Havn't tried it, Want to know if someone else has.?

Question

My next door neighbor has had a trash can sitting directly under one of his rain gutters as long as I can remember. I always thought it was to help control the flow of the water from his foundation. Then the other day he was out washing his car. I noticed that he would rinse the car off with the water from the trash can. When I asked him about it he said the water in the trash can did not have all the hard water compounds in it and he would always have a spot free rinse on his car when he rinsed it off with the rain water. At the time it made since but the more I started thinking about it I started to question if this was a true practice. Has anyone else, or does anyone else, do the same thing and have the same finding?

Answer 1

I find that hard to believe. Rain water is not clean. Then you take it from a roof which adds even more contaminants. Water hardness aside, you are rinsing a hard, shiny surface with dirty water. I know women that catch rain for hair washing and the hardness factor may come into play since hair can absorb water. Don't think it's the same for autos.

Answer 2

The spots you get come from calcium and other minerals in the water. Rain water has a lot lower concentration of these minerals, so it will dry with a spot free surface.

The other answerers have addressed the cons of having a barrel of water standing around.

Answer 3

all these guys are right but rain has a very low ph so it actually might be more daming to your car because everyone knows acid eats through anything. of course it would be over time that it would eat your clear coat

Answer 4

i tried having a rain barrel for watering the garden, but it is a constant source of mosquitoes. not to mention the grit from your shingles that gets washed off the roof. but i suppose these will settle to the bottom of the barrel. still i wouldnt use it on my car.

Answer 5

recycling is good