Jump to content
jeannemaryann

Portable Water Deionizer Systems for Spotless RV Rinses

Recommended Posts

We need to purchase a deionizer system to give us a spotless wash on our RV.  Too many choices out there. We want to purchase one that does the job but doesn’t costs a fortune for filters or supply’s to recharge the system. Your suggestions and advice is appreciated.

Jeanne

Edited by jeannemaryann

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
3 minutes ago, faiello said:

Buy a quality microfiber towel to dry you RV. Much cheaper!

I think it is Monaco that states not to use micro-fiber cloths on their paint because it can leave tiny scratches.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
4 hours ago, jeannemaryann said:

We need to purchase a deionizer system to give us a spotless wash on our RV.  Too many choices out there. We want to purchase one that does the job but doesn’t costs a fortune for filters or supply’s to recharge the system. Your suggestions and advice is appreciated.

Jeanne

I go down to the water shop and buy deionized water for 25 cents a gallon using 5 gallon jugs.  I use a rv water pump and hose with nozzle and for the final rinse wash with the deionized water and almost no spots.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 10/23/2021 at 1:56 PM, jeannemaryann said:

We need to purchase a deionizer system to give us a spotless wash on our RV.  Too many choices out there. We want to purchase one that does the job but doesn’t costs a fortune for filters or supply’s to recharge the system. Your suggestions and advice is appreciated.

Jeanne

DI water comes up every now and then, people who own deionizers tend to rave about 'em. At Forum X and in the Entegra group, some were talking about a DIY system for about $50, which easily falls inside your skill set. 'Turns out, the deionizers are all just a filter array with various stages removing more and more bad stuff. But, the salient -- maybe saline is a better word -- issue is, how much is enough to prevent spotting?

It is curious, that the deionization systems seem to shy away from actual numbers, the lab readings of their filtered water versus what those of the supply. 

Hence,  a third avenue: inline filtration. Some folks swear that a good activated-charcoal inline filter will achieve similar results for a fraction of the price. 

I have it on good authority that an ugly ol' airline pro with a scant 27 days remaining in his career who happens to live down the street from you ordered one moments ago, it should be here tomorrow. 

Since the deionizers' misson is to scrub water of minerals, a TDS meter -- a cheap one is enroute too --  should show zero PPM, a la distilled water. We'll see what kind of drop in PPM the inline filter achieves; and, testing for spotting will be easy with a west-facing RV garage: one half of the nose can be done with tap water, the other with carbon-filtered...

FOLLOWUP:

  We ordered a Camco TastePURE Carbon Filter that is consistently highly-rated for cleaning up drinking water. Some forum contributors have said using the Camco filter is a suitable substitute for rinsing with deionized water. Accoring to Camco, the filter "protects against" various metals, chlorine, fungus, mold.  We purged the filter for five minutes, feeding about 20 gallons through it before taking a hardness reading with a simple TDS meter. At first reading, the filter reduced our tap water hardness from 374 to 344. Another 20 gallons yielded a 324 ppm reading. We tested distilled water and achieved a reading of exactly zero, twice repeating the test with the same results.

 Before I agree with master detailer and fellow RV owner Ray Wilder, who says the Camco filter is  "worth the $13 paid," how about you folks using deionizers? Can you provide us with meter readings to show that your filters scrub minerals from water, and achieve better results than a 10% decrease in hardness?

  

Edited by andyshane
Testing results

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I purchased a battery power washer that come with hose you can put in bucket and draw water.  Just the rinse can be done with 4 gallons of distilled water that we purchase for 99 cents a gallon.  Lot cheaper than couple hundred bucks it cost to replace filters in a  deionizer system.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

De-ionized water is somewhat like softened water, which removes calcium carbonate, lime, and magnesium, and others, by replacing those ions with salt ions;  de-ionized water also removes salt ions but is not totally ion free, that would only be distilled water.

I really like the method CWSwine uses, it's cheap, effective and easy = the KISS method. I already have a 12V pump W/garden hose connections, a stack of buckets and a pocketful of change. So maybe I have to buy 5G distilled water 4X a year, how much does DI water cost, filters cannot make it?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Leaf blower

This is what I use to dry my coach after washing with softened water. It removes 90% of the large water drops and what's left usually doesn't spot. I wipe dry the shiny bits and windows and just leave the rest.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now

×
×
  • Create New...