JonMiles
12-16-2010, 06:13 PM
Thanks to KurtS I was given an opportunity to try 2 new car wash soaps. He sent me a sample of Optimum Car Wash Soap and Chemical Guys Citrus Wash and Gloss. Previous to having been given a sample of these I had in my possession Ultima Paint Guard Wash, Megs Hyperwash, Duragloss 902, and a few others that were not compared in this test.
I made sure to smell each of the products to determine who would win the smell test portion of the review. I noticed that Duragloss and Optimum both have a berry smell to them. However the Duragloss is more of a cough medicine berry. The CG smelled like Mountain Dew according to my girlfriend. The Hyperwash and Ultima were a bit neutral smelling with a light fragrance of berry.
The consistency of each varied quite a bit. The CG being the thickest was also the highest dilution. It was like a neon yellow syrup. The duragloss was thick but not as thick as the CG. The Ultima and Optimum had a medium consistency whereas the Megs was light and each to pour quickly.
The price of each of these products was not looked at because I believe that performance pf a product outweighs price by a long shot.
To begin the test, I set up 5 separate buckets with 3 gallons of water in each one and had 2 vehicles to work on at the same time. I mixed each soap to the proper dilution and activated the suds with a stream of water.
My first observation, CG and Megs and Ultima had the highest dilution ratios. This makes the more expensive Ultima and CG more economical in the long run as they go a long way. As far as the suds go, the DG 902 and Optimum had the fullest suds of the bunch. They seemed very fluffy and stood still while the others seemed to fizzle a little bit.
Also by feeling the products with my hand, each was very lubricious. The slipperiest product was the DG 902 by a long shot, followed by the Ultima. The Optimum was close to the Ultima but slightly less slippery. The Megs and CG products were slick but not nearly as slick as the others. My hands actually felt a little sticky after handling the CG.
Now onto the washing part of the test. Each bucket with activated suds had a grit guard at the bottom and one microfiber wash mitt. My plan was to rinse the cars with water then pick up some suds from each bucket to do an individual panel on the two cars that had been hit by bugs that week.
While washing, took note of the ability to lift dirt, the feeling of the mitt sliding across the surface and the look of the surface after each panel.
Chemical Guys had the best cleaning ability of the group. It was able to lift bugs and dirt up in a single pass of the wash mitt. The feel of the CG product was not desirable IMO, the mitt seemed a bit sticky when rubbed across the paint.
The Duragloss had great cleaning ability and was very slick on the paint.
The Optimum and Ultima were almost identical throughout the test, both cleaned pretty well and were very slick on the paint. Two passes of the mitt was all it took to remove most stuff on the paint.
The Megs Hyperwash was the least impressive of the group. The cleaning ability was moderate at best and the slickness was decent but not really impressive. The only save for the Hyperwash was its dilution and price. At less than $20 bucks for a gallon of soap at 400:1 dilution it is great for production detailing; not so great for the enthusiast or high end detailer.
Rinsing was a surprise for me. Upon rinsing the surfaces of each panel 3 began to sheet water immediately and 2 were beading up.
The CG, Ultima, and DG all sheeted water off very quickly. The Optimum and Megs began to bead water off.
It was evident on the DG panel that something was left behind on the surface as the sheeting water had little prismatic bubbles in it. The water ran off the surface very quickly and was almost dry after a few seconds. The surface looked like it was just waxed even on a car that hadn't been sealed in 3 months.
The CG and Ultima had nearly identical behaviors while rinsing. They sheet water off well and leave no water spots behind after one pass of a ww drying towel.
The Megs Hyperwash was free-rinsing as indicated on the bottle. The water rinsed the suds off readily and beaded up on the old sealant. It was very easy to rinse the paint off with flooding. This result was the same for Optimum.
The finish product of each panel was identical except where the DG was applied. The DG had a nice looking glow left behind where the other surfaces were clean and normal looking.
No marring was observed on any panel, so this indicated that the soaps were efficient in cleaning the surface while providing the lubricity needed to lift dirt rather than drag it.
Upon completion of the test I went inside to get a drink of water. When I came back out; the Duragloss and Optimum both had bubbles remaining in the bucket. The other 3 products had all gone flat. This was amazing as an hour had passed between initial activation of suds and the time I had completed.
The clear winner in this test was Duragloss 902. It had great lubricity, great cleaning ability and left a just-waxed finish on the surface.
The runner-up was CG due to it's great cleaning ability. It also has the ability to strip wax pretty easily so it would be great before polishing.
A tie for third was the Ultima and Optimum products. Both were good in all regards but did not clean as well as DG or CG. They seem very evenly matched and were a breeze to work with.
The loser in the matchup was Megs. Sorry Barry Meguiar, your product is best left for production detailing. Hyperwash is a good product for people who do a lot of cars, but it does not clean well enough or have the lubricity necessary to keep my piece of mind while working with it.
