[chefwong]

What size hose are you using. 3/4 hose, FULL port shut off valves, or as close as you can get on the GH tap valve, hose nozzle, etc. All these things can affect your flow.

? What do you currently have on the car right now. Be mindful that every time you are polishing, you are basically removing/leveling to clear coat to remove said *defects*

[sharkymcpeterson]

Originally Posted by chefwong

What size hose are you using. 3/4 hose, FULL port shut off valves, or as close as you can get on the GH tap valve, hose nozzle, etc. All these things can affect your flow.

? What do you currently have on the car right now. Be mindful that every time you are polishing, you are basically removing/leveling to clear coat to remove said *defects*

Currently there is a ceramic coat on. Nothing else.

Some minor scratches in the clear coat will get wiped out and then a new coat of ceramic. My wife damages the paint every time she looks at it. SMH.

Like I said, once I'm back to an immaculate paint job I want to touch it as little as possible. Pressure washer and a deionizer are part of the plan I have laid out to accomplish this all important mission.

[chefwong]

DI is nice but ROI....eh, filters-consumables. Have you factored that in.
PW just. It's just a great tool for pre-rinse. DI IMO is a mixed bag. As long as you wash in the shade and dry it, water spotting is not a issue. I'd take that $$ and invest in some sort of blower if you don't own one already.

But scratches don't come from lack of DI water...wash technique and drying technique.

Ceramic is not going to minimize scratches. It's just there to help in the maintenance of easier cleaning.

If you have piss poor technique on washing/drying, or just lil young ones being kids and touching the panels, you will get marring regardless.

I see the location shows VA. I mean snow does cause some level of scratches too....

Is the car a keeper. If ur not planning to sell in 2-3-4 years, maybe consider PPF. Here in may neck of the woods, a -pro level- coatings runs at least $1500 . That type of coin can go towards a front PPF which should net you another $1000 more of the front end wrap.

But then we get into the rabbit hole of PPF....and I start saying side skirts, bottom 1/3 of the doors. etc.

[sharkymcpeterson]

Originally Posted by chefwong

DI is nice but ROI....eh, filters-consumables. Have you factored that in.
PW just. It's just a great tool for pre-rinse. DI IMO is a mixed bag. As long as you wash in the shade and dry it, water spotting is not a issue. I'd take that $$ and invest in some sort of blower if you don't own one already.

But scratches don't come from lack of DI water...wash technique and drying technique.

Ceramic is not going to minimize scratches. It's just there to help in the maintenance of easier cleaning.

If you have piss poor technique on washing/drying, or just lil young ones being kids and touching the panels, you will get marring regardless.

I see the location shows VA. I mean snow does cause some level of scratches too....

Is the car a keeper. If ur not planning to sell in 2-3-4 years, maybe consider PPF. Here in may neck of the woods, a -pro level- coatings runs at least $1500 . That type of coin can go towards a front PPF which should net you another $1000 more of the front end wrap.

But then we get into the rabbit hole of PPF....and I start saying side skirts, bottom 1/3 of the doors. etc.

I keep it garaged so the elements aren't an issue and I've got a good system down for washing. I have a wife that must be related to the Tasmanian devil though, which is the problem.

On a side note in my opinion the ceramic helped me reduce the amount of contact with paint during washing and blowing dry by a small percentage. Water seems to blow off much easier and with considerably less resistance after ceramic was applied the first time.

I've got a good blower already. It has helped reduce dry time, the number of times I touch the paint and has also reduced the amount of hard water stains I always find a few hours after washing. I've been happy with my e-go.

It should be mentioned-My water is ultra hard. It ruins everything it's able to sit on for more than a minute of two. The deionizer, from my understanding will leave zero residue post wash, thus mostly eliminating the need for a thorough wipe down. Which should also reduce hairline scratches. The cost for the unit I was looking at is $499 which seemed reasonable.

I think I've found the info I was looking for. I'll post a pic of the new DI and PW once I pick them up.

[chefwong]

So you do have a blower.....a blower should get 95% of the water...but sometimes it's the stuff that drips from the mirror, under the D pillar trim, etc, even though you blow and blow to get all the water out from the crevices..It's still more efficient than a towel ;-)

But once done blow drying, if you take a MF and not *wipe* but blot dry your car, you minimize your contact rubbing. You can also mist water on your dry MF towel a bit to just prime it so it helps to absorb water.

