# If you had a tank in a van, would you fill it with DI water?



## SuperchargedLlama (Apr 25, 2008)

OR would you have a DI vessel on the output of the tank?

My buddy and I were musing this last night and we really couldn't see why one way would be better than the other, apart from a PW struggling to draw through a DI vessel?

Silly topic for Friday that might be nice to wonder about, hence posting it


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## Rustymage (Sep 18, 2016)

SuperchargedLlama said:


> OR would you have a DI vessel on the output of the tank?
> 
> My buddy and I were musing this last night and we really couldn't see why one way would be better than the other, apart from a PW struggling to draw through a DI vessel?
> 
> Silly topic for Friday that might be nice to wonder about, hence posting it


How much water are you carrying and would you need to refill it during the normal 'working' hours of operation when you're away from the DI vessel at home?

If you need mid-work refills, then I'd want to plumb it in post tank, pre-PW. If you only use 1 tank a 'work' session, then plumbing it in at home seems fine


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## GeeWhizRS (Nov 1, 2019)

Save the expense and have the option to switch to it for final rinse only.
Note: DI water will attack the brass parts of your PW as it tries to reclaim minerals so remember to flush out with tap water if you run DI through it.


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## SuperchargedLlama (Apr 25, 2008)

GeeWhizRS said:


> Save the expense and have the option to switch to it for final rinse only.
> Note: DI water will attack the brass parts of your PW as it tries to reclaim minerals so remember to flush out with tap water if you run DI through it.


This is a point that our discussion continued on and did start to think that after the tank would be the best bet.

And this would also satisfy the above "what if you had to refill mid work day?" scenario too.

When I am at home I often run DI through the loop for the entire wash as I somewhat inevitably end up washing in the sun.


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## oldie (Jan 19, 2019)

Don't need Pure Water running through a PW.......

I have 2 tap connectors on the tank...

One tap goes straight to the PW for the washing....the 2nd tap goes to the pump then DI Vessel then open-ended hose for the slow-flow rinse....this way I can fill the tank at speed at home or on site and only use Pure Water for the rinse ie much improving the life/longevity of the resin.


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## SuperchargedLlama (Apr 25, 2008)

oldie said:


> Don't need Pure Water running through a PW.......
> 
> I have 2 tap connectors on the tank...
> 
> One tap goes straight to the PW for the washing....the 2nd tap goes to the pump then DI Vessel then open-ended hose for the slow-flow rinse....this way I can fill the tank at speed at home or on site and only use Pure Water for the rinse ie much improving the life/longevity of the resin.


I've found that I was still getting water spots when washing direct sunlight if I was only rinsing with the DI water, but you're right of course, don't wash in direct sun when you're at customer sites. Also using a shampoo with ONR or something like that mixed in and it won't spot either I guess?


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## Mac- (Apr 9, 2019)

Make the DI water properly instead of using the resin then you won't use anywhere near as much. I make and use 2000L per week and only go through about 50L of resin per year.


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## oldie (Jan 19, 2019)

SuperchargedLlama said:


> I've found that I was still getting water spots when washing direct sunlight if I was only rinsing with the DI water, but you're right of course, don't wash in direct sun when you're at customer sites. Also using a shampoo with ONR or something like that mixed in and it won't spot either I guess?


I don't understand that, you shouldn't be getting any water spots if your final rinse is with Pure Water even in direct sunlight, I've never had that problem .....
After the wash stages and rinsing off with the PW, the 'final' rinse is chasing-off the PW water with the Pure Water.


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## SuperchargedLlama (Apr 25, 2008)

Mac- said:


> Make the DI water properly instead of using the resin then you won't use anywhere near as much. I make and use 2000L per week and only go through about 50L of resin per year.


Care to share what "making DI water properly" means in this context? I was unaware there was another way (aside from boiling and condensing it) so I'm keen to learn more.



oldie said:


> I don't understand that, you shouldn't be getting any water spots if your final rinse is with Pure Water even in direct sunlight, I've never had that problem .....
> After the wash stages and rinsing off with the PW, the 'final' rinse is chasing-off the PW water with the Pure Water.


I've noticed the waterspots during the wash phase from shampoo water drying on the paintwork in direct sun, so I've now started filling my wash buckets with DI water, that's definitely helped. I also was getting it during the foaming and rinse stage there hence why I keep it in the loop the whole time.

I'm keen not too though as I know it's not efficient.


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## GeeWhizRS (Nov 1, 2019)

If you use a shampoo that is safe in the sun, you shouldn't get spots. I would say what you are seeing is dried on shampoo rather than water spots. Get you some Adams! 😂
Seriously, Adams is where its at for sun safe.
Regarding the DI water alternative method... I think he is meaning Reverse Osmosis. Evaporating and condensing water is distilled, not deionised. :thumb:


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## Mac- (Apr 9, 2019)

Correct, I was talking about reverse osmosis, even at our relatively soft water (75ppm) it's still much cheaper to make DI water to store/use rather than just using the polishing resin.


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## SuperchargedLlama (Apr 25, 2008)

GeeWhizRS said:


> If you use a shampoo that is safe in the sun, you shouldn't get spots. I would say what you are seeing is dried on shampoo rather than water spots. Get you some Adams! ��


Exactly what I thought it was too but nope, proper waterspots after I pressure rinsed it. The water is bloody hard here I guess. It's happened with Auto Wash, Megs Gold Class and Megs NXT too (the latter of which is supposedly good for hard water areas).



> Seriously, Adams is where its at for sun safe.
> Regarding the DI water alternative method... I think he is meaning Reverse Osmosis. Evaporating and condensing water is distilled, not deionised. :thumb:


Oh yeah. Ha, what a spanner. Clearly I just want some booze!


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## GeeWhizRS (Nov 1, 2019)

You need to pull your finger out then and get around the car a bit faster. 😂


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## SuperchargedLlama (Apr 25, 2008)

GeeWhizRS said:


> You need to pull your finger out then and get around the car a bit faster. 😂


It's sounding like it! The reverse osmosis approach is interesting so I'll read up more on that.


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## oldie (Jan 19, 2019)

SuperchargedLlama said:


> I've noticed the waterspots during the wash phase from shampoo water drying on the paintwork in direct sun, so I've now started filling my wash buckets with DI water, that's definitely helped. I also was getting it during the foaming and rinse stage there hence why I keep it in the loop the whole time.
> 
> I'm keen not too though as I know it's not efficient.


Hmmmm....It could be that if you are using the DI Vessel to provide Pure Water for the PW and rinsing, then the draw of water throught the DI Vessel may be too fast for the resins to have an effect on the tap water passing through the Vessel, what can happen is is that the flow of water through the Vessel can cause a 'channel' straight through the Resin thus causing the water not to be purified enough when exiting the Vessel.
What is the TDS of you tap water going into the Vessel....then fill a container with the Vessel feeding the PW and then measure the TDS of that water in the container.
Had a similar problem when I was a Window Cleaner,....thought I'd be quicker working with a fast flow through the DI Vessel but was getting some complaints of spot marks when dried, I lowered the flow through the DI Vessel to around 2lt/min and all was perfect. I now use around a 3ltr/min flow for the final rinse on vehicles and never had spotting.


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## SuperchargedLlama (Apr 25, 2008)

oldie said:


> Hmmmm....It could be that if you are using the DI Vessel to provide Pure Water for the PW and rinsing, then the draw of water throught the DI Vessel may be too fast for the resins to have an effect on the tap water passing through the Vessel, what can happen is is that the flow of water through the Vessel can cause a 'channel' straight through the Resin thus causing the water not to be purified enough when exiting the Vessel.
> What is the TDS of you tap water going into the Vessel....then fill a container with the Vessel feeding the PW and then measure the TDS of that water in the container.
> Had a similar problem when I was a Window Cleaner,....thought I'd be quicker working with a fast flow through the DI Vessel but was getting some complaints of spot marks when dried, I lowered the flow through the DI Vessel to around 2lt/min and all was perfect. I now use around a 3ltr/min flow for the final rinse on vehicles and never had spotting.


Oh it's fine now I use DI I the loop but it wasn't when I didn't, hence why I use it all the time, which is why I was thinking of doing a tank filled with DI water (so the vessel would be in the loop to fill it). I do have some reticence to do that now based on what we've been discussing in terms of potentially damaging the PW as it couldn't be rinsed through with fresh water, given that the tank is full of DI water.

I'll have to check but I think my water is something like 375ppm


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## SuperchargedLlama (Apr 25, 2008)

Coming back from to this; something just struck me - you couldn't use a DI vessel on a gravity fed system could you, as it needs flow? The PW wouldn't have the guts to draw that would it?


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## GeeWhizRS (Nov 1, 2019)

You would need to test it but my thinking is that the passage of water through the resin would kill the flow unless you fed it from a great height. The 'head' of water would be too low in normal situations. I think you would find it would dribble out if gravity fed from a van height.


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## SuperchargedLlama (Apr 25, 2008)

That's what I was thinking too. A double benefit of the pole fee window cleaning setups having a pump to push the water out the pole most be that it pushes it through the resin too?


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## GeeWhizRS (Nov 1, 2019)

I use my WFP from the mains via the DI vessel. Prior to that I collected rainwater and used a pond pump to send it on its way. Worked perfectly.


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## DavesGolfR (May 2, 2019)

I'm moving to a water tank based setup in my Kangoo and will fill that with water from my local Spotless Water outlet. Even accounting for a foam wash, wash and rinse I can't imagine that I'd have to use more than 30-35 litres per vehicle which works out at less than £1.50 per wash. I'd probably only use the DI water when required other than that I'll use the customers mains supply.


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## upcoming (Jul 12, 2013)

I use spotless water it’s a must, saves so much time and personally I don’t know how/why it could be placebo the finishing always seems better. It’s about £14 a tank tho on 400l. I was thinking of fitting a merlin RO tank to my house not sure how good they are tho…..


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## Mac- (Apr 9, 2019)

Merlin is the way forward. 

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