Car wash won't take Prius

The water at my hobby farm is also from a well. I have a Sears Kenmore UltraSoft 800 water softener and it works extremely well. The regeneration is demand-based so it's very efficient and doesn't waste salt or water.

There is no way in h*** I would do laundry or - much worse - run a load through the dishwasher on hard water. Im-Freaking-Possible.

In the attached garage I rigged up a plumbing manifold fed off the soft water, and a mixing valve. I can dial in the *perfect* wash temp. That may not sound like a big deal, but I have Carpal Tunnel and getting my hands cold, especially with cold well water, IS a big deal. Ouch.

Using the water softener, I have never seen flakes or etching. I tried washing a car once with hard water - it had black paint too - and just about cried when I was finished.

There is a local car wash place that is full service, and they pay extra attention to the rear of my Prius. It's easy enough to see the car has a tall butt, so dirt collects there. They hand spray the rear especially well before I'm told to drive ahead to the automatic part.

I think the main reason I frequent that car wash is they have absolutely drop-dead babes working in the wash bay. Well worth every penny of the $10 they charge me!

 

We also have well water and it has very little dissolved minerals. We have been using it for years in a steam iron with out problems. It may be in the same aquifer that supplied the Olympia Brewery. During WWII Olympia was one of the few places where the Navy allowed submarines to top off batteries with city water also artesian. The public can still fill up jugs from these wells down town, and some do regularly. Our ground water is very good in most areas.

 

You're lucky your well water has so little dissolved minerals. At my hobby farm, the Raw Water to the outside tap leaves the tap encrusted with mineral deposits.

If I don't take apart and clean out the diverter valve on my water softener twice a year, it stops working. Haven't had any buildup in the brine tank though, I use Windsor System Saver salt and it works as advertised.

At least I don't have any dissolved iron in my water. I've had the misfortune to drink well water with iron in it, and it's gross. Can't stand that hydrogen sulfide stench either. My well water is quite nice to drink, either raw or from the softener.

 

The car wash I use has horizontal jets that move to cover the entire front, back and sides of the car. I've used other gas station car washes before, and none of them did as good of a job; it gets the whole vertical surface on the back of the car. It's a BP gas station... although I'd assume not every BP station has the same type of car wash.