Thanks again Kurt for letting me try Optimum and CG wash soaps.
Thank you for reading and your opinions are welcome. :dblthumb2:
I made sure to smell each of the products to determine who would win the smell test portion of the review. I noticed that Duragloss and Optimum both have a berry smell to them. However the Duragloss is more of a cough medicine berry. The CG smelled like Mountain Dew according to my girlfriend. The Hyperwash and Ultima were a bit neutral smelling with a light fragrance of berry.
The consistency of each varied quite a bit. The CG being the thickest was also the highest dilution. It was like a neon yellow syrup. The duragloss was thick but not as thick as the CG. The Ultima and Optimum had a medium consistency whereas the Megs was light and each to pour quickly.
The price of each of these products was not looked at because I believe that performance pf a product outweighs price by a long shot.
To begin the test, I set up 5 separate buckets with 3 gallons of water in each one and had 2 vehicles to work on at the same time. I mixed each soap to the proper dilution and activated the suds with a stream of water.
My first observation, CG and Megs and Ultima had the highest dilution ratios. This makes the more expensive Ultima and CG more economical in the long run as they go a long way. As far as the suds go, the DG 902 and Optimum had the fullest suds of the bunch. They seemed very fluffy and stood still while the others seemed to fizzle a little bit.
Also by feeling the products with my hand, each was very lubricious. The slipperiest product was the DG 902 by a long shot, followed by the Ultima. The Optimum was close to the Ultima but slightly less slippery. The Megs and CG products were slick but not nearly as slick as the others. My hands actually felt a little sticky after handling the CG.
Now onto the washing part of the test. Each bucket with activated suds had a grit guard at the bottom and one microfiber wash mitt. My plan was to rinse the cars with water then pick up some suds from each bucket to do an individual panel on the two cars that had been hit by bugs that week.
While washing, took note of the ability to lift dirt, the feeling of the mitt sliding across the surface and the look of the surface after each panel.
Chemical Guys had the best cleaning ability of the group. It was able to lift bugs and dirt up in a single pass of the wash mitt. The feel of the CG product was not desirable IMO, the mitt seemed a bit sticky when rubbed across the paint.
The Duragloss had great cleaning ability and was very slick on the paint.
The Optimum and Ultima were almost identical throughout the test, both cleaned pretty well and were very slick on the paint. Two passes of the mitt was all it took to remove most stuff on the paint.
The Megs Hyperwash was the least impressive of the group. The cleaning ability was moderate at best and the slickness was decent but not really impressive. The only save for the Hyperwash was its dilution and price. At less than $20 bucks for a gallon of soap at 400:1 dilution it is great for production detailing; not so great for the enthusiast or high end detailer.
Rinsing was a surprise for me. Upon rinsing the surfaces of each panel 3 began to sheet water immediately and 2 were beading up.
The CG, Ultima, and DG all sheeted water off very quickly. The Optimum and Megs began to bead water off.
It was evident on the DG panel that something was left behind on the surface as the sheeting water had little prismatic bubbles in it. The water ran off the surface very quickly and was almost dry after a few seconds. The surface looked like it was just waxed even on a car that hadn't been sealed in 3 months.
The CG and Ultima had nearly identical behaviors while rinsing. They sheet water off well and leave no water spots behind after one pass of a ww drying towel.
The Megs Hyperwash was free-rinsing as indicated on the bottle. The water rinsed the suds off readily and beaded up on the old sealant. It was very easy to rinse the paint off with flooding. This result was the same for Optimum.
The finish product of each panel was identical except where the DG was applied. The DG had a nice looking glow left behind where the other surfaces were clean and normal looking.
No marring was observed on any panel, so this indicated that the soaps were efficient in cleaning the surface while providing the lubricity needed to lift dirt rather than drag it.
Upon completion of the test I went inside to get a drink of water. When I came back out; the Duragloss and Optimum both had bubbles remaining in the bucket. The other 3 products had all gone flat. This was amazing as an hour had passed between initial activation of suds and the time I had completed.
The clear winner in this test was Duragloss 902. It had great lubricity, great cleaning ability and left a just-waxed finish on the surface.
The runner-up was CG due to it's great cleaning ability. It also has the ability to strip wax pretty easily so it would be great before polishing.
A tie for third was the Ultima and Optimum products. Both were good in all regards but did not clean as well as DG or CG. They seem very evenly matched and were a breeze to work with.
The loser in the matchup was Megs. Sorry Barry Meguiar, your product is best left for production detailing. Hyperwash is a good product for people who do a lot of cars, but it does not clean well enough or have the lubricity necessary to keep my piece of mind while working with it.
Thanks again Kurt for letting me try Optimum and CG wash soaps.
Thank you for reading and your opinions are welcome. :dblthumb2: