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Many mobile auto detailers and car washes use water filtration or conditioning systems to ensure there are no water spots on the vehicles they clean. It improves the cleaning process and speed and allows for superior results. Some go with just 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 costs four times the cost, but comes with less than 1.5 gpg hardness.

Culligan Industrial Water Services is the largest on-site water supply company 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 can be picked up at the Culligan Water Treatment Center if the tanks are truck mounted. Either way, Culligan employees lift the tanks due to liability issues with customers. Two deionized tanks weigh about 180 to 250 pounds and a good water softener tank weighs 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 do home deliveries, they will hook up the new tank for you and bring the old tank back to your plant for refilling. Sometimes a Culligan route person from their Industrial Services Division will know the contact name of an industrial user of RO or deionized 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 occurs more often with De-I than with softeners, but both must be monitored.

How is it monitored?

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

tank washing

There are two ways to clean a tank. The first is easy. Drive to a fellow mobile retailer’s house. Drain your tank and use your steam cleaner/pressure washer to clean it. 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 granules. You should do this right before you go to 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 you 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 the towels. Otherwise, these towels will disintegrate on top of other towels, leaving lint on 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 about a third full with Clorox and pour it into the full tank at the start of a work day and that should do the trick. Don’t worry, it won’t affect the quality of the car wash much. It would be especially nice if you were washing truck fleets that day. You can then check the water in the tank using a method called titration or use small test strips that you dip into the tank. Deionized water is far superior to water softening systems and somewhat better than the lower end reverse osmosis systems a mobile retailer might purchase to produce water in their store or at home. Think about what might be the best water strategy for you.

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