Rockwood
Well-known member
- May 5, 2021
- 5,031
- 6,404
A year or 2 ago I bought this feller:
https://www.amazon.com/Aquatic-Life-Deionized-Spot-Free-Rinse/dp/B07H8MQTMD/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=1FSAK96SSACN7&keywords=deionized+water+filter&qid=1692295106&sprefix=deionized+water+filter%2Caps%2C152&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1
For spotless rinsing. Works great, full flow, but I was eating resin like candy with our 350ppm swamp water, so I stopped using it.
A couple of months ago, I put an inline filter for it in the vain attempt of extending resin life. It helped, a little, but not enough to matter. $60 of DI resin lasted 2 months of washing, so that's $360/year for spotless rinse only, and I was being a super miserly Asian guy about it. When I bought the filter, I assembled a detail cart to make life easier:
All with quick disconnects to make swapping between setups easy. I use house water through the GE filter to fill buckets, rinse soap off, feed the pressure washer for the foam cannon, etc. Hard water is better for suds, so I still use that for anything soapy.
This worked, but during the summer it's super annoying to wash a car as even in the evening shade, the water dries too quickly, especially with the graphene coating (most of it just slides off). DI is nice, but if I was using it for all rinse stages... Fawk, I'd be broke.
Enter the cheap ass (see a theme here?) Reverse Osmosis filter:
https://www.amazon.com/Aquatic-Life-Changing-Deionization-Cartridge/dp/B00204CQF6/ref=sr_1_11_sspa?keywords=reverse+osmosis+water+filter&qid=1692295640&sprefix=reverse+%2Caps%2C183&sr=8-11-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9tdGY&psc=1
These filters will last YEARS for the volume I'm using to wash cars, but their flow capacity is nowhere near enough to rinse anything in a reasonable amount of time. The DI setup flows a little over a gallon a minute, the reverse osmosis system is 100 gallons a DAY (0.07gpm). Luckily, a storage barrel and some gravity will remedy this. First, to prevent flooding everything when you forget, an auto shutoff valve and float are necessary:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HZ6A476/ref=sspa_dk_detail_2?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B00HZ6A476&pd_rd_w=6vZIP&content-id=amzn1.sym.eb7c1ac5-7c51-4df5-ba34-ca810f1f119a&pf_rd_p=eb7c1ac5-7c51-4df5-ba34-ca810f1f119a&pf_rd_r=ZDFGDX2YHG7EPGFH0V7N&pd_rd_wg=iyecr&pd_rd_r=e3734b0a-ea00-4253-99ee-e3f58518f2b1&s=pet-supplies&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWw
I forgot to take pictures of the install, but it's a bulkhead fitting. Simply drill an appropriate sized hole in the top of the barrel (7/8" in this case), deburr the edges, and install. I then installed this guy:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-3-4-in-Polyoxymethylene-Bulkhead-Union-With-Washer-Fitting-800479/207176307
Into the bottom of the barrel, again drilling a hole (1 5/8" this time), deburring and installing. These are plastic, so don't reef on them.
After the fittings were installed, I rigged up a quick PVC plug with chit left over in the garage, filled the barrel, checked the float (it's adjustable) and let it sit for a couple of hours to ensure no leaks.
Once everything was confirmed to not leak, I built a mildly ghetto platform for the barrel in the rafters and wrestled it up there (120* up there, sweet).
(LOL, that lumber says "high quality" on it, which this contraption definitely isn't)
Before you ask, this barrel is in the absolute corner of my garage, less than 6" away from each wall. My garage has a covered porch next to it with a vaulted ceiling, so the wall on this side of the garage is 5' taller than the other side of the peak.
After the 300lb tank wasmostly probably should be unlikely to fall on my dumbass head while at my workbench, I bolted the RO filter assembly to the garage wall next to my washer/dryer, added a brass Y splitter to the cold water spigot for the washer (same as a garden hose fitting), plugged the RO filter in and ran it without the RO media for 5 minutes to clear out the pre-filters of garbage. RO filters make waste water (this one is inefficient at a 2:1 ratio of waste to clean), so I simply ran the 1/4" line into my washer drain and shoved the end all the way to the bottom of the P-trap. The auto shutoff valve was next (without it, the waste side will run continuously), which then was ran up to the rafters in my garage and over to the barrel. To connect a hose, I ran PVC down from that bulkhead fitting (you can just see it in the bottom right of the above photo) to a 1/2 turn PVC valve (pure water is mildly corrosive, so avoid metal) to a garden hose fitting. Crossing my fingers, I installed the RO media, turned the water supply on and watched it work. This was 10pm, so I promptly went to bed, woke up at midnight panicking about leaks destroying everything, then went to bed after inspecting it. This morning, the tank is full and no leaks, so hooray.
