Washing with well water - is it okay?

[Guest Luke Warmwater]

I would like to wash the gt40 and get a good coat of wax on it before it goes up for storage. My well water will leave some water spots if left on glass indicating while it is crystal clean from 750' down, it is somewhat hard. Should I be concerned using this water to wash with?

[txredgt]

I'm interested in this as well since my parents house is on well water too.

[the1inblue]

I use well water all the time. Just be sure you wash in the shade and dry as fast as you can. If anything buy a water filtertration system to remove the minerals.

 

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[Grubrunner]

Untreated well water can contain several contaminants that can not only effect your cleaning [clothes, cars, bathing, dishes, etc] but, more importantly, your health and your family's [drinking, cooking, etc]. So my vehicle is the last of my priorities.

 

Anyhow.....

 

If you're washing under direct [hard] well water: The best way to avoid issues as far as washing your car goes, has been mentioned already..... come prepared! Wash in the shade under non-humid conditions, immediately hand dry your vehicle with quality MF [or the equivalent] drying towels and address any water spots immediately upon discovery. In fact, washing and drying sections of your car at a time is your best bet [eg: one 1/4 panel, one fender, one door, etc]. Especially when it's your glass...... especially!

 

For the record.....

 

I recently detailed THIS vehicle and had some serious issues.

 

The owner has well water that was not treated for years. She did get a complete home reverse osmosis system with a water softner recently but the damage had been done prior due to years of hand washing on straight well water.

 

Adam's S&HR did nothing to remove the spots [i was very disappointed] on her glass. I borrowed/used a friend's PC with Adam's pads. She also had hard water spots all over her clear that I discovered upon further inspection under light. Adam's S&HR did, however, remove this with ease and left a brilliant finish.

 

For the glass, I had to use a "cutting compound" from another company that removed the water spots on the glass with next to no elbow grease. This actually suprised me becuase I honestly thought the glass removal would be much easier that the clear removal. This was performed using hand-held foam application followed immediately with a microfiber towel to get the residue off. The down side was, I had horrible "cloudiness" or "hazing" on the glass after the water spots were all removed. No big issue as a coat of Adam's Revive Polish applied by hand followed by some sealant made them look near invisible.

 

For the record, as mentioned in the link, the water spots on the wheels were removed with ease with Adam's Chrome Polish #1.

 

PS: Get your water tested for contaminants and whatnot. It's cheap and it could save your vehicle's paint over the long haul.... and maybe your health.

[Doug123]

I think that hard water is hard water - it has all those dissolved solids in it. I have hard water here. I would certainly mist the car down generously with Detail spray after you have done the final rinse, then get it out of the sun and dry it quickly. Obviously distilled water would be best (no solids) for washing the car, but that is a little extreme. A water softening unit for washing the car supposedly works well. Some of the forum members use them.

 

The best solution is to not have dissolved solids (including iron) in the water, so whichever means gets you closest to this will be the best.

[Guest Luke Warmwater]

Untreated well water can contain several contaminants that can not only effect your cleaning [clothes, cars, bathing, dishes, etc] but, more importantly, your health and your family's [drinking, cooking, etc]. So my vehicle is the last of my priorities.

 

Anyhow.....

 

If you're washing under direct [hard] well water: The best way to avoid issues as far as washing your car goes, has been mentioned already..... come prepared! Wash in the shade under non-humid conditions, immediately hand dry your vehicle with quality MF [or the equivalent] drying towels and address any water spots immediately upon discovery. In fact, washing and drying sections of your car at a time is your best bet [eg: one 1/4 panel, one fender, one door, etc]. Especially when it's your glass...... especially!

 

For the record.....

 

I recently detailed THIS vehicle and had some serious issues.

 

The owner has well water that was not treated for years. She did get a complete home reverse osmosis system with a water softner recently but the damage had been done prior due to years of hand washing on straight well water.

 

Adam's S&HR did nothing to remove the spots [i was very disappointed] on her glass. I borrowed/used a friend's PC with Adam's pads. She also had hard water spots all over her clear that I discovered upon further inspection under light. Adam's S&HR did, however, remove this with ease and left a brilliant finish.

 

For the glass, I had to use a "cutting compound" from another company that removed the water spots on the glass with next to no elbow grease. This actually suprised me becuase I honestly thought the glass removal would be much easier that the clear removal. This was performed using hand-held foam application followed immediately with a microfiber towel to get the residue off. The down side was, I had horrible "cloudiness" or "hazing" on the glass after the water spots were all removed. No big issue as a coat of Adam's Revive Polish applied by hand followed by some sealant made them look near invisible.

 

For the record, as mentioned in the link, the water spots on the wheels were removed with ease with Adam's Chrome Polish #1.

 

PS: Get your water tested for contaminants and whatnot. It's cheap and it could save your vehicle's paint over the long haul.... and maybe your health.

 

I hear you. My well is 750' deep in solid granite at 9000' up in the Rockies. It's the best water I have ever tasted. Unfortunately, I too learned some years ago about water spots on the glass on my truck and just how hard they are to remove. I think my first visit with Adam he worked his butt off trying to help me remove them. It was a pain. That experience has caused me to never wash my cars in the water again. Having the car up at my house now I wanted to wax it before I start work on it and just wondered if there was a way to use well water without causing damage. By biggest concern is water getting in those hard to reach places and leaving behind water marks because I can't wipe it off when it's still wet. Things like the back side of the powder coated wheels. Maybe I will spray it with wd40 in those spots I can't immediately reach and then take them off and wash them separately when I can wipe them down.

[mc2hill]

I don't have a problem with the hard water, but the humidity here makes things dry quickly. I have been using a tip from Chris05GTO - leave the soap on the car, it is more neutral than the water. Just before you rinse run the wash pad over the whole car to reactivate the soap (you don't have to be careful, the car is already clean). Now do the pool rinse and dry with no water spots.