waterless car washers With

Waterless car washers
Product test
How we tested these products
expert judges
Ease of use
Testing
Dirt removal
Vicki and Geoff Edge are multi-award
winning concours competitors with their
MG-only collection that includes an MGA,
MGB, MGF, MG ZR and an MGB GT.
All the product containers were taped
up to disguise their identities. Only the
instructions were left on display, and any
mention of the product name within the
instructions was removed. The products
were tested on a single panel with an even
layer of dirt on it. The panel was divided into
eight equal sections. New microfibre towels
were used with each product.
Clarity of instructions, how long the
process took, ease of spray application and
container ergonomics (grip, weight) were all
be taken into account here.
Vicki and Geoff Edge’s MG ZR test vehicle
had an even layer of sticky, prickly dust all
over it. Following the instructions to the
letter, they judged the products on their
effectiveness at removing this layer.
Shine
Each product was judged on the quality of
the shine it created.
Panel dirt removal
check in progress.
Feel
The smoother the paintwork is left after
washing, the harder it is for dirt to stick to
it. Our expert judges will be feeling their
way over our cleaned test panel to find the
smoothest finish.
Pricing
workshop
photos to
come
Each product had its identity masked before expert judges Vicki and Geoff Edge carried out the tests.
Waterless
car washers
We test eight spray-on formulations
designed to tackle slime and grime
C
WORDS: BEN FIELD
photos: tom critchell & ben field
october 2012 // PRACTICAL CLASSICS
leaning car bodywork can be a
pain. First there’s all the gear
required – buckets, sponges,
brushes, shampoo and leathers. Next,
you need water – invariably it’s a bucket
from the kitchen (woe betide you if you
slop the contents over the floor). But If
you find car washing as much as a chore
as we do, or your want to spruce up your
classic’s paintwork inside a garage or
at a show, the answer could be found
in waterless washing products. The
manufacturers claim that all you need
for gleaming paintwork is their product
and a microfibre towel or two. We’re
putting that claim to the test here.
www.practicalclassics.co.uk
Go Waterless
Carnauba
Gloss kit
Eco Touch
Waterless
Wash Kit
Made by: Go Waterless
Price from: Go Waterless –
01256 889001, www.go-waterless.co.uk
volume: 500ml
Price per 100ml: £2.09
ToweLS: Two, microfibre
PRICE: £10.45
Made by: Eco Touch
Price from: Eco Touch –
uk.ecotouch.eu
volume: 500ml
Price per 100ml: £1.79
ToweLS: Two, microfibre
PRICE: £8.99
W
ith its compact container
and easy-to-see purple
spray, Go Waterless should be
simple to use. But the liquid is
very runny and no matter how
careful you are to mist it onto
the surface, it runs off rapidly.
Good job the test panel was a
bonnet, not a vertical surface…
Once you’ve caught the stuff
and wiped it off, its dirt-removal
properties are excellent,
however. Shine was reasonable,
but didn’t live up to the
‘Carnauba Gloss’ promised on
the label. Considering what the
paint was like before cleaning,
the finish was reasonably
smooth, but still only average
in this test sample.
Our product tests take a common-sense
approach to pricing: If two tie for either of
the top awards (Best Buy and We Also Like)
the lower-priced unit will claim it. However,
low price alone will not secure any product
the Best Budget Buy award. For a product
to win this category it must also perform to
a very high standard according to the test’s
criteria. We did not award one for this test.
Here, we’re listing the pack price and the
price per 100ml (including VAT) so you can
make direct comparisons between products.
E
Ease of use
nnnnn
Dirt removal nnnnn
Shine
nnnnn
Feel nnnnn
Overall13/20
To subscribe to PC go to www.greatmagazines.co.uk
co Touch is designed to be
sprayed onto a microfibre
towel and the bodywork before
wiping and lifting the towel to
remove the dirt. Dirt removal is
no problem for this product, but
the process of spraying both
the towel and bodywork means
towels get wet quickly – a whole
car will need a lot of towels.
The second supplied
microfibre towel was used
to buff up the paintwork.
