Karcher from water butt?

[Raj]

[quote=""pvr""]Ok, I paid about £100 for it delivered and filled with resin (11 litres). I also bought an TDS meter to take the measures. The sand costs about £30 for a refill and a fill should last a year or more as per others tests. You just remove the top (screws off) and throw the sand away before refilling it again.

I use it straight at the end of the hose and I get a very, very powerful run of water out of it. If I put the gun on it, the pressure makes it spray way too hard for any use so when I turn the tap off, I use the water that still runs out of the vessel to fill 5 litre containers which is used for the steam mob as the water is basically distilled and leaves no water stains when cleaning floors.

My water hardness is about 150 ppm here, and after the vessel it is 2 ppm. I think it will start staining when it reaches 15 - 20 or so. At the moment, I wash the cars and hose it down with the water from the vessel, and leave it to dry. If I was in a rush, I would use my car dryer on it (basically a car adjusted leaf blower but marketed for car use).

Makes the washing process so much easier as I don't dry the cars anymore. And if there is any sun, the car just steams and dries completely clean without stains.[/quote]

For the amount I wash cars I'm definitely feeling the DI vessel then. Out of interest, you say the pressure is quite a lot so the gun sprays to hard, so do you just use an open hose to rinse off? Also, how often do you use it to give me an idea of how long it will last. Thanks.

[Raj]

[quote=""pvr""]I bought a couple of the waterspots as well and it only lasted about 5 washes, so for the £25 I found it prohibitively expensive.[/quote]

tbh that's kind of why I'm enquiring about the DI vessel as I've only managed about 6 washes and slight spots are starting...hmmmm.

In hard water areas it says that the Mega should last about 20 washes.

[pvr]

I wash at least 3 cars per week, must have done about 30 washes so far on the DI vessel and the reading is still 2 ppm.

For £100 and about £30 per refill, I think it is money much better spend as it is replaceable unlike the waterspot ones which are dead / disposable once they go.

I do indeed use the open hose to rinse the car, spraying is no good (think it sprays the "dirty" water up the car and can leave spots whilst when using the open hose to run it off, there is no "dirty" water coming up anywhere.

[X5Sport]

Does it cope alright with the Karcher Butt Pump - which would also help filter the water too. I'm thinking Butt Pump > DI Vessel > hose nozzle/spray gun (not PW) for rinsing, but if you chose to could you also feed it to the PW (although the Butt Pump pressure may be too high for that)?

[Raj]

[quote=""pvr""]I wash at least 3 cars per week, must have done about 30 washes so far on the DI vessel and the reading is still 2 ppm.

For £100 and about £30 per refill, I think it is money much better spend as it is replaceable unlike the waterspot ones which are dead / disposable once they go.

I do indeed use the open hose to rinse the car, spraying is no good (think it sprays the "dirty" water up the car and can leave spots whilst when using the open hose to run it off, there is no "dirty" water coming up anywhere.[/quote]

Definitely sold now then. Now will have to get round you to purchase it for me to avoid the VAT.....lol.

[pvr]

Don't use a PW with the DI at all, you can of course, but you would be wasting "clean" water for the washing cycle. It is only meant for the final rinse, and an open hose does a much better job than via a nozzle.

The pressure really builds up in the vessel when you feed it with water, so when you stop the outlet and then open it - it fires a jet of about 15 meter

[X5Sport]

I was thinking that the output from a water butt might need a little help as it's only gravity feed..

[X5Sport]

[quote=""Raj""]Definitely sold now then. Now will have to get round you to purchase it for me to avoid the VAT.....lol.[/quote]

Group Buy? Next meet distribution

[Raj]

[quote=""X5Sport""][quote=""Raj""]Definitely sold now then. Now will have to get round you to purchase it for me to avoid the VAT.....lol.[/quote]

Group Buy? Next meet distribution [/quote]

Great minds and all that...lol

[weirdfish]

I'm in.

[Raj]

Have had a good chat to Doug @ DAQUA about the DI vessel and possible group buy, but as it stands there isn't much margin in it, so even if we get 5 peeps interested it would only drop the price from £109.27 to £104 for the 11 litre vessel with resin.

[weirdfish]

[quote=""Raj""]Have had a good chat to Doug @ DAQUA about the DI vessel and possible group buy, but as it stands there isn't much margin in it, so even if we get 5 peeps interested it would only drop the price from £109.27 to £104 for the 11 litre vessel with resin.[/quote]
I take it that this is different to the one that pvr has, do you think we need the higher spec model, seems like for normal to high DIY use the pvr model, ( if I may call it that ), is more than sufficient.
Or do you just want bragging rights

[pvr]

No, I have the 11 litre version as well ...

[weirdfish]

Whoops, I take it all back raj.

[Raj]

[quote=""weirdfish""][quote=""Raj""]Have had a good chat to Doug @ DAQUA about the DI vessel and possible group buy, but as it stands there isn't much margin in it, so even if we get 5 peeps interested it would only drop the price from £109.27 to £104 for the 11 litre vessel with resin.[/quote]
I take it that this is different to the one that pvr has, do you think we need the higher spec model, seems like for normal to high DIY use the pvr model, ( if I may call it that ), is more than sufficient.
Or do you just want bragging rights [/quote]

It is the one over is using hence enquired about that one specifically. The other one on the site is 19.1 lt which is too large for our usage.