Griot's Garage Waterless Spray-On Car Wash?

[CharlesW]

This stuff has been around long enough that someone must have some opinions about it.
I did find one thread where the user was very unimpressed in the fact that it didn't do anything with his water spots.
Water spots are not usually a problem for me and I was wondering at how it did at cleaning paint.

I recently read a post on a different forum that stated it worked better than Poorboy's Spray & Wipe. If it does, then it works pretty good.

Interesting, in the two threads I found, they had two totally different opinions.
Sounds like the typical experience with car care products.

How about some more comments from users?

 

[Blackthorn One]

I have used both Griot's and Poorboy's. Poorboy's seems a bit thicker than Griot's. Griot's did seem to clean very well. I have only used each product once, however. One thing I notice with both products is that after I use them, there seem to be little bits of stuff stuck on the paint afterwards, which is something I never get from regular washing. The Griot's product smells wonderful, with a strong pina colada scent. It did leave behind a very nice shine. Thus far, I think I will continue to use regular car wash methods to clean my car, unless the car is just dusty and needs more than a QD can do. I'll need more experience with said products, but as yet they perform as well as I figured, but not as well as I interpreted the product descriptions of the products to claim to work.

 

[CharlesW]

I have used both Griot's and Poorboy's. Poorboy's seems a bit thicker than Griot's. Griot's did seem to clean very well. I have only used each product once, however. One thing I notice with both products is that after I use them, there seem to be little bits of stuff stuck on the paint afterwards, which is something I never get from regular washing. The Griot's product smells wonderful, with a strong pina colada scent. It did leave behind a very nice shine. Thus far, I think I will continue to use regular car wash methods to clean my car, unless the car is just dusty and needs more than a QD can do. I'll need more experience with said products, but as yet they perform as well as I figured, but not as well as I interpreted the product descriptions of the products to claim to work.

Not knowing what "little bits of stuff" might be, I can't help but think it is coming from your towels.
When I use S&W, the paint doesn't have any visible residue.

I was very apprehensive about using a waterless wash, but after using several gallons of S&W over the past several years, I feel quite comfortable with it. I do not use it on caked on mud and if I feel the vehicle is dirtier than I want to tackle with the S&W, I either knock off the crud at the DIY wand wash or do a rinseless wash. I don't think I do three conventional washes a year anymore.

FWIW, There are those that do use S&W on some very dirty vehicles, but I feel it takes a lot of product and a lot of MF towels for those jobs.

 

[Blackthorn One]

Not knowing what "little bits of stuff" might be, I can't help but think it is coming from your towels.
When I use S&W, the paint doesn't have any visible residue.

I was very apprehensive about using a waterless wash, but after using several gallons of S&W over the past several years, I feel quite comfortable with it. I do not use it on caked on mud and if I feel the vehicle is dirtier than I want to tackle with the S&W, I either knock off the crud at the DIY wand wash or do a rinseless wash. I don't think I do three conventional washes a year anymore.

FWIW, There are those that do use S&W on some very dirty vehicles, but I feel it takes a lot of product and a lot of MF towels for those jobs.

I'm not sure what the little bits of stuff are, but they aren't visible. You can just feel them on the surface of the car.
The last time I used Poorboy's spray and Wipe, I figure I used $3-4 worth of product to clean an entire Corvette. Maybe I used too much product, as it was my first time. (6-8 ounces) By contrast, Griot's Garage Car Wash is only 12.5 cents an ounce. So I can wash a whole car for 12.5 cents, with a wash mitt and dry with one towel, or I can use a waterless wash product like Poorboy's Spray and Wipe or Griot's waterless wash for about $3-4 plus I have to use maybe 6-8 microfiber towels to clean with, which then themselves need to be cleaned, and since microfiber tends to be tough to clean completely, I'll have to use a microfiber cleaner added to the wash for those 6-8 towels.
The products work very nicely, but nowhere near as well as a regular wash, nor do I think it is as safe as a regular wash, particularly on a really dirty car or if you really have to rub. If you absolutely can't use water, then I can see how these products might be extremely indispensable, or if the car is basically clean and just a bit dusty, and you don't want to break out the wash bucket, or you have a car with a leaky roof that you want to minimize water exposure to(like a 56 Corvette roof) then I can see how this can be useful and convenient. The cost however, is far greater than I can justify relative to the cleaning ability and the hassle of washing more towels. For this reason, I'll just see this as a much better QD than most others. It costs 21-32 times more than a regular wash, not counting towel washing cost increase. Too much for me.

 

[ryandamartini]

This stuff has been around long enough that someone must have some opinions about it.
I did find one thread where the user was very unimpressed in the fact that it didn't do anything with his water spots.
Water spots are not usually a problem for me and I was wondering at how it did at cleaning paint.

I recently read a post on a different forum that stated it worked better than Poorboy's Spray & Wipe. If it does, then it works pretty good.

Interesting, in the two threads I found, they had two totally different opinions.
Sounds like the typical experience with car care products.

How about some more comments from users?

I got a sample of it with a gift certificate I had from Griots a while back. It is best used for lightly dirty vehicles I would say. Anything more constitutes ONR/ regular wash.

 

[Bunky]

The last time I used Poorboy's spray and Wipe, I figure I used $3-4 worth of product to clean an entire Corvette..

I think I used 1/4 bottle the first time I tried it and I did not even do an entire vehicle. Steve told me it was Spray and Wipe not Spray and Soak.

 

[Blackthorn One]

I think I used 1/4 bottle the first time I tried it and I did not even do an entire vehicle. Steve told me it was Spray and Wipe not Spray and Soak.

Yeah, it was the first time I used it, so I wasn't sure how much. In retrospect, I could probably have used half of what I did and still have been safe and effective. MAYBE 1/3. So I could have used 2-4 ounces I think. Still it would be $1.50-$2 to do a whole car, so that's still 12- 16 times the cost of a regular wash that doesn't do as great a job as a regular wash in terms of cleaning, although the shine it leaves behind is impressive.

 

[Blackthorn One]

These products are great for cleaning bicycles. You don't want to get a lot of water in the bearings, the chain, ect, so a waterless wash is perfect for cleaning bikes.