Car Pro Flyby30 - Not impressed

Jaretr1

Jaretr1

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I was curious to know if my theory that sometimes a more expensive boutique product might not outperform a cheap well known over the counter, in this case RainX. It did not.

I do not have any pictures, but as can be seen online, Flyby30 comes in a nice little glass bottle and includes a mircofiber cloth applicator.

The directions for Flyby30 recommend polishing the glass with Ceriglass prior to use and or cleaning the glass. I did clay my windows and windshield prior to application. This is a finicky product where they recommend using a heat gun after application to cure the coating. I do not have a heat gun but did park my car in the blistering south Florida sun after application. My dark tinted windows had to have gotten quite hot.

I have been using RainX on my cars since I have been driving so I am quite familiar with its performance and longetivity. Initially after application Flyby30 seemed to produce a nice slickness and water bead off the windows. It was also smooth on the windsheild meaning the wipers never skipped. However, after a few weeks I began noticing serious degradation in its performance. I reapplied it to see if that would help. It renewed its effectiveness, but again, after a few weeks water beading and "flying" had become almost non existent on my windsheild and even the windows on the car did not bead water all that impressively.

Needless to say, I grabbed my bottle of RainX and applied it right on top of what was left on the windows. After a month, water still beads strong.

In summation, Flyby30 is a somewhat finicky product that is much more expensive than RainX and did not in any way come close to out performing it. RainX is cheaper, much easier to obtain, and really requires no special application process to apply. Simply wipe on and wipe off. RainX doesnt seem to care how clean or dirty the window is, although obviously it will work better on a clean window.

For now, I am going to stick with RainX, it really has not let me down. Perhaps I missed something in the application of Flyby30, but then if I did whats the point? It would be far to difficult of a product anyway when a product like RainX can be applied by anyone with no skill to get results that work. ymmv

Thanks,

Jaret
 
Wow. That sounds really hard to work with compared to Opti-Glass. Sounds like optimum might be ruling the glass coating market for a while. Thanks for the review.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using AG Online
 
I've got a 50/50 of Rain-X and FLyBy30 on my wife's DD right now and am having completely different results. It's been a few months now and so far there does not seem to be a noticeable difference in hydrophobic performance. I'm expecting Rain-X to begin to fail soon... we will see.

I did fully polish with CeriGlass and briefly heat the glass with a heat gun. Perhaps that is the main factor that led to your application failing so quickly?

One thing I did notice was that on the very first rain the Rain-X side seemed to repel the water much more quickly and at a lower driving speed than FlyBy30. After that they were pretty much even.
 
I'm not taking up for CarPro, but how can you fault a product when you don't follow the directions?
 
I had similar results and DID follow directions (polished with the included Cerium Oxide)... It helps a little but NOTHING is "flying by at 30mph", that's for sure.

Does it help? A little.

Is it impressive or a vastly noticeable difference? Not at all.

Would I recommend it or buy it again? No.
 
If you follow directions and have less than stellar results, I value your opinion. If you don't follow directions then I give no sympathy.
 
Hearing more than one person give negative feedback is a good indicator of an issue. I do have this product but have not applied it yet since my test windshield will have to be replaced again. :(
 
Sorry to hear about your negative experience.

I have applied this product on a number of windshields. All feedback is positive.

Clean > Clay > Polish > Eraser > Apply Flyby30

Flyby30 has always been applied the garage in the evening and allowed to cure 12 hours in the garage before being exposed to outside elements.

The rain today beaded right off the windshield and did not require the windshield wipers. Flyby30 was applied over three months ago.
 
i have had no problems,i have either let it cure for 12 hours[dont get it wet] and also used a 20 dollar heat gun to cure it also. always clayed, polished lightly and did wipedown with eraser.
 
As I mentioned, I did not use a heat gun but did let it cure for 12 or so hours in the hot sun.

I guess my point was that even if it matches the performance of an inexpensive product like rain x, given the non user friendliness of it, and the cost factor difference, it is not a winner in my book.

While this is not a review for dlux, that so far has worked as advertised, so by no means am I a non fan of car pro products. I might give flyby30 another chance at some point but for the average person, seems like to much work to get it to work.
 
Thank you for the review. I was curious as to how well this product worked. Looks like I will be sticking with RainX, which is apparently a lousy OTC that works BETTER than any boutique product I've tried. Oh, and it is cheaper...LOL.
 
I never understood how people claim 4 weeks or so with RainX. I've also been using it for over 10 years and it always lasts months for me. Even when it's failing, at highway speeds its still great. All the other windows last even longer, I guess due to being more vertical and no wind/dirt being pushed against it.
 
rwright said:
I'm not taking up for CarPro, but how can you fault a product when you don't follow the directions?
Click to expand...

Agreed.

I applied the Flyby30 kit to my brother-in-law's 2013 Charger RT, and it worked as advertised. Claying is absolutely not a subsitute for polishing, ever.
 
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