Review: FLEX BW-18 Cordless Blower by Mike Phillips

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Review: FLEX BW-18 Cordless Blower by Mike Phillips



The FLEX BW-18 Cordless Blower

First here's the technical info and specs from the AG Store page

Brought to you from the same people that brought you the FLEX XC3401 – aka, the BEAST – the FLEX BW-18 Cordless Blower is the perfect addition to the FLEX collection. Featuring a brushless motor, a turbine fan, variable speed settings, as well as good balance and a lightweight build, the FELX BW-18 Cordless Blower is the easiest way to dry your car – in about half the time it would take to dry with a towel! You already use a FLEX polisher to rid your vehicles of shine-reducing swirls and scratches, make sure you have the FLEX BW-18 Cordless Blower for drying after a wash!

Wash with soap and sponge, dry with microfiber towel or chamois, wax with carnauba paste wax. That was the standard car washing method for decades – until new technology and advancements were made, of course! Thanks to the ever-evolving detailing industry, we’re seeing changes to that routine. Instead of a regular car wash, you can use an SiO2-infused wash. And now instead of using your hands and an old chamois to dry, you can use the FLEX BW-18 Cordless Blower!

FLEX BW-18 Cordless Blower Quick Look:

• Brushless motor.
• 3-speed electronic lock-on switch.
• Compact, handy. Lightweight design.
• Ergonomically shaped soft handle with on/off switch and lock for continuous operation.
• Removable blow tube and nozzle.
• LED battery capacity display.
• 3 airflow adapters included.


The FLEX BW-18 Cordless Blower, unlike standard big box leaf blowers, was designed specifically for the removal of water from your car’s painted, glass, and plastic surfaces. Featuring a brushless motor that promotes increased battery efficiency and a longer motor life, the FLEX BW-18 Cordless Blower is (obviously!) cordless and allows you to “cut the cord” so to speak while you’re drying! The high CFM turbine fan quickly blasts water away before it has a chance to dry – avoiding troublesome water spots completely!

Featuring a light-weight build with good balance, the FLEX BW-18 Cordless Blower is easy ergonomically sound and easy to maneuver around your car’s tight spots. No more water hiding behind decals and in doorjambs! With a max-MPH speed of 178.95 and a CFM of 3.1 m3/min that water will be gone before it knows what’s happening – and you barely had to lift a finger!

The FLEX BW-18 Cordless Blower is compatible with the same FLEX Batteries found with the FLEX Cordless Polishers and can be charged using the same chargers. The FLEX BW-18 Cordless Blower does NOT come with a battery or charger, but check out the FLEX BW-18 Cordless Blower Complete Kit for the Blower, a 5.0 Ah battery, a charger, extra nozzle accessories, and a storage/carrying case!


The FLEX BW-18 Cordless Blower Technical Specifications:

• Battery capacity: 2.5 or 5.0 amp Battery
• No load speed: 10,600/14,200/18,000 RPM
• Max air speed: 100 CFM
• Weight without battery: 2.65 lbs.





All good stuff.... now my turn to talk...


I've been answering car detailing questions professionally for 16 years now, going on 17 in a few weeks. By the word professionally, that means I get paid to answer questions. So here are the 2 most common questions I get,

Question 1: How do I remove the swirls and scratches out of my car's paint?


Questions 2: How to I avoid putting swirls and scratches back into my car's paint?
​

So the normal scenario goes like this,

A person joins our forum and asks how to remove the swirls, scratches, water spots and oxidation out of their car's finish. Myself and our awesome forum members answer their questions and guide them to the products and the procedures to restore a better than new factory finish. Then the next question the person has is now that they've done all the hard work and have a finish they are happy with.... how to keep it this way?

I always answer this type of question by saying that everything comes down to how you TOUCH the car's finish. Always obtain the highest quality products to wash and dry your car because this is where most swirls and scratches come from is via the washing and drying process (over time). So one way to dramatically reduce instilling swirls and scratches over time is to blow the water off your car instead of wiping the water off your car. This is where a car dryer or car blower comes into play.

Flex has just introduced a new addition to their family of cordless tools, the FLEX BW-18 Cordless Blower. Let's take a look....


