DIY water filter/softner

This has probably been done before but wanted to share. I live in Phoenix where the water is rated extreme on the hardness scale. It's also hot, sunny and the air is very dry which means extreme evaporation and lots of water spots even for the cautious detailers!
So yesterday after my weekly detail and spending an extra hour post wash with spray detailer getting rid of every single water spot I decided to look into an auto wash water softener system. Research on Amazon showed that many of these systems are $500 plus with a high rated cheaper one being about $250. I'm way too cheap for that (I still have kings UCAs and other goodies to buy for my 3rd gen) so I went down to homedepot and decided to try to come up with something on my own.
Material purchased:

1. 2 glacier bay 10" water filter canisters. $20 a piece
   
2. 2 pack hdx carbon 5 micron filters. $12
3. 3 foot long piece of aluminum box tubing. $4
4. Hardare: 3/4" npt to garden hose male, 3/4" npt to garden hose female, 2, 3/4" npt to barbed hose adapters. About $25
5. Pentek resin deionizer/softer filter. $22 had to buy on amazon prime same day delivery

Material I had on hand:

1. Hose mobile
2. 50ft garden hose
3. 3ft leader
4. Old hose for making connections between filters
5. Assorted nuts, bolts, washers, hose clamps

Construction is pretty straight forward. ( dont make fun of my fabrication skills) Make sure the flow path of water runs through the carbon filter prior to the resin filter. Ensure you either remove or bypass the resin filter before flushing excess carbon through a new carbon filter. It will cause premature wear of the more expensive resin filter.

Al in all I'm happy with the reults. There was some GPM loss due to the h2o running through 2 filters ( expected) the resin filter is rated to perform best at 1.5 gpm which Im probably exceeding. I may correct this with a gate valve and inline psi gauge.

Notes:

1. The carbon filters are rated for 3 months entire household usage so I expect it to last a while for auto wash only puposes.
2. The resin filter life depends on your water quality but they can be recharged similar to your home system by soaking it over night in a salt brine.
3. The hose mobile doesn't like the extra weight of the filters so I will probably mount them to a poly tool cart from harbor freight once it gives out. That cart will be my dedicated detailing/wash supply cart.

I added some pics of it assembled and also a couple pics showing water stream quality and foam making ability after gpm loss. Ironically phoenix is supposed to get its first rain since December today so I don't feel like washing the taco. I did foam some chemical guys extreme wash+wax onto a really dirty window that gets sprinkler oversrpay to test it out. I rinsed with the filter system after scrubbing and it dried almost perfectly!

 

This is SUPER COOL! Thanks for sharing!!!

 

I was about to post asking if anyone had success setting up their own system. The water here in NM is the hardest water I've ever seen and it's so dry out the water evaporates before you even have a chance to dry it. I'm looking at doing this in the upcoming weeks.

 

I've been using this for a month or so now and it's working great. I did end up putting a gate valve to bring the GPM down to about 1.5 for final rinse. I have a coat of Wolfgang sealant and use black fire spray sealant every other wash. I've been using the filtered water with no hose attachments at the end to create water sheeting and theres basically nothing left to dry and no spots!

 

So all in all less than $100 and you get a spot free no dry wash? Sign me up.

 

Pretty smart. Thanks for sharing.

 

I bought two housings from Lowe's, connecting hardware, carbon filters (1 micron), leader hose, and I ordered the same water softening filter you did. I just have to wait for the filter to get here. I'm pretty excited.

 

Sweet! Post some pics let me know how it turns out!

 

Nice setup! I purchased one of these a few weeks ago:

http://www.purewaterproducts.com/garden-hose-softener
http://www.purewaterproducts.com/docs/garden-hose-softener-installation-and-service-instructions

More expensive but all I should have to do it recharge it every so often with 2lbs of salt.

 

That's really nice but incredibly out of my price range. My wife is giving me hell for spending 100 on this set up already.

 

I got my system set up. I'm testing it on a metal fold up chair right now. I went all out and clayed/waxed the chair first to replicate conditions. I'm letting it completely air dry to see the difference. Without the system the chair was practically white from all the water spots.

 

Let us know how it turns out

 

On the first test I have fewer water spots. I think I'm going to try again with a pressure regulator.

 

That 1.5 GPM the resin filter is rated for is key for final rinse. I use full pressure while washing but when I do my water sheeting at the end I gate it down. I did the math using C*Q2* L for friction loss and came up with about .25 psi per 100 feet 3/4 inch hose. I know garden his is 5/8 but dont know the coefficient for 5/8ths hose. You can easily just estimate the output too by filling about 1.5 gallons in your wash bucket over a minute. A quarter of a psi is hard to measure.

 

Did you have to brine your filter before the first use? I tried again today at a much lower flow rate and still got water spots. Hopefully the problem is 1) filter needs to charge or 2) I somehow installed the filter upside-down.

 

And speaking of charging... the filter didn't come with instructions. Do you just soak it in salt pellets and water overnight?

 

That filter should come ready to go. How is the water sheeting on your test surface? Are you spraying or allowing the water to pool and sheet off the surface?

 

It's sheeting pretty good. It forms drops. The main area of concern is the horizontal surface (testing on metal fold up chair)

 

Built one - a couple of us at my office decided to try it out. Water spots in Tucson are awful. Will we need to put a "fertilizer" or bug sprayer bottle on the business end with some "JET dry" or similar?

 

whats the hose-end sprayer can for?