You can have the car ceramic coated but can ruin it the next day by just piss poor wash/drying technique.

Just saying....DI is not the end of be all from one's POV.

[sharkymcpeterson]

Originally Posted by chefwong

So you do have a blower.....a blower should get 95% of the water...but sometimes it's the stuff that drips from the mirror, under the D pillar trim, etc, even though you blow and blow to get all the water out from the crevices..

But once done blow drying, if you take a MF and not *wipe* but blot dry your car, you minimize your contact rubbing. You can also mist water on your dry MF towel a bit to just prime it so it helps to absorb water.

You can have the car ceramic coated but can ruin it the next day by just piss poor wash/drying technique.

Just saying....DI is not the end of be all from one's POV.

Good point on blotting. I will incorporate that whenever possible. The deionizer will make a big difference on hard water drainage post wash I hope. My water is horrendously hard. Not an exaggeration at all, I'm going to get a whole home system in the very near future to handle the water issue once and for all.

[nZtiZia]

i have ppf. the approach to using a pressure washer is modified. If one intends to use it to remove guts and grime, then one risks lifting the ppf edges. No thanks.

i mainly use it to power a foam cannon and deionized water rinse system. overkill? maybe, but I enjoy the process and results

[sharkymcpeterson]

Originally Posted by nZtiZia

i have ppf. the approach to using a pressure washer is modified. If one intends to use it to remove guts and grime, then one risks lifting the ppf edges. No thanks.

i mainly use it to power a foam cannon and deionized water rinse system. overkill? maybe, but I enjoy the process and results

Yeah, it's 100% about results. I want overkill.

[1Mors]

After all the research I did on pressure washers, under ideal conditions you would run any pressure washer around 1000psi for auto cleaning. My pressure washer gives 1900 psi but that is with a 3.0 size orfic nozzle. When I moved to a 5.0 orfic nozzle it dropped right to about 980psi and gives 2.1 gallons per minute. Perfect setting. When you use a gun you can buy different heads for it to not only change pressure and output but the water coverage such as water angles at 15, 25, 40 etc degrees of angle. Watch a few videos on youtube.

I also did not buy the wand that comes with the pressure washer as it was cheap, it had no real control over pressure and was very cumbersome to use on the car. Probably great for decks but not cars IMO.

No need to worry about paint coming off on cars with complete intact paint. If you have major bubbling of paint or rust then that needs to be hand washed in that spot without the pressure washer. I did use the 1900 psi setting and it didn't even come close to doing any damage. 3000psi ya I think that would take off the paint or at least start it.

[restloy]

I use a WORX hydroshot on my vehicles.

https://www.worx.com/20v-hydroshot-p...xoCfB8QAvD_BwE

[Ljn21]

If you have the funds, Kranzle is hard to beat.

I am using an Active VE52 currently which is a step above the Greenworks/SunJoe/Ryobi ones.

Flow is the name of the game when washing, not pressure. 1000-1200 psi is all you need but the higher the Gpm the better. The Active tested better than the Greenworks/SunJoe/Ryobi ones.

[nZtiZia]

I got a Karcher setup from OG

[boneca]

Originally Posted by nZtiZia

I got a Karcher setup from OG

that's my next setup one day
or maybe I'll go to Matt's new mention and use it there

[1Mors]

Originally Posted by sharkymcpeterson

Good point on blotting. I will incorporate that whenever possible. The deionizer will make a big difference on hard water drainage post wash I hope. My water is horrendously hard. Not an exaggeration at all, I'm going to get a whole home system in the very near future to handle the water issue once and for all.

The DI water is all about removing the solids in hard water. Those solids always dry as a deposit on the paint that will etch the clear coat if not treated. You have to be johnny on the spot when It comes to drying the car. With bad water you can't let it dry on it's own.

That's the primary reason I have the DI system. It's due to my climate. Southern California in the summer is hot and windy. The water dries very fast off the paint even out of the direct sun light of which I always try to do. If the water has had the lime and calcium taken out of it, you have a fighting chance.

My water here is very good at about 100 Parts Per Million PPM. That was almost not worth getting the DI system but with the DI system it measures at 2 to 5 which is very pure water. If it dries by itself, there will be nothing left behind. I also noticed the shine was much better after I got the DI system. Soaps work better too.

It's not for everyone. Most people don't really care and will just run their cars through a car wash. I like my pride in ownership.