Testing the water, I initially got 20ppm TDS (the chit that causes spots), which has since fallen to 11ppm as the dust left in the tank dilutes. The water comes out surprisingly quickly with all that elevation (6psi per the calcs) and should be plenty to keep the pressure washer full. Unable to wait, I half-ass cleaned a dusty window on the Jeep and let the water dry in 90* of direct sunlight.
11ppm is apparently just enough to make no discernible spots (there's still some actual water that hasn't dried yet in this photo). Even if it never drops below 11, at this rate $60 of DI resin will last 5 years assuming it doesn't expire before then. Success!
https://www.amazon.com/Aquatic-Life-Deionized-Spot-Free-Rinse/dp/B07H8MQTMD/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=1FSAK96SSACN7&keywords=deionized+water+filter&qid=1692295106&sprefix=deionized+water+filter%2Caps%2C152&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1
For spotless rinsing. Works great, full flow, but I was eating resin like candy with our 350ppm swamp water, so I stopped using it.
A couple of months ago, I put an inline filter for it in the vain attempt of extending resin life. It helped, a little, but not enough to matter. $60 of DI resin lasted 2 months of washing, so that's $360/year for spotless rinse only, and I was being a super miserly Asian guy about it. When I bought the filter, I assembled a detail cart to make life easier:
All with quick disconnects to make swapping between setups easy. I use house water through the GE filter to fill buckets, rinse soap off, feed the pressure washer for the foam cannon, etc. Hard water is better for suds, so I still use that for anything soapy.
This worked, but during the summer it's super annoying to wash a car as even in the evening shade, the water dries too quickly, especially with the graphene coating (most of it just slides off). DI is nice, but if I was using it for all rinse stages... Fawk, I'd be broke.
Enter the cheap ass (see a theme here?) Reverse Osmosis filter:
https://www.amazon.com/Aquatic-Life-Changing-Deionization-Cartridge/dp/B00204CQF6/ref=sr_1_11_sspa?keywords=reverse+osmosis+water+filter&qid=1692295640&sprefix=reverse+%2Caps%2C183&sr=8-11-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9tdGY&psc=1
These filters will last YEARS for the volume I'm using to wash cars, but their flow capacity is nowhere near enough to rinse anything in a reasonable amount of time. The DI setup flows a little over a gallon a minute, the reverse osmosis system is 100 gallons a DAY (0.07gpm). Luckily, a storage barrel and some gravity will remedy this. First, to prevent flooding everything when you forget, an auto shutoff valve and float are necessary:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HZ6A476/ref=sspa_dk_detail_2?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B00HZ6A476&pd_rd_w=6vZIP&content-id=amzn1.sym.eb7c1ac5-7c51-4df5-ba34-ca810f1f119a&pf_rd_p=eb7c1ac5-7c51-4df5-ba34-ca810f1f119a&pf_rd_r=ZDFGDX2YHG7EPGFH0V7N&pd_rd_wg=iyecr&pd_rd_r=e3734b0a-ea00-4253-99ee-e3f58518f2b1&s=pet-supplies&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWw
I forgot to take pictures of the install, but it's a bulkhead fitting. Simply drill an appropriate sized hole in the top of the barrel (7/8" in this case), deburr the edges, and install. I then installed this guy:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-3-4-in-Polyoxymethylene-Bulkhead-Union-With-Washer-Fitting-800479/207176307
Into the bottom of the barrel, again drilling a hole (1 5/8" this time), deburring and installing. These are plastic, so don't reef on them.
After the fittings were installed, I rigged up a quick PVC plug with chit left over in the garage, filled the barrel, checked the float (it's adjustable) and let it sit for a couple of hours to ensure no leaks.
Once everything was confirmed to not leak, I built a mildly ghetto platform for the barrel in the rafters and wrestled it up there (120* up there, sweet).
(LOL, that lumber says "high quality" on it, which this contraption definitely isn't)
Before you ask, this barrel is in the absolute corner of my garage, less than 6" away from each wall. My garage has a covered porch next to it with a vaulted ceiling, so the wall on this side of the garage is 5' taller than the other side of the peak.
After the 300lb tank was
Testing the water, I initially got 20ppm TDS (the chit that causes spots), which has since fallen to 11ppm as the dust left in the tank dilutes. The water comes out surprisingly quickly with all that elevation (6psi per the calcs) and should be plenty to keep the pressure washer full. Unable to wait, I half-ass cleaned a dusty window on the Jeep and let the water dry in 90* of direct sunlight.
11ppm is apparently just enough to make no discernible spots (there's still some actual water that hasn't dried yet in this photo). Even if it never drops below 11, at this rate $60 of DI resin will last 5 years assuming it doesn't expire before then. Success!
Last edited by a moderator:
