hello all. as some people in vegas might know, we have what is called "hard water" magnesium and calcium deposits in our water supply. now that i found out our HOA lets us wash our cars with a hose, i gotta ask, does this build up of magnesium and calcium harm our paint ? i noticed when we wash our dishes and dry them up, a white crust of magnesium and calcium dries up on them. will this in anyway harm the pain or clear coat ? thanks in advance !
It won't hurt your car, but it won't be really clean. I suggest you look for a filter for your hose and consider a filter for your home water supply.
To get a car's paint really clean, you will need to rinse, wash, rinse off, use detailer's clay, wash and rinse again. You will notice when you use the detailer's clay that it turns dark as it pulls out pollutants from the paint.
yea were getting a water softener for the main water supply that goes to the house. however im not so sure if affects our hose line ? does anyone know of any hose filters for this kind of situation ?
If you are getting a build up on the dishes you can expect something on the car. The heat from the dishwasher dryer element quickly evaporates the water leaving the minerals behind.
On the car the minerals will stay behind once the water evaporates and can be time very consuming to remove from paint and windows. Strongly suggest as a rough test you try washing something with this water that you don’t care if minerals build up occurs or ask your neighbors if they have problems washing their cars.
A home water softener setup would solve this issue for both dishwasher and car. You could then also install a separate soft water faucet off the system to wash the car. There are also some smaller water filters (under $40) that will remove the minerals on a single smaller water line. A Google search will turn these up.
If you need to use the hard water to wash the car try adding some water softener to the wash bucket and if possible rinse water (a supermarket should this). Don’t let the rinse water evaporate on the paint or windows. Use a chamois or something similar to quickly remove the rinse water. Wash when the air temps are cool and out of direct sunlight. A self-service car wash may have a water softener installed; any non-self service car wash would have this.
I'm not sure what claying has to do with hard water, but it's a good idea to clay 2 or more times a year preceding a thorough detailing.
You'll need to establish if the filtering system is central and includes your hose outlet (it shouldn't be difficult to tell). If it's not a central filter that includes your hose, you might try looking in the plumbing department of your hardware store for an adapter that will hook up a hose to a faucet in the house (you have to remove the aerator first) -- if it's convenient to do so.
Alternatively, you could also try a Mr. Clean Auto Dry -- but only use it for the rinse mode as the soap is not very good.
Use a quality car wash concentrate (I use Mothers) that can counter the hard water. You may need to experiment with the quantity of the concentrate, likely more than is recommended.
There also "enthusiast" filter systems that are fairly affordable ($40-$150), and you can use quick disconnects to make it easy. To find more info, Google the words: inline hose filter car wash
My opinion is that is does hurt the paint, for two reasons.
First, our 2004 Honda Accord had pretty bad hard water stains on it. Although I've completely removed the surface deposits by polishing, at certain angles you can still see 'rings' in the clearcoat (they are very subtle, but they are there). It is my opinion that the clearcoat is slightly 'etched' from the mineral deposits. I've seen this on other vehicles as well.
Second, most household water heaters end up leaking (over many years) because of mineral deposits that build up and eat through the metal. That's one reason why it's recommended to flush them regularly. So, I would have to surmise that if minerals in tap water eat metal, they can also eat acrylic urethane (paint).
Sorry, I realize this is not exactly scientific data, but it's good enough for me to make sure tap water never sits on my paint too long.
Oh and I agree with the other post about it being very hard to get off! Any way you look at it, you will have to remove some paint to get the hard water stains off (whether you use a polish or a chemical), so even if the mineral deposts themselves don't eat the paint, you will lose paint in the removal process.
BTW, we have very hard water in Southern California. However, I have not seen the need for a filter, softener, or any other add-on.
I just dry our vehicles with a chamois and don't give the water a chance to sit and just evaporate.
Also, having a good coat of wax helps keep water spots from bonding, should you get them. With a good coat of wax, they typical wash off if you catch them fast enough.
If you wash properly with a quality car wash, a lambswool mitt, rinse with filtered water (or just about any water for that matter), and dry properly with a waffle-weave microfiber = good.
Letting hard water sit on the paint and dry by itself in the sun = bad.
ok ease up turbo. thats why i ask, to be informed not to have people make others feel like an idiot. if you didnt know, which you dont, im moving to vegas and the really hard water is a new thing for me because ive left my truck with faucet water on top in socal, and it doesnt leave heavy white mineral deposits on my paint.
as for everyone else who left the helpful info, thanks ! itll help make my paint last much longer
Also, having a good coat of wax helps keep water spots from bonding, should you get them. With a good coat of wax, they typical wash off if you catch them fast enough.
ok will do gives me a chance to use the buffer more often
Or for those of us that have a water softner at our homes try washing car with water hose attached to the water heater all water in water heater is attached to water softner and also in winter time we have warm water when washing car.
I have been washing my cars this way for eight years and there is a difference between hooking up water hose to water heater compared to the other water spickets and car will dry so much easier.
what do you do if the hard water forms spots on your paint? tried polishing and waxing the spots out, but still there.
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if you didnt know, which you dont, im moving to vegas and the really hard water is a new thing for me because ive left my truck with faucet water on top in socal, and it doesnt leave heavy white mineral deposits on my paint. 
gives me a chance to use the buffer more often 
i guess ill just have to wax and wash more often haha thanks !
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