Mini review - SONAX Nano Technology Liquid Wax

[PPLd]

Dear all,

I have been using NXT2.0 liquid for near 2 years. It is my first wax I ever used and thats what get me hooked onto detailing. Since then I found myself seriously addicted to online detailing forums LOL. I bought a bottle of Sonax Nano Technology Liquid Wax in my last order. Guess some of you may be interested to hear more about this wax.

I will be comparing this wax with the Meguiar's NXT 2.0 as standard. I bet NXT is a wax that a lot of people are familiar with, so you will know how good/bad the Sonax perform.

Intro:
If you read the website of Sonax:
Xtreme Series :: Products :: Car Care - SONAX - cleaning and polishing like a professional
you will know that they have 3 liquid waxes with nano technology, namely 1,2, and 3. The Nano Wax 1 is a pure wax, while 2 is a Cleaner wax, and 3 is the strongest cleaner wax. Obviously 1 offers the most protection while 3 offers the least. The one that Autogeek sells is 1. It is a blend of synthetic and carnauba together.
Sonax claims that they have made use of Nano technology in the wax, making the wax particles super fine. How small? Mathematically, a Nano meter means 0.000 000 001 meter. Thats too small to be seen even in a microsope. The super fine particles of wax make the product to distribute more evenly on the surface of paint, hence increasing the shine and smoothness.

Application:
I washed my silver Nissan Fuga (2007) with Autoglym Shampoo. Clayed with Meguiar's white clay, ONR as lube. Dried with Meguiar's water magnet. Polished with Meguiar's Swirl X on polishing pad with DA (follow the recommendation by Meguiar's). Applied the Sonax Nano Liquid Wax with finishing pad. I intensionally tried to apply a bit thicker on the roof and hood, and applied normally on other panels. This is not a perfect show car level prep, but I guess it is good to stay at a level that most people can achieve when you write a review.

Thoughts:
The Sonax Nano 1 is a thin white liquid. It has no scent, no slick feeling as you apply it with DA, feel like spreading "odourless milk" around. I do hope that this wax has a scent so that I know whether this panel has been waxed or not by smell...

Shine is about the same with NXT2.0. You can use read words from the reflection, but Sonax is harder to remove than NXT2.0, especially on my roof. Come back the next day (12 hours), car feel alright but not as slick as NXT2.0.

Took my car out, the car has a very clean and bright silver synthetic sealant look. It does not darken the paint like NXT2.0 sometimes does on my car in some angle when you look at it, but I think NXT2.0 pops the metal flakes better.

In warm and wet climate like here in Hong Kong, NXT2.0 would last for 3-4 weeks on my car (1-2 wash a month, driven 1-2 times a week, 5-6000 miles per year). I have heard that this Sonax can withstand harsh German winter for a few months, I will see how well this wax hold.

Conclusion:
While I did not use a scientific instrument to check if the carnauba particles are really at size of nano, the advantage of Nano tech is not a difference that my eyes can tell.
This is not a bad wax by itself, but there are better alternatives out there.
Thanks for reading! Welcome to share on this product as well!

[Matt]

Thanks for the review. It will be interesting to see how long this wax will last as I find the NXT durability hopeless.

[PPLd]

Update (7 March 2011):
My car has exposed to a little bit of rainfall (make the ground just a bit wet that kind, how you call it in English?) and I left the rain water to dry on my car for whole week. Some city driving.

I inspected the car today.
It is still looking very clean, and the car seems to be slicker than day 1!
It appears that the wax is holding up well for first week...
I will report back later.

[Shawn T.]

Nice! Thanks for the update.

[PPLd]

Dear all,

After applying the Sonax wax, I abused the car a bit:
Leave the car outside half of the time. It is exposed to the (radioactive) acid rain and strong sunlight here in Asia. I even washed it once with dish wash soap. Rain water was allowed to dry on the paint by itself with all those dust and dirt.

It rained again tonight night and think I should share what I see:
Excellent beading. No significant water spot is observed afterwards, just dusty. It is not slick as first week as you can expect, and some contamination begin to embed on the paint. With a spray of water, the paint is clean again and very glossy.

I only had an iPhone with me... sorry for the low quality but u can still see the beading...


I will post back later to see how it hold up...
For the moment I would give it a
Thanks for reading.

[CEE DOG]

Very cool Dennis! Excellent review! And thank you very much for all the updates. It's very helpful and appreciated!

[PPLd]

Let me post a pic of how the car looks like after a spray with water, and dried with an old towel, nothing else...

[Matt]

Beading still looks very tight after a month and a half of acid rain and etc, good to note.

I wonder how it will hold up for the next month and a half..

[PPLd]

Beading still looks very tight after a month and a half of acid rain and etc, good to note.

I wonder how it will hold up for the next month and a half..

I will keep you informed Matt~

What I like about this product is that it can perform what it is supposed to do: protect the paint surface. I polished the paint surface, and the Sonax sealant is able to keep the shiny appearance of my paint unlike Meguiar's NXT will dull down soon when I apply onto the same car, exposed to same environment.

[PPLd]

5 months UPDATE:

I washed the car with Meguiar's NXT car wash and dried with just towels last week. Thats all it get since what I posted before --- only 1 wash, with all the dirt and acid rain residue accumulating on the paint surface and Asia heat of average over 90F temperature in shade.
I drove to work this morning and rain water is still beading like the pic I posted last time. No sign of degrading in water beading.
Impressive durability with good shine on my silver car!
I can post a pic later when I get back home.