Does Dish Soap Really Strip wax?

Bill1234

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I had read countless answers from both sides to this and really I feel if it cant dissolve your skin and it takes scrubbing to remove grease on plates and things, why could it dissolve or strip wax?

I am not a chemist and maybe some are here but what is your idea?
 
Simply awesome review. I have always wondered this, now I know.

Thanks, Bill.
 
Simply awesome review. I have always wondered this, now I know.

Thanks, Bill.

The review in the video was not mine, but my question was based on experiences with others
 
Thank you for posting the video showing what I always had a doubt with, and that's DAWN (or dish soap) will strip a quality paint sealant.
 
Ill let others chime in but basically some ding dong was arguing me over at another site making so many claims it does and that its like kitchen grease removal. It seems like only claying and polishing will


Show him that video. He also has another video where he demonstrates the new Meguiar's wash plus which contains microabrasives. It's the fusso wax video.
 
Ill let others chime in but basically some ding dong was arguing me over at another site making so many claims it does and that its like kitchen grease removal. It seems like only claying and polishing will
The video may seem like there is still protection, and this is where the argument that it does not and it does come into play.

If you have a contaminant free surface, that has been freshly polished it will bead and sheet water.

You can wash, clay, polish a car and spray a hose on it and it will bead and sheet water.

So nobody surely knows, if it indeed did strip the wax/sealant or it is just the bare surface paint that is offering the hydrophobic surface.


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I did some polishing and two test spots with two different AIOs on the hood of my farm truck.

I would periodically check it with a strong dawn wash. It was obviously where the one AIO was applied after the wash then spraying it with water. Nice beading where the AIO was used, and flat everywhere else.


One issue I see with that test was that they where both sealants. Although I doubt it will strip a wax.
 
The video may seem like there is still protection, and this is where the argument that it does not and it does come into play.

If you have a contaminant free surface, that has been freshly polished it will bead and sheet water.

You can wash, clay, polish a car and spray a hose on it and it will bead and sheet water.

So nobody surely knows, if it indeed did strip the wax/sealant or it is just the bare surface paint that is offering the hydrophobic surface.


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this is true that video doesnt really prove anything plus i think most people would agree it wont strip a fresh coat of wax with one wash application

there must be a better way to tell if wax is on a car then beading. how does miguiars do it when they claim thier fast finish will last a hundred washing's? they must have a way?
 
These dish soaps often include some type of "drying agent", which would exhibit water repellant behavior. Not sure about this particular product though.
 
When I do my spring detailing, I plan on using dish soap for the initial wash. Don't want to waste good car-wash soap on something that's going to be Iron-X'd, clayed (if needed), polished, sealed and waxed anyway.
 
Show him that video. He also has another video where he demonstrates the new Meguiar's wash plus which contains microabrasives. It's the fusso wax video.

Well, that was interesting...of course we don't know for sure, since he didn't do a post-wash IPA wipe (at least not that I noted), that the Wash Plus isn't "clogging" the LSP with some sort of residue. However the apparent (and logical) ability of a wash with abrasives in it to compromise even durable LSP's is another head-scratcher in the market niche of a retail product like this. I guess it will be good for us 'Geeks who would like to use it as a strip wash...to be able to pick it up on the clearance shelf come fall.
 
I personally stopped arguing with him as he was a complete troll started to call me inappropriate names. Some people you just cant reason with but I took it personally only becuase I tried to explain myself and then was attacked.

To me, personally, dawn again just leaves soap film all over and even natural base type waxes will stand up against dawn. That is just me and I see some arguments for it but they lack the ability to show why dawn strips wax
 
Dawn contains surfactants in it that are designed to make the water lay flat like that. Strip away those surfactants and you'll likely see the beading return.
 
This is going to be a near-weekly thread until the end of time - no matter how many people do experiments or demonstrations.

This is a pointless thing to get hung up over, too. Water behavior on a surface is not the only indicator that protection is there, and even polished and unprotected surfaces exhibit hydrophobic behavior. There's no easily accessible and objective way to measure a wax or sealant's thickness(that I know of) so it's all just guesswork. If you are that worried about adhesion or bonding of your new product just go over the surface with an extremely fine polish. It will make short work of whatever LSP was on there(coatings excluded) and you can remove all the speculation out of it.

In my experience Dawn just does exactly as Rasky said - leaves surfactants that inhibit water beading. It's hard to rinse off totally and I can usually bring back the beading with an IPA wipe and then get plenty more time out of whatever LSP I was using, provided it wasn't already on its last leg.

I've tried dissolving wax in IPA and Dawn before to no avail: http://imgur.com/a/pHavs

and I've tried the Dawn wash before too: http://imgur.com/a/YkEYv

Both extremely unscientific but they are good enough proof for me that there's no reason to use Dawn in a car washing regimen.
 
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