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UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: andrew wakeman on May 10, 2014, 11:49:09 pm

Title: rainwater question
Post by: andrew wakeman on May 10, 2014, 11:49:09 pm
Hi im very interested in rainwater to save money my question is do u fill a large container with rainwater then pump it through a RO system and maybe DI as well into another container and would the end product water be clean as rainwater is dirty. Hope this makes sense.
Title: Re: rainwater question
Post by: HampshireWindowCleaning on May 11, 2014, 12:32:38 am
What do you mean rain water's dirty, you sound like one of my idiot customers.
Rainwater has a low tds reading so you can just DI it.
Title: Re: rainwater question
Post by: gary999 on May 11, 2014, 08:21:00 am
I use rainwater matey..yep you can get crud and crap in the rainwater
i clean my gutters on my shed on a regular basis and on bottom of
the down pipe i have a pearmable cloth attached that lets the water
through but catches the crap.

Some people di but i get water between 2ppm and 14ppm so dont
bother
Title: Re: rainwater question
Post by: ste20 on May 11, 2014, 11:42:33 pm
Just seen this and I collect rainwater off the commercial premises roof all into a hold g tank maybe through a do now and then rainwater is normally between 4-8ppm can easily collect 2-3000 litres with a good downpour but gotta keep eyes out for Sahara rain as will wreck your water!
Title: Re: rainwater question
Post by: AuRavelling79 on May 12, 2014, 06:54:08 am
What do you mean rain water's dirty, you sound like one of my idiot customers.
Rainwater has a low tds reading so you can just DI it.

Charming.

>andrew

If you collect rainwater off of a high enough roof then let gravity feed it to a 1000L tank (or more); If that tank itself is high enough you can use gravity to drop it into your van.

Or the tank can sit on the ground and you can pump it to your van.

If you have a DI canister in your van then the resin will bring the TDS to 000.

The TDS of rainwater is usually low - less than 30 - depending on the roof it is coming from and how clean the rain is in the first place. Unless you have bad pollution, an active volcano (2010) or as mentioned Saharan rain (about once a year) but if you pay attention to the weather girl instead of just looking at her you'll often know in advance and can divert the water.

HTH
Title: Re: rainwater question
Post by: Soupy on May 12, 2014, 06:56:01 am
I use rainwater matey..yep you can get crud and crap in the rainwater
i clean my gutters on my shed on a regular basis and on bottom of
the down pipe i have a pearmable cloth attached that lets the water
through but catches the crap.

Some people di but i get water between 2ppm and 14ppm so dont
bother

Why do you use rainwater if you can clean windows with tap water?
Title: Re: rainwater question
Post by: 8weekly on May 12, 2014, 07:06:00 am
I use rainwater matey..yep you can get crud and crap in the rainwater
i clean my gutters on my shed on a regular basis and on bottom of
the down pipe i have a pearmable cloth attached that lets the water
through but catches the crap.

Some people di but i get water between 2ppm and 14ppm so dont
bother
One of my customers collects rainwater to clean his car. He reckons he still needs to dry it as although there is less spotting than on tap water, there is still some. That said, I don't know the TDS (neither did he), but he seemed quite anal about cleaning the car so I assume his method was good.
Title: Re: rainwater question
Post by: gary999 on May 12, 2014, 07:35:01 am
I use rainwater matey..yep you can get crud and crap in the rainwater
i clean my gutters on my shed on a regular basis and on bottom of
the down pipe i have a pearmable cloth attached that lets the water
through but catches the crap.

Some people di but i get water between 2ppm and 14ppm so dont
bother

Why do you use rainwater if you can clean windows with tap water?

You just cant let go can you ;D

Im on a meter and every little helps  :)
Title: Re: rainwater question
Post by: gary999 on May 12, 2014, 07:39:28 am
I use rainwater matey..yep you can get crud and crap in the rainwater
i clean my gutters on my shed on a regular basis and on bottom of
the down pipe i have a pearmable cloth attached that lets the water
through but catches the crap.

Some people di but i get water between 2ppm and 14ppm so dont
bother
One of my customers collects rainwater to clean his car. He reckons he still needs to dry it as although there is less spotting than on tap water, there is still some. That said, I don't know the TDS (neither did he), but he seemed quite anal about cleaning the car so I assume his method was good.

ive got a hard sheet of plastic on my shed roof i clean this and
the gutter as often as poss with a good downpour the water is
as little as 2ppm but averages around 14ppm.
Title: Re: rainwater question
Post by: Soupy on May 12, 2014, 09:03:24 am
You just cant let go can you ;D

Just tried it again this morning. Tap water at 32, streaky as hell.
Title: Re: rainwater question
Post by: CleanClear on May 12, 2014, 09:39:12 am
You just cant let go can you ;D

Just tried it again this morning. Tap water at 32, streaky as hell.

it will depend upon exactly what that 32 consists off. I wouldn't recommend people go do it but we've cleaned with 30 odd with perfect results.
Title: Re: rainwater question
Post by: SeanK on May 12, 2014, 10:16:46 am
What your forgetting about is sediment in the water this doesn't show up on tds
but will leave the windows dirty.
If you have a high sediment level then this will leave the glass dirty even though the tds
is low.
Another suspect would be chlorine.
Title: Re: rainwater question
Post by: gary999 on May 12, 2014, 10:43:58 am
You just cant let go can you ;D

Just tried it again this morning. Tap water at 32, streaky as hell.

Sorry cant help you,maybe its as others have said and it depends
what is in the low tds,birmingham water comes from wales lovely
and soft but got no idea what sediments etc are in it,all i know is
i get very few problems if any until the tds gets high which is around
a 100ppm in the height of summer if its very dry and then i adjust what i do.