# DI water vessel



## bradley221985 (Aug 6, 2018)

Have heard about using these for a final rinse down to avoid water spots as car dries and am interested in getting one but know nothing about them or how exactly they work. Which are the best ones to get and what else would I need to connect it to my kranzle 1152 tst?


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## MBRuss (Apr 29, 2011)

You're probably better off not using it with the jet wash. You jet wash the car and do your usual wash, then do the final rinse with the DI vessel. I think you would get through the "life" of the resin much quicker if you were using it to feed your PW as well.

At least, that's how I understand it.

Sent from my LYA-L09 using Tapatalk


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## DLGWRX02 (Apr 6, 2010)

The Di vessels simple connect in line with your hose, basically it has to hozelock connectors one in one out. It’s as simple as that. I tried running it through my pressure washer but it couldn’t maintain the flow so leave it to hose use only. There’s a guide on here from raceglaze explaining the best size and shape of bottle for best results. I just googled Di vessels and chose one in my budget range and that will last a while before constantly need the minerals changing. Ended up with a 15.4 litre bottle, 8x22” in size and it lasts me around 14-18 months between refills.


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## grunty-motor (Aug 11, 2016)

i just bought one - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vyair-08...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

0 PPM so seems to work fine.

one question - any "maintenance" on these? I guess you dont have to drain them every time and should avoid letting them freeze?


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## MBRuss (Apr 29, 2011)

grunty-motor said:


> i just bought one - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vyair-08...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649
> 
> 0 PPM so seems to work fine.
> 
> one question - any "maintenance" on these? I guess you dont have to drain them every time and should avoid letting them freeze?


That's the one I was considering.

What will you do with it in winter though? I was told that how long the resin lasts depends on various factors, one of which being how long the water is left in there. I asked if I could empty the vessel of water after every use to extend its life and was told that I could not. As such, I'm not sure how you would stop it freezing during winter, other than taking it indoors.

Not sure the wife would be happy about having this in the house though, especially if it's mucky from being in the garage all summer...

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## RaceGlazer (Jan 10, 2007)

You don't have to empty the water out as that would waste it, but in summer you need to run at least a few litres through it as a damp warm environment can allow bacteria to grow and coat the resin media. Do this every 2 weeks. 
In winter the issue is freezing and expansion of the water which can crack the vessel. Either bring it in the garage or lag it.

Do read our article on how aspect ratio is more important than absolute vessel size here: https://www.raceglaze.co.uk/car-car...-filters/car-wash-water-filter-14-litre-tall/


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## MBRuss (Apr 29, 2011)

RaceGlazer said:


> You don't have to empty the water out as that would waste it, but in summer you need to run at least a few litres through it as a damp warm environment can allow bacteria to grow and coat the resin media. Do this every 2 weeks.
> In winter the issue is freezing and expansion of the water which can crack the vessel. Either bring it in the garage or lag it.
> 
> Do read our article on how aspect ratio is more important than absolute vessel size here: https://www.raceglaze.co.uk/car-car...-filters/car-wash-water-filter-14-litre-tall/


Hi RaceGlazer, do you have any rough guide on how long I could expect a DI vessel (use the sizes of your as examples of you like) to last?

Only, I enquired with the company selling the above mentioned eBay one and they were very wishy-washy and wouldn't give any guide at all.

Obviously if you're spending £95+ on one of those things you want to have some reassurance they you're not going to have to be replacing the expensive resin every 2 months!

I live in quite a hard water area, so I suspect mine would take a hammering moreso than in other areas. But if I'm just using it to rinse the car, say once a week, how long could I expect it to last before needing to change the resin?

Also, does your DI vessel put anything into the water? I know some of the home water softeners put salt into the water, which is obviously not something you want when rinsing a car down.

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## DLGWRX02 (Apr 6, 2010)

Get yourself a meter to measure the water ppm. 
Something like https://www.amazon.co.uk/HM-Digital...ocphy=1006751&hvtargid=pla-307888630969&psc=1
Mine before the Di vessel reads between 325 and 385 usually. I use my Di vessel at minimum once a fortnite, sometimes 2-3 times a week during the summer. And I'm getting 14-18 months use. No it doesn't transfer anything to the water, think of it as millions of little beads as the water forces its way through they polish the water removing the solids.

Sometimes you may need to roll your tank around a few times to mix up the resin, as when it settles, water can find and track a path way through, which means it loses its effectiveness. Mine is situated outside in a self made cabinet that I used flooring insulation that prevents it from freezing. It's been there for about 4 years now and no issues even at -15c


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## Andyman0 (Aug 20, 2018)

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/23L-FULL-DI-Resi...ng-FITTINGS-/253312294041?hash=item3afa96dc99

Got mine from here, best piece of kit i`ve bought, had it 12mths now and still going strong, only use it for final rinse, stored in garage and covered up in winter, water hardness is 385ppm here, this takes it down to 0, fast delivery from those guys too, bought a tds meter too, before i rinse the car i run water through filter and check its still 0ppm before going on to rinse the car, once ive rinsed it, i turn the water off to the vessel then fill containers with the remaining water, run it untill all the pressure has been released from the vessel,disconnect hose then put it back in the garage


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## RaceGlazer (Jan 10, 2007)

We have created a calculator to show how much 0ppm water you will get from our various sized DI vessels here: http://morethanpolish.com/maxi-filter-refillable-long-life-water-filter-system.asp

You can get the hardness of your water from your supplier off their website. For our 14L and 25L filters you will need to do some simple maths on the figure output - x 2.75 for 14L, 3.5 for the 25L compared to the 7L

Hope thats useful


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## pvr (Oct 1, 2006)

How do you guys get so many months with the vessels? I have just bought a second to put it in serial with the first one to get a bit more out of mine. I have 175 ppm from the tap and get around 3 months with a full load on the vessel (11 litres one). Used once a week for two cars, final rinse only. The virigin resin I use is MB-115


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## RaceGlazer (Jan 10, 2007)

The vessel you have is short and dumpy, which is not the most efficient shape. See our article on the subject here: https://www.raceglaze.co.uk/car-car...-filters/car-wash-water-filter-14-litre-tall/

Adding further filter in series wont save you any money, as once the first filter is dead it will not only let pure tap water through into the second one, but bonded on minerals will be washed off and contaminate the second vessel very quickly.

Obviously be quick around your car, lower pressure from the mains to about half.
You should get around 900 litres from our 7L filter, so you must be using a lot each time. Thats enough to rinse both cars every week for a year.


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## rhinoman (Jul 9, 2013)

RaceGlazer said:


> Adding further filter in series wont save you any money, as once the first filter is dead it will not only let pure tap water through into the second one, but bonded on minerals will be washed off and contaminate the second vessel very quickly.


Says the bloke that sells vesselssimply not true.

A vessel may be spent when it reads above 15 ish for the final rinse. Placing it before a second unit means it is being fed with water in the 15-350ish range in a gradual decline. The second newer vessel is then not working so hard to reduce the reading below the 15 usable mark. When the first one is close to the incoming supply reading, replace the resin and then move it to the second position and retiring the other to be the first one. This massively increase the use of the resin.
I use inline filters after each of mine to easily keep an eye on the outflowing water and change the resin before an issues occur with contamination.


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## RaceGlazer (Jan 10, 2007)

The decline is not gradual, or linear though, its exponential. 

So the rate of increase in ppm of output water from the first one declines at an accelerating pace.

Yes, you will have some modest benefit in the initial stages of the failure curve, but at the point of total failure you will contaminate the resin in the second unit in the set up too. 

I don't consider its worth it.

And yes, I do sell filters but my intent is not to mislead anyone into buying new resin. I don't operate like that.


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## Marve (Jul 5, 2013)

rhinoman said:


> Says the bloke that sells vesselssimply not true.


Wouldn't he want everyone to buy 2 vessels instead of one?


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## RaceGlazer (Jan 10, 2007)

Er, no.

I'd rather the customer bought what he needed and what worked best for him. And then told each of his neighbours what great products they are and they buy the the additional vessels instead.


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## Marve (Jul 5, 2013)

RaceGlazer said:


> Er, no.
> 
> I'd rather the customer bought what he needed and what worked best for him. And then told each of his neighbours what great products they are and they buy the the additional vessels instead.


I know, that was my point... You were accused of giving wrong advice as you are a seller of DI units. So I said if pure greed and instant cash in your pocket were your aim, you would be saying "yeah for sure, all you mugs buy 2 vessels from me please... kerching".


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## RaceGlazer (Jan 10, 2007)

Thank you for clarifying Marve. Appreciated, and apologies due to you.