Ease of use
nnnnn
After that, there was still
Dirt removal nnnnn
a film left on the surface
Shine
nnnnn
that blunted the shine,
Feel nnnnn
and that film was tacky,
so Eco Touch fell down on
Overall13/20
the feel test, too.
PRACTICAL CLASSICS // october 2012
➽
Waterless car washers
Product Test
Turtle Wax
Waterless
Wash
Ease of use
nnnnn
Dirt removal nnnnn
Shine
nnnnn
Feel nnnnn
Overall14/20
Meguiar’s Ultimate
Wash & Wax
Anywhere
Made by: Meguiar’s
Price from: Meguiar’s – 0870
2416696, www.meguiars.co.uk
volume: 768ml
Price per 100ml: £1.95
ToweLS: Not included
PRICE: £14.99
he instructions for this
product fill the back label
of the big, 768ml container with
reams of detail in tiny white-onblack print. On the upside, this
waterless wash can be used in
direct sunlight if necessary and
the excellent spray head makes
the required misting of the
product very simple. These last
two points restore the Meguiar’s
ease-of-use tally a little. Our
sticky panel was no match for
the cleaning qualities of
this product and buffing
Ease of use
nnnnn
the paint to a shine
Dirt
removal
nnnnn
was easy with a second
Shine
nnnnn
microfibre cloth. Final shine
was fair, but the feel of the
Feel nnnnn
paint post-polishing was
Overall15/20
among the best in this test.
october 2012 // PRACTICAL CLASSICS
imple instructions and
a useful directional spray
pattern make AquaZero easy
to use. No sooner was the
product on the surface and it
was absorbing and lifting the
dirt from the panel.
One wipe from a microfibre
towel had the surface clean,
and a buff with a clean towel
quickly built up an impressive
shine on the paintwork.
Given the quality of that
shine, it was disappointing to
feel a significant drag on the
surface of the paint.
Moving the car outside the
garage to look at the finish in
the light created a light dust
and this settled on the paint
and stayed there.
Ease of use
nnnnn
Dirt removal nnnnn
Shine
nnnnn
Feel nnnnn
Overall15/20
Let’s be clear on one thing: none of these products is
designed to remove caked-on mud or heavy deposits of
winter road film. For that you will have to resort to the good
old bucket and sponge. But if you just want to clean a regular
grubby classic without water, any of the products in the test
will do that job well (and clean windows, wheels and remove
spattered bugs, we discovered).
What makes some stand out and others fade into the
background is the quality of the finish. Our Best Buy led the
way here with a finish that surprised our concours-hardened
judges. The fact that Auto-QD was designed as a quick
detailer rather than a dedicated waterless washer makes its
win here even more impressive. We’d like Bilt-Hamber to do
something about that plunger, though.
we also
like...
ost of the products in this
test need to be shaken
before use, but as the only
aerosol on test, Dry Shine takes
a lot of shaking before it is
ready to be sprayed on.
Simple instructions and a
spray pattern that comes out
in a vertical line (excellent for
getting it where you want it),
compensate for all the shaking.
The product is thick, like a
household polish, but it ate into,
and then removed the dirt from
the test panel easily after the
20-second wait suggested by
the instructions.
The resulting shine and feel
was very good and took little
effort with a second microfibre
towel to achieve.
Made by: Autoglym
Price from: Halfords –
08450 579 000, www.halfords.com
volume: 500ml
Price per 100ml: £1.60
ToweLS: Not included
PRICE: £7.99
Made by: Bilt-Hamber
Price from: Bilt-Hamber –
01277 658899,
www.bilthamber.com
volume: 500ml
Price per 100ml: £2.59
ToweLS: One, microfibre
PRICE: £12.95
A
A
Ease of use
Ease of use
nnnnn
Dirt removal nnnnn
Shine
nnnnn
Feel nnnnn
Overall17/20
Bilt-Hamber
Auto-QD
Autoglym Rapid
Detailer
utoglym does make a full
waterless wash but it is a
trade product available only in
vast drums and definitely not
to the general public. We gave
Autoglym a rundown on the
planned test and were sent a
sample of the Rapid Detailer to
include instead.
