CarPro Essence Plus Review Over Opti-Coat Pro+

medicscott

medicscott

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After seeing this product after SEMA, I knew I needed to get my hands on it...But could it actually do what the manufacturer claims? This sounded too good to be true. Almost 90% of my business involves LSP Paint Coating. Typically Optimum Gloss Coat, Opti-CoatPro, or Opti-Coat Pro Plus.

I spoke with Corey at CarPro at length about this product, and he went over with me in detail the pros and cons and its abilities and limitations. For those of us that install coatings, what are we supposed to do when the inevitable occurs? The customer calls back and says my hydrophobic properties are diminishing, or there are swirls in the paint. Before Essence Plus, we had only one option...strip the coating and reapply. This is costly, and frankly something that irritates the customer to no end. As we all get more familiar with paint coatings, no matter which ones you use, almost always fine swirls, marring and slower water beading start to take its natural course. This product, if it does what its supposed to, would change the way I do coating maintenance for my customers.

Perfect timing... A customer called me with a 1 year old Opti-Coat Pro Plus installed vehicle (Tahoe) that he admitted to abusing with improper wash technique and probably a swirl-o-matic or two. He was prepared to pay me to strip the coating and re-apply...But truth be told, this car came to me as a train wreck, and it took over 20+ hours to polish this car to perfection...So 1 year later, did I really want to heavy compound this truck again? Answer = NO!

Would Essence Plus play well with Opti-Coat, and the other 50 or so paint coatings that are out on the market?

So, I followed Corey's advise and did exactly what the manufacturer recommended. Equipment used:

Optimum Ferrex the entire vehicle
Boss G21, Rupes Mini, Rupes iBrid Nano
Carpro 5", 3" and 2" white gloss pads
CarPro Essence Plus 8oz bottle
Lots of prayer lol

Results:

Here is a shot before Essence Plus Polishing


Here is a shot of Essence Plus applied with G21


Here is the after Essence Applied at Speed 2 with 6 passes, wipe, and 6 additional passes and wipe. Is it 100% perfect? No, but it did remove 75% of the swirls and most importantly Amp'd up the gloss considerably.


Wiping this product is beyond simple. Quite possibly the easiest product i've ever removed in 20 years of detailing.

But are these just fillers that will wash away after the customer washes their vehicle for the first time? So I did an IPA wipedown on a section I just did, to see if the fillers would wash away. Here is a shot of Optimum Paint Prep applied to the freshly done section


Here is a shot of the IPA wiped away.


Here are some final shots. As you can see, this car was trashed, and in 3 hours time I was able to amp up the gloss, remove a majority of the swirls, and most importantly save myself 20+ hours and the customer $1500. Everybody wins. CarPro has really outdone themselves this time. While it's not a total miracle in a bottle it is by far the most revolutionary product to maintain paint coatings we've ever seen. Now we need to see how long this product lasts on top of the paint coating...Will it play nice With Opti-Coat Pro Plus for the long term, or will the professional coating shed Essence Plus quickly? Only time will tell.











Here is a link to a video as well showing before and after

Thanks for viewing. Comments always appreciated and i'd be more than happy to answer any additional questions folks may have.

Scott
 
Awsome
I got to wait till summer don't have a garage
But looks real good
 
Looks great! Hopefully I'll see my pre ordered bottle this week...
 
Really nice job and great write up. Not sure what this says about opticoat....
 
To be honest, all coatings are the same, meaning none of them are bullet proof. This is the real world. They all swirl and scratch with abuse. EVERY single offline of them.
 
The coating did save the clearcoat. So down the line that is worth something.
 
Glad to see more reviews coming out. My one question is in regards to the hydrophobic properties of Essence + vs the hydrophobics of the coating that it's being applied over.

From what I understand is that Essence + is supposed to leave hydrophobic protection behind. What I am curious about are does the hydrophobics of Essence + differ from say Opti Coat, CSL, Finest or any of the other major brands out there.

From what I gather it can be topped with reload or hydro2 which is probably what I would do.

Thinking about grabbing some just to have in case.
 
medicscott said:
To be honest, all coatings are the same, meaning none of them are bullet proof. This is the real world. They all swirl and scratch with abuse. EVERY single offline of them.
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Agree.
 
motion732 said:
Really nice job and great write up. Not sure what this says about opticoat....
Click to expand...

I think it says more about owner neglect than OptiCoat! That finish looked like it was on a rental car instead of one that was corrected a year ago
 
vobro said:
I think it says more about owner neglect than OptiCoat! That finish looked like it was on a rental car instead of one that was corrected a year ago
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Couldn't agree more.
 
I still do not think I've seen any demonstrations on the water behavior for Essence Plus. Essence alone water behavior is like a bad QD. I know its meant for repairing coatings but I want to try Essence topped with Essence Plus on some cars to see what the filling capability is like with the combo. But if doesn't perform any better than the polymer sealants then I don't think I'll bother.
 
Nice review. The durability is the question, but yeah, for the professional detailer, this product is another game changer.
 
It's a great product because it fills heavily and the fillers are not washed away. Plus, it leaves protection behind. The OP poster stated he removed swirls. I wouldn't say remove, but instead, cover up.

Sent from my iPhone using Autogeekonline mobile app
 
DBAILEY said:
I still do not think I've seen any demonstrations on the water behavior for Essence Plus. Essence alone water behavior is like a bad QD. I know its meant for repairing coatings but I want to try Essence topped with Essence Plus on some cars to see what the filling capability is like with the combo. But if doesn't perform any better than the polymer sealants then I don't think I'll bother.
Click to expand...

Here you go :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fBFcxVY4oA
 
Avi, other than being substantially less expensive, how does this compare (if you know) to Kamikaze Artificial Clear Coat? Just getting an idea here. No a priori opinions.
 
How do you know you're repairing the coating? Is there a certain time period to use this product on a coated vehicle? How are you gonna know you're repairing the actual coating itself and not the clear coat? How do you know if the coating is still behind? Sorry for my ignorance or if this is entirely a different subject in itself.

Mike
 
MikeC78 said:
How do you know you're repairing the coating? Is there a certain time period to use this product on a coated vehicle? How are you gonna know you're repairing the actual coating itself and not the clear coat? How do you know if the coating is still behind? Sorry for my ignorance or if this is entirely a different subject in itself.

Mike
Click to expand...
Essence PLUS has no abrasives, so you're not removing clear coat.


Sent from my iPhone using Autogeekonline mobile app
 
Interesting, I thought I read that it does have light correcting abilities. So, all Essence + is a glaze for coatings?
 
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