Optimum Car Wash - Review

[fightnews]

At first I thought maybe it was like the new wolfgang sio2 wash where it doesn't foam up much. Then I looked it up on autogeek and the first thing it says it bold red letters is:

"Thick, rich foam and excellent lubrication! Preserves protective coatings!"

 

[fightnews]

Before Reset I used OCW and liked it against the soaps I had used prior. Once I coated my first car, I purchased Reset based on the recommendations on this site. I LOVE reset for all of the points you made above, and not just for coated cars:

Great cleaning action
Versatile (works in foamer or in bucket)
Great lubricity
Dilution takes it a long way.

Since all of my vehicles are coated I pretty much default to Reset, and use other soaps because I get bored or receive them in a Mystery Box, LOL.
I recently got bored and purchased Gyeon Bathe Essence on a whim. It did not measure up to Reset and has now been relegated to foam cannon use. I'll probably detail more on that in a separate review.

You ever mix soaps? I do that all the time especially in my foam cannon. You can add hyperwash to anything and it will greatly boost the foam.

 

[SWETM]

I have a car soap that you dilute in 1:2000. That's a little hard to do the glugg measure with LOL. I have just get used to useing a measuring cup. When useing Carpro Reset car soap it can be to strong on not ceramic coating LSP. If over dilute it and can make a big impact on some sealants that has been on for a while. Have a car soap that is very simualar to Carpro Reset. And I like that it's not leaves anything behind. Before when I had the Ultima Paint Guard Plus as LSP I liked Ultima Paint Guard Wash a lot. Really great if you don't mind the polycharger polymers that it leaves behind. Now I have a SiO2 infused car soap that leaves a very nice finish after the wash. So when the LSP of the SiO2 topper I useally uses now is down to when they starts to diminish. I wash with this soap and stretch the longevity 3-5 weeks. The new Wolfgang über SiO2 Wash seems interesting as in the protection it leaves behind. These car soaps are great when you just want to spruce up the protection and gloss. And are to lazy to do a wipe down with a topper like me LOL.

 

[Eldorado2k]

The Blackfire Foam Booster has now remained mixed with the soap... I guess all it needed was more shaking.

 

[Myriad]

You ever mix soaps? I do that all the time especially in my foam cannon. You can add hyperwash to anything and it will greatly boost the foam.

I haven't for OCD reasons but I think I will try it.

 

[Eldorado2k]

I haven't for OCD reasons but I think I will try it.

Consider the Foam Booster. It adds crazy lubricity.

 

[spazzz]

I needed to recoat the wheels.
So, 3x with 303 tire cleaner and 1 time with D143, then wash wheels and tire. Blow dry quick with the DP blow dryer and 3 coats of TW endura


OCW is what I want in a soap and it is annoyingly slippery, but I guess that is a good thing.
The suds were working when I finished the last wheel an hour later. That pic was blurry because of the soap on the gloves.

I don't even like the thought of washing a car outside. It is worse if the sun is out and there is wind drying everything before you can even rinse it.

 

[Eldorado2k]

I needed to recoat the wheels.
So, 3x with 303 tire cleaner and 1 time with D143, then wash wheels and tire. Blow dry quick with the DP blow dryer and 3 coats of TW endura


OCW is what I want in a soap and it is annoyingly slippery, but I guess that is a good thing.
The suds were working when I finished the last wheel an hour later. That pic was blurry because of the soap on the gloves.

I don't even like the thought of washing a car outside. It is worse if the sun is out and there is wind drying everything before you can even rinse it.

I had the complete opposite experience yesterday [Saturday]

I washed the Kia, starting with the wheels. They were pretty dirty from not having been cleaned in almost 3 weeks, but nowhere near caked, just pretty dirty... This is the only before pic I took. Sorry. Lol.

These are my tools.
Mothers Wheel Brush [face of the wheel]
Mothers Wheel Well Brush
Wheel Barrel Brush
Tire Brush

3 gallon bucket filled with no more than 2 gallons of water and about 1.5oz. of Optimum Car Wash.

Process:
Spray tires w/Megs D143
Spray wheel wells with Megs D101
Spray wheels with Megs D140

-Scrub tires, rinse tire brush with hose nozzle before putting it back into the soap bucket.
-Scrub wheel face, re dipping the brush for fresh suds as needed. Put brush back into soap bucket once I’m done brushing the face.
-Brush wheel barrel, re dipping for fresh suds as needed. Put brush back into soap bucket when done.
-Brush wheel well. Rinse brush with hose nozzle before putting back into soap bucket.

That’s always been my process. I feel like rinsing the tire and wheel well brush before putting back into the soap gives it a much better chance for the suds to make it through all 4 wheels & tires.... However, this is what my soap bucket looked like after the 3rd wheel & tire.

And this is after the 4th wheel & tire. As we can see it’s completely dead.

I’ve given this soap every chance to succeed, but there’s just no way to sugarcoat it, it’s just plain poor in every single aspect.
-Poor suds
-Lubricity is bearly average
-Cleaning power is very average.

