No Rinse Waterless Wash Advice

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oakview

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My vehicles, F-150 w/ camper shell and Toyota Matrix, live outside 24/7. I want to start using a waterless, no rinse wash system and need advice regarding the optimal product(s) to use. I clay/seal/wax only a couple of times per year.

1) I've read about ONRWS and ONRWW, would either of those be sufficient, or would something else be better under these circumstances?

2) Should grit guards be used in the buckets with a waterless, no rinse system?

Thanks in advance :)
 
I would first treat any car that hasn't had a thorough detail with a good citrus wash to cleanse the finish. Then I would clay and polish if needed. Once ready, IPA, and then wax/seal. After that I would keep up with regular ONRWW and top with a spray wax of desired.
 
Waterless and Rinseless are two different things. For a rinseless wash you can use two bucket method with grit guards or the Gary Dean method with one bucket. Waterless requires no buckets, hence, waterless. Hope this helps.
 
Well my question is do you want to do a waterless wash or a rinseless wash?

I think you have have the two confused. With a rinse less you still use the two bucket method for the washing but, you then wash a panel then dry that panel and move on to the next.

A complete waterless wash includes a spray wash that you use from a bottle and Microfiber towel to wipe the panel clean the flip the towel for a final wipe of that panel and move on to the next.
 
Waterless and no rinse (rinseless) are not the same type of wash.

1. Waterless: you spray waterless wash solution on a panel and wipe it off. Think quick detailer type routine.

2. Rinseless: you are doing the exact same thing as a conventional wash, except the panel doesn't have to have soap rinsed off it. You just dry it. The big benefit here is you don't need a hose, just a bucket(s) filled with water.

a. Conventional rinseless: uses a 2 bucket method. One bucket contains your rinseless solution and one bucket has water to clean out your wash media in.

b. GDWM (Gary Dean Wash Method) rinseless: use one bucket only, but many clean towels. The idea is
to forgo cleaning your wash media and just keep using clean towels. You never stick a towel back in your rinseless wash solution bucket once it touches the car. Normally people use towels for this and fold them in fours, so the towel has 8 clean sides. You can refold the towel to keep exposing a clean side (instead of rinsing your mitt out in what would be bucket #2)

Can use use rinseless / waterless together? Yes. That would be a hybrid wash. Which is better? Rinseless can handle more dirt, but you must still take all the precautions not to scratch your paint as you do in a conventional wash.

Rinseless products aren't miracle scratch proof products. You still have to take a lot of caution and use common sense. A lot of times people will do a hybrid wash by pre-treating a panel with a waterless product, then cleaning it with a rinseless product.

Which products to get? Well, you need to get a rinseless and/or waterless wash product(s) and some quality towels. Which brand is a matter of preference. If I was doing a "hybrid" I would like to have both wash products make by the same company:

- Pinnacle
- BlackFire
- Optimum
- Ultima
- DP
- Gary Dean
- HD Car Care
- + others

All make both types of wash products. Most of the rinseless products are priced similarly. The waterless ones is where pricing gets crazy. That's because the dilution varies widely, but prices are similar. All of them perform well. How safe they are is more a function of technique than brand.

Based on the waterless dilution, the two most attractively priced (waterless) are Pinnacle and Ultima. With Ultima, both rinseless and waterless are made out of the same product, and its very good. With Pinnacle, you will need to buy seperate rinseless and waterless products.

What else will you need for your "system"? Buckets, high gsm microfiber towels, and grit guard(s) [only if doing a non-GDWM type rinseless].
 
Wow! You guys are great! Thank you all for the replies - no place like Autogeek for professional advice.

Yes, I didn't make the distinction between rinseless and waterless as Evan.J pointed out. Since I don't mind using a little water in buckets, it sounds like ONRWW will do what I need it to do and help maintain the wax I do put on occasionally. And, I'll get a waterless product to pre-treat areas where more dirt is deposited before using ONRWW.

I have a lot of 5 gal. buckets in the garage - it sounds like the Grit Guards should fit in those nicely. I need to order more MF towels too. I have some on hand, but probably not enough for either rinseless or waterless methods.

Anything I'm missing?
 
Dave what about Waffle weaving drying towel? like the guzzler or the guzzler HD?
 
oakview said:
Wow! You guys are great! Thank you all for the replies - no place like Autogeek for professional advice.

Yes, I didn't make the distinction between rinseless and waterless as Evan.J pointed out. Since I don't mind using a little water in buckets, it sounds like ONRWW will do what I need it to do and help maintain the wax I do put on occasionally. And, I'll get a waterless product to pre-treat areas where more dirt is deposited before using ONRWW.

I have a lot of 5 gal. buckets in the garage - it sounds like the Grit Guards should fit in those nicely. I need to order more MF towels too. I have some on hand, but probably not enough for either rinseless or waterless methods.

Anything I'm missing?
Click to expand...

The Grit Guard does not fit in every 5 gl. bucket. There is a great chance it will fit one of yours but I would be careful using an old bucket, even if it is "clean". As far as towels go, the more the merrier! Using lots of high quality microfiber will reduce the chances of towel induced marring.
 
