17 Rinseless Washes Reviewed: pictures, charts, smell tests, and pseudo-science
Here’s my thoughts on 17 rinseless washes.
This is less technical, and more focused on my user experience.
I'm a hobbyist who only details my own cars. I have very limited time for this hobby, so when I do, I require easy to use, enjoyable products.
This is just a small project I did for fun. It's not a highly in-depth technical review of each product. The results for other users can be impacted by conditions, process, vehicle etc. So, I didn’t want to get too bogged down in “product X was more slick/durable/beaded better” etc. There’s lots of those tests and videos out there.
This is designed to provide one user’s experience for a bunch of products, and compared to each other, in hopes it may be helpful to others. I hope this spurs good discussion, and encourages others to share their input.
It's not designed to make people mad, or say “product X is the best, and you are bad for not liking it”.
We have lots of rinseless washes to choose from, and generally, they are all pretty solid. If my preferences are different from yours, that's okay.
The perfect rinseless wash to me would be: mild scent, visually distinguishable from water when mixed, feel meaningful when you put your hands in it, super easy to work with, in a bottle that doesn’t suck, and a label that is attractive and has good directions. Spoiler: none of these check all of those boxes, but a couple come pretty close.
Let's jump in!
Photo of the products tested:
I broke these down into 5 categories, generally based on the label or general understanding of a product:
Waterless Washes used as Rinseless: I included a couple options here, and wish I wouldn’t have. I included Optimum Opticlean in a few photos, but no writeup. However, I had a specific reason for including both of the ones I did. These are marketed as Waterless Washes, but can be used as rinseless washes.
Rinseless Washes with Wax or Meaningful protection: these tout some measure of protection, relative to rinseless washes.
Rinseless Washes with Gloss: these generally are polymer based, and I like to call this “incidental protection”, with “protection” being used loosely. It basically leaves “something” behind. Some people get super riled up over polymers getting left behind. To me, who cares. If you’re doing a coating, you’ll use a surface prep anyways. And if you worry that the polymers mask or interfere with your existing surface or protection, they are pretty minimal and have a very short lifespan. But if your opinion differs, that's just okay. I'm just here to have fun.
Rinseless Washes, Polymer based, with No Gloss: this is where my level of knowledge in this area is lacking. Do these products simply not market the product as leaving glossing agents behind, or do they use polymers that don't actually leave glossing agents behind? These are a strange category, and I don’t quite understand the benefits of them. Maybe that's why there’s only 2 in this category.
Rinseless Washes, “Clean”, no polymers: These options say they leave nothing behind. Their mode of cleaning uses surfactants, (I guess), and not encapsulation or other methods utilized by polymers.
Smell: Sadly, this is probably the most important factor to me. A product could be the best functioning, but if the smell makes me sick or gives me a headache, I just won't use it. So, I smelled them all, then wrote down the first thing that came to mind. Then I rated, relatively, if it was strong, mild, or weak.
Consistency: self explanatory. Some are basically colored water. Others are more milky (generally the polymer based products, and 1 is very thick and gloppy.
Suds: How much the product foams up after mixed. This is relative to these products.
Cost- This doesn’t factor into my ranking scale. But, it really matters to some people, so I show the cost per common bottle size, cost per oz of concentrate, then $ per 2 gallon of mixed solution.
Dirt Test: Someone here or on Reddit or somewhere had done this test and I wanted to recreate it. I dumped half a teaspoon of fine soil into 16 oz of properly diluted mixture, then shook it up. Does this tell us much? I don’t know. I found it interesting to look at. You can visually see the difference in how the polymers impact things. I found a couple that behaved differently than the label might suggest.
Function test: I used these all, generally several at a time, over the series of several months, and jotted my notes down after using each one. I did not mix 17 buckets of rinseless all at once.
Here’s the first chart summarizing a few characteristics of them:
Visual
Here’s how they all look mixed up at the suggested ratio for rinseless:
Here’s the ratio I mixed these at, generally all straight from the bottle label or the website:
Suds:
First half of the test I didn’t take pictures of the suds until after I added dirt, sorry.
Dirt Test:
Here’s photos from the dirt test.
This was initially difficult for me to capture via photo, so most of the photos aren’t great, but I log my findings in a chart.
What I'm trying to show is that some of these look way different in the jar after dumping the dirt into the jar and shaking it up.
Almost immediately, you could see dirt sticking to the side of the jar, either towards the top or the bottom. I didn’t immediately put much stock into this, but it turns out that almost every polymer based one acts this way. The others don’t. Was hoping to use this to smoke out some of the chemistry behind these, but I don’t know the first thing about chemistry. So, we’re stuck with dirt.
Here’s what I mean. In both of the photos, the product on the right is exhibiting totally different behavior than the product on the left:
So, here’s a series of photos after I mixed in the dirt, attempting to show the effects of polymers on the dirt:
Takeaways:
-The marketed “clean” ones behave exactly the way they should: no visual evidence of dirt sticking to the jar.
-All the ones that showed this dirt sticking behavior listed polymers in them, or it’s implied.
-However, not all products that specifically list polymers exhibited this behavior. Are they different polymers than the ones that show this behavior? Is it simply marketing/technicality (and no polymers?)
-Maybe this test is junk. But it sure was fun.
-Carpro Ech2O: Smells very unique. Minty. Half the time it's my favorite, half the time it smells like minty dirty laundry.
Feels very substantial after mixed up. This one was sooo critically acclaimed, I expected it to change my world.
And I was a bit let down. I found it a bit finicky to use, which was a bummer. A little streaky, and needed extra buffing.
But I readily acknowledge this could be chalked up to conditions, user error, etc. I’ll keep this one around and pull out when I want a different experience.
It was bizarre when poured into the glass jar. It actively fought against blending with the water, like oil.
Just look at the photo below! It floated to the top of the water. No other product did this. I do like that it looks nice and blue when mixed up.
After you’re done and have a bucket of dirty solution though, it's just sort of off-putting. Like, “should I be taking this to the hazmat drop-off?”
My bottle also doesn’t specifically list a ratio for Rinseless wash.
That doesn’t mean it can’t be used that way though, but it does possibly indicate the original target for the development of the product.
I know people love this one, I just wasn’t as impressed as I hoped to be. It’s a fine product, but it won't be the one I primarily reach for.
I’ll use this when my car isn’t too dirty, and I want that smell experience.
-P&S Absolute: This is a winner. I do wish the strength of the scent was knocked down by about 40% though. Tropical coconut or sunscreen.
The only other nitpicky thing I have to say is: the text on that label. I heard Anthony at TRC say on their podcast that he wrote the label.
I'm a big fan of Anthony, but the label needs some QC. However, if I have to pick on the label to say something bad, you know it's a great product.
Really thick, so shake it up well. It gives the impression that you are working with something that won’t scratch your paint. The bottle is nice, the graphics are nice.
And it cleans dirty vehicles really, really well. If I have a really dirty car, this will be the first one I reach for. It doesn’t release dirt as well from wash media as other options, but this really doesn’t matter to me.
My wife was watching me use this and comparing the dirty towels vs N-914 and DIYDetail and clearly noticed this. Doesn’t require extra buffing or wiping. Good on glass. P&S did it right (they had to, Epic was so terrible).
The color of the product in my bottle is white. Recent online store images show it as blue (which is a good move), and I wonder if someone can confirm their bottle contains blue liquid. If so, I'm getting a new bottle.
It's the second cheapest per 2 gallon solution that I tested. What great value. I highly recommend this one. I’ll use this one a lot.
- Optimum No Rinse: this is the first rinseless I ever used, like 15 years ago. I wish they didn’t change the scent from the original version. Now it smells like Welch’s Sparkling Grape Juice.
It just flat out works. I do occasionally find myself needing to take an extra pass to knock down small streaking. It's economical, very popular and there are a hundred different ways to use it.
I don’t find myself reaching for it very much, because there have been so many new entrants to the market that I prefer a bit more. I love that it keeps its color after mixing.
This will always be in my arsenal, but there are others that give a more enjoyable experience, in my opinion.
I’d consider this if I could only ever have one rinseless for the rest of my life… but it's just a bit bland. It’s like the Toyota Camry of rinseless washes.
Good, safe product.
-Oberk Rinseless Wash: Very pleasant experience. Nice cherry/fruit smell. Doesn’t seem like it's anything special, but I need to work with it more.
Why on earth does this cost as much as it does? On a per wash basis, it's middle of the pack, but it's the most expensive 32oz bottle I tried. I expected it to blow my mind.
This is not a purchase you would make, in my opinion, if you were on a strict budget and trying to be value-oriented. You could convince me that it's slightly tweaked Wolfgang Uber.
I found the 2 pretty similar (maybe it's just the color and smell?) But most of the other characteristics are the same. It cleans fine, leaves a nice shine.