For my personal preference, Megs Hyper Wash blows this away in all 3 categories by a mile.

P.s. The bucket wash required some pretty moderate scrubbing in order to get the vehicle completely clean. It was admittedly pretty dirty this time from going about 3 weeks since I last touched it, but I did pre treat every panel with Blackfire Bug Remover and even then I still had to use alot of elbow grease to get the paint completely clean.

I really dislike this soap. That sums up my review.

 

[spazzz]

Is your water very hard.

The difference for me must be going out of the house laundry tub with the mix valve.

So soft water which we know makes more bubbles and feels slipperier than hard water

 

[Eldorado2k]

Is your water very hard.

The difference for me must be going out of the house laundry tub with the mix valve.

So soft water which we know makes more bubbles and feels slipperier than hard water

Based on my experience, I wouldn’t necessarily say the water is very hard. Whenever the sprinklers happen to get the car wet I’ve never worried about it because they wipe off fairly easily. Even in extreme cases such as this where they sat for like 3-4 days in the sun they still washed right off.

Even my neighbors sprinklers used to constantly get my wheels and some of the paint wet, but they were never that big of an issue because they never etched.

 

[spazzz]

Well uh ...maybe you should stick with Hyperwash

 

[Eldorado2k]

Well uh ...maybe you should stick with Hyperwash

Regardless of the soap, how the heck did you clean your tires 3-4 times + wheels and still have suds an hour after you were done?
Were things nearly clean to begin with?
Or did you pour like 5oz. of car soap into that bucket?
Or does the soft water make that big of difference?

 

[spazzz]

Regardless of the soap, how the heck did you clean your tires 3-4 times + wheels and still have suds an hour after you were done?
Were things nearly clean to begin with?
Or did you pour like 5oz. of car soap into that bucket?
Or does the soft water make that big of difference?

They rinsed pretty much clean because of CQ UK3.
No, just the usual 1.5-2 ounce for 2.5 gallons wheel bucket.

I think the soft water is huge.

I will get some Hyperwash next. I have to experience the famous soap.

This is todays wash. Are these bubbles acceptable? This is after doing the whole car.

 

[Eldorado2k]

They rinsed pretty much clean because of CQ UK3.
No, just the usual 1.5-2 ounce for 2.5 gallons wheel bucket.

I think the soft water is huge.

I will get some Hyperwash next. I have to experience the famous soap.

This is todays wash. Are these bubbles acceptable? This is after doing the whole car.

I think so.

 

[Coatingsarecrack]

OCW for car washing

Dumped remainder of car wash into wheel bucket. Added half ounce and hit with PW. Good foam in bucket. Good lather on car. Maybe water recommendation is right. Waters pretty soft in washington


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[Coatingsarecrack]

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[Desertnate]

Not sure how I missed 8 pages of comments across 10 days on this one.

Eldo: Really sorry to hear you didn't have a good experience with the Optimum. My experience has been just like Spazzz, if not better. For me it cleans better than most soaps I've used and it rinses off really easily too.

As for the suds, mine look nothing like what you have and we have fairly hard water hear, as was verified in the picture above. Regardless of whether I put in around 2oz or 3ish oz of soap in my bucket I get a thick lather of soap which does stay on the vehicle while washing, but it won't look like a foam cannon was used. I have noticed the suds thicken up if they sit for a minute. They might be a little "fluffy" when I first fill the bucket, but if left alone for a minute or two they become more substantial. I've also found the suds stick around quite a while. I'll prep my wash before doing my wheels and by the time I'm done with the car there are still plenty of suds left in the bucket when the work is done. They even stay on my grass for a bit after I've dumped the bucket. I've never used any soap with suds which will hang on for so long.

I'll admit not not caring too much about suds. As long as the soap is slick, cleans well, and rinses off cleanly I'm happy. However, I couldn't miss the difference with the Optimum.

 

[Eldorado2k]

Here’s my wash bucket as it sits. Same soapy water from Saturday. I’m about to wring out all 12 mitts to see how much suds they let out on the grass.

 

[Eldorado2k]

This is after the 1st mitt.lol.

 

[Eldorado2k]

I tried to capture what it looks like while it’s being wrung out. There is some suds coming out, but they’re the weakest suds I’ve ever seen from a car soap and they disappear sort of fast.

All 12 mitts wrung out.

When I do this with Megs Hyper Wash [usually before tossing them into the washing machine] there’s so much suds that I often wonder if it’s going to interfere with the pureness of the Towel Kleen... I think I get as much suds from 1 mitt of Hyper Wash compared to all 12 mitts that I just wrung out. And that contained the Blackfire Foam Booster!

I think this soap has to contain ONR in it... Because something is killing the suds!

Btw I could be wrong but it seems like everyone who doesn’t really care much about suds is reporting great suds from this soap... Meanwhile everyone who likes suds agrees that this soaps suds were lackluster in their experience.

This next pic is exactly 15min. after I snapped that last pic.