Yes, I will be cleaning wheels. The truck has factory rims, the Matrix has aftermarket aluminum alloy spoked rims that seem to collect a lot of brake dust.

Thanks for the Waffle weave drying towel suggestion. Got permission from the household financial officer to get what I need. I'll add some to the order. :)
 
Do you have a hose? The one thing that hasn't caught on with me is waterless / rinseless washing wheels. When it comes to wheels and wells, I wash them conventionally first with a hose.

You may be able to clean the wheel faces OK with these alternate methods, but it doesn't work well when cleaning barrels and behind spokes - or when using brushes (most common tool to clean wheels).

But if you don't have hose access, there are other things (Mytee / Nomad) you can use to flush wheel cleaner off the wheels - but those devices are costly. You could just use a regular sprayer and water, but I think it would take a long time to clean the wheel cleaner all the way off.

I guess you do the best you can with what you have.
 
Maybe a pressure sprayer would work? I have a large one (4 gal.), the kind landscapers use for weed killer. It's clean, might work?
 
Swanicyouth gave a good summary of the methods for the body, and yes a pump sprayer can work well for the wheels. However, the tools you'll need can depend on the wheel design.

I do a "hoseless" wheel clean quite often since I get a lot of brake dust. With the right tip on the pump sprayer and careful trigger control you can clean the wheels without getting any water on the body of the car.

For a 5-spoke wheel (you may have to adjust this for more spokes since that makes for less room/access) I start with the following:

>>2.5 gallon pump sprayer about 2/3 filled with hot water (this is usually enough for me to complete all 4 wheels).
>>Hand spray bottle of wheel cleaner (I use DP, diluted 50/50).
>>Daytona brush.
>>Finger pockets (this depends on wheel design. Some wheel wollies probably work as well).
>>5 gallon bucket with about 3 gallons water and a splash of shampoo.
>>Clean MF towels dedicated to wheels

First spray the wheel with the hot water from the pump sprayer and flush the majority of the brake dust out. Spray the wheel barrel and around the calipers since a lot of dust can collect there.

Next spray all the wheel surfaces with the wheel cleaner and also spray the daytona brush and finger pockets.

Clean what you can with the Daytona brush, and the rest with the finger pockets. If fairly dirty you may need a few dips into the water/shampoo bucket to clean them off. The small bit of shampoo in this bucket just helps get the brush and finger poskets clean.

Then rinse the wheel thoroughly with the pump sprayer. With careful trigger control you can keep the water off the rest of the car, or at most get a few small drops you can dab off with a clean MF.

With the wheel now clean, but possibly still some residue, now spray it with a waterless wash (I use UWW+), and use a MF to dry it with a nice shine (including the wheel barrels which you can probably reach by hand if you have no more than 5 spoke wheels). You could probably skip this step if you're just after clean and not necessarily a shine.

I think that about covers it. If you also want to add the tires to the mix (I don't do the tires every time I clean the wheels), spray them with the wheel/tire cleaner, agitate with a grout sponge (less splatter than a brush and quite cheap and made to take abuse on rough surfaces), and rinse with the pump sprayer (you'll need more water in the pump sprayer if you do the tires). Maybe one more thing, a good wax or sealer on the wheels makes the process easier. I've been using Prima wheel armour of-late and am happy with the result.
 
A couple other things to add:

I sometimes use the Master Blaster to dry the wheels (especially to get all the water out of the lugs and to dry the brake disc so it doesn't rust) but this isn't mandatory. MF towels can work too. Rust can form pretty quickly on the discs, but you can wipe it off with a MF towel (use a dedicated cheap MF for this)

Be careful of the heat shield behind the brake discs. This is usually thin metal and it may have sharp edges that could cut you if you're sticking your hands in between the spokes to wipe the barrel of the wheel. You can also dry off the daytona brush and wrap a MF towel around it with a rubber band, to dry the inner surfaces of the wheel. I generally just use my bare hand though, since I have enough room for access.
 
Very comprehensive answers guys - thank you.

I like SR99's method and have most of that stuff already.

@Bunky, I have a bunch of Optimum Tire Gel so I'll likely use SR99's wheel/tire clean method, then coat with the gel to finish.
 
I use ONRWW to do my wheels and tires also. I don't see a reason to do them any other way. My wheels and tires look great.
 
Thanks for the information, guys.

I tried using Griot's Garage Spray On Car Wash as my first attempt to use a waterless car wash. It's been raining all week and through the weekend, and my car was dirty so I thought I'd give it a try.

The car had a lot of pollen and some light water spots on the horizontal surfaces and some light to moderate dirt on the doors (dirtier near the bottom, of course).

I used a liberal amount of spray on all surfaces and used 600 g/m2 microfibers (the grey/blue towels most of us have seen sold on AGO). I waited a few seconds and used the technique described on GG's website.

Overall, the car looks good, but close inspection revealed some new swirls. Needless to say, I wasn't happy about that. And this has made me wonder whether my technique was bad or whether waterless washes (just GG's???) just have a lot to be desired. (I'll also note that my Tesla is a dark blue and consensus is that it has soft paint.)

I'm willing to try another product, because it gets cold here in Chicago during the winters. But, my results were somewhat disappointing...

Any tips or other video demonstrations?
 
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