Rinseless Washes - 2022

Over the weekend, I used Hyper Foam ONR for the first time, in a traditional bucket wash. I used a non-foaming IK sprayer to spray down the car and a BRS in about 4 gallons of solution. With the spray down, I noticed the solution was maybe a little more runny than regular ONR but not a big deal.

When doing the contact wash, I found that the repeated dipping and squeezing out of the BRS will aerate the solution and generate some foam. The foam does disperse quickly and the product does an excellent job of removing dirt. I used OPT’s Waterless Wash and Shine as a drying aid and the car was slick and glossy when finished. I like to rotate in the WW&S for the UV protection plus it doesn’t seem to be the dust/pollen magnate as say a Griot’s or Adams product does.

Quick note: When doing my wife’s car, I got the “bright” idea to add another ounce to the recommended per gallon ratio, when I noticed it was much dirtier than I thought. Man, did I generate a lot of foam with the repeated rinsing of the sponge. I wound up doing a foaming contact wash, just without the rinse off. I did have to blow foam off the front grill and seams, but the product still worked great for me.
 
I don't think I've ever gone over 1:128 with FoamNR, it seems the problems start when you go richer than that.
 
Over the weekend, I used Hyper Foam ONR for the first time, in a traditional bucket wash. I used a non-foaming IK sprayer to spray down the car and a BRS in about 4 gallons of solution. With the spray down, I noticed the solution was maybe a little more runny than regular ONR but not a big deal.

When doing the contact wash, I found that the repeated dipping and squeezing out of the BRS will aerate the solution and generate some foam. The foam does disperse quickly and the product does an excellent job of removing dirt. I used OPT’s Waterless Wash and Shine as a drying aid and the car was slick and glossy when finished. I like to rotate in the WW&S for the UV protection plus it doesn’t seem to be the dust/pollen magnate as say a Griot’s or Adams product does.

Quick note: When doing my wife’s car, I got the “bright” idea to add another ounce to the recommended per gallon ratio, when I noticed it was much dirtier than I thought. Man, did I generate a lot of foam with the repeated rinsing of the sponge. I wound up doing a foaming contact wash, just without the rinse off. I did have to blow foam off the front grill and seams, but the product still worked great for me.

LSP's don't protect from UV light. Same goes with interior dressings.
 
Trying to ignore the last post about LSP's providing no UV protection, when virtually every LSP has that feature in their description, as well as OPT having a patent for UV protection in OCW. https://patents.google.com/patent/US6669763B1/en

I was kind of excited to use ONR as I have used quite a bit of it in the past. I have liked it for its cleaning ability and overall feel but never was a fan of the staining so I have not used it recently. Well, when the newest version was announced I was pretty excited to try it. So I've used it twice now, once with towels and then with the new big red sponge.

I was kind of surprised to see how grabby this product is when I used the multiple towel method. Like, really grabby and not smooth or slick at all. Felt really weird to me. But I did wash the car with it and then hoped that the drying process would be better - unfortunately not. It was just as grabby, if not more. The towel kept bunching up when drying. Very disappointed.

Oddly, when I asked over at the OPT forum whether the improvements made in ONR V.6 would be carried over into ONRWW (I asked the same thing when V.5 came out, and was told no), the response was that the slickest OPT RW is Opti-Coat No-Rinse, followed by ONRWW, then ONR. So since ONRWW is already slicker than V.6, it again will not be reformulated.

I was rather taken aback by that, that apparently the ONR changes for V.6 were just for slickness and for nothing else...and evidently it's still the least slick OPT RW, so...why not just leave ONR alone and tell people if they want a slicker wash, use ONRWW? Which is precisely what Chris Thomas, who was the OPT forum PR person at the time ONRWW came out, suggested (that for general use, ONRWW would be a safer wash and provide a better wash experience due to more lubricity, and that ONR would only be used if you didn't want to leave anything behind, like if you were prepping for coating).

EDIT: I guess my point is I don't think people were saying "I would use ONR if it were just slicker". I kind of presumed that the increased slickness was due to "improvements" in the chemistry...but apparently the increased slickness was the only objective.
 
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I know where/why he said lsp’s don’t provide UV protection, and I tend to agree, however I’m a little biased and tend to get into minor arguments online with people who think that ceramic coating is an adequate protectant for restored headlights, which I don’t believe they provide any protection whatsoever.

IMO besides OEM headlight protection, the only thing that provides UV protection is PPF. Sprayable 2k clearcoat can do it for a limited time but after a while it’ll look like crap again. Plus from my understanding it’s not really meant to be used on headlights to begin with.

As far as waxes & sealants, the evidence points toward their claims being mostly untrue but it’s not something that really bothers me.

And when it comes to Dr. G, last time I checked he had a 1 on 1 discussion with the guy that proved Optimum products don’t provide a lick of UV protection and iirc he lost that argument.
 
Eldo, I agree with you 100% on the headlights, I think a ceramic coating, which is maybe 2% of the thickness of the factory coating, is just not thick enough to provide any real protection against damage to the polycarbonate. Likewise, the molecules-thick coating of a wax or sealant isn't going to do much, either, but if it is providing a small sacrificial or ablative/absorbtive layer, and it's reapplied frequently, then common sense would say it's doing something.

One of the "arguments" for OCW is that the added UV absorber is the same that is used in clearcoat (since Dr. G used to formulate clearcoats at PPG before he started Optimum), is that it will be absorbed into the paint to some degree, to refresh the protection. Dr. G also explained (I believe it was in an AutopiaForums chat hosted by Dwayne...that would have been 2011-ish) that the reason the paint fails first on plastic parts of the car (bumpers, mirrors), which I used to attribute to some thermal issues or the old "they put an additive in the paint on the bumpers to make it more flexible", is because the UV absorber in the clear migrates into the other layers of the paint, and on metal it stops there, but on plastic it keeps migrating out of the clear and into the substrate. He said they solved that problem by adding the UV absorber into the plastic substrate.

In the end the UV is going to win, but it's kind of a defeatist attitude to say that nothing we apply to paint/interiors helps. To look at it another way, you could argue that (skin) sunscreen doesn't work because if you put it on and stand out in the sun all day you will get sunburned. But if you reapply it every two hours (like the label says) you will likely not get sunburned.

The half-life of clearcoat is supposed to be 5 years, so if you have a car that lives outside the clear should fail in 10 years, and we have all seen cars on the road that old that have failed clearcoat. Yet some members have 25 year old cars where the clear looks just fine....could it be that regular application of an LSP protects the paint? Well, maybe that's just a crazy conspiracy theory.
 
Yup, I pretty much agree with you because at the end of the day I like a clean detailed car so much that I’m willing to take a leap of faith that whatever’s being applied is going to have a positive effect and that’s more than enough to keep me happy.

And even if it’s proven to not protect against UV that’s not enough to make me stop using anything. I’m far more upset at lsp’s that don’t protect against bonded contaminants than anything. That’s why I don’t use ceramic coatings on my own vehicle. Lol
 
Yup, I pretty much agree with you because at the end of the day I like a clean detailed car so much that I’m willing to take a leap of faith that whatever’s being applied is going to have a positive effect and that’s more than enough to keep me happy.

And even if it’s proven to not protect against UV that’s not enough to make me stop using anything. I’m far more upset at lsp’s that don’t protect against bonded contaminants than anything. That’s why I don’t use ceramic coatings on my own vehicle. Lol
Nothing can really protect against bonded contaminants but the quality ceramic coating CAN & WILL keep them from sticking as much, thus the self-cleaning ability of them, it's second to none Ric, come on in...the waters fine

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Yup, I pretty much agree with you because at the end of the day I like a clean detailed car so much that I’m willing to take a leap of faith that whatever’s being applied is going to have a positive effect and that’s more than enough to keep me happy.

And even if it’s proven to not protect against UV that’s not enough to make me stop using anything. I’m far more upset at lsp’s that don’t protect against bonded contaminants than anything. That’s why I don’t use ceramic coatings on my own vehicle. Lol
I used to work with a guy that waxed his car EVERY WEEK (I don't remember what he did during the winter, and this was long before rinseless washes). I always half expected that he would pop up at one of these forums, but I found out not too long ago that he passed away. But I suspect using some sort of substantial detail spray (since there are many of those now) or spray wax/sealant every time you wash your car is going to go a long way towards keeping it "new" forever.

Wannafbody is a member here, right? He has a vehicle from the 90's I think that is outside--no CC failure yet.
 
Nothing can really protect against bonded contaminants but the quality ceramic coating CAN & WILL keep them from sticking as much, thus the self-cleaning ability of them, it's second to none Ric, come on in...the waters fine

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I used to work with a guy that waxed his car EVERY WEEK (I don't remember what he did during the winter, and this was long before rinseless washes). I always half expected that he would pop up at one of these forums, but I found out not too long ago that he passed away. But I suspect using some sort of substantial detail spray (since there are many of those now) or spray wax/sealant every time you wash your car is going to go a long way towards keeping it "new" forever.

Wannafbody is a member here, right? He has a vehicle from the 90's I think that is outside--no CC failure yet.

It’s funny this came up… Just a couple of days ago on another forum, I described how a new co worker and I became friends because I found out he was into maintaining his car clean so I ended up claying/polishing his car. I also introduced him to waterless washing which he ended up loving vs. hand washing once per week.

His car was always clean after that because he’d wipe his car down every 2-3 days. He took my advice and bought a gallon of Meguiars D115 Waterless Wash & Wax and the rest is history.

So 3yrs. later I offered to detail his car again because surely it was due for a good decontamination especially since he lives in the same part of the city as I do. But to my complete amazement his car was not only swirl free, but smooth as glass and the claybar picked up Nothing! 3 whole years!

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A good sealant can protect against bonded contaminants. IME a ceramic coating can’t.
 
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That’s why my top of the line details get this as lsp. If you apply this stuff 4 times per year your car will never have bonded contaminants ever again. The reason I have Cancoat still good on my shelf after a year is because I’ve completely stopped using it.

This sealant walks all over Cancoat in every measurement it’s not even close.

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That’s why my top of the line details get this as lsp. If you apply this stuff 4 times per year your car will never have bonded contaminants ever again. The reason I have Cancoat still good on my shelf after a year is because I’ve completely stopped using it.

This sealant walks all over Cancoat in every measurement it’s not even close.

beb256b1bd46ec77254f943efe57eb2a.jpg

68321c94b3bf320fa0b0cf9b2f355c54.jpg
I like to use alkaline and acid soaps to much since i have not been washing vehicles but maybe once a month for the last 5 months. Not sure sealants would stand up to that abuse. Nice to be able to hit it with whatever i need soap wise and bam its back to slick and beading again without the need to have to apply anything afterwards

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I like to use alkaline and acid soaps to much since i have not been washing vehicles but maybe once a month for the last 5 months. Not sure sealants would stand up to that abuse. Nice to be able to hit it with whatever i need soap wise and bam its back to slick and beading again without the need to have to apply anything afterwards

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Yea, you certainly have a good point there.
 
I finally got around to trying The Gloss Shop Sublime rinseless wash and the results were outstanding. I also used the Gloss Shop detailing spray as a drying aid. I felt like overall the dry off was a little slicker and the car had more gloss than what I usually use which is McKee's 37 N-914 V2. It also passed the test when the mowers came out to mow a few days later with none of the debris sticking to the car which can sometimes happen with other rinseless wash/drying aid combos. I'm guessing Sublime isn't talked about as much since it's kind of lost in the myriad of rinseless options and the brand doesn't seem to be marketed or hyped like the others.
 
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I finally got around to trying The Gloss Shop Sublime rinseless wash and the results were outstanding. I also used the Gloss Shop detailing spray as a drying aid. I felt like overall the dry off was a little slicker and the car had more gloss than what I usually use which is McKee's 37 N-914 V2. It also passed the test when the mowers came out to mow a few days later with none of the debris sticking to the car which can sometimes happen with other rinseless wash/drying aid combos. I'm guessing Sublime isn't talked about as much since it's kind of lost in the myriad of rinseless options and the brand doesn't seem to be marketed or hyped like the others.
I don't know if it's this thread or another by now but Sublime was included in a test. I think the member running it had an old version and couldn't get beyond the smell. I know the guy who makes Sublime mentioned he had introduced a revised version with more of a cherry smell.

I agree though and have a gallon of it because it's a pretty powerful cleaner with many uses. I'll often have some wash media soaking in Sublime or pads recently used for polishing.

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I finally got around to trying The Gloss Shop Sublime rinseless wash and the results were outstanding. I also used the Gloss Shop detailing spray as a drying aid. I felt like overall the dry off was a little slicker and the car had more gloss than what I usually use which is McKee's 37 N-914 V2. It also passed the test when the mowers came out to mow a few days later with none of the debris sticking to the car which can sometimes happen with other rinseless wash/drying aid combos. I'm guessing Sublime isn't talked about as much since it's kind of lost in the myriad of rinseless options and the brand doesn't seem to be marketed or hyped like the others.
I've never ever heard of it, glad you found a rarely talked about product, it adds to the allure of the product if I'm being honest

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I've never ever heard of it, glad you found a rarely talked about product, it adds to the allure of the product if I'm being honest

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The Gloss Shop stuff is sold @ Autoality.

I have found TGS Sublime very similar to McKee's 37 N-914. And in the past went through a gallon or more when I could get it that way.


Also Gloss Shop's Clarify Shampoo is very similar to CarPro’s Reset. Again something that I have bought and gone through gallons.
 
Rinseless wash is probably something I will get more involved with since getting the 500. It's coated and should only get dusty and some bugs. There are a lot of nooks and crannies and drying it took a while. Water dripped out of seams for 48 hours after hitting them with the leaf blower twice. RInseless would prevent that. I just want to be able to keep it covered without having to do a full handwash after EVERY outing. Can only cover a spotless car imo. I am likely due to explore newer products in this department, still a classic ONR guy but when looking into new ones it's honestly overwhelming. Like shampoos there are just so many options, most being good. So how do I choose? What would you guys use on a white car with vinyl stripes and a Gtechniq coating?
 
Rinseless wash is probably something I will get more involved with since getting the 500. It's coated and should only get dusty and some bugs. There are a lot of nooks and crannies and drying it took a while. Water dripped out of seams for 48 hours after hitting them with the leaf blower twice. RInseless would prevent that. I just want to be able to keep it covered without having to do a full handwash after EVERY outing. Can only cover a spotless car imo. I am likely due to explore newer products in this department, still a classic ONR guy but when looking into new ones it's honestly overwhelming. Like shampoos there are just so many options, most being good. So how do I choose? What would you guys use on a white car with vinyl stripes and a Gtechniq coating?
Which RW will you chose for the GT500

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