It says it leaves gloss behind, but I didn’t see the characteristic polymer/dirt sticking in my test, so I don’t have a good feel for how this product works.
Nothing really stood out to me with it. I’ll continue to use it occasionally, but would like to hear feedback from others on this one.
- Wolfgang Uber: I’ve been working with this one for a long time. Think it was the first ONR alternative that I tried. It's a very solid choice, and a nice experience to work with.
Very glossy finish left behind, cleans decently. Not fussy. Approachable cherry scent. I like that it keeps its red color after being mixed.
It was a really good option 4+ years ago, but I think the newest generation of products have outclassed it, but that doesn’t mean that it performs any worse than it ever did.
One thing I don’t like is the bottle. It's a premium product, nice label, etc so why on earth did they pick the bettix bottle?!? I totally get that it's a functional choice, but it just makes me think of an insecticide, or cheapness, etc.
As a sucker for branding and an appreciator of fine bottling, this is a major miss. PBMG has some of the worst bottling out there- time for a refresh, but they don’t seem to be positioning themselves to execute this.
However, the liquid in the bottle is great. I’ll use this a few times this summer. Will I buy more once my bottle is out? Probably not. But if you want a PBMG rinseless wash, this is a fine option.
- Ultima Waterless Wash- I love this one. Love the color, the smell and its performance. It markets a bit of protection after the wash, and maybe so.
Definitely feels less substantial, and less finicky than the other wash & wax products tested here, so I’d say this is closer to a wash & gloss.
This one is what I reach for if I have a nice sealant that I want to top off for another week or so. However: this could be Wolfgang Uber with a different color and smell.
It even uses the same dilution ratio. I don’t notice much difference between this product, and the other Polymer-marketed products but non-exhibiting polymer behavior offerings: Wolfgang Uber, and Oberk Rinseless.
It's a very mild scent that reminds me of a popsicle, or Gatorade. Hate the bottle. Cleans just fine, but doesn’t strike me as the best choice for a really dirty vehicle.
Top-shelf product.
- American Detailer Garage Fuzion Hybrid Wash- ADG gets points for squeezing almost every letter of the english alphabet in their product name. And that's about it.
What on earth is this? I tried this because I was convinced a foaming rinseless would be awesome. And its not. It just makes a giant sloppy, gloppy mess.
When used as a regular rinseless, it exhibits forgettable performance. Smeary, and didn’t pick up dirt nearly as well as the two I tried it beside (DIY and Absolute, this wasn’t a fair fight).
And the price? Terrible. Double the next most expensive option, and I found this to be one of the worst of the products I tried.
It seems like a product that started out as something else (soap?) and they thought they could tweak (or not) it for another purpose.
I did think about keeping some mixed up in an IK Foamer for use on wheels when doing a rinseless, or just as a prespray for a bucket wash.
I suppose if you could only buy one single wash chemical… maybe this would be it? It seems like it tries to do way too much, and doesn’t do any one thing very well.
The smell is utterly forgettable (what is it even? Sorta fruit-based antiseptic or something). I like the color, but it doesn’t maintain when mixed in a bucket.
Also foams (not a surprise) more than any other product I tried, and just feels like squeaky soap when you put your hands in it.
It was fun to try something that generated such confusion, but I wish it did better. Maybe their non-foaming rinseless is better?
- Griots Brilliant Finish Rinseless Wash: Another one that I was looking forward to.
It just didn’t perform very well for me and its sort of in a weird category: pure, with no glossing agents, but still polymer-based (look at the dirt test for proof).
So why would you want to use this? The color is nice, but just looks like water once you mix it up. The smell is also like Windex or cleaning chemicals, so no points there.
The jug sucks. Its huge and has the world's worst lid.
Comparing this to Griot's other rinseless options, you get the sense that this one was blended for a specific purpose of differentiation or monetization- kind of hard to articulate this point, but look at the mix ratio (relatively low 128:1) and the bottle size.
Wish they would just double the concentration and halve the bottle size. It's the cheapest per wash though.
This category of rinseless just serves no purpose for me. In the head to head test, my wife really enjoyed using this one though, so your experience may vary.
It was good as a pre-spray. It just didn’t provide that experience that is important to me. It cleans fine, and isn't difficult to use.
Doesn’t seem to have gained much popularity.
I won’t be using this probably ever again, and will be looking to get rid of my remaining jug. Takes up too much room in my “unused detailing stuff” tub in the basement.
- Gloss Shop Sublime: Probably a top-3 highly anticipated purchase for me. I got this when everyone was jumping on the N-914 bandwagon, and I didn’t want to participate.
Also a cool logo, small distributor, no in-your-face marketing etc. I love the color, wish it held up when mixed. Bottle, label, and economics are fine.
Think it's 1 of about 3 “clean” options on the market. But the smell! Its okay at first. After the first sniff in the bottle, I thought this was going to be a game changer.
Something like sunscreen or coconut or tropical. But then after a couple minutes of using, it started making me sick. Like, can’t handle it, throw up, product ruined.
Such a shame. From what I remember, it functioned okay. Cleaned really good. Its texture is different from most, since its a little thicker and syrupy, which I really appreciate.
Its a subconscious, positive thing when I “feel” like I'm not just mixing in colored water.
However, on the Gloss Shop website, it does appear that the listing has been updated with “New Formula” and “Cherry Limeade (mild)” in the description.
Maybe I'm not the only one that hated the original scent. I’d like to give this another try, but… we’ll see. I’ll be getting rid of the bottle I have.
- McKees N-914: One of the 800 pound gorillas in the room. It works. It's a good experience. I just don’t enjoy the “clean” rinseless options as much as polymer based cleaners.
But make no mistake: its a great product. The smell is mild (fruit cleaner?), but far from my favorite. Slight tweak here would move it up my list a bit.
Its very slippery feeling, but a bit more squeaky or soapy feeling than some other options. Good on glass. It does smear the dirt around a bit more than other options, in my experience.
But it releases the soil from the wash media really well. I think a product that’s really good at cleaning really dirty surfaces won’t release as well, and vice-versa.
I tested this head to head with Absolute and DIY and it held its own. It's not finicky, and doesn't require extra wiping.
I’ll keep this around, but it won't be the first product I choose for everyday rinseless washing. Don’t be hesitant to try this one. It's really good.
- DIYDetail Rinseless Wash: My most recent addition. It's good. Easy to use. I tested head to head with Absolute and N-914 and did great.
I'm not sure it's a game changer or does something that doesn’t currently already exist, but it's just an overall solid offering.
However, the most interesting finding to me was: I think it's very, VERY similar to McKee’s N-914. Almost everything about it, except for the color.
Same windex/cleaner scent undertones with a fruit top layer (apple?). Viscosity in the bottle is the same. Suds/foam the same.
Same texture in the bucket (soaplike/squeaky, unlike the polymer-based offerings). Same dirt reaction, wash media release, same cleaning style (more smeary than Absolute, and identical to N-914).
The second possibly controversial thing I’ll say here is: I didn’t see any visible evidence of polymers, based upon my rudimentary dirt test.
I know they say it uses both polymers and emulsifiers, but to me, it's just emulsifiers, or polymers that act completely differently than ONR/Absolute/Griots/Duragloss.
But still acts just like N-914 which (says it) doesn't have polymers. I’d be interested in everyone else’s thoughts on this.
Someone will come along and explain to me how different polymers react differently, and that's fine.
I don’t know if any of my previous observations matter, other than I was expecting to see it do something unique… and I just didn’t see it.
What it is: a really easy to use, high performing rinseless wash. It pushes dirt around a bit more than Absolute, but releases dirt from wash media better.
It's not finicky and does not require significant work to get a clean surface. I was completely surprised with its performance.
Top tier product for sure. Think I posted elsewhere that I wasn’t expecting much out of it, just based on looking at the bottle when I received it. Totally changed my mind in real-world testing.
It's a great product. I’ll continue to use this.
Look how similar DIYDetail and N-914 look when mixed up, and react with dirt:
- P&S Epic Waterless Wash: this is maybe a bit unfair to list here, but it was P&S’s closest thing to a rinseless wash prior to Absolute.
Detailed Image also gave indication that it could be diluted further and used as a rinseless. Their website description was wrong (1oz per 4gal water, instead of 4oz per 1gal of water), but they fixed it after I asked for clarification.
They then gave me some good pointers on where to start on dilution ratios for rinseless. Apparently P&S’s struggles to produce a helpful, easy to read and understandable label aren’t unique to just Absolute, because this label is terrible.
In the span of about 25 words they say “gloss intensifier”, “traditional wax”, “Quick detail spray”, “easiest polish job ever”. They then go on to explain that you should use one towel to apply the product, and one towel to polish your paint.
Their mention of “filmy haze” rounds out the embarrassingly bad label from a company who could do much better. Maybe I should offer my services. Now, onto the parts that actually matter: It's not a good product.
