Rinseless vs. Waterless Washing

[Durallymax]

I think I noted elsewhere, this means that rinseless is really not that different from old school wash techniques. I used to wash cars with 2 buckets, no hose... long before we had rinseless.

I would say you are right to an extent.

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[Setec Astronomy]

Rinseless still uses 5-10 gallons in the buckets but doesn't require "rinsing" off, instead you simply dry the paint with a drying towel

5-10 gallons??? I may only be washing cars and not semis, but there are 3 ways I do rinseless and none use that much.

If the car is really dirty/salty, I'm going to do some prespraying, which maybe in a really bad case would be a half gallon. Then I'm going to wash with 1/2-1 gallon of rinseless, using a rinse bucket with 2 gallons of 1/4 strength rinseless. So that's 3.5 gallons.

A more normal "dirty wash" would be 1/2 gal. of rinseless, and the rinse bucket as above. Total: 2.5 gallons.

If the car isn't really too dirty, I might mix up 2 gallons of rinseless in my rinse/grit guard bucket--2 gallons total.

If the car is really just dusty, I'm going to mix up just 1/2 gallon and use it normally or with the Bill D method (use the wash media only once)--total 1/2 gallon.

 

[Durallymax]

Yes I suppose its a difference in what you are washing. The stuff I wash is dirty with a lot of surface area. No offense just a lot dirtier than what is considered "dirty" on here by many. It's whats left over after pressure washing usually. Some may say too dirty for rinseless but it works good for me, I'm not always the one pressure washing or I'd do a full wash then. Usually its in the shop when I decide to work on it and I don't want a hose spraying everywhere in there.

I use a little less than 4 gallons in each pail.

This is a typical rinseless wash for me. And yes you are correct, not cars. I've been wanting to try the Bill D method(or any other name). Have the towels, just haven't done it yet. Probably would get away using less water.

There's different purposes behind rinseless too, a lot of people do them due to their water restrictions or runoff restrictions. I do them because its easier and makes less mess in my shop. We're on our own water supply.

 

[Setec Astronomy]

Ultima + is a product designed to be used as a waterless wash (.5 oz per 22 oz water) or a rinseless wash (1 oz per 3 gallons of water).

I am sure I will sometime call in on the Optimum guys. Ultimately I find it hard to get past the fact that all the raw material guys, the ones who make the building blocks we use to make your products, the ones who tend to be the multi billion dollar, global entities... recommend waterless washes with activity levels in the region of 3-5%. Extrapolate it and the highest theoretical concentrate level would be 33x (anymore and there would be more than 100%). In actual practice, it is generally unrealistic to hope for more than 50% active (the formulations would generally not be stable higher). This brings us to the general idea that a rinseless cannot be comparable to a waterless when at more than about 20:1. Since many rinseless products are diluted far more than this there is something awry.

Do keep in mind that much of what I am saying here is my own personal ponderings. Yes, in theory you could make the waterless products I have in my formulation book from a concentrated 'rinseless'. But, as above, these waterless products are about 5% active ingredients in water. The very most concentrated I could make them before the formulation would become unstable, would be about 50% (think what happens to some of your cleaners when they get cold). So, you could take this concentrate and dilute to 10% and you would have the waterless product. But a 50:1 dilution? That means about 1% active in your 'waterless' which is 5x lower than I would recommend. To achieve 50:1, you would need a concentrate which is 250% active (which, of course, isn't possible!).

For some reason I was thinking about this again today...interesting how Optimum uses a separate formula for rinseless vs. waterless.

 

[LaFawnduh]

For some reason I was thinking about this again today...interesting how Optimum uses a separate formula for rinseless vs. waterless.

It's true that most manufacturers have separate products, only UWW to my knowledge has all 3 in one.