Who has a water softener filter for washing your boat?

[Chris R]

Do these work?

http://www.softcellwater.com

Yes, I have the Mr. Clean system and is great (for how much it cost), but let's be honest, the spot free feature is slow and only effective if you are about 2 feet from what you are rinsing.

Just looking for something to minimize spots on the black hull, stainless, and glass...with ease.

 

[BON DIA]

I don't but use soft water from home de-humidifier in a 2 gal pump-up garden strayer to do a final rinse. Not the slickest rig but works & cheap.

A couple of marina friends have $500 rigs (4' x 4" PVC rechargable tubular rigs similar to home units) & they report much less # of gals of soft water produced than advertized before media saturated.

 

[Chris R]

I don't but use soft water from home de-humidifier in a 2 gal pump-up garden strayer to do a final rinse. Not the slickest rig but works & cheap.

A couple of marina friends have $500 rigs (4' x 4" PVC rechargable tubular rigs similar to home units) & they report much less # of gals of soft water produced than advertized before media saturated.

Pretty creative!

When you read about "recharging" the filters on these rigs, it does seem like a PITA to do. I like the idea of a portable unit as shown from the site attached earlier

 

[Aloha Friday]

I work in the water filtration industry (Cuno, Inc a 3M Company) and will give you some info on water softeners as it relates to the marine industry. First off, water filters reduce suspended contaminants, such as dirt, rust, algae and bacteria. Water softeners and reverse osmosis systems (often called watermakers in the marine industry) focus on dissolved contaminants, such as ions of calcium (hardness), ferrous iron (clear water iron) and sodium chloride (salt). While a water softener can reduce some suspended particles due to the fact that water passes through a depth bed of resin beads, this is not its primary focus and an ideal application would first filter water before passing it through a water softener. Residential and commerical water softeners are regenerated on a schedule based on either a time clock or flow meter where some marine-oriented softeners are simply disposed of rather than regenerated. Throw away water softeners are certainly a waste of perfectly good resin, as these beads can be used for 10-15 years if properly regenerated. The regeneration process uses a brine solution and this often creates the problem for dock side applications as creating the brine solution on a dock and running a softeners control valve through the regeneration process is often not practical due to electrical and plumbing considerations.

So, yes, water softeners can reduce and in some cases eliminate spots on your hull. BUT, only if these spots are being caused by calcium and iron and not sodium. If you are well inland then I'd say that sodium is not an issue. However, if you are on the coast, your dock water may contain elevated levels of chlorides (salts). So, if you are mainly concerned with water at your home dock, I'd suggest testing the water. Most plumbing wholesale companies like Ferguson Enterprises offer free water testing. I know this as my company does much of the actual testing. If you get your water tested and find that your hardness is greater than 10 grains per gallon (171 ppm) this level causes a good amount of spotting. As long as your iron levels are at or below 5 grains per gallon, a water softener is the perfect solution to spot free rinse applications. However, if your test reveals total dissolved solids (TDS) of much over 350 ppm and you are in a coastal area, you may have some salt water intrusion into your water supply. While softener resin beads have a negative ionic charge to them and both calcium and salts have positive ionic charges, the sodium in your water supply still may cause some spotting. If your vessel has a water maker / reverse osmosis system, my suggestion would be to use that product water as your wash down source. With a 0.0005 micron rating, a RO membrane rejects all but pure water molacules. Salts, bacteria, solids, flouride, and plenty more can not pass through the membrane and RO water is what car washes use as the technology behind spot free rinse.

So, softeners can work, RO systems will work. The most important thing to do is have your water tested for hardness, TDS and iron. Without that information, its like going fishing with a lure but having no idea what kind of fish are in the area. You may be using a filter which does a great job with one contaminant, but your problem comes from another contaminant.

One more thing that you may wish to consider is a water conditioner that utilizes polyphosphates / sodium silicates. While not a water softener, polyphosphate is a sequestering agent, so it actually surrounds the calcium ion and prevents it from coming out of solution. Sodium silicate is often referred to as "liquid glass" and acts almost like teflon in the sense that it reduces the adhesion of water to a surface. These are designed for hot water appliances like hot water heaters, but can still help in cold water applications. For anyone using a hot water heater, these inexpensive systems can greatly extend the life of hot water heaters as the hardness will not precipatate out of solution and scale up the insides of the appliance.

If you tell me where in the country you live, I may be able to reccomend someone in your area to get you the right equipment based on local water conditions. I spent the past 3 years introducing a line of 3M marine water filters before I was yanked out of marine industry responsibility due to the economic challenges facing that industry.

Hope that helps your understanding of the technology behind water softeners and some of the considerations to give when trying to reduce spotting on your hull. Any other questions on water, just ask.

 

[comsnark]

^^ Good stuff. 'nough said.

 

[Mr Salt]

I have a white hull and super structure and I think that my water conditioner, a Wet SpoT, (no comments Gary) works great. My marina is also in salt water. The dock water has a very hard and will leave spots on the boat even when it is dried, further, with the strong summer sun the water dries very quickly leaving spots behind. The softened water does not leave spots. The cost of salt to regenerate the conditioner is minimal, perhaps $0.50 and my conditioner lasts for about 2,500 gallons before it requires recharging. Recharging takes about 15-20 minutes.

They last for years and in my mind are well worth the cost.

Mr Salt
2001 540 CPMY
Caterpillar C-12s
Cape May, NJ