The smell is close to being decent, but I hate it. It's not a great cleaner, and is the 3rd most expensive option here.
I think it's another victim of something trying to be good at too many things, and therefore it's actually bad at everything it tries.
Not sure who will buy this. I bought this because I loved the other P&S products I tried, and assumed this would be at least competent.
This is in my “get rid of” stack, and that’s saying something.
Thank goodness they came out with Absolute, which overcorrected for this forgettable product.
-DP Rinseless Wash and Gloss: this was on clearance at Autogeek and the site doesn’t even list it any more, so that should tell you something.
I opened the bottle, peeked in the classically sad PBMG bottle and decided that it didn’t look or smell like something I wanted to put my hands into.
Cucumber Chlorine maybe? Test ended there.
- Griots Rinseless Wash and Wax: Use this one when you want your neighbors down the street to know that you are washing your car.
It's a good grape smell, and doesn’t give a headache, but it's very strong. The product does provide a nice shine, and the appearance of some decent (for rinseless) protection.
It's a cute, handy little bottle. It's not an earth shattering product, and I probably won't use this for the most filthy jobs, but it's certainly a capable rinseless wash.
Feels substantial when you are working with it. It's such a beautiful and unique color when mixed up, I just have to keep the pre-labeled Griots spray bottle hanging on the wall.
It's not my favorite rinseless wash-and-wax, but it's solid.
- Duragloss Rinseless Wash with Aquawax 931: This would be a market-shifting product if Duragloss refreshed their brand and used modern marketing.
It is consistently underrated, and some of the reason is likely the unattractive bottle and labeling, and been around for a long time.
Imagine if this were sold in a CarPro bottle and accompanied by the typical modern marketing circuit.
This is as good as a rinseless wash-and-wax could perform, in my opinion. You can dilute to different strengths and mix it with the DG quick detailer for additional flexibility.
Love the safe cherry smell. I’ve used it on impressively filthy vehicles and it does very well.
It's a bit more finicky than the non-wax options reviewed here, but as easy as it gets in this category.
Sometimes takes an additional pass with a towel to remove streaking.
I’ll always have this on my shelf.
- Optimum No Rinse Wash & Wax: This one is so offensively apple smelling and disgustingly green looking that no matter how good it may be, I just can’t get past it.
Polymer reaction to the dirt test was very obvious.
I used it once, it cleaned fine and probably left a decent finish.
To me, there’s much better wash and wax options.
I'm getting rid of it.
-Optimum Opti Clean: Wasn’t really fair to include this one, since its more of a waterless wash, but I read some comments online about people using this as a rinseless.
I love the smell. Think its old ONR, which is very nostalgic to me. I use this product on door sills.
Did not use this as a rinseless, but the polymer behavior when doing the dirt test was very strong.
I used the same ratio as ONR, just to see if visually there was evidence of more polymers, and it sure seemed that way to me.
They need to change their product names between OptiClean and PowerClean.
No matter what thread you read, you stumble across a few people that talk about PowerClean when the subject is OptiClean etc.
Kind of a niche product, but I’ll use it frequently.
Smells better than other waterless washes, so that puts it at the front of the pack for me.
Bonus:
I had a sample of the Blackfire Rinseless Wash, and it looked and smelled exactly like ONR.
I somehow misplaced the sample before I could try it, but my speculation is that it was basically ONR.
Maybe someone else can chime in here.
My top 3 (check almost every box):
P&S Absolute
Ultima Waterless Wash
Duragloss Rinseless Wash w/ Aquawax
I enjoy these (not my favorites, but like to use them):
Wolfgang Uber
Oberk Rinseless Wash
DIYDetail Rinseless
CarPro Ech2O
Griots Rinseless Wash and Wax
These are great products (probably won’t use a lot, but really good products):
Optimum No Rinse
McKees N-914
Getting Rid of (I strongly dislike these):
P&S Epic
Optimum No Rinse Wash and Wax
DP Rinseless Wash & Gloss
American Detailer Garage Fuzion Hybrid
Griots Brilliant Rinseless Wash
The Gloss Shop Sublime
Ones To Try Next:
Feynlab Rinseless
Opti Clean Rinseless Wash
AmmoNYC Foaming Rinseless
Gloss Shop Sublime New Formula
Closing Thoughts:
Of my top 10, I could reach for any of them on any given day.
There’s little separating #1 from #10, in my opinion. A lot of it just comes down to preference and mood.
#11-#16 really are not in the same league, to me. They’re either just not fun to use, or don’t perform, or both.
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