Silica Spray Showdown: McKee's v. Gyeon v. CarPro

[986DTM]

Question, with these kinds of products is it necessary to first strip off any wax or sealant that is currently on the car? I could definitely see myself using one of these as a maintenance product between sealant applications (meg's ULW or Wolfgang for instance) but if it can only be used as a standalone or on top of a coating (which I don't have) then I think it would really only be useful on my wheels. Even then, its almost as easy to do a quick spray and wipe with D156.

 

[kevincwelch]

You can apply it over a waxed or sealed surface, but personally I think it would be a waste of product.

All these products either state directly or imply that the surface should be freshly clayed, polished and prepped. Having a wax or sealant on top of the car would basically interfere with the bonding of the silica sprays.

 

[rlmccarty2000]

Do not use these products unless you are spraying onto clean paint (or clean wheels). 75% of the complaints of streaking are because the paint is contaminated with something that does not allow the coating to bond. The other 25% is spraying on the whole car with the silica spray before rinsing with a strong stream of water. Spray on a panel then rinse off.

 

[wolfpacker92]

You can apply it over a waxed or sealed surface, but personally I think it would be a waste of product.

All these products either state directly or imply that the surface should be freshly clayed, polished and prepped. Having a wax or sealant on top of the car would basically interfere with the bonding of the silica sprays.

I dont' think it's a waste at all. All LSPs both traditional and the nano coatings have a life expectancy. If something like the Silica Sprays can supply a layer of protection on their own then one could infer that using it on top of an LSP would only increase the longevity of said LSP. Then when you factor in the ease of use of these sprays, why wouldn't you use it on top of an LSP every few months?

 

[kevincwelch]

Sure, but the chemistry is different when you layer silica based coatings on top of silica based coatings when compared to the layering of a silica coating on top of a hydrocarbon.

Heck, that's just theoretical. We have no practical way of knowing if that has even any significant benefit either way.



(Sent via my mobile device...)

 

[wolfpacker92]

Sure, but the chemistry is different when you layer silica based coatings on top of silica based coatings when compared to the layering of a silica coating on top of a hydrocarbon.

Heck, that's just theoretical. We have no practical way of knowing if that has even any significant benefit either way.



(Sent via my mobile device...)

And theoretically speaking these spray SiO2 coatings are not the same as the traditional SiO2 coatings or they would have the same longevity. Therefore knowing the spray SiO2 coatings have a much shorter life span we know they are different and knowing if they are beneficial to any LSP will only come with trials. As with everything in detailing each person's mileage will vary due to the vary different nature of all our abilities, interpretation of prepped surface, and method of application. Detailing is as much art as science and trials like the one you've conducted here are great for seeing what products can do.

 

[986DTM]

If anyone could chime in about how these products perform over a LSP that would be great. I'd be totally fine if it didn't last as long because even if I don't get the full 3 months protection it seems like it would be even easier to use than something like D156 which doesn't last 3 months anyways. If it turns out that you can't put it over a sealant then I don't see much benefit unless you only plan to use it on wheels or you are a high volume detailer. There as better standalone LSPs than any of these 3 products.

 

[kevincwelch]

If it turns out that you can't put it over a sealant then I don't see much benefit unless you only plan to use it on wheels or you are a high volume detailer. There as better standalone LSPs than any of these 3 products.

You can use them on top of an existing LSP. The question you ask is probably unanswerable. You'd have to do a side-by-side comparison of a panel coated with a wax (let's say) and a panel with the same wax and topped with the coating. Obviously the panel that lasted longer was enhanced by the application of the silica coating (assuming the silica spray doesn't deteriorate the wax). Visually speaking, if the silica coating wears out, the underlying wax (or LSP) will still bead and sheet, albeit subjectively differently perhaps. But this won't occur in any fashion that makes it obvious to you when the silica spray has "failed."

Bottom line: the manufacturers state or imply that these silica sprays work better if you apply it to a freshly polished and prepped surface. If you apply them to a surface that has been waxed, sealed or coated, you risk the silica spray failing to bond and shedding prematurely.

And that, in my opinion, makes it a waste to apply to a waxed or sealed surface. If you're bored and have money to burn, then have fun spraying away.




If none of the manufacturers will give any claims about their ability to bond to a wax or sealant or prolong the life of an underlying wax, sealant or coating, then I say, "Show me the data!"

There are better LSP than these silica sprays. Tons of them; you just don't spray them on your car (well, maybe excepting PA and Can Coat).

 

[wolfpacker92]

If none of the manufacturers will give any claims about their ability to bond to a wax or sealant or prolong the life of an underlying wax, sealant or coating, then I say, "Show me the data!"