Considering this product
is designed for restoring
paintwork with only the lightest
covering of grime, our test panel
presented a real challenge. So
we were impressed with the
dirt removal properties of the
Rapid Detailer that lifted the
entrenched, sticky dust off the
surface with one wipe.
The paintwork shone well
afterwards, but there was a
tackiness to the feel, despite
significant amounts of buffing.
Conclusion
M
S
L
T
Made by: Dry Shine
Price from: Dry Shine –
01773 528977,
www.dryshine.co.uk
volume: 487ml
Price per 100ml: £1.99
ToweLS: Not included
PRICE: £9.95
Made by: Drymotive
Price from: Drymotive –
08458 540057,
www.drymotive.com
volume: 500ml
Price per 100ml: £1.99
Towels: Two, microfibre
PRICE: £9.98
Made by: Turtle Wax –
www.turtlewax.com
Price from: Halfords –
08450 579 000, www.halfords.com
volume: 500ml
Price per 100ml: £1.99
Towels: One, microfibre
PRICE: £9.99
ike Eco Touch, Turtle Wax
Waterless Wash needs to
be sprayed onto a towel and
the paintwork, so the same
problems with soaked towels,
additional time taken and plain
hassle apply here.
The spray pattern is very
large so working in the ‘small
area’ as the instructions dictate
isn’t all that easy. Dirt removal
was on a par with every other
product in this test and buffing
to a shine took little effort.
The Turtle Wax product left a
fair shine on the paintwork, and
the finish was relatively smooth
to the touch after use.
Dry Shine
AquaZero
nnnnn
Dirt removal nnnnn
Shine
nnnnn
Feel nnnnn
Overall15/20
www.practicalclassics.co.uk
best
buy
uto-QD began lifting the
dirt on the test panel the
moment it was applied. The clear
three-point instructions called
for the product to be spread
over the surface and buffed off
with a clean microfibre towel.
Simple. Less simple was applying
the product in the required mist.
To do this, the plunger has to be
depressed fully and quickly.
Keeping a firm grip on the
bottle at the same time is no
easy task and quickly leads to
finger fatigue. Coming back
to the positives, Auto-QD
Ease of use
nnnnn
produced the deepest
Dirt
removal
nnnnn
shine and the smoothest
Shine
nnnnn
feel from the test sample,
our experts likened it to
Feel nnnnn
a traditional washed and
Overall18/20
waxed finish.
To subscribe to PC go to www.greatmagazines.co.uk
Mot waterless washes are
spray on, then wipe off.
Previous Product
Test winners
September 2012
Electric metal
shears
July 2012
Body fillers
Price: £421.25
Price from: Tool-Net – 01732
361 618, www.tool-net.co.uk
We said: ‘The Fein has a
workshop-friendly 5m-long
lead, it weighs just 1.6kg (the
lightest in test by 100g). Cuts
are guillotine-quality, with no
distortion and leaving no sharp
edges on the test panel.’
Price: £9.49
Price from: Halfords – 08450
579 000, www.halfords.com
We said: ‘This filler was one of
the easiest to sand down. After
two minutes the surface of the
filler was smooth with no marks
or pinholes visible.’
Fein BLS 1.6X
score: 15/15
August 2012
Degreasers
Halfords Engine
Cleaner 500ml
Price: £3.99
Price from: Halfords – 08450
579 000, www.halfords.com
We said: ‘The upper engine
section was degreased in
moments. The caked-on oily
deposits on the Land Rover
seat box we jused were no
match for this degreaser.’
score: 18/20
Plastic Padding
Ultima 930g
score: 12/15
June 2012
Adjustable
spanners
Teng 4003IQ
Price: £19.71
Price from: Tool Orders –
0844 8488 148,
www.toolorders.co.uk
We said: ‘The Teng’s handle is
well balanced and features
comfortable, grippy inserts.
Adjustment of the jaw is
precision itself and the 30mm
jaw opening gives the Teng that
extra bit of versatility.’
score: 19/15
PRACTICAL CLASSICS // october 2012