Disappointed in Rupes pads- input needed please

GenesisCoupe

GenesisCoupe

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Hello All,

Super long story made short in to bullet points;

- Been detailing for 8 years now
- Owned PC, Griots, Rupes mark 1 and 2, Flex
- Recently bought Rupes pads to try
- Long time Lake Country pads user

- Helped a friend detail a newer black Audi A5\
- Terrible paint with holograms, tons of pig tails from previous detailer, full of swirls
- Paint was super soft, yet LC black pad and Carpro Essence wasn't "cutting" it.
- Compounded with FG400 and polished with Essence

Here is what happened;

My BRAND NEW Rupes pads- 3 of them are now RUINED.
Two of the pads have begun to tear from the velcro, and the third pad has blown up on me (pic below).

Keep in mind that in my 8 years of paint polishing i only destroyed 2 pads but that was when i was learning how to, and then the second time was an old pad that just needed to go.

Why did i destroy 3 of my brand new expensive Rupes pads?? All of them were the Medium cutting (green) pads too.

I did not use too much or too little pressure, did not curve the polisher in any weird way either, did not "work" the pad too much either.
I cleaned the pad after each section pass (6).

So what gives????!!!!


If you take a look at the pic below you will see that the pad BLEW up on me, and also caused me to hit my left thigh with the polisher. Thank goodness the car is not damaged!

This all happened on my Mark 2 Rupes. Any input is greatly appreciated.

 
Wow, never seen that before. I use my Rupes 15 MKII, 5.5" green Rupes pads with FG400 all the time - it's a great combo. Maybe you got a defective pad(s)??
 
You did nothing wrong. I had the same issue with my green 4 inch brand new pad. It just blew up.
some one else just started a thread recently about there pads. I really don't like bashing a company product
but its not right that we spend money on there products and they try to blame the user for it when there
are more than one person with the same issue.
 
Just curious, what speed were you on? 15 or 21 throw?

I have recently seen a few others complaining about Rupes pads...
 
What speed, were you using. Sounds like the pad was to hot and it was to high a speed
 
Too much heat is my first reaction.
But it sounds like you have plenty of experience, so maybe it had to do with the hardness of that particular paint?
Maybe you just ran into a bad combo?
 
Did you prime the pad via KB method?
 
Since this is applies to me, I want to add to this also.

I used my Rupes yellow and green pads with HD speed and Wolfgang in the past three days and I checked for temperature levels with just touch. Felt fine. I used 6 pads with speed yesterday combo of yellow and green.

And I noticed my green pads after using it in my second detail seemed to start to deteriorate.

Does this happen to do with something about what Dylan said about the type of compound/polishes I chose to use?

Also yesterday temps outside were 50 degrees and with the green pad and with the yellow one HD SPEED started to dust up. Whaddup with that?

Ps: Sorry to hi-jack this moment but since I am here with something Rupes pads related.
 
The Blue and Green tend to shred on me too even when using Rupes compounds, the Yellow and White are more durable though. I hope Rupes can make the Blue and Green as durable as the Yellow and White without sacrificing cut. The LC ThinPro's,BnS Low-Pro's and GG Boss pads have replaced my Rupes cutting pads for this reason.
 
7.3powerstroke said:
Just curious, what speed were you on? 15 or 21 throw?


I have recently seen a few others complaining about Rupes pads...
Click to expand...

Used both backing plates and the pads broke on both.

refreshauto said:
What speed, were you using. Sounds like the pad was to hot and it was to high a speed
Click to expand...

4.5 out of 6

dlc95 said:
Did you prime the pad via KB method?
Click to expand...

I did, i actually watched the video on "how to" with the Rupes pads.

Zubair said:
The Blue and Green tend to shred on me too even when using Rupes compounds, the Yellow and White are more durable though. I hope Rupes can make the Blue and Green as durable as the Yellow and White without sacrificing cut. The LC ThinPro's,BnS Low-Pro's and GG Boss pads have replaced my Rupes cutting pads for this reason.
Click to expand...

Which is true because only the GREEN pads broke on me. The Yellow and White were fine. Although they are made of a different material.

I think it is the material of the pad that is not spreading the heat very well. When i came back to the pad after about 2 minutes it was still kinda warm-ish to the touch.
 
The Rupes green pads are extremely good, since they are firm but are also able to contour the panel, but it doesn't last too long.

You applied 4,5 in a MKII? If so, it is like more than 6 in the old one (According to Dylan, 5 and 6 on the ES is like 3 and 4 on the MKII).

It also seems that you applied too much pressure, perhaps?

The grey, blue and green have similar foam open cell structure, albeit different density, they don't need much pressure to work with, you have to let the product work it on the panel.

But the green pad is the weak link link in the Rupes pad line, regarding durability. Maybe they'll improve it for the souped up newer machines.
 
that's crazy! i use the Rupes yellow and white pads constantly. i've had 2 yellows come apart, but that was my fault i over heated the pads too many times.

i'm not a fan of the open cell foam on the blue and green pads, they sling alot and never feel right.

i just started using the LC ThinPro pads on my rupes and they are awesome, the machine runs really smooth with them.
 
Thats certainly the most unusual pad failure I've ever seen. Like anything theres always some chance its simply a defective pad, but with foam deterioration on this level it would be unlikely. Pads are cut from large buns of common foam, so it would mean we'd see similar/identical catasrophic failure of tons of pads in the same batch. The reports of pad failure vs. the number in the marketplace and the level of failure doesn't seem to point to a foam issue, but stranger things have happened.

I browsed over the thread, so forgive me if I missed it - but looks like you're running speed 4.5 and this is on a 21mm tool? If thats the case I'd recommend backing down your speed to the 3 or 4 range. Its a depature from what everyone has been coached to do for so long, but sustained high speeds are not what the Mark II are designed to do. 3-4 is your 'normal' range then you jump it up to 5 or 6 if you need to compensate for reduced pad rotation in a curve. Also, that pad looks HEAVILY saturated with compound - another counter intuitive thing in our system is the little amount needed. Saturating the pad to that degree can have some impact on the pads performance and ultimately the life of the pad.

Lastly, as was touched on - is solvents - polishes with solvent content seem to have a pattern of eating our green or blue foams. If I missed it I apologize, but what chemicals were being used on the pads?
EDIT - just saw FG400. We have identified a VERY specific pattern of that compound vs. our green foam that they do not play well together. I am unclear as to solvent content (or whatever other content there is in that formula) but I would discourage the use of FG400 specifically with the green or blue. Doesn't seem to have issues with the others and the green seems to be the least compatible. As our compounds are all water based they foams were setup for that in compatibility - the issue between this specific compound and that pad is something that only manifested itself fully in the last 8-10 months and there is a definite pattern.
 
Thanks for the feedback Dylan, will make a mental note not to use FG400 with the Blue/Green pads. However I am hoping Rupes has plans to make the Blue/Green more durable solving the shredding issue even on MK1 ES models with Rupes compounds.
 
Matt@Revive said:
that's crazy! i use the Rupes yellow and white pads constantly. i've had 2 yellows come apart, but that was my fault i over heated the pads too many times.

i'm not a fan of the open cell foam on the blue and green pads, they sling alot and never feel right.

i just started using the LC ThinPro pads on my rupes and they are awesome, the machine runs really smooth with them.
Click to expand...

I used the White pad to polish with Essence and had zero issues, i used the yellow briefly to test which pad would work best but went with White.

Dylan@RUPES said:
Thats certainly the most unusual pad failure I've ever seen. Like anything theres always some chance its simply a defective pad, but with foam deterioration on this level it would be unlikely. Pads are cut from large buns of common foam, so it would mean we'd see similar/identical catasrophic failure of tons of pads in the same batch. The reports of pad failure vs. the number in the marketplace and the level of failure doesn't seem to point to a foam issue, but stranger things have happened.

I browsed over the thread, so forgive me if I missed it - but looks like you're running speed 4.5 and this is on a 21mm tool? If thats the case I'd recommend backing down your speed to the 3 or 4 range. Its a depature from what everyone has been coached to do for so long, but sustained high speeds are not what the Mark II are designed to do. 3-4 is your 'normal' range then you jump it up to 5 or 6 if you need to compensate for reduced pad rotation in a curve. Also, that pad looks HEAVILY saturated with compound - another counter intuitive thing in our system is the little amount needed. Saturating the pad to that degree can have some impact on the pads performance and ultimately the life of the pad.

Lastly, as was touched on - is solvents - polishes with solvent content seem to have a pattern of eating our green or blue foams. If I missed it I apologize, but what chemicals were being used on the pads?
EDIT - just saw FG400. We have identified a VERY specific pattern of that compound vs. our green foam that they do not play well together. I am unclear as to solvent content (or whatever other content there is in that formula) but I would discourage the use of FG400 specifically with the green or blue. Doesn't seem to have issues with the others and the green seems to be the least compatible. As our compounds are all water based they foams were setup for that in compatibility - the issue between this specific compound and that pad is something that only manifested itself fully in the last 8-10 months and there is a definite pattern.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the input. I did not know about the new speed settings, but will keep it in mind. I'll check out the Rupes line of compounds/polish to see if i want to try anything.
 
I found this thread after the fact. I was using the Rupes mini with a green Rupes 4" pad & FG400. New pad, speed 5, 3rd section. Pad started to break apart at the velcro attachment point. Bummer. LC 3" yellow stepped in admirably.
 
Red Hawk said:
I found this thread after the fact. I was using the Rupes mini with a green Rupes 4" pad & FG400. New pad, speed 5, 3rd section. Pad started to break apart at the velcro attachment point. Bummer. LC 3" yellow stepped in admirably.
Click to expand...

There is a known compatibility issue with the green foam and FG400 and directly relates to the solvent content of that particular compound (which apparently is rather heavy). Switch to a water based or low solvent compound and the issue will be non existent. In any event sorry to hear you had the issue and we're exploring solvent resistant foams, not that we need them for our compounds, but that some people use these and we'll help solve the problem from our end.
 
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