Well according to Autogeeks description page of Gyeon Wet Coat it states:

GYEON WetCoat is perfect for increasing gloss and longevity on vehicles previously treated with an SiO2 coating...

 

[kevincwelch]

Good to know. How much longer does it afford protection, and how much more gloss does it add?

(Sent via my mobile device...)

 

[kevincwelch]

On the off chance that there was something negative about using N914 with the waterless dilution, I cleaned the hood with it in the rinseless dilution.

About the same results. Maybe a tad better. (Left over product?)

Panel A

Panel B

Panel C

(Sent via my mobile device...)

 

[Eldorado2k]

Can we see some beading from actual rain, or the shower setting from the nozzle?

These spray bottle beading shots just don't cut it.. I could make just about any paint bead if I did that. But in reality it can easily look more like this:

Or it could be a success and look like this:

But we'll never know if all we're seeing is water being sprayed out of a spray bottle. Appreciate your time in doing this, but can we please see more realistic water behavior tests?

 

[kevincwelch]

I'll see what I can do. I have to turn on the water supply again, hook up the hoses, etc. It's still cold here, ya know!

I can see your perspective, but I suspect it will look the same, regardless of the force and volume.

(Sent via my mobile device...)

 

[Eldorado2k]

I'll see what I can do. I have to turn on the water supply again, hook up the hoses, etc. It's still cold here, ya know!

I can see your perspective, but I suspect it will look the same, regardless of the force and volume.

(Sent via my mobile device...)

Dude, you guys got it rough out there! I can't even imagine what that must be like. It's April! Lol.

 

[GSKR]

Greetings, Detailers!




Like many of you, I am a big fan of easy-to-apply spray coatings such as Wet Coat and HydrO2. Now that McKee's 37 has a ready-to-use silica spray coating, we certainly have some solid options when it comes to selecting a silica spray.

Of course, there is that all important question: Which one is the best?

This seemingly simple question potentially has quite a number of valid qualifiers. Does "best" mean gloss? Does "best" mean hydrophobicity? Does "best" mean durability? Does "best" mean "bang for buck?" All great follow-up questions. A couple of those may be difficult to answer, but for me, silica and titania offer protection to my clear coat, and I want to know which one(s) repel water the best and do so for the longest time. Cost is an important issue, but it can be deceptive. One product may be significantly more expensive than another for the same volume, but the more expensive one may stretch further, and that's value, which is separate from cost.

So, I set out to do a test of three ready-to-use silica spray products and to do my best -- with your help -- to determine the level of gloss, hydrophobicity and durability of these three silica sprays.

I decided to use straight-from-the retailer versions of the three ready-to-use silica sprays as opposed to ones that I have to dilute on the bench -- avoiding any potential issues with my water quality or failure to measure properly.

The Contenders
1. CarPro HydrO2 Lite
2. Gyeon Q2M Wet Coat
3. McKee's 37 Hydro Blue SiO2 coating spray





Costs
All costs are based on the regular (not sale) Autogeek regular pricing.

McKee's 37 Hydro Blue (16 oz): $17.99 ($1.12/oz)
CarPro HydO2 Lite (1 Liter, 33.8 oz): $24.99 ($0.73/oz)
Wet Coat (500 mL, 16.9 oz): $17.99 ($1.06/oz)
Wet Coat (4000 mL, 135.3 oz): $84.99 ($0.63/oz)

In terms of cost, Wet Coat is clearly the least expensive when bought in bulk. However, many of us may not be in the market for 4 liters of a product if our rate of application doesn't necessitate such bulk purchasing. Eliminating this 4 liter option, the 1 liter CarPro HydrO2 Lite is the next best option in terms of price, followed by Gyeon Wet Coat and then by McKee's 37 (the most expensive per oz). Obviously, the differences in price between McKee's 37 16oz and Wet Coat 500 mL are negligible.

Cost isn't everything, of course. If you have to use more Wet Coat than McKee's to get the same results, for example, then McKee's clearly is more cost effective. Many permutations of this sort of thing go into cost assessment. However, on a per-ounce basis, it goes:

Wet Coat 4L < HydrO2 Lite < Wet Coat 16oz < McKee's 37 16 oz

(You can buy a 5L container of HydrO2 Lite elsewhere for $99.99. This turns out to be 169.1 oz and a cost of $0.59/oz - the best cost/oz for any of the products.)

