Deionized Water Strategies for Mobile Car Washes and Detailers

Many mobile auto detailers and car washes use filtration or water conditioning systems to ensure that there are no water spots on the vehicles they clean. Improves the cleaning process and speed and allows for superior results. Some go simply with a water softening unit, others opt for a deionization system. If you choose to go with deionization tanks, you should also try trading services. De-I is four times the cost, but brings a lower hardness of 1.5 gpg.

Culligan Industrial Water Services is the largest on-site water utility in Southern California and the western states. They offer soft water tanks and deionized units. They can be delivered to mobile retailer or car wash operators or picked up at the Culligan Water Treatment Center if tanks are truck mounted. Either way, Culligan’s employees lift the tanks because of the liability issues it creates with customers. Two deionized tanks are around 180 to 250 pounds and a good water softener tank is 150 pounds.

If the tanks are mounted on trucks, you’ll have to go downtown because Culligan doesn’t usually have any special hours. If they deliver to the home, they will hook up the new tank for you and bring the old tank to your plant for refilling. Sometimes a Culligan route person from your Industrial Services Division will know the contact name of an industrial user of deionized or RO water. One that doesn’t need all the water they produce. They will also know if that user has a storage tank and if the tank has a key.

It is very important to continually check to make sure your water purification provider is giving you what you are paying for. From time to time you will get a bad tank. It happens more often with De-I than softeners, but both need to be monitored.

How is it monitored?

Well, any pool man will tell you that no two test kits say the same thing and price isn’t the only distinguishing factor. If he’s from Missouri, the ‘Show Me’ state, he might want to try your test kit. For our purposes, we just want to get close. If the water is bad, it will show up in the cars you wash. But you must test the water before it goes into the tank. If the water going into the tank is good, but the cars are stained or have a film on them, the tank may have dirt, leaves, debris, etc. on it. You should rinse your tank and see if this solves the problem. Use this procedure when performing tank flushing.

tank wash

There are two ways to clean a tank. The first is easy. Drive to the home of a fellow mobile retailer. Drain your tank and use your steam cleaner/pressure washer to clean it out. The second way is to go to a pool supply store and buy some shock treatment chlorine tablets. This stuff works great. Fill the tank halfway with water and pour in one or two pellets. You should do this just before going on a steam cleaning job, if you have a hot water unit. Cleaning the concrete is best because the acid in the shock treatment will also help it clean the concrete. Under no circumstances should you wash any car until all the water has been used up and another full tank has been used. When we say no cars, we also mean your car wash or mobile cleaning crew. If you forget and spray a car or the windows at the mall, wipe them dry immediately. Everything should be fine. Then throw away the towels. Otherwise, these towels will fall apart on top of the other towels, leaving lint in every car you wash the next day.

If you only notice a little algae starting to form, take a regular size Burger King mug, fill it up to a third full with Clorox and pour it into the full tank at the start of a work day and that should take care of it. Don’t worry, it won’t affect the quality of the car wash much. It would be especially cool if you were washing fleets of trucks that day. You can then check the water in the tank by a method called titration or use small test strips that you can dip into the tank. Deionized water is far superior to water softening systems and slightly better than the low-end reverse osmosis systems that a mobile retailer might purchase to produce water at their store or home. Think about what might be the best water strategy for you.