First, the reason I put my name on this particular FLEX Cordless Blower or FLEX CB is because this was a personal gift to me from Bob Eichelberg, the President of FLEX Tools North America. This is a pre-production unit, the only one in the United States and possible the world. It has NO SERIAL NUMBER - Thank you Bob!

The battery attaches to the bottom of the back and this actually makes the tool very well-balanced.

The end of the blower housing is notched to hold and secure 4 different attachments....

The primary attachment is soft rubber blow tube...

There are three other attachments that are more suited for various blowing tasks...

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Continued....


Need a wet car!

I don't do mock-up. So in order to use this new tool I need a wet car and not wet from the rain. So I borrowed a Ford Escape I coated with GYEON One about a year ago. It's important that the paint on a car you want to blow dry is in EXCELLENT CONDITION maintained with a coat of wax, synthetic sealant or ceramic paint coating. I'll explain why when you get down to the pictures of water beading on the roof below.


Just by chance, my good buddy Rob McCrary gave me some NEW products introduced at SEMA a few weeks ago to test out. The Actifoam Energy foam soap may be available now and the Wash + Seal will be here this spring. More on these later, mostly just wanted to share some cool new products from SONAX.


Just to note - if you read enough of my how-to articles you'll ALWAYS see me using the Grit Guard Universal Detailing Car when I wash cars. The primary reason why is because it keeps my wash buck at waist level so no bending over. It also holds all my tools and I can push it around the car as I work around the car.

Always start with wheels and tires first

My favorite wheel and tires washing tools and products....

Not only is this softer than concrete it keeps your butt from getting wet when washing wheels and tires...

Here's another tip for anyone that has a tall vehicle like an SUV - get two Werner Work Platforms and put them side by side and then you can walk back and forth on them as you work on the roof.

Mega foam that makes washing SLIPPERY!

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Continued....


Washed and Rinsed


Okay - I've washed the Ford Escape from bottom to top and back to bottom. Sorry no action shots but trust me.... I was the one doing the work.



Water beading

Below you'll see pictures of water beading. Look at them and after the last picture I'll explain what this means to you.

Here's the deal....

Water blows off easy if there is high surface tension on the paint causing water to bead-up. Water beading is a sign of high surface tension.


Simply put, the water is TRYING TO GET AWAY FROM THE PAINT.

This means it will BLOW OFF fast, easy and effectively.

If you car's paint does not bead water then no blower is going to work. So keep your expectations real-world. If you want to blow dry your car then you must be the type of person that likes to take care of their car and this means regularly washing and also maintaining a coat of wax, synthetic paint sealant or a ceramic paint coating on the finish which creates surface tension and thus causes water to bead-up.

Make sense?

I just don't want anyone to have unreal expectations because there is a little science to this...

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Continued....


Check it out!

First I'm going to check my power supply...

Half a charge, should be more than enough....

Here's the on/off trigger

Here's the trigger lock so you don't have to hold the trigger in the entire time you're drying the car....

The FLEX Cordless Blower has 3 speed settings.... all the way back is low....

The center position is medium....

All the way forward is full power....

And like the other FLEX cordless tools, the cordless blower has sexy striping....

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Continued...


Time to start blow drying....

The FLEX CB did a great job of blasting all the standing water off the horizontal panels...

Even cooler is how it blasts all the water out of all the nooks and crannies - no dripping later on....

First thing I really noticed and liked was no cord to mess with. It's also very light weight and easy to hold and maneuver.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Continued....


Here's the final results for the Ford Escape - completely dried off and I never used a chamois. I did mist the exterior with Pinnacle Black Label Surface Coating and dressed the tires to complete the job.

Review
First this is not the most powerful car dryer on the market but the cordless feature made it my favorite car dryer on the market. The soft rubber blow tube is nice in that it won't scratch the paint if you accidently bump in to a body panel, which I did a few times. As long as you maintain your car with something, wax, sealant or paint coating and water beads up it has more than enough power to blast the water off the body panels and just as important out of all the nooks and crannies. It's a lot more quiet than most and I don't feel the need to wear any ear protection. The 2.5 Amp batter with half a charge was enough to dry the entire car but normally I like the larger 5 amp battery for all my FLEX cordless tools.

