Lake Country Pad Issues

AustrianOak82

AustrianOak82

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So I bought about 3 of each pad I thought I would need on a regular basis (white, green, pink, blue). The last two weeks, I have had problems with the white pads. I have a total of 3. I washed them today, and even though I used them on the exact same car, they are all looking completely different. One is an off-white color, one is more of a taupe/brown and the other one has stayed white but the center is really sunken in. The sunken in one has only been used once! I cleaned them the same way, in our utility sink with LD and by hand. What is going on here?
 
The difference in color may be the color of the contamination that is being transferred to the pad. Even after claying, picking up contamination on your pad is normal. Also, if you allow the pad to dwell on a seam or the fender lip area around the wheel wells where it not usually cleaned thoroughly, you will draw-in and pick-up dirt from those areas.
As far as the disintegrating center of the pad, that is usually due to too much heat build-up. That would be from not changing the pad often enough, cleaning the pad often enough, or over-saturation of polish.
My 2 cents...
 
I had a similar issue when I tried my first attempt at polishing. I sent an email to Lake Country asking if it was product defect or user error. Bottom line is it was user error. I let them get too hot from not changing them enough and it caused the center portion of the pad to sink in exactly how you describe. Now, I play closer attention to the temp of the pads while polishing, change them out more often, and have not had an issue since.
 
damaged442 said:
I had a similar issue when I tried my first attempt at polishing. I sent an email to Lake Country asking if it was product defect or user error. Bottom line is it was user error. I let them get too hot from not changing them enough and it caused the center portion of the pad to sink in exactly how you describe. Now, I play closer attention to the temp of the pads while polishing, change them out more often, and have not had an issue since.
Click to expand...

what he said and next time you buy pads buy the new hybrid pads as they are much more durable. I am so impressed with them I will be buying a bunch in the spring. I had this problem on my first set of flat pads when I first started using my flex. It is easy to avoid once you start changing pads out on easch panel. I change a pad each panel and rotate 3 of them for compounding and polishing. My lsp I don't change pads as it is low speed and no correction. Maybe I should but I don't.
 
I would tend to agree it could be a variety of things.
1. excessive heat
2. polish/compound product discoloring the pad
3. even excessive sunlight (UV) can yellow or brown white foam as well.

If you would like to email me pictures, or have any other questions, please don't hesitate - [email protected]
 
Any reason why the first two I bought are still firm but the one that had the sunken center is now as plush/squishy as my red pad is? I feel like it might just be a bad pad ? It has a completely different feeling to it and I only used it once!
 
Whenever the center of a pad is sunken in, it is 99% caused by overheating.

Once a pad had been overheated it does breakdown. Part of that breakdown can be the center collapsing (where most of the heat is and cannot dissipate) and also overall softening of the foam.

This does actually happen during normal use as well.

After each use, the foam changes slightly. Some foams go through their breakdown differently, so it can depend how noticeable it is during normal use.

The bright white foam in our DA and CCS pads is one of the few partially closed cell prepolymer foams that we use.

These types of foams don't dissipate heat as well as other foams, so checking them frequently throughout the detailing process is very important. Sometimes all that is required is turning the speed down slightly.

If you have any pictures of these pads, please email them to me @ - [email protected]

Could you include what machine, backing plate, and what size pad are you using in the email also?

I have had a couple people have this issue who were using 6.5" pads on a 5" backing plate. This causes more pressure in the middle ofe the pad, concentrating heat even more. Just a thought also.

-Dave
 
I tried to get a picture of the sunken one and the other one and it was hard to tell in the picture. I'm not too concerned about it, just seemed odd that it changed so much in comparison to the other two, despite using the same process. I am using the stock 6" plate with a 6.5" pad.
 
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