My Wife has just got a bottle of The Bees Knees waterless wash & wax, perhaps it was the forth coming hose pipe ban that made her buy it or the fact that it doesn’t involve wellies, hose pipe, buckets, etc. according to the label it can be applied to wet/dirty cars, but in the meantime for me it is the good old system, what do others out there think.
These have been about for a good few years but I don’t know anybody that has used one!
I would love to know how the hell it can clean a dirty car & not scratch it, Plus surely you must go through a bottle so quickly!
I would like to be impressed with the results & put my doubts to rest!
It’s mad to think parts of southern England are going to go on a hose pipe ban, when in the north it’s so wet!
According to the blurb it contains ‘surfactants that lift and release the dirt away from the surface’ ( must be the Kerosene) her car does look nice, but that must be the ‘Super resin Polymers (polydimethylsiloxane)’ and Canuba Wax.
We have a pretty much all the time ban on car washing out here, I use a valet service that uses a waterless system, and it is fantastic. I had my car resprayed a couple of years ago and was very nervous about letting the valeter loose on it. In fact I let him do my partners Getz first!
. The result was brilliant so I had mine done, no smears/scratches/swirl marks, just a fair dinkum job.
Here’s a pic taken after a waterless wash
i use waterless wash from this time of year weekly now and providing the dirt does not get to thick its fine with no scratches etc.
takes about 45 minutes per car
i then wax and polish once a month.
i use my jet wash during winter though to get rid of salt etc.
No rain No mud No Dirt to wash off just dust ha ha easy peasy
Alan
optimum no rinse is the best one i’ve used, works really well, use it alot in the summer months when its just really dust to clean away
I used one all the time on my gold mk2 and it worked well summer and winter with no scratches and built up layers of wax…
Used on a couple of times on new silver mk2.5 with same excellent results
I used to use a product called “No Wet” - don’t think it is around now, but it was really good.
What is the best one around now?
Can’t get my head around it personally… Surely without the water you are more likely to rub grit type deposits into the paintwork?!? At the very minimum it will cause swirl marks.
no problems with scratches or swirls on mine, optimum no rinse ftw
I use the ‘show room shine’ stuff that Ideal World market on the telly and their web site. Just wait for a 2 for 1, or 3 for 2 offer to come round and stock up.
Being such a small car it takes no time at all to wiz round the 5, particularly as mine only tends to go out in the dry. Leaves more time for going back to the detail which I quite enjoy. Plus, I can clean it in the garage if its cold or damp out - could do with getting a hinge on the house bay window then I could drive into the living room and polish it in front of the fire
I have just tried some of this Pro-Shine stuff… quite impressed, though the car was not very dirty. Only dust and muddy splashes up the side. No swirls, nice shine, though it had not long previously been washed and polished with Auto Glym.
As others, the thought of wiping dirt off on a dry car doesn’t feel right. I also do not like the idea of hosing the poor car with that water stuff which will find its way into all sorts of places and not dry for some time while possibly feeding the rust mites. The only time I will do that now is to clear the salt and other undesirable stuff from underneath.
I have just done my first waterless wash, very counter intuitive of my existing learnt behaviour. I used Showroom Shine, I have used it before as just a wax on my MKI after cleaning. My car’s paintwork has a hard life, its parked under a tree and always in dusty/muddy environmnets. I’m not into detailing and my car is my everyday driver in a rural environment but I like to keep it clean. A freind of mine who has a carwash and a detailing company has moved to a washless system for his mobile valeting and told me to trust the product. Its not the one he uses, his is shipped in from the states and he won’t tell me the brand.
I brought my 2008 NC in November and have not had a proper chance to protect the paintwork since I got it. So two weeks ago, following a very thorough bath and wheel clean, I used Autoglyms new formula resin polish on the car. The Galaxy Grey paint work was very flat and dull. Two coats of resin polish per panel brought it back up a glass like shine. The new formular is much better than the old one by the way, left a real depth to the paintwork. Then came the first application of Showroom Shine, a very thick application. Its brilliant on glass and mirrors but don’t get it on rubber. Then I left the car for two weeks lots of mud splatters, bird dirt, insect splats.
Well today I gave it the first full waterless wash. It felt sooooooo wrong after twenty seven years of hoses, buckets, sponges, wash mits, brushes and chamois and cloths. I sprayed on the first panel, probably used way too much and and then, left it for a minute. Then came the moment of truth, using a micropore cloth folded in four I wiped across the grime, with NO pressure applied. At first it seemed to smear every where and not do a lot. I then turned the cloth and gave it a second wipe and looked at the cloth. It was sodden with grime but the panel was clear. After using all the cloth area the panel was now gleaming. Not a scratch in sight. Bugs just lifted off and insect poo (green and yellow little deposits) came off in one lump sliding across the bodywork. The same for mud and dust.
I’m stunned, took me about half an hour to do the whole car. I’m a convert.
Bear in mind that the car is parked under a tree, its cloudy and raining when I took the picture!
I did have a mixture of micropore cloths, I probably used about twenty in all. Some were Autoglyms red ones, which I reserved for the final polish. Some were Halfords own brand, which were rubbish and have been resigned to dusting duties. The bulk were Ideal World’s magic micropores, which are brilliant, eight for a tenner. The Showroom Shine spray bottle is useless and you can’t control the spray. I decanted into a smaller household plant spray which is much better.
Showroom shine is awsome, i use it on the bodywork, glass and tyres.
ONR (Optimum No Rinse) is the go-to product in waterless washing.
I’m not a fan of the system but I understand that its a necessity for some people. Technique is VITAL to avoid incurring marring though.
Onr is fine used correctly, use it alot on my car which has been fully corrected, onr will not inflict any more damage than normal washing, but both done badly can inflict damage:)
Exactly, as with most products technique is the most important part.
I used Mantis Instant Shine waterless cleaner on mine, I as looking for a way to clean car at rallies etc, hand on heart I can honestly say the car has never looked better. It has had a recent respray and I was being ultra careful about applying pressure when removing dirt, it just lifted away, a quick buff and it was gleaming. Car has stood outside untouched for a week now but still looks like I just cleaned it.