As an aside, this review came in overnight which gives a useful guide to longevity:

Had for a year ...
Exceedingly hard water here. Wash a black car and leave it and it looks like someone blew icing sugar over it. This really works as a final rinse. The filter is nearly due for a change. But pretty good as I did wash the wife’s 27 times as well. I was expecting 35 washes and have got 45 crystal clear rinses and circa 10 more, that are still pretty limescale free. S class Coupe has a lot of square feet to rinse. Shame the refills are expensive ... but definitely worth it. Well, its essential if you live here


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## Kenan (Sep 7, 2015)

RaceGlazer said:


> Thank you for clarifying Marve. Appreciated, and apologies due to you.
> 
> As an aside, this review came in overnight which gives a useful guide to longevity:
> 
> ...


Do you find any issues with beading performance after washing the cars with hard water?

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## RaceGlazer (Jan 10, 2007)

Ive found that the filtered water doesnt bead as much as tap water its not so 'sticky' for want of a better description. Does seem to run off better.


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## luke w (Dec 11, 2012)

I've had my filter for maybe a month now and used it 5-6 times. Now I use it for the full wash process as if I waited until just using it on the final rinse, the car would be water spotted anyway. I realise they're only really meant to be used for the final rinse, but the PPM is now back to normal tap water levels. Have I really exhausted the resin so soon??

Cheers


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## MrMatt (Apr 15, 2011)

Give it a roll around and run a few litres through it and test again.

Depends how hard your input water is and just how much water you use in the wash process but its certainly not impossible that you have used all the resin has to give already.

I'm trying to limit my use to 10 to 15 litres per final rinse and spray the car over to stop it drying out before that with normal tap water...


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## RaceGlazer (Jan 10, 2007)

And 'back flush' it - connect the wrong way round and run for a minute.

If you've used our calculator you should be able to figure out if it is truly dead - just check your local ppm, factor in your flow rate, work out minutes of use and you should get a good steer. Its here: http://morethanpolish.co.uk/maxi-filter-refillable-long-life-water-filter-system.asp

And it does depend on which filter you bought Luke - the larger ones are not always an efficient shape (a bigger resin capacity may not mean more pure water) - see interesting article here: https://www.raceglaze.co.uk/car-car...-filters/car-wash-water-filter-14-litre-tall/

The gist of it is:
We filled 3 separate vessels with the same mixed bed resin (Purolite MB400) and tested the overall capacity at the same standard flow rate (6 litres per minute) using Harpenden towns mains water at a TDS of 420. The volume of water produced before the quality reached 10ppm (still good enough to no give spots, but a sign that the resin bed is beginning to fail from its initial 0ppm reading) were as follows:-

•	Race Glaze 6" by 18" 7L filter gave 415 litres of water from 7 litres of resin.

•	Window Cleaning type 8" by 17" filter gave 480 litres of water from 10 litres of resin.

•	Race Glaze 6" by 35" 14L filter gave 1105 litres of water from 14 litres of resin.

You can see from these figures that by simply using a taller thinner filter you significantly increase the capacity of the unit from 59 litres of water per litre of resin with the 6x18 to 79 litres of water per litre of resin with the 6x35.


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## Trix (Jul 1, 2006)

DLGWRX02 said:


> The Di vessels simple connect in line with your hose, basically it has to hozelock connectors one in one out. It's as simple as that. I tried running it through my pressure washer but it couldn't maintain the flow so leave it to hose use only. There's a guide on here from raceglaze explaining the best size and shape of bottle for best results. I just googled Di vessels and chose one in my budget range and that will last a while before constantly need the minerals changing. Ended up with a 15.4 litre bottle, 8x22" in size and it lasts me around 14-18 months between refills.


How many washes/ rinses do you think that represents?


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## luke w (Dec 11, 2012)

Thanks for the suggestions, will try them later on.


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## Triggauk (Feb 1, 2017)

I really don’t rate these DI vessels on there own. Even when the resin is brand new and fresh it still always manages to leave behind some light mineral spots if the car isn’t dried quickly enough. 

I switched out to a full reverse osmosis unit and have never looked back. Over a year of heavy use with no filter changes and the water still reads a constant 000pm. Nothing like rinsing off a black car on a hot summers day and just walking away with confidence.


