You've got it backwards. If it seems that soap rinses off instantly, the water is HARD. If it seems to take forever to rinse the soap off, the water is SOFT.

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08 W251 R350
97 W210 E320
91 W124 300E
86 W126 560SEL
85 W126 380SE Silver
85 W126 380SE Cranberry
79 W123 250
78 W123 280E
75 W114 280

They have that problem in FL since the entire state is sitting on lime. You need a good filter, or just leave your car outside and dry it after it rains. Thats what my uncle does when his Mercedes is down their.

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2006 CL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2026 Genesis GV70
2007 Tiara 3200

The "Mr. Clean" car wash system has a replaceable water filter cartridge. The unit allows you to first wash the car with municipal water, then it mixes the muni water with their soap, but the final rinse is via the filtered water. If the car can dry in total shade, then there's almost no need to dry right away to avoid spotting.

Have you tried a clay bar? I like the Clay Magic bar best, and you can get it at Auto Zone. Meguairs's bar is the worst IMO.

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1984 300TD

Cincy folks have a high incidence of colon cancer too. I grew up on the west side, and my folks now have City of North Bend water, which is even worse than City of Cincinnati, leaves a film on every surface it touches. Nasty stuff. I remember the city water intakes being closed at one point when I was a kid, because there was a carbon tetrachloride spill coming downriver from Pennsylvania or somesuch.

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2002 Ford ZX2
2 x 2013 Honda Civics

Get a water softener...


What's wrong with crunchy water??

I lived in the Dayton, Ohio region for most of my life. After moving to Utah, I realized just how bad the water in Ohio tastes. Our water comes from the mountains and is very clean.

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1987 560SL
85,000 miles

The water around here is fantastic. I went to the water treatment plant and its a pretty neat operation.

Although the best is NY City tap water, they bottle it now!

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2006 CL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2026 Genesis GV70
2007 Tiara 3200

That's because it isn't from either the Hudson or the East Rivers.

I like the water in Carson City, NV. It's harder than Jack Bauer and comes with extra goodies like uranium and arsenic.

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 401,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 26,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.
99 Mazda Miata 183,xxx miles.

No thanks...I'd rather not have my urine glow in the dark. However, that would be pretty cool!!

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1987 560SL
85,000 miles

Let me piggy-back onto this thread as my question is somewhat related.

I have seen ads for an electrical device that attaches around the water inlet pipe and promises to descale the pipes and appliance. It also claims to soften the water. Aside from my basic skepticism about "easy" fixes, the chemistry in this is backwards from I understand. Scale is caused by "hard" materials that are in solution coming out of solution and being deposited on pie walls and appliances. Forcing these deposits back into solution, in my mind, should make the water "harder".

Link:http://www.smallwonder.info/

Anyone care to comment?

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1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags

Yeah and I've got this magical magnetic device which if you attach it to your metal fuel line will align the magnetic properties of the fuel allowing it to be burned more efficiently leading to a 200% increase in mileage.

Bogus.

You'll have to wait, I am on the phone with a salesman for the Brooklyn Bridge, and I've got to answer this email from a guy who'll pay me millions to help him transfer some money.

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1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags