Reply With QuoteJust Distilled water isn't it?
I am sure someone on this encyclopaedic knowledge forum will know the answer to this …… The current vogue for window cleaning seems to be a van with tanks of “ treated water “ that are jetted onto windows and frames via a brush head, does anyone know what this “treated water” contains ?
The windows appear to be clean after the quick wash and brush plus they dry without any residue or hard water marks,
Thank you in anticipation .
Sent from my iPad using TZ-UK mobile app
Just Distilled water isn't it?
Our one uses DI
Yeah , but they don’t clean your frames/ windowsills any more .
RO water , it removes all impurities and makes the water very good for cleaning windows ( I’m not a window cleaner)!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
That's it, won't leave streaks.Originally Posted by macdaddymac
De ionised water as stated above, doesn’t need squeege off so no ladders are needed. Simpler safer but has the cost of ion exchange resin plus salt regen.
Our local neighbour lives in a big old bungalow down a quiet lane. They have at least 3 X 1 tonne IBC’s connected to their roof gutters . Rain water = free pure water, and its a ton better for the environment than regenerating spent ion exchange resin.
Rain water out of a butt for us. Also use it to rinse car after washing - no spots after it dries - happy days
Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app
I do mine too with rain water but finish off with scrim - takes me back to the early 70’s when my old dad was a window cleaner - always had a scrim rag in his back pocket -
Ours does. Find a better one!
The water is purified using a reverse osmosis membrane with just the final impurities taken out with DI resin, otherwise it wouldn’t be cost effective.
DI resin can’t be regenerated with salt, once used it has to be thrown away.
The salt is used to regenerate a different material which is used to lengthen the lifespan of the RO membrane.
It’s a long time since I worked in the water treatment industry and desalination wasn’t my speciality so my memory is a bit vague.
Rain water is as pure as you’re going to get without purifying equipment and is good for windows or rinsing your car off after cleaning.
Me too Dave I used to sell DI and RO units against the likes of Permutit. I didnt realise these boys used RO systems , seems a bit overkill. Then again my lad runs a 50’ Catamaran that has an RO plant that produces 400kgs of water per hour from sea water!
The way our DI resins worked Dave were a mixture of Cationic and Anionic resins. After so so many litres of water had been processed the timer / flow controller on the top of the vessel pumps a saline solution from a storage tank backwards through the vessel this “fluffs up the resin” and exchanges the trapped Ca++ and Mg- - salts of as chlorides. The Sodium then re attaches to the resin.
Ps I use rain water from our water but ( that I keep clean:) to rinse all our vehicles as it dries stain free.
In electronics manufacturing we use industrial dishwashers to clean boards, they are fed by Purite DI systems consisting of two fibreglass bottles, they last a very long time,
It all depends on how much you’re using, my mate in Manchester has a 1000 litre tank in his van and can fill it twice a day. Most window cleaners I speak to use 4-600 litres a day.
Only yesterday I was up the ladder with a good old fashioned dolly and squeegee. It's the only way to get the no glass finish.
The firm I worked for in Liverpool were one of the first in the country to use the pole system. We left the machine on overnight and had a full tank of DI the next morning.
You could still get streaks though if you didn't clean the frames properly, or sometimes you'd think it was all done and then dirty water from under the sills would start to leak down on the glass below.
And it was a nightmare on hot sunny days when it dried quicker than you could clean.
Ooh err Missus!
Thank you all , I knew you wouldn’t let me down … the amazing depth of knowledge on this forum and the willingness to share is quite something .
Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app
Reading this thread I have a question, borrowed a friends record cleaning machine which uses a mix of Distilled water and IPA, could I use the water collected as condensate from the tumble drier? it/was steam or moisture in the hot air venting from the machine and is sort of ‘distilled’? Ta.
Dont know what your condenser is like on your drier, but our contains small pieces of lint and debris. I wouldn’t use it for anything quality critical.
Ta, it was a random thought, herself uses some of the water for the indoors plants and I had an ‘aha’ moment.
I also don’t get those using rain water based on it running over tiles, down drains etc. I suppose the dust must settle from it when stored, but I will stick to my resin filtered water for the car rinse.
Posting Permissions