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## fatdazza (Dec 29, 2010)

Triggauk said:


> I really don't rate these DI vessels on there own. Even when the resin is brand new and fresh it still always manages to leave behind some light mineral spots if the car isn't dried quickly enough.
> 
> I switched out to a full reverse osmosis unit and have never looked back. Over a year of heavy use with no filter changes and the water still reads a constant 000pm. Nothing like rinsing off a black car on a hot summers day and just walking away with confidence.


Do you store the RO water in a tank and use that to rinse? Unless you have a large RO unit, the flow is generally quite low, requiring a storage tank.

I am surprised you get mineral spots. What resin are you using? I use Tulsion MB115 and get zero ppm and no spots. (On a black car)


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## RaceGlazer (Jan 10, 2007)

Triggauk - your experience is unusual and counter to my personal experience and that of hundreds of customers.
What you may have is dust collecting/blowing onto the water beads - the usual culprit.

On their own these vessels are faultless, any issues can always be worked out.


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## v_r_s (Nov 4, 2018)

luke w said:


> I've had my filter for maybe a month now and used it 5-6 times. Now I use it for the full wash process as if I waited until just using it on the final rinse, the car would be water spotted anyway. I realise they're only really meant to be used for the final rinse, but the PPM is now back to normal tap water levels. Have I really exhausted the resin so soon??
> 
> Cheers


Mm in a similar boat to you, water is so bad I would get water spotting if I didn't do a pressure rinse instantly getting shampoo off then sprint around with the DI vessel I would get water spotting. So you only achieved a month worth of washing fully with a DI in use ? What are the costs of that ?


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## AudiPhil (Aug 11, 2018)

I purchased one of the taller vessesl from Raceglaze about 3 or 4 months ago and I think it's great. It gets used to rinse 2 or 3 cars each week, I do pressure wash the shampoo foam off before using the DI vessel through an open hose for a final rinse. The only water marks I've had are from when I've failed to rinse the door mirror casings thoroughly, my technique has got better with practice! It's a great piece of kit in the sun and warmer weather. I've not measured the ppm but all the time I'm getting water spot free results I'm happy


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## luke w (Dec 11, 2012)

v_r_s said:


> Mm in a similar boat to you, water is so bad I would get water spotting if I didn't do a pressure rinse instantly getting shampoo off then sprint around with the DI vessel I would get water spotting. So you only achieved a month worth of washing fully with a DI in use ? What are the costs of that ?


I think replacement resin for my 11 ltr vessel is around £45. I can't justify that every month, even if only over the warmer months!


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## RaceGlazer (Jan 10, 2007)

The obvious thing then Luke is to use tap water for as much of your wash as possible, and DI water for the final rinse only


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## Swindon Andy (Mar 3, 2013)

There's a place near me that sells di water, mainly for window cleaners I think. Something like 4p a litre. I'm going to try this in a camping pressure shower for final rinse. Anyone else done similar?


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## Radish293 (Mar 16, 2012)

I have an in line flow meter connected to my DI vessel so I know how much I use for each rinse and total since last resin change. I get about 500l of water before the the level goes up. costs about 5p a litre. Worth every penny. 


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## MrMatt (Apr 15, 2011)

How much do you use for a final rinse Radish?


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## Radish293 (Mar 16, 2012)

MrMatt said:


> How much do you use for a final rinse Radish?


Probably use more than I should but between 6-10l for a final rinse.

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## MrMatt (Apr 15, 2011)

Ah man I dont seem to be able to get under the 12 to 15l area. Whats your method?


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## Tyrefitter (Feb 13, 2010)

I just use mine to rinse the car after applying shampoo,,sometimes in this heat it drys before you can do a final rinse.

Andy


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## Radish293 (Mar 16, 2012)

MrMatt said:


> Ah man I dont seem to be able to get under the 12 to 15l area. Whats your method?


I use a fine mist or spray setting in my Hozelock sprayer and drench the car rather than an open hose which I find uses more. I also have a pump spray which I use around the door shuts when the doors are open.

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## RaceGlazer (Jan 10, 2007)

Turn mains pressure down using your tap to get a more controlled throughput


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## jaynana (Jul 23, 2019)

RaceGlazer said:


> Turn mains pressure down using your tap to get a more controlled throughput


so.. i've joined the forum (finally), thanks to you  (i should probably send an intro msg separately)

I've bought your 7L vessel along with a wall-mount bracket, bought a flow control valve thingy too to regulate the pressure easily at the input end, waiting for the next car wash to see the results!

previously i bought a water test thingy and tested the water, turned out i'm getting about 250ppm


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