kevincwelch
New member
- May 12, 2013
- 2,686
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What? A wash mitt review?
Sure!
I like wash mitts. I have 6 of them now, and I use multiple wash mitts per vehicle to minimize the contact any one has with the paint. I doubt that's needed, but that's just what I do. I've always used the micro-chenille mitts sold by AG or GG because those have seemed to be the most popular. Then I heard about the Incredimitt, and I saw similar ones pop up on the Gtechniq website and then on Gyeon's website. I've been using Gyeon products for a little while now (thanks Mike Lambert for all the recs), and when AG started selling the Gyeon line, I was pretty pleased to see that. The Smoothie was there, and since I've wanted to try the Incredimitt, I went out on a limb because the description of the Smoothie was very similar to that of the Incredimitt.
So, here's my review.
The description from Autogeek's Website:
APPEARANCE
The Gyeon Smoothie Wash Mitt looks very similar to the Microfiber Madness Incredimitt. The mitt is unlike other mitts I have owned since the elastic fits very snugly around my wrist (it was a little bit of an effort to fit my hand in there), but I am sure that the elastic will relax in time. Within the Smoothie mitt, there are sponges which are designed to hold water and suds. Additionally, there is a partition within the mitt that will more or less fit between your 3rd and 4th fingers (or whatever two you prefer), and I assume this design is to help the mitt from rotating around, thus ensuring you that you are not contaminating the surface with a dirty side that you have already used. On the other hand, I did like the fact that other mitts without partitions are easy to rotate around my hand to start washing with a clean side. While the partition of the Smoothie does prevent premature rotation of the mitt, withdrawing your hand and then rotating the mitt seems to take an extra amount of time. I'm not sold on this partition yet.
Comparison between Gyeon Smoothie and GG mitts:
QUALITY
The microfibers are very densely packed into this mitt, and unlike other mitts, I cannot easily see where they insert into the base hand glove. After the first wash, I did notice that there were some sacrificial fibers that hand fallen off and ended up in the lint trap of my dryer. After shaking the glove vigorously, there were a few other fibers that flew off. After these few were lost before service, I didn't notice any other loose fibers. Gyeon states on their website that the Smoothie is good for 200 washes. I feel like I have used other mitts more than 200 times and they are still going on strong.
SAFETY
I performed a basic scratch test on a brand new CD-R with the Gyeon Smoothie Mitt and one of my Griot's Garage mitts. As you can see from the photo below, the untouched CD-R has no scratches or swirls.
I took the dry Smoothie Mitt and rubbed the CD-R for 30 seconds vigorously. Of course, no one would do this in reality as we'd always have our mitts drenched in either rinseless wash media or would be using our mitt with during a 2BW method. Ideally, our wash would have a nice amount of lubricity so as to minimize scratches and swirls.
Here is a brief video of the CD-R after a 30 second dry rub with the Smoothie. There appears to be a small scratch around 4 o'clock on the CD-R (if it were a clock face), but in reality that was a piece of dust that blew off with my breath. I don't see any swirls or scratches.
Here is a brief video of another CD-R after a 30 second dry rub using the Griot's Garage wash mitt. The results are also pretty good, but there is an obvious scratch around 11 o'clock to 12 o'clock on the CD-R. There may have been something embedded in the mitt. Given that there are no other obvious scratches or swirls, I'd say the GG stands up pretty well.
CAPACITY
I submerged the Smoothie into various measures of water to see how much it would soak/contain. As I performed this exercise, I figured out that the Smoothie held about 1/3 gallon of water in it. Here is a snapshot of a gallon bucket with a 1/3 gallon of water and what is left over when I submerged the Smoothie and took it out. I also repeated the test with a GG mitt using the same amount of water. The GG is physically bigger and soaked up slightly less water than did the Smoothie. Hard to tell in the photos. Obvious in person.
Before Dunking
After Dunking
EASE OF USE
The Gyeon Smoothie mitt is incredibly easy to use. Once dunked in the soapy bucket, I could immediately tell it was holding on to soapy water. I believe this is due to the inner sponge. The smoothie effortlessly glided across the paint without almost no resistance. It truly was nice to use, and it is hard to quantify just how much better it was than the GG mitt. I'm not talking worlds of difference; this Smoothie didn't blow my mind, but it definitely offered less resistance than did my GG mitt. This could be potentially bad as I felt like I could just keep on going with the single use of the mitt. I had to remind myself to dunk it in the rinse bucket after every panel.
The sponge is an interesting addition to this mitt. It holds about 1/3 gallon of soapy water, and you can see from the video that you can replenish yourself during the wash.
CLEAN UP
The Smoothie definitely takes more time to clean up. When finished with the wash, this thing was full of soapy water. I had to insert the hose into the mitt to flood it a few times to get it reasonably free of soap. With the GG, I just wring it out a few times and throw into the wash. Possibly could have done this with the Smoothie, but I was afraid of this:
SUMMARY
The Gyeon Smoothie wash mitt is an effective mitt for cleaning your car. It appears to be the same thing as the Incredimitt. Nevertheless, it holds a great amount of soapy water and glides effortlessly across the paint. At $24.99, this is about 2.5x the cost of highly rated micro-chenille wash mitts sold on Autogeek. My GG wash mitts have lasted >3y, and they are holding up well. I typically use two micro-chenille wash mitts per vehicle (one soaks in the rinse while I wash with the other). Could I get away with one Smoothie for a wash? Probably. Is the extra expense worth it? I'm not so sure, but it is definitely a nice wash mitt!
