[Badgerbimmer]

As far as how many washes you will get, this will greatly depend on your water source. My local supply usually has a TDS of about 200, which is average.[/QUOTE]

My TDS after softening and before is 700/800. Difference is its all sodium.

[dfwcowboy]

Originally Posted by Badgerbimmer

My TDS after softening and before is 700/800. Difference is its all sodium.

Large volume residential water softeners simply replace the calcium and magnesium with sodium. So you don't get a spot free result because you're replacing certain types of minerals for another. Deionization actually removes the minerals, so you get a result that is similar to distilled water.

[dfwcowboy]

For those who want a system that has more capacity, I found a source that looks better than the Spotless system. I kinda like it because it has valves which allows you to easily bypass. They also sell conversion tubes for the Spotless systems which allow you to do away with the cartridges and fill the holders directly. This will allow them to hold more resin and work more efficiently and should make them easier to refill.

https://rvtransformers.com/store/

[DougCBJ]

Originally Posted by dfwcowboy

For those who want a system that has more capacity, I found a source that looks better than the Spotless system. I kinda like it because it has valves which allows you to easily bypass. They also sell conversion tubes for the Spotless systems which allow you to do away with the cartridges and fill the holders directly. This will allow them to hold more resin and work more efficiently and should make them easier to refill.

https://rvtransformers.com/store/





I also found a cheaper source for resin that's about half the price Spotless charges. I'm reasonably sure it should work, but as it's designed for a different type of system I'm not sure if it will handle the flow rate required. It might be worth a try if you are going through a lot of resin. Spotless charges over $200 for a cubic foot. This is $89 shipped.

https://www.affordablewater.us/Water...ItemId=1171069

My concern is that water softening resin or actual DI resin? I think that is the stuff you'd put in a water softener maybe?

I did find this stuff for 1 cubic foot of DI resin 180 free shipping. I may give this stuff a shot it should refill my dic20 system 3 times. I just got on the CR spotless site to do a resin exchange, but saw the price was $99, i coulda swore it was cheaper like $60-$70 just 5-6 months ago for the exchange program, but i don't see why i would do the exchange when i could buy new refill bags 2 bags for $90 for $10 off on the exchange and don't need to mess around with mailing back my current resin.

https://dirinse.com/product/1-cubic-foot-of-d-i-resin/

[dfwcowboy]

Originally Posted by DougCBJ

My concern is that water softening resin or actual DI resin? I think that is the stuff you'd put in a water softener maybe.

Yes, wrong stuff. I didn’t read the label. Im going to edit it out.

[dfwcowboy]

So far this looks like the cheapest source I’ve found for bulk DI resin.

http://dirinse.com/product/1-cubic-foot-of-d-i-resin/

[dfwcowboy]

So I managed to get 5.5 washes out of my setup. I say 5.5 because one of the cartridges was spent before the other, so after 5 washes I replaced one cartridge and the other lasted one more wash. It's pretty easy to tell when they are done as you can see from the picture. The replacement cartridges are available on Amazon for $16 each, which comes out to $5.18 per wash. I wanted some extra cartridges, so I ordered some, but the next step will be to buy a bag of DI media (referenced in a previous post in this thread), which should bring my per-wash cost down to as cheap as any system. The cartridges are easy to remove and empty. When I buy a bag of media and see how much it takes to refill them, I'll have a better idea on what the per-wash cost basis is.

[dfwcowboy]

So I have bought some resin and refilled my cartridges so now I have a better idea of what the cost per wash is. Each cartridge holds 1lb of media and 2 cartridges lasts 5.5 washes as previously discussed. So I can figure on 2.75 washes per pound of resin.


How much resin you use is going to greatly depend on how hard your water is. I could go on about water chemistry here but the easy way to figure this out is take the TDS of your water supply and compare it to mine, which runs around 200ppm. Most cities are going to publish a water quality report online, so if you don't have a TDS meter, that is a good reference. My municipal supply is pretty typical in terms of hardness, so most people probably aren't going to vary much.



The cheapest source I could find for resin was mentioned upthread, but I never could get in touch with them to make an order. The next cheapest source I could find was Spotless bulk resin which runs about $215 for 1 cu foot which is about 40lbs or $5.38 per pound. You can certainly buy smaller quantities at a higher per pound basis. I didn't buy that much resin because that's at least a 2 year supply for me and I'm not sure if this stuff doesn't have a shelf life to it. Instead I bought a 10lb bag on ebay for $75 or $7.5 per pound. I actually prefer this resin because it has the added feature of changing color when it's depleted which I wouldn't get with the Spotless resin. Since my cartridges are clear, this is a nice feature as it gives me a good visual on where I'm at with my resin and when it needs to be replaced.

$5.38 divided by 2.75 is roughly $2 per wash minumum in bulk, or with smaller quantities $7.5 divided by 2.75 or $2.75 per wash. I'm pretty sure my per wash basis isn't going to change regardless of which system I use, because the media is going to soften the same amount regardless of which system you are running water through. The advantage to having a bigger system is you won't be swapping the cartridges out per often.

[BAMF]

Originally Posted by dfwcowboy

So I have bought some resin and refilled my cartridges so now I have a better idea of what the cost per wash is. Each cartridge holds 1lb of media and 2 cartridges lasts 5.5 washes as previously discussed. So I can figure on 2.75 washes per pound of resin.


How much resin you use is going to greatly depend on how hard your water is. I could go on about water chemistry here but the easy way to figure this out is take the TDS of your water supply and compare it to mine, which runs around 200ppm. Most cities are going to publish a water quality report online, so if you don't have a TDS meter, that is a good reference. My municipal supply is pretty typical in terms of hardness, so most people probably aren't going to vary much.


The cheapest source I could find for resin was mentioned upthread, but I never could get in touch with them to make an order. The next cheapest source I could find was Spotless bulk resin which runs about $215 for 1 cu foot which is about 40lbs or $5.38 per pound. You can certainly buy smaller quantities at a higher per pound basis. I didn't buy that much resin because that's at least a 2 year supply for me and I'm not sure if this stuff doesn't have a shelf life to it. Instead I bought a 10lb bag on ebay for $75 or $7.5 per pound. I actually prefer this resin because it has the added feature of changing color when it's depleted which I wouldn't get with the Spotless resin. Since my cartridges are clear, this is a nice feature as it gives me a good visual on where I'm at with my resin and when it needs to be replaced.

$5.38 divided by 2.75 is roughly $2 per wash minumum in bulk, or with smaller quantities $7.5 divided by 2.75 or $2.75 per wash. I'm pretty sure my per wash basis isn't going to change regardless of which system I use, because the media is going to soften the same amount regardless of which system you are running water through. The advantage to having a bigger system is you won't be swapping the cartridges out per often.

This is great! I need to go back through and figure out what you got and what you ended up keeping and using. Is your first post updated with this last setup?

Also, did you wash your car using this setup for the whole process, or did you just do a “spotless rinse” at the end before drying it?

Lastly, thank you for all your trial & error work, and for posting your findings here. This is really helpful and greatly appreciated.