White residue - I know its been asked before :(

[JayUK1974]

Hi all,

Please forgive me if you think I am posting about stuff thats already been discussed 1000 time son here, but I have trawled through god knows how many search result pages on here reading the results.... which only seemed to confuse me.

I believe I am suffering from limescale- the most annoying symptom is a white residue being left behind when I was a car when the water evaporates off. I think the kettle is scaling up a little too, but I can live with that.

I am looking at fitting a salamander cracker (which I already have) - this is an electrolytic and eletromagnetic device.

In addition to that I am considering a polyphoshate unit - but I am not sure if this will remove the white sediment, or just stop it scaling up? I need to remove the white sediment.

A water softner is out the question.

Would fitting a filter (eg 5micron) remove the white residue?

So (might be an over kill - and cancel each other out), would the cracker, with a polyphosphate filter and 5micron filter solve the problem?

What is the best order?

Many thanks,

J.

 

[mogget]

How about putting in a water butt?

Rainwater is quite soft, and if filtered should be plenty good enough to wash the car.

 

[JayUK1974]

Hi there,

Nice idea, but I use a pressure washer, hence needs to be a whole house solution.

Many thanks,

J.

 

[JayUK1974]

No one else?

Basically I'm trying to remove the white scum (as opposed to dissolve hard limescale).

Whats best for removing the scum? I'm thinking of Liff Carbon Resin filters, but I'm not sure if these have the required flow rate for a whole house (even if I parallel them up)

Or could I use a 1 or 5 micron filter?

Many thanks,

J.

 

[Onetap]

No one else?

Whats best for removing the scum? I'm thinking of Liff Carbon Resin filters, but I'm not sure if these have the required flow rate for a whole house (even if I parallel them up)

Or could I use a 1 or 5 micron filter?

Many thanks,

J.

Mogget's advice is the best option. Use the pressure washer and rinse with rainwater.

The white deposits are dissolved limescale; when the water evaporates, the dissolved solids are left on the cleaned surfaces. That's why dishwashers have water softeners. A filter won't affect it because it is dissolved matter and a filter will only trap suspended solid particles.

A phosphate dosing system may work, but I've no knowledge or experience of that application. 'Salt action' dishwasher tablets have phosphates in them, so salt (to regenerate the softener resin) isn't needed.

Have a look on E-bay at the water treatment systems ( i.e., "water fed pole cleaning systems" that use de-ionized water) being sold to window cleaners (same problem); I doubt such a system would be practical, but it will give you an idea of what is necessary. The only other thing I can think of is a filter cartridge filled with softener resin; you'd have to syphon brine through it or something in order to back-wash and regenerate it.