Soon Gyeon Wet Coat Essence will be out, and a 250mL (8.4 oz) bottle of this will cost in the neighborhood of $50.00. Instructions state that it can be diluted from 1:5 to 1:15. If that's the case, Gyeon Wet Coat Essence will cost anywhere from $1.19/oz (of diluted spray) to $0.39/oz. Good value.


My disclosures/Avoidance of Bias
I like Gyeon. Although I have CarPro products, I usually don't reach for them (got streaking from Reload, hated PERL and have had +/- streaking with HydrO2 in the past). I don't have many McKee's products because it's a relatively new line of products, and Hydro Blue is completely new, so there's little available information out there about its outcomes, although Joe and Ron have some nice reviews out there. So, I wanted to do a test that avoided bias on my part and bias on anyone else's part.


Study Parameters/Methods
I took three identical spray bottles and filled each with 50 mL of each product, which was measured and transfered straight from the source bottle. On each bottle, the spray nozzle was turned all the way so as to maximize the atomization of the product. Each bottle was primed so that the piping and sprayer were filled with product so as to avoid unpredictable variability in the spray pattern and volume. Each bottle was marked with what product was present. You might ask why I needed to mark the bottles if they are all three different colors. Good question. This test is going to involve a longevity test, and I wasn't sure if after a few months (before the unveiling!) whether Hydro Blue and HydrO2 Lite might start looking a little alike due to color fading, oxidation, etc.





Each bottle was then completely covered such that I was unable to tell what product was in the bottle. The bottles were then randomized by my wife (I was not present when she rearranged them), and then she marked each bottle with a simple code: "A," "B" and "C."





The hood of my wife's 2015 Toyota Highlander was cleaned using a heavy saturation of Kenotek and then decontaminated using a fine grade Nanoskin sponge. It was then corrected with HD Adapt using a Rupes Mark I 15 with a yellow Rupes pad. This was done to get rid of the previous LSP. I then polished the hood using Sonax Perfect Finish using a Rupes white pad. The panel was then prepped using Gtechniq Panel Wipe.










Just checking them temps...




The following video shows that there is (hopefully) no LSP left on the hood and the effect of water after being sprayed on the hood. I did this because I have seen some reviews of these products that have been done on cars already protected with something. See Joe's post on applying a silica spray coating product. There's an excellent video.


Don't adjust your dial! None of my videos has sound -- I edited the sound out.

Highlander Hood

The hood of my wife's Highlander was divided into three sections using the technique described previously by Marc08EX in his test of Wet Coat and HydrO2 Lite. See his review here. I used larger sheets of plastic and double taped the hood to avoid overspray. The tape was applied to both the top and under surface of the plastic.















Arbitrarily, I made the following assignments.

Passenger's side: Product A
Middle: Product B
Driver's side: Product C







Reminder: I don't know what product I am spraying on each section at this point. This is a potential problem since the three products may have different instructions for applications. After reading the instructions on AG/McKee's, Gyeon, and CarPro, I confirmed that the instructions for application are generally the same for all three products - hence their ease of use.

HydrO2 Lite


McKee's 37 Hydro Blue


Gyeon Q2M Wet Coat




Application
Making sure to avoid overspray and have the plastic sheets adequately cover other treated surfaces, the exposed sections of the hood were each sprayed with water to wet the surface and then sprayed with the test product. Each section was sprayed without significant overlap, and a total of 7 actuations (what I determined to get full coverage) were performed on each section. Immediately following the application, the section was blasted with water to activate the product. Each of the three sections was then dried using its own towel to avoid any possibility of cross-contamination.

Here are the three videos of each application.


Product A/Panel A

Product B/Panel B

Product C/Panel C

The tape and plastic was removed. A cure period of 6 hours was utilized before water testing. I don't see any indication on their respective websites that this is necessary, but cure periods for silica and titania products are often recommended.


Water Testing
The first test of beading is done with water sprayed on each section. A Home Depot basic $0.99 sprayer was used with distilled water. Here are representative pictures of each section. Your opinions would be highly valued.


Product A/Panel A



Product B/Panel B




Product C/Panel C



Opinion: I believe that the beading quality ranks Products A > Product C > Product B, but not by much. Although this is subjective, they all have nicely formed round beads of variable sizes without any section showing those amorphous or poorly organized beads. Again, in my opinion, I was slightly more impressed by the beads of all sizes shown by Product A/Panel A compared to the other two. Regardless, they all form nice beads.


I also performed a test to see which did the best in terms of water sheeting. You can see where the hood was masked. The video demonstrates the results. Again, your opinions would be highly valued.

