Apparently there is a thorn in the side of many homeowners out there! Many homeowner’s days are ruined right at the beginning of the day when they walk outside to drive to work and find their new car (or old car) completely covered in hard water spots from the sprinklers. Some of my customers have even told me how they have to wash their cars with vinegar to remove these extremely undesirable water spots as well, so I thought I would take the time and add a little note to my blog.
Many customers ask me if it is possible to run their outside water through their water softener just so their car does not get water spots on it. The simple answer to this question is, “No.” I know it’s not what homeowners want to hear, but it is the truth and this is the reason why: Your lawn, shrubs, flowers, and other vegetation need the hardness in your water for nutrients to grow. A water softener is going to remove the hardness and replace it with Sodium which will kill most any vegetation over time and I am sure most homeowners don’t want that. Also 99% of the time the water supply to your outside irrigation, sprinklers, and drip systems does not come from inside the house but usually comes from the main water line running to your house before it enters your home. Another thing to think about is water pressure. A water softener is always installed after a pressure regulator and your outside water is always connected before the water pressure regulator. Sprinklers use a lot of water and that means they need the 140 lbs PSI of water pressure in the main water line outside your house. If you were to hook your sprinklers up to the 60lbs PSI of water pressure after the pressure regulator and after your water softener, your sprinklers would probably hardly even put out any water and therefore your lawn would die anyway, even if you are using Potassium in your water softener instead of salt.
So what it comes down to is a battle between the car or the lawn if you can’t somehow find a way to keep your sprinklers from spraying water on your car. A couple of ideas you may consider is to change the times your lawn is watered to be times when the car is at work or somewhere else if that’s possible even if you have to operate your sprinklers manually. Or you may consider a fence or some sort of blockage so that the water cannot get on the car. Probably the best option and the cheapest has been to get a waterproof car cover for your car. I’ve seen some homeowners get so upset with it they put in that fake grass or AstroTurf, or whatever you might call it to solve the problem.
If anyone out there has a better idea, then I would be more than happy to entertain it and pass it on to my friends, associates and customers.
All the best,
Sam Nielsen
Royal Water Systems | 855-SOF-TNER