Sure!
I like wash mitts. I have 6 of them now, and I use multiple wash mitts per vehicle to minimize the contact any one has with the paint. I doubt that's needed, but that's just what I do. I've always used the micro-chenille mitts sold by AG or GG because those have seemed to be the most popular. Then I heard about the Incredimitt, and I saw similar ones pop up on the Gtechniq website and then on Gyeon's website. I've been using Gyeon products for a little while now (thanks Mike Lambert for all the recs), and when AG started selling the Gyeon line, I was pretty pleased to see that. The Smoothie was there, and since I've wanted to try the Incredimitt, I went out on a limb because the description of the Smoothie was very similar to that of the Incredimitt.
So, here's my review.
The description from Autogeek's Website:
APPEARANCE
The Gyeon Smoothie Wash Mitt looks very similar to the Microfiber Madness Incredimitt. The mitt is unlike other mitts I have owned since the elastic fits very snugly around my wrist (it was a little bit of an effort to fit my hand in there), but I am sure that the elastic will relax in time. Within the Smoothie mitt, there are sponges which are designed to hold water and suds. Additionally, there is a partition within the mitt that will more or less fit between your 3rd and 4th fingers (or whatever two you prefer), and I assume this design is to help the mitt from rotating around, thus ensuring you that you are not contaminating the surface with a dirty side that you have already used. On the other hand, I did like the fact that other mitts without partitions are easy to rotate around my hand to start washing with a clean side. While the partition of the Smoothie does prevent premature rotation of the mitt, withdrawing your hand and then rotating the mitt seems to take an extra amount of time. I'm not sold on this partition yet.
Comparison between Gyeon Smoothie and GG mitts:
QUALITY
The microfibers are very densely packed into this mitt, and unlike other mitts, I cannot easily see where they insert into the base hand glove. After the first wash, I did notice that there were some sacrificial fibers that hand fallen off and ended up in the lint trap of my dryer. After shaking the glove vigorously, there were a few other fibers that flew off. After these few were lost before service, I didn't notice any other loose fibers. Gyeon states on their website that the Smoothie is good for 200 washes. I feel like I have used other mitts more than 200 times and they are still going on strong.
SAFETY
I performed a basic scratch test on a brand new CD-R with the Gyeon Smoothie Mitt and one of my Griot's Garage mitts. As you can see from the photo below, the untouched CD-R has no scratches or swirls.
I took the dry Smoothie Mitt and rubbed the CD-R for 30 seconds vigorously. Of course, no one would do this in reality as we'd always have our mitts drenched in either rinseless wash media or would be using our mitt with during a 2BW method. Ideally, our wash would have a nice amount of lubricity so as to minimize scratches and swirls.
Here is a brief video of the CD-R after a 30 second dry rub with the Smoothie. There appears to be a small scratch around 4 o'clock on the CD-R (if it were a clock face), but in reality that was a piece of dust that blew off with my breath. I don't see any swirls or scratches.
Here is a brief video of another CD-R after a 30 second dry rub using the Griot's Garage wash mitt. The results are also pretty good, but there is an obvious scratch around 11 o'clock to 12 o'clock on the CD-R. There may have been something embedded in the mitt. Given that there are no other obvious scratches or swirls, I'd say the GG stands up pretty well.
CAPACITY
I submerged the Smoothie into various measures of water to see how much it would soak/contain. As I performed this exercise, I figured out that the Smoothie held about 1/3 gallon of water in it. Here is a snapshot of a gallon bucket with a 1/3 gallon of water and what is left over when I submerged the Smoothie and took it out. I also repeated the test with a GG mitt using the same amount of water. The GG is physically bigger and soaked up slightly less water than did the Smoothie. Hard to tell in the photos. Obvious in person.
Before Dunking
After Dunking
EASE OF USE
The Gyeon Smoothie mitt is incredibly easy to use. Once dunked in the soapy bucket, I could immediately tell it was holding on to soapy water. I believe this is due to the inner sponge. The smoothie effortlessly glided across the paint without almost no resistance. It truly was nice to use, and it is hard to quantify just how much better it was than the GG mitt. I'm not talking worlds of difference; this Smoothie didn't blow my mind, but it definitely offered less resistance than did my GG mitt. This could be potentially bad as I felt like I could just keep on going with the single use of the mitt. I had to remind myself to dunk it in the rinse bucket after every panel.
The sponge is an interesting addition to this mitt. It holds about 1/3 gallon of soapy water, and you can see from the video that you can replenish yourself during the wash.
CLEAN UP
The Smoothie definitely takes more time to clean up. When finished with the wash, this thing was full of soapy water. I had to insert the hose into the mitt to flood it a few times to get it reasonably free of soap. With the GG, I just wring it out a few times and throw into the wash. Possibly could have done this with the Smoothie, but I was afraid of this:
SUMMARY
The Gyeon Smoothie wash mitt is an effective mitt for cleaning your car. It appears to be the same thing as the Incredimitt. Nevertheless, it holds a great amount of soapy water and glides effortlessly across the paint. At $24.99, this is about 2.5x the cost of highly rated micro-chenille wash mitts sold on Autogeek. My GG wash mitts have lasted >3y, and they are holding up well. I typically use two micro-chenille wash mitts per vehicle (one soaks in the rinse while I wash with the other). Could I get away with one Smoothie for a wash? Probably. Is the extra expense worth it? I'm not so sure, but it is definitely a nice wash mitt!
