Hello

I live ia warm climate year round. Tap water here is high in calcium and clogs the windshield washer jets on my MINI. I use watered-down washer fluid to avoid spotting the paint.

Have you any suggestions on any windshield washer or water mix that I can use to avoid clogging the water jets and spotting the hood?

Thanks!

 

Good old blue will work fine.

 

Distilled water from the grocery store is cheap; the same stuff you should use in batteries that need topping up or irons.

 

For my last summer roadtrip I used Rain-X bug rinse formula. Yellow label. I killed a lot of bugs, it helped a little.

 

I tend to use filtered tap water. It never gets below 68 degrees F so I don't usually get windshield wiper fluid. Also there are not too many bugs around.

 

I live in an area where the water is fairly hard (calcium), so in my pickup truck I use water from my household water softener. Works great. In my MINI, it gets whatever the dealer puts in. My father used to add a very small amount of vinegar to tap water in the washer reservoir, and I don't recall him ever having any clogging or crusting issues. However, that was over 25 years ago, and I have no idea whether that would be safe with today's paint finishes or any components of the washer system. Also, I don't know if it would eliminate spotting. Use at your own RISK.

 

also living in a land where snow is only seen on TV

I usually use Windex 30% and bottled water 70%

most bottled water is purified by reverse osmosis, maybe not as pure as distilled but pure enuf that you won't keep plants alive if that's all you give them! Discovered this during my ship days. Had to catch rain water to get minerals for my 'house' (ship?) plants. Cheap bottled water is often better as the name brand stuff has some minerals and salts put back in for taste. (but NOT spring water)

Vinegar is a good idea - that's what's used to remove water spots so ideally it would keep deposits from forming. The old school formula for washing windows is water and vinegar!