able to get the "dry it by driving it" technique to work. What I'd KILL to have is one of those big soft water rinsing rigs a lot of dealers have.. then you can just let it dry and no water spots!

[Matt at Pelican Parts]

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[Pdwight]

Our large water softeners at work do this, a salt tank is pumped into a resin bead tank ( Ion exchange ) that water runs through, the calcium is replaced with sodium from the salt resulting is soft water. then onto the Carbon process and then Reverse Osmosis...and we make water so pure it will not conduct electricity

[jakeru]

Optimum no rinse works well, smells amazing, definitely will feel strange way to wash the car at first if you're used to using a traditional car wash shampoo and hose water. You will need lots of towels and launder them. Works best if the car isn't completely "filthy dirty." But I do find it hard to "really" clean the wheels well (including inside the barrels and behind the spokes) without hose water. Since on my area we have very decent quality watershed originating water (not pulled from an underground well), I use hose water most of the time and traditional shampoo. But I still use optimum no rinse for clay bar lubricant and for the occasional spot cleanings (works great on things like bird bombs, door jambs, etc.) It is possible to wash where there isn't a hose, using it too. It's not "sudsy" like traditional car wash shampoo is. But it pulls off all the dirt from the paint and onto the soaked microfiber cloths like a champ. Leaves the car feeling nice and smooth and smelling good, too. Done right, it also will not scratch the paint any more than hand washing gently with a sudsy shampoo solution would.

But to the op, I'd say regardless of your washing technique, do find a spot, and time of day to wash your car that's completely out of the direct sun. If you pull your car to that spot in the middle of the day, make sure the paint has had a good chance to cool down (paint should not feel hot or warm to the touch, or the water applied will evaporate off it more quickly). I have a big microfiber drying towel that sucks the water off really quickly.

Really bad water spots can be seriously etched into the paint, and there is nothing but a serious 2-stage polish that will get rid of them. Hopefully yours are more "sitting on the surface" and you will find a way they can be removed much press dramatically than that. Best of luck!