{"id":8445,"date":"2012-08-17T07:00:11","date_gmt":"2012-08-17T11:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/?p=8445"},"modified":"2016-10-16T13:46:19","modified_gmt":"2016-10-16T17:46:19","slug":"hard-water-spot-removal-techniques","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/hard-water-spot-removal-techniques\/","title":{"rendered":"Hard Water Spot Removal Techniques"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hard water is an issue for much of the USA, and here in the Rocky Mountains of Utah we have some hard water that creates some difficulty in the removal of spotting (I frequently see \u00a0180-220 ppms and please refer to the chart below). \u00a0Many people know that water spotting is unsightly and go to great\u00a0lengths to prevent it and just plain avoid it………however sprinklers don’t care about your car. \u00a0If you are quick with cleaning up these spots while they are fresh they won’t get set into or on the paint. \u00a0Along with the minerals left behind on the paint, the water drops act like little magnifying glasses that “burn” the sun’s rays into the paint, this can cause deep etching.<\/p>\n

When a water drop is deposited onto your car it carries with it a group of minerals; \u00a0Calcium (Ca++), Sodium (Na+), Potassium (K+), and Magnesium (Mg++). Calcium and Magnesium are the most common. \u00a0These minerals are in solution and cannot be easily seen until evaporation occurs. These minerals are then left behind (precipitate) as a mineral ring on the object. \u00a0The hardness of the water is a product of the amount of minerals within the water. \u00a0Any measurement above 15 ppm (mg\/L) will leave spotting or the mineral precipitate. \u00a0If you don’t have a ppm meter call the local water softening supplier and they can give you numbers, sometimes they report in grains…..1 grain is 17ppm IIRC.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Classification<\/strong><\/th>\nhardness in mg\/L<\/th>\nhardness in mmol\/L<\/th>\nhardness in dGH\/\u00b0dH<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Soft<\/strong><\/td>\n0\u201360<\/td>\n0\u20130.60<\/td>\n0\u20133.36<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Moderately hard<\/strong><\/td>\n61\u2013120<\/td>\n0.61\u20131.20<\/td>\n3.42\u20136.72<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Hard<\/strong><\/td>\n121\u2013180<\/td>\n1.21\u20131.80<\/td>\n6.78\u201310.08<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Very hard<\/strong><\/td>\n\u2265 181<\/td>\n\u2265 1.81<\/td>\n\u2265 10.14<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

So what do you do if you have a car or any object that has water spots? \u00a0In detailing we often try the least aggressive method first in ALL THINGS<\/strong>. I don’t care if you read that I used xyz product with abc application, you don’t know what I did to get to that point and it’s likely it won’t work BEST for your situation. \u00a0“You don’t need to use a sledge hammer to drive a nail” \u00a0Okay I’m climbing off my soapbox……. \u00a0I would mix up some White Vinegar (if you like apple scent use apple cider vinegar \ud83d\ude42 ) with distilled\/filtered water in a 50\/50 ratio, spray that onto the affected area and gently wipe. \u00a0Why does this work? \u00a0Vinegar is a weak acid and the water spots are basic (alkaline), so the acid will neutralize and break up the basic (alkaline) minerals. \u00a0So if the vinegar doesn’t work, increase the ratio of vinegar until you get to straight vinegar if necessary. \u00a0I have two bottles in my gear, one 50\/50 and one 75\/25 ready to go, its also good window cleaner. \u00a0If the vinegar doesn’t “cut” it then its time to step up the acid strength. \u00a0In a previous article I did on scum removal on a boat<\/a>, the stronger acid I used on that gel coat has not been tested for automotive paints. \u00a0So I have searched around for a safer product for automotive paint. \u00a0I have been super pleased with the Chemical Guys Water Spot Remover<\/a>, it works very quickly on tough spots that have sat for some time. \u00a0I’ve taken some photos to show you just how effective this product is. I literally just applied it to a terry towel (use MF for paint) and gently wiped it on in back and forth motions and wiped it off with a clean damp towel. \u00a0Wipe the area down with different clean sections of your damp cloth and don’t allow the remover to dry on the paint. \u00a0I tried to show in photos the effectiveness on paint but all my photos just didn’t do it justice……so I used it on the shower glass……bingo nice photos to show effectiveness. \u00a0You can also impress your significant other by cleaning the shower glass and earn some bonus points……….trust me I know!<\/p>\n

Pretty thick coating of water spots<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"thick<\/p>\n

Another angle<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"second<\/p>\n

Yes this bottle is on the other side of the glass<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"clear<\/p>\n

Nice clarity<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"clear<\/p>\n

Final shot<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"clear<\/p>\n

I have some experience that shows that wax will be removed, sealants are also mainly removed or greatly reduced, but that’s what they are suppose to do……a sacrificial layer of protection. \u00a0I like it and use it on my daily driver which has an Opti Coat or Opti Guard coating<\/a> applied. I’ve had it on for over 2 years without reapplication, my friend Chad Raskovich<\/a> at Raskys Auto Detailing<\/a> shares a bunch of info about this product just click the hyperlink. \u00a0This coating takes the acid found in CG water spot remover<\/a> incredibly well and it really protects against possible etching of the minerals into the paint. \u00a0This coating will take the beating and not your paint. If you have to polish to remove etching you will be removing the coating NOT the clear coat at first. \u00a0If you get aggressive you will start to work on the clear coat at that time. \u00a0I have had to use the spot remover on two occasions without ill effects in my experience.<\/p>\n

The other suggestion is to use the\u00a0CR Spotless filtered water system<\/a> when you wash your cars. While this can’t help against the rouge sprinkler, it makes it super easy to dry the car as you don’t have to towel it afterwards.<\/p>\n

Good luck in keeping your car spot free, and if you get spots I hope this helps.<\/p>\n

Cheers,<\/p>\n

GREG<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greg Nichols of Reflections Detailing gives technical details on hard water spots and some good techniques on how to remove them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":20900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[63,55,18],"tags":[381,962,580,851,964,963,689,382],"class_list":{"0":"post-8445","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-general-detailing","8":"category-glass","9":"category-product-reviews","10":"tag-chemical-guys-water-spot-remover","11":"tag-glass-water-spots","12":"tag-hard-water","13":"tag-hard-water-removal","14":"tag-hard-water-spots","15":"tag-paint-water-spots","16":"tag-reflections-detailing-of-utah","17":"tag-water-spots"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Hard-Water-Spot-Removal-Techniques.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1kPO7-2cd","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8445"}],"version-history":[{"count":46,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20575,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8445\/revisions\/20575"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}