Bought a DI Vessel - No Touch Wash Test

[FJ1000]

After some discussion on another forum, and after speaking to my window cleaner, the idea of a DI vessel sounded appealing. The idea being that the vessel holds ion exchange resin which softens water, which won't leave water spots as it dries. The idea of not having to dry a car after a wash sounds great!

So I got my DI vessel and bits, and thought I'd give it a go yesterday. Bits I bought:

- 24l DI vessel used from eBay
- 25l ion exchange resin
- Hozelock aquastop connectors x2
- Hozelock metal threaded connectors x2
- Cheap water hardness meter

All in about £150



Thought I'd try a no-touch wash of the Golf as it was only slightly dirty (washed last week). Plan was; wheel cleaner, snow foam, pressure wash, walk away. All in direct sunlight too.

Other bits I'd need; gTechniq W6, bilthamber foam, and foam bottle for my karcher.



Tested the water before hooking up the DI vessel. 150ish PPM = hard!!



Loaded the resin into the vessel (which I was dropping everywhere, had to fashion a large funnel out of cardboard) then hooked it all up straight into the pressure washer:



I tested the water coming out and it wasn't 0 ppm which was disappointing but still low at 18ppm.

State of the car before, not horrendous:







Sprayed on the W6 first, then foam a couple of min later





Then washed off, and that's it! Took a few min for the pressure washer to get going, lots of air in the system, otherwise would've been quicker. The car came up pretty well! Not perfect (had some spots on the sunroof) but still good for an easy 15min wash. I might try on the RS later, and just dry off the glass. Pretty happy with it though!

[ChrisGT]

For a quick wash that's a pretty good result. So if you've not got long to wash it then it makes sense.

Drying a car generally takes me about 5 to 10 minutes, how long does all the equipment take to check, set up, dismantle before/after use? If you're car has a decent level of protection/beading then I use an open hose to remove most of the water on the car before using a drying towel.

You could buy a lot of decent drying towels for that kind of money.

Chris

[willni]

For a quick wash that's a pretty good result. So if you've not got long to wash it then it makes sense.

Drying a car generally takes me about 5 to 10 minutes, how long does all the equipment take to check, set up, dismantle before/after use? If you're car has a decent level of protection/beading then I use an open hose to remove most of the water on the car before using a drying towel.

You could buy a lot of decent drying towels for that kind of money.

Chris

I have a £4 aliexpress drying towel and it's honestly one of the best I used, destroying autofinesses. But in the winter those Ion filters would pay but they're expensive and really don't last long some people saying 6-7 washes

[FJ1000]

I'm someone that's willing to pay a little for convenience! Being able to wash the car in 15min (and in direct sunlight) means it'll actually get washed, as opposed to not having the 45min it'll take me for a proper snowfoam, 2-bucket wash and dry.

By the way, I normally use gtechniq drying towels which are great.

Now that everything is hooked up, there is no faffing around setting it up...connect the hose onto the inlet to the DI vessel and turn the tap on.


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[ChrisGT]

Cool, as long as it works for you man, that's what matters. 

Chris

[S2 Ant]

I've recently discovered these things too... I have loads of DI resin at home anyway as I also keep a marine aquarium and so filter the water to 0 TDS before salting for the tank. Was curious how effective these things were and how long they last. Tap water here is ~200-250, so it wont last long for me I suspect but still handy as a rinse to save me running around to dry the car before it leaves residue.

Be interesting to know how many washes you get out of it before the resin needs changing.

[lukemk5gti]

Not a bad result!

Your vessel is a manual fill which means you pretty much just get one batch of washes from the resin, had you splashed out a bit more you could have gotten one with a regeneration cycling system.

I'd imagine at that PPM you won't get any more than a few months of washes before needing to swap out.