SiO2 Ceramic Spray Sealant comparison test

[acuRAS82]

I figured “why not?” after correcting the X5 M. Roof was coated, polished with WG Finishing Glaze, then wiped with Kleen-Strip Prep-All a few times for prep, then CarPro Essence with Gloss Pads.

The two coats of applications for each product occurred on 6/10/20 and 6/11/20.

Front Roof - The Easy Applicators:

Middle Roof - The Coating Lite Wannabes

Near-Rear Roof - The Maintenance Sprays

NOTE: The far back roof/spoiler is wearing KK Infinite Wax like the rest of the vehicle... not part of this spray sealant test.


Fast forward 3 weeks to 7/1/20, after being a garage queen with occasional travel, the car had its first bath with CarPro Reset. The short videos after washing don’t show much to takeaway besides strong properties from all products. No rough weather yet.

Front:
YouTube

Middle-Back:
YouTube


I plan to add my application experiences soon, despite being applied to very small areas.

I’ll also add occasional updates. I may add a larger field onto another roof as part of a separate, parallel test since there were some I wasn’t able to fit on here (GG 3-in-1, DPC Armor, Overcoat, some Polish Angel).

Thanks for reading.

 

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Mmmm. BMW time. lol

From the first video it looked like WG had a slight edge over 22PLE. You really have a test going with various products.

Thanks for putting together and sharing Robert. Will be following along.

BTW, I have a pair of E9X's. E90 335i and E91 328i Touring. Both jet black.

 

[acuRAS82]

Mmmm. BMW time. lol

From the first video it looked like WG had a slight edge over 22PLE. You really have a test going with various products.

Thanks for putting together and sharing Robert. Will be following along.

BTW, I have a pair of E9X's. E90 335i and E91 328i Touring. Both jet black.

I would agree that WG is tossing water aside faster than VS1 in the early going. Go figure, previous tests had WG as not a great beader/sheeter for me. Although I’m beginning to wonder if temperature plays a huge role in how well these things cure and or how just water beads and sheets during testing. Everything I do gets noticeably better results when I apply in hot weather and water test in hot weather.

I’m jealous of your jet black E9X’s! My only gripe with my beast is that it isn’t dark, dark, Jet. So I do my best to make it look dark but next to the brilliant black Q5, I usually like the Q5 paint more.

 

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

I would agree that WG is tossing water aside faster than VS1 in the early going. Go figure, previous tests had WG as not a great beader/sheeter for me. Although I’m beginning to wonder if temperature plays a huge role in how well these things cure and or how just water beads and sheets during testing. Everything I do gets noticeably better results when I apply in hot weather and water test in hot weather.

I’m jealous of your jet black E9X’s! My only gripe with my beast is that it isn’t dark, dark, Jet. So I do my best to make it look dark but next to the brilliant black Q5, I usually like the Q5 paint more.

Interesting that you are noting better performance in hot weather. Wonder if it is flashing and curing better with the warmer temps. I imagine that could be the case. After all, the same thing goes when painting. Paint flows on the material when warm and cures better rather than in cooler temperatures.

Man, jet black paint is a love/hate relationship! Takes so much time to looking proper but when you do simply no other color looks as great as jet black. Is yours Carbon Schwartz Metallic? That's my favorite color on M products as you cant get jet black paint on them.

 

[acuRAS82]

Man, jet black paint is a love/hate relationship! Takes so much time to looking proper but when you do simply no other color looks as great as jet black. Is yours Carbon Schwartz Metallic? That's my favorite color on M products as you cant get jet black paint on them.

Mine is black sapphire metallic. Looking up the difference between your fave M color and my paint, from a BMW forum:

Black Sapphire transitions from a very deep black in the shade/overcast light, to a very strong metallic in direct sunlight. Carbon Black also has the very strong metallic in direct sunlight, probably more than BSM, however in shade/overcast light it looks like a muted blue colour. There's definitely more variance in Carbon Black, however having owned both in a short period of time, i'd say the Black Sapphire is significantly more stealth like. Carbon Black looks more premium/luxurious though.

Google pictures of Carbon Metallic:

Google of my paint:

 

[acuRAS82]

FYI, I forgot that I applied these on Essence, initial post is updated.

 

[Sizzle Chest]

Nice work on this! Sub'd for updates!

 

[acuRAS82]

Update 7/9/20 (1 month):

Only about 1 week of not being a garage queen, but it was a week of low to mid-90s highs, so that counts for something. No further washes besides the one posted above.

Reference:

Below is video of the first rain the vehicle has endured, after a week+ of drought.
YouTube


Since videos don’t always come out great, below are some pictures all taken within a ~20 second time period:

And then one pic once the rain stopped:

Only a few takeaways for me:

1) Feynlab isn’t looking as good as the other 3 heavy hitters, particularly compared to IGL which some have wondered how they compare. I’m still rooting for Feynlab due to price, maybe it will age well.

2) Although the front roof can’t be assessed in these pics, WG CSC, as seen on the strip on the right side of the moonroof seems to still be a little better behavior than VS1. Nothing major, but a slight lead especially when viewed in person.

Everything else seems like good performing, fairly new spray sealant performance to me.

 

[acuRAS82]

Update 07/18/2020 (5+ weeks):

Reference:

Back Roof
X5 M Back Roof 07/18/20 - YouTube

Front Roof
X5 M Front Roof 07/18/2020 - YouTube


Continued Observations:
- Feynlab still a bit behind but not looking any worse; closing gap??
- WG CSC still looking great, better than VS1, though they both are behaving great.


New Observations:
- M37 now looks to be the weakest of the back maintenance sprays. Interesting because M37 claims longevity similar to the “Coating Lite Wannabes” in the row above. I had made a decision to leave M37 out of the big boys row and now it has surpassed Feynlab as the least hydrophobic at 5 weeks.
- Bead-It has lost a little bit of performance but not bad.
- TW looks like it has fallen a step behind IGL and Wowo’s. Hard to see being the furthest in the video but I get to see from everywhere.


If I had to put together a list of best performing at week 5:
T-1) WG CSC
T-1) Wowo’s CS
T-1) IGL Premier
4) VS1
T-5) BF SiO2 Spray
T-5) Britemax Remax
T-5) TW
8) Feynlab
9) Jescar Bead-It
10) M37 365

 

[acuRAS82]

Mini-Update 07/27/2020 (~7 weeks):


Reference:

Quick pic after a rain yesterday:

Quick observations:
- IGL looks best.
- Feynlab looks like it’s improving

- Britemax leading maintenance sprays in row 2
- Blackfire begins to show some degrading
- Mckees and Bead-It are the most degraded


Sorry I forgot to take a pic of the front roof, but WG CSC and VS1 are still looking good.

 

[WillSports3]

I find this test fascinating actually. Some of these products were ones I had researched then passed up basically for one reason or the other.

 

[acuRAS82]

Update 08/25/2020 (2.5 months):
The car has been sitting in my driveway for a week due to a piece of metal stuck in a front tire and lack of availability to get it checked out and now new fronts put on.

But I was at least able to get some pics after a brief, heavy rain today. The car hasn’t been washed in a week.

Back Roof:

Now the front roof, which I accidentally screwed up. A week ago I mistakenly put PBL Waterless Wash on the drivers side front during drying aid. This is where VS1 is applied. VS1 was still looking really good during the wash before that. But here it appears there may be WW polymers masking the VS1 behavior. I’ll keep an eye on this. It’s harder to not touch certain panels than you’d think!

Front Roof

Since I haven’t been keeping tabs on this roof in the last few weeks, I’m going to pass on attempting performance rankings. Let the pictures do the speaking. All I’ll say is that, as expected, the back row of the back roof has degraded the most. And the area with VS1 clearly got masked a bit.

 

[57Rambler]

So is WG CSC still in the lead ? I'm following because I bought a bottle during the 50% off sale and have yet to use it.

 

[acuRAS82]

So is WG CSC still in the lead ? I'm following because I bought a bottle during the 50% off sale and have yet to use it.

WG CSC is as good as any now. It’s hard to compare front roof versus back in my experience. Front doesn’t have a perpendicular angle towards the sky/sun. Back doesn’t get the brunt of road grime.

But the way CSC rejects water is very impressive still and I still have it tied in my lead. Premier, Wowo’s are still top notch too, and Feynlab seems to have caught up with them. It’s between these 4 but if I were to NOT take roof sections into account, CSC would be the standalone leader... but I do take sections into account and being on a slight angle gives CSC a bit of advantage.

Sorry if I’ve confused you. It’s not easy picking these things.

 

[69chevymaro]

Man oh man I really appreciate all the hard work you put into this test! Great work man.

 

[acuRAS82]

Quick check in, pics taken after a day of heavy rain. This shows some weakness compared to the picks two posts above which were after only one quick downpour. I forgot the front roof with WG CSC and VS1, unfortunately.

Granted the car has not been cleaned in some time, clearly the back (lower) row of lighter maintenance sprays are showing more degradation than the front (upper) row of more substantial sprays. It is what it is though. The car has been outside for the last 7-10 days and in the shop briefly to have new front tires put on.

 

[acuRAS82]

Also, I’m doing another, more recent SiO2 spray sealant test on my Acura over on Autopia.


SiO2 Ceramic Spray Sealant test on Acura TSX

 

[acuRAS82]

Update from Saturday 09/05/2020 (5 days short of 3 months):
The X5 has continued to live outside as I have spent more than a week letting the Q5 have the garage to piecemeal correction/prep, etc.

In preparation for a vacation I gave a wash with DP Coating Maintenance Wash and afterwards took some water pics:

Back Roof:

First, I apologize about the angle as it’s hard to see the driver’s side results. And the side-angle spray impacts the sheeting of these and this is the only angle I took pics (was in a rush getting ready for my trip). Regardless here is my rankings of the middle roof coating lite wannabes as far as remaining performance at the near-three-month mark:

Coating lite wannabes:
1) Wowo’s CS
2) Feynlab
3) IGL
4) TW Hybrid Solutions CSC

Wowo’s is some stout stuff. More of a standalone than a topper from what I gather. For a dirt cheap option it’s a beast.

Feynlab co to yes it’s comeback tour, surpassing IGL. I respect the Feynlab Spray now especially when price is factored.

IGL showing signs of fading from the 2.5-3 month mark but certainly not dead.

TW is odd, some days it looks ok and other days it looks like it’s on its last leg. Today it looked pretty ok, on par with IGL.




The back row of maintenance sprays were looking in pretty rough shape so I took another round of water shots for just them:

I was happy enough that I can call a winner and a loser of this row and move on from it:
1) Britemax Remax
2) BF SiO2 Spray Sealant
3) Mckees 365
4) Jescar Bead-It

Britemax was a nice surprise as far as longevity and performance vs price.

BF SiO2 is solid which many people are aware of.

M37 365 is marketed as a 1 year spray coating but I’ve tested it 3 times now and it doesn’t perform top notch and lasts on the lower end of maintenance sprays.

I do want to shout out that despite Bead-It looking the most weathered/ dead the soonest, I actually like price and the application due to bring very simple and non-finicky. It’s the easiest of these 4 to use. Don’t deter from buying it if you like to apply things somewhat regularly (every 4-6 or 8 weeks).

Anyways, I then applied PA Gold Zirkon over the maintenance spray row as I didn’t feel confident in my back roof being protected from whatever vacation may throw at it during the next week. Back roof maintenance spray test is done.



Now the front roof.

Front Roof

Sorry, in my rush I forgot to take pics again. But WG CSC still looks very good. Beading and sheeting great.

VS1 looked hurt enough (not dead but not making me feel good about being on vacation with it) that I decided to also end its run and apply PA Gold Zirkon over it.

1) WG CSC looking great
2) VS1 looked meh, it’s not removed from test


On a side note, here’s some beauty shots of the X5 with its new coat of Gold Zircon on top of 1.5 month old Infinity Wax, just because I’m flexing:

 

[RippyD]

Great test. Thanks for posting.

 

[acuRAS82]

Great test. Thanks for posting.

Coming from you, RippyD, I’m honored. You’re the man.