After

Opinion: I felt that the sheeting of water was much more organized in all three sections/panels than when compared to before any treatment. Sheeting again is a subjective thing. Some equate speed of sheeting with effectiveness, any I can see that, but angles of panels all vary and gravity affects speed. In this case, Panels A and Panels C have a little advantage in having more acute angles than Panel B since they curve down to the side, so I think that A and C sheet a little faster. Regardless, after 1 minute, the sheeting is nearly complete in all panels.






Gloss
This is going to be completely subjective and may have no real winner with the limits of my testing. I don't have a $3000 gloss meter, so we're just gonna have to settle for subjective opinions here. Here is the hood from three different angles under the reflection of LEDs.

Opinion: I think they all look the same. Hard to say on a light metallic blue car.


Longevity
Here are the durability claims of each of the three products:
1. McKee's 37 Hydro Blue: "3 months or more." (Source=McKee's 37 website)
2. CarPro HydrO2 Lite: "3 months or more" (Source=CarPro website)
3. Gyeon Wet Coat: "up to 12 weeks" (Source=Gyeon Quartz website)

Today marks T=0. At T=2 weeks, T=4 weeks, T=8 weeks and T=12 weeks, I will be performing a water test of the hood. The car is going to be maintained by me alone. I usually let me wife go to the touchless car wash periodically, but I've asked her not to do this over the test period since they often use harsh chemicals and lay down sealants in the rinse, and both of these may affect the products tested and I can't control the car wash concentrations, etc. Instead, the car is going to be cleaned with McKee's 37 N-914 using the rinseless wash dilution and dried using a towel. McKee's N-914 was chosen since this is a wash that is reported to leave nothing behind on the surface that affects the underlying LSP. After the RW, each section will then be sprayed to assess beading properties and hosed to assess sheeting capability. Pictures and videos will be taken.

At 3 months (or sooner), if all three products no longer demonstrate any protection (beading, sheeting) the products will be unveiled and final conclusions will be drawn. However, if any of the products continues to demonstrate protection beyond this time frame, updates will be given until all three products have "failed." Only then will the unveiling occur.


Summary
There are now a few ready-to-use silica sprays on AG that can be used to protect your paint surfaces. Although durability is not stated to exceed some of the higher quality waxes, sealants and dedicated coatings, silica sprays are a contender in this market since they lay down protection, are relatively inexpensive per oz, easily applied and leave a great look. There will always be matters of subjectivity and nuances related to paint/clear coat and with the application itself. The question of durability always seems to be a very important one to answer, and durability is affected by many factors. I feel this is a legitimate test of the three products on a daily driver (as opposed to a garage queen) since most vehicles we detail are in fact daily drivers. Since the masking technique has been proven to adequately avoid overspray (see Marc08EX's post), and both you and I have been blinded to the product applications, this test will help avoid any preconceived opinions that I or you have about the individual products and hopefully answer that durability test.




As Supreme Leader Snoke says: "We shall see. We shall see."

Mckees has it dialed in no streaking and if you do its minimal. I tried mckees on a hot panel and i got very little streaks,but they wipe off with ease.The other 2 competitive brands are hard to work with and just use it on rims.I don't care about longevity its just a booster.Out of the 3 mckees is user friendly.

 

[kevincwelch]

I haven't used McKee's yet for anything other than this test.

I've used Wet Coat many times over. Never experienced any streaking from it, so I'm not sure what you mean by "hard to work with." The only time I got streaking from HydrO2 is when I was about to spray it off and my breaker tripped; I couldn't power up the pressure washer for a couple of minutes (faulty breaker as it turned out).

McKee's may very well be the most user friendly, but I'd be stretching it to say the other two are "hard to work with."

The point of the test was to see which one of the three performed the best and lasted the longest - important points for some, and if McKee's turns out to be the victor, not only will I be satisfied with the results, but also I'll be a convert.

 

[kevincwelch]

It rained heavily yesterday. My wife made two trips out.

Here is a picture of the hood after the trip. She doesn't​ have time for my silly little close-ups, so it`s had to tell.

Then she made a second trip when it wasn`t raining. This is what is left after the trip. A single droplet...

(Sent via my mobile device...)

 

[runrun411]

Doesn't she realize how important this test is to us. LOL

 

[kevincwelch]

Rained today.

Panel A

Panel B

Panel C

Beading is decent.

Beading from my car today (PA High Gloss on top of Mohs). Tighter in my opinion.

Was informed that droplets appeared to roll off the hood of the test panels toward the windshield on all sides when my wife was driving today.

All sides holding up equally at this point. Whereas Panels A and C looked the best immediately after the applications, all three look the same now.


(Sent via my mobile device...)

 

[Cruzscarwash]

what camera are you using?