I'm delighted to be one of the early testers for Nanolex's car wash called Nanolex Reactivating Shampoo and I would like to share my experience using this product.
I have not used any products from Nanolex before so I can only compare it against the products I have in my arsenal (such as Meguiar's, CarPro, Chemical Guy's).
First off I'm in Canada and Nanolex US is in the US so I'm very grateful for Gil@Nanolex having to ship me the product through additional cost. Thanks Gil!
Package came in a small box with a zip lock bag
1. Packaging
Sample - sufficient packaging for a sample bottle. Zip lock bag to ensure no spills out to reach the box
2. Instructions
As you can see from the label above, there are no dilution ratios. I had to use my best judgement here.
I have used Meguiar's Gold Class, CarPro Reset, Chemical Guy's Hyper concentrated gloss and shine and Optimum Car Wash before so I have some car shampoos to compared against.
3. Cost
No details on cost of the retail version as I have received the sample bottle
4. Texture/Smell/Initial Impression
Texture - really watery, best way to describe it. Its more of a liquid than a gel. When added to water the foaming is excellent. I would say it is relative same amount of suds compared to CarPro Reset but less than Optimum Car Wash
Smell - it was a pleasure smell, not too strong and it didn't bother me during the 30 minutes wash session
Initial Impression - Will be described below on test car
Test Car - 2012 Hyundai Elantra
This car belongs to a good of mine and I have to say it has been severely neglected. I asked him when was the last time the car was properly washed and he said 2.5 years ago when he brought it over to me. Well.. severely neglected indeed. He has brought it for occasional automatic car wash but have not waxed it at all. Paint felt really rough
Here are some photos of the car
The photos sure didn't look too bad but as I walked around the car I saw embedded rail dust, minor bubbling in his clearcoat near passenger fender, small dents on the trunk and roof, bird bomb remains on the headlight, scuff marks and paint chip on the front bumper, water spots.. well I basically stopped looking after that. This review is on the shampoo after all!
For this review, I decided to do two tests:
1) Shampoo wash for the paint and glass with 2 bucket wash
2) Shampoo wash for the wheels with a 3rd bucket
For dilution I decided to go with 1oz for each bucket filled with 3 gallon of water. I felt this is about the average amount I used for the other shampoo. Perhaps I'm using even slightly more for the test but I wanted to see what the shampoo can do
Unfortunately I did not get any during photos since my hands were wet and the time was spent explaining washing technique to my friend. However, because we were washing really slowly I got to see how the shampoo behaved when it dries on the paint. Nanolex Reactivating Shampoo did an amazing job washing all the dirt off and the lubrication it provided felt on par when I used CarPro Reset. As dirt got carried by the solution and roll off the panels, the dried panels did perform so well. I found a lot of brown spotting as I rinsed the car down. The car was washed in the shade around the evening when the sun was going down so I was a bit surprised there. However another quick wipe with a shmitt and a second rinse took care of the problem.
On the wheels it did a really good removing all the build up dirt and brake dust. I did not expect too much on the wheels as the shampoo is not a dedicated wheel cleaner. I should have hit the wheels with Sonax prior to using Nanolex but I wanted to see how good the cleaning ability was on wheels.
Rating
I would rate Nanolex Reactivating Shampoo as 8/10 for cleaning paint and glass and maybe 8.5/10 on wheels.
By the time we finished detailing the car it was already night time so I took after photos the following day
Conclusion:
As you can see, the Elantra definitely have some gloss to the reflection and the reason may be (as some of the other reviewers said) is that the shampoo contains wax content. I'm a satisfied user of Nanolex Reactivating Shampoo!
After thoughts:
- How will the shampoo react in direct sunlight?
- Test car was silver which is great for hiding imperfections, I would like to try on a darker colour to see if dried panels has streaks or not
- What would the official dilution ratio be?
- How will this shampoo react on matte finish or matte car wraps? Will it add gloss?
I have not used any products from Nanolex before so I can only compare it against the products I have in my arsenal (such as Meguiar's, CarPro, Chemical Guy's).
First off I'm in Canada and Nanolex US is in the US so I'm very grateful for Gil@Nanolex having to ship me the product through additional cost. Thanks Gil!
Package came in a small box with a zip lock bag
1. Packaging
Sample - sufficient packaging for a sample bottle. Zip lock bag to ensure no spills out to reach the box
2. Instructions
As you can see from the label above, there are no dilution ratios. I had to use my best judgement here.
I have used Meguiar's Gold Class, CarPro Reset, Chemical Guy's Hyper concentrated gloss and shine and Optimum Car Wash before so I have some car shampoos to compared against.
3. Cost
No details on cost of the retail version as I have received the sample bottle
4. Texture/Smell/Initial Impression
Texture - really watery, best way to describe it. Its more of a liquid than a gel. When added to water the foaming is excellent. I would say it is relative same amount of suds compared to CarPro Reset but less than Optimum Car Wash
Smell - it was a pleasure smell, not too strong and it didn't bother me during the 30 minutes wash session
Initial Impression - Will be described below on test car
Test Car - 2012 Hyundai Elantra
This car belongs to a good of mine and I have to say it has been severely neglected. I asked him when was the last time the car was properly washed and he said 2.5 years ago when he brought it over to me. Well.. severely neglected indeed. He has brought it for occasional automatic car wash but have not waxed it at all. Paint felt really rough
Here are some photos of the car
The photos sure didn't look too bad but as I walked around the car I saw embedded rail dust, minor bubbling in his clearcoat near passenger fender, small dents on the trunk and roof, bird bomb remains on the headlight, scuff marks and paint chip on the front bumper, water spots.. well I basically stopped looking after that. This review is on the shampoo after all!
For this review, I decided to do two tests:
1) Shampoo wash for the paint and glass with 2 bucket wash
2) Shampoo wash for the wheels with a 3rd bucket
For dilution I decided to go with 1oz for each bucket filled with 3 gallon of water. I felt this is about the average amount I used for the other shampoo. Perhaps I'm using even slightly more for the test but I wanted to see what the shampoo can do
Unfortunately I did not get any during photos since my hands were wet and the time was spent explaining washing technique to my friend. However, because we were washing really slowly I got to see how the shampoo behaved when it dries on the paint. Nanolex Reactivating Shampoo did an amazing job washing all the dirt off and the lubrication it provided felt on par when I used CarPro Reset. As dirt got carried by the solution and roll off the panels, the dried panels did perform so well. I found a lot of brown spotting as I rinsed the car down. The car was washed in the shade around the evening when the sun was going down so I was a bit surprised there. However another quick wipe with a shmitt and a second rinse took care of the problem.
On the wheels it did a really good removing all the build up dirt and brake dust. I did not expect too much on the wheels as the shampoo is not a dedicated wheel cleaner. I should have hit the wheels with Sonax prior to using Nanolex but I wanted to see how good the cleaning ability was on wheels.
Rating
I would rate Nanolex Reactivating Shampoo as 8/10 for cleaning paint and glass and maybe 8.5/10 on wheels.
By the time we finished detailing the car it was already night time so I took after photos the following day
Conclusion:
As you can see, the Elantra definitely have some gloss to the reflection and the reason may be (as some of the other reviewers said) is that the shampoo contains wax content. I'm a satisfied user of Nanolex Reactivating Shampoo!
After thoughts:
- How will the shampoo react in direct sunlight?
- Test car was silver which is great for hiding imperfections, I would like to try on a darker colour to see if dried panels has streaks or not
- What would the official dilution ratio be?
- How will this shampoo react on matte finish or matte car wraps? Will it add gloss?
rops: