How to tell if a product is water based?

[Waxmax]

How can you tell if a product is water based? I used to think if the product separated upon standing for say 24 hours, it was not water based, but I'm not so sure. Is OCW waterbased? Is Aquawax water based?

[Surfer]

Usually will have a milky white appearance like waterbased tire dressings. I have OCW and AW, AW is acrylic based I believe, and not sure of OCW since it's a combo sealant/carnauba.

[Waxmax]

Some QDs are water based and not milky?

[Waxmax]

Maybe I should have asked it differently...how can you to tell if is something is water based or solvent based?....not what type of polymer or wax is in it.

[Jimmie]

Would like to know myself. I know that it is not shown on many labels. Why is one product with solvent OK, and another VOC non-compliant? Thought most are switching to water base.

[ScottB]

look for water based or poly based on labels. In most cases you would need the MSDS sheet to see makeup.

VOC compliance is the most complicated set of rules ever, every product has a specific and very different solvent content. It must stay below the max to be compliant.

[Waxmax]

Is OCW and/or Aquawax waterbased?

[supercharged]

Is OCW and/or Aquawax waterbased?
Consider it water based (if planning to use it with Polycharger) as it is a QD+.

[Waxmax]

Superchrged, Thanks...that's what I was guessing. I emailed Duragloss to see what they will tell me.

[Waxmax]

David G. at Optimum tells me OCW is H20 based.

[Waxmax]

Jerry at Duragloss tells me Aquawax is water based.

[jdmj0]

Sorry to bring an extremely old thread up but does anyone else have an answer to this? Outside of killr's advice, it seems that you have to essentially check with the manufacturer on each product to determine whether it's water based or solvent based?

[PiPUK]

Unfortunately it takes more than a casual interest in chemicals to be certain, without actually doing some tests. A few little notes to help:

1) If the product gets diluted with water before use, chances are it is water based.

2) If the product is clear and smells of hydrocarbons (you need to be able to discern between solvent for this to help!), it is probably a solvent base.

3) If the product is a milky emulsion or paste, it will have water in it but you will not be able to be certain if it is oil-in-water or water-in-oil.

4) If a product separates into giving an oily layer, the product will likely contain water but is unfortunately lacking in stability. This behaviour would often not be tolerated if selling to large consumer applications. Unfortunately, detailing products are not big enough to force that such instability is corrected - detailers tend to just accept it rather than refuse and force the manufacturer to fix it.