i bought the mr clean car wash kit and it sucks........i rinsed the thing 4 times over and i still had spots.....i think i should return it and warn anyone not to buy it...........anybody else get suckered like me????

 

The Mr. Clean is a good device. Used it many times and the concept is sound. You are either doing something wrong OR the spots were already there and are etched in your paint.

 

i believe that there is a filter for the Mr. Clean that has to be attached when rinsing if im not mistaken. This is what take the impurities out of the water which create spots.

I have seen people use it before, and it works fine.

 

i just got one and to make sure it worked me and a friend used it on his black gt in the sun (like 80 deg temp) and it left no water spots at all

 

I use one on my Black 98 all the time. I have never had any spotting, except after about 7 or 8 washes, when the filter was shot. New filter is only like 5 bucks. Are you sure you turned it to the "autodry" cycle? (the dial pointing the whole way to the right)

 

i have a brand new filter....and i have it turned to the right...my paint is almost perfect.....and i still get spots....do i just have to rinse it for like a half an hour or wait for it to dry before i rinse it????if so id rather save myself time and dry it by hand

 

Basically, what you want to do, is as soon as you've rinse the last of the soap off of the car with the regular rinse water, go through with the Autodry water and "rinse" the non-filtered water off. Go from the top down. You should see what looks like little beads dancing on your paint (god I sound gay, but the example works, lol). All you want to do is replace the non-filtered hard water with the nice, clean, filtered water. It takes me roughly 10 minutes to rinse the whole car with the filtered stuff. Undr any circumstances, do not let the regular hose water dry on the car, or you will need to rewash that panel when it dries.

Blake (AKA MT's #1 Customer) knows all about hard and soft water. He's some kind of water scientist fixer-upper guy.

 

I noticed with mine when using it on a city water supply it worked great, but at home where I have a well it dosent work as well. (no pun intended!) Mabye our resident water expert MT #1 could help explain?

 

The concept behind this device is simple. The idea is that you are final rinsing your car with water of high purity, so that as it dries, no spots are left behind. Additionally, the soap contains sheating agents which probably consist of citric acid. The allows the water to sheet off the surface, rather than allowing it to bead where it can dry and form spots.

Old fashion Carnuba wax forms beeds, right? This is one of the reason why polymer waxes seem to make a car look better longer. Because they allow rain to sheet off the surface rather than beed.

The cartridge that Mr. Clean uses consists of what is called a mix-bed resin. The resin is plastic and is specially designed to have an ion-exchange reaction that takes place with the water. One bed removes anions and the other removed cations. The result is water is very low levels of dissolved solids.

Thing is it is not perfect. I am sure when brand-new it operates at around 96 - 98% efficiency. But as you use it (especially if your water is high in hardness) the efficiency will drop-off. I am sure that 90 - 95% might be as best as you can get after a few uses.

So, if you live in Upstate NY where the water quality tends to be horrible and you might not have as much luck with this thing. Here is why: If you water quality is such that you have 750 ppm of TDS (dissolved solids) and hardness of 400 ppm, the final rinse water might now be 75 ppm TDS and 40 ppm hardness. If you live in Scranton, PA., you are starting with water with a 60 ppm TDS and 40 ppm hardness before even running through the resin. In this example, the PA sample is better than the NY sample after using the system.

In most cases, if you have hard well water but have a softener, this thing will work great and you will get more uses out of it. But, if the water is hard and no softener, dont not expect miracles.

Some of your guys may have an RO unit at home. I highly recomend one as they produce high-quality drinking water. Lowe's sells them for about $160 and they will make about 10 - 15 gpd of water. If you have one of these and a garden sprayer, fill the sprayer with the water from the RO and use it to rinse the car. You can say good buy to using a Mr. Clean and buying the cartridges. Course, you still may want the Mr. Clean soap as it does sheet better than most.

Best bet, when I get my GT-500 (I am still dreaming), I will use my RO water to rinse, and a leaf blower to dry thus reducing the risk of any spots and scratches. Each time you touch the surface, you risk a scrath.

There....I am done.

 

I dont use mr. clean myself. I just use microfiber towels, they worked great, just need to buy a couple more towels.

 

i used a regular bathroom towel and hose water and it came out friggin sweet!
then again the faucet water in colorado springs is almost as good as filtered water

 

Hmph, snobby coloradians...and their crystal clear spring water...lol jk man. I had one, but it just seemed like it cost so much to maintain with the soap and the filters, I just went back to good ole hand drying the beast, but Im going to crank up the leave blower next time...my luck, ill sand blast it.

 

leave blower? What is that? :merror:

 

Matt, you are right there. The irony with this system is that if you have really good water, the cartridge lasts a long time. And I can only get a few washes out of that bottle of soap.

They have a new version out now. Not sure what is different about it.

 

Blake...just a suggestion, but I wouldn't use a leaf blower. An air compressor works much better. The problem with the leaf blower is that it's not any type of filtered air. They don't even have a screen. Imagine a fly getting sucked into the intake of the leaf blower when you're drying your car and being hurled at the paint at 100MPH. Or any dust, leaves, pollen, or anything else that can get sucked in for that matter. Also, leaf blowers are usually two stroke engines (unless you have one of those gay electric, plug-in ones), meaning thier exhaust usually has some oil vapor mixed in with it that gets sucked in and hurled at the paint.

I use the Mr. Clean, or the technique of sheeting the water off with the hose before drying. I use my air compressor to blow out the nooks and crannies, than go over the car with a Meguiar's waffle towel.

 

I like everything about the mr clean except the high price of soap and filters :angry3:

 

I just goto work and use the spot free water in th detail shop.
:evil6:

 

where DO you work?

 

the local biggest chevy caddy saab dealership in southeastern wi.

 

you know, make like a tree and leave!?

:laughing6

 

I got the new improved Mr. clean autodry thing. The old one always worked great for me. Spotless everytime. The new one has a handy dandy washing mitt. It's important to make sure the soap gets on every part of your paint. If you miss a small spot the water will bead. Also it has a new, strong stream nozzle for getting those bird turds and such off. And it has a quick disconnect adapter for your hose. (it doesn't fit anything else though). I love mine and usually only have to towel dry from the honey comb parts off my car. Hood scoop holds about a quart of water. Lol.

 

Anyone use that Mr.Clean car wash kit? I have one and it seems to work okay... Although I've opt'ed to wash/dry/wax the car by hand now... I was wondering if you all used it, do use it... or if it's bad for a car's finish?

Shaker
:glasses2:

 

[QUOTE=MT's#1Customer!]
The cartridge that Mr. Clean uses consists of what is called a mix-bed resin. The resin is plastic and is specially designed to have an ion-exchange reaction that takes place with the water. One bed removes anions and the other removed cations. The result is water is very low levels of dissolved solids.

Blake, so are you saying it is creating a charge in each bed as the water runs through them to attract the positive and negative ions?

 

Still using it...I bought the professional kit a few months ago to replace my regular one that I dropped one too many times. It's nice because it comes with a case to store it in that lets the uniti drain upright.

Now that I have my new 3 car garage with drains in the floor, I don't even have to worry about direct sun or bird scheise on the paint when I'm detailing. :blob1:

It doesn't hurt the car's finish at all. The key to keeping the finish looking good when you wash is to ALWAYS use a clean wash mitt. I prefer 100% chenielle mitts for the main panels, and I use the one that came with my Mr. Clean setup for the rocker panels, wheel wells, wheels, etc.