This is a super high quality tool like all FLEX tools and my new favorite car dryer.



On Autogeek.com

FLEX BW-18 Cordless Blower

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

***Update***


Available now for pre-order


:dblthumb2:

 

[fly07sti]

Great review Mike. The fact that it’s cordless has definitely got my attention. I see you said it’s not the most powerful, but how powerful is it in comparison to say the Metro Sidekick and/or the McKee’s blower?

 

[The Guz]

Thanks for the review Mike. Being cordless is an attention grabber. Also the fact that these utilize the same batteries as their cordless polishers is a good idea.

Does this run quieter than say the McKee's or Blackfire blowers?

 

[JustJesus]

OH NO.

Another Flex tool that I may want.

 

[gspam1]

***Update***


Available now for pre-order


:dblthumb2:

I've got the kit on pre-order since I received the email from Autogeek. I find blowers and vacuums handy for all kinds of things. I have both the Milwaukee small shop blower that looks smaller than this Flex and their normal battery leaf blowers. Anxious to compare the Flex to the small Milwaukee.

 

[david b]

Great review Mike! A tool I may be adding to my arsenal. I like the fact it takes the same battery as the Flex cordless polishers. However, it's a shame it does NOT include the battery unless you purchase the kit. Just my opinion.

David

 

[rlmccarty2000]

Nice tool. I like the small nozzles, I would buy those if they fit my leaf blower.

Mike you said you misted the exterior with Pinnacle Black Label Surface Coating. Why did you use this instead of PBL Coating Booster or one of the new PBMG SiO2 sprays? Did you spread it out after misting?

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Here’s a short video

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=369336847169747

 

[Paul A.]

2 things I love about this...1.) The price, and 2.) The form factor.

This WILL be in my next order when available!

 

[Setec Astronomy]

Mike, can you explain those two small nozzles on the right with the "pierced" tip? The only thing I can think those are for are for sliding between panels or into crevices and blowing sideways...is that right? Or does that tip provide some other kind of action?

 

[gspam1]

Mike, can you explain those two small nozzles on the right with the "pierced" tip? The only thing I can think those are for are for sliding between panels or into crevices and blowing sideways...is that right? Or does that tip provide some other kind of action?

I'm guessing the tips are for inflating toys and air mattresses.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Autogeekonline mobile app

 

[Renozx12]

***Update***


Available now for pre-order


:dblthumb2:

I just ordered my flex blower today, thanks Mike your write up sold me on it!

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Mike, can you explain those two small nozzles on the right with the "pierced" tip?

I'm guessing the tips are for inflating toys and air mattresses.

Correct. The other tip can be used to INFLATE or DEFLATE air toys or air mattresses.

I just ordered my flex blower today, thanks Mike your write up sold me on it!

How you likening it?

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

***Update***


Just wanted to share two comments....

1: MOST of the car detailing I do is on cars that are NOT regularly maintained. This means they are not regularly treated with any type of product that causes water to bead-up. This includes,

1. A carnauba car wax
2. A synthetic paint sealant
3. a ceramic paint coating
4. Or any other product that seals the surface and creates surface tension

That's why I'm working on the car. Someone owns something, it needs to be detailed. Thus when I do the PREP WASH - water does not bead-up. For cars like this, no car dryer or car blower is going to work well to dry the car off because in order for any type or brand of car blower to dry a car it works best and most efficiently if water is already beading-up. Thus because of surface tension, water already wants to get away from the car's surfaces.


2: For the rare occasions I do wash and dry a car I have detailed, for example my own cars, because water is beading-up, the FLEX car blower works great! Not only to blow the water off the car but just as important, to blow water out of all the emblems, cracks, crevices, lug nuts, grill, etc.




Last Friday and Saturday, I washed 3 cars that I have worked on and enjoyed drying the water off using a cordless car blower.

All three cars were washed using the Wolfgang Uber SiO2 Coating Wash, which also makes water bead-up, besides whatever I have on the cars and as such - water flies off the car.

Also love cleaning the garage flow of wool dust bunnies too.