Prototype Lake Country Hydro-tech pads - Testing, Results and Reviews

[Rsurfer]

That 3m backing plate was used on the new Griots RO and like you I have no problems with the ccs pads. I have not used my HT pads on the Griot, but I've used them on a rotary with no problems yet.

[David Fermani]

Nice video and nice attempt at re-creating an already great pad. Answer these ? for me:

How and how often are you cleaning your pad?
How are you priming your pad?
What's your reasoning behind dabbing the product all over the panel and doing a low speed pass before going full strength.
What is your reasoning for no using more(not alot) pressure?

[O.C.Detailing]

Nice video and nice attempt at re-creating an already great pad. Answer these ? for me:

How and how often are you cleaning your pad?
I will switch pads after 2-3 panels or if the pad is becoming clogged with product. I would have switched to a new pad instead of cleaning if we'd received enough pads to actually switch between multiple pads.

How are you priming your pad?
I'll either spritz the pad with a body-shop safe quick detail spray or spread product into the pad using my fingers. I prefer the detail spray as it doesn't contribute to clogging my pad up with product/paint.

What's your reasoning behind dabbing the product all over the panel and doing a low speed pass before going full strength.
I dab the product on the panel and start of slow to spread product evenly over the surface of the area I'm working and it also prevent product sling causing a huge mess that I'd have to clean up later.

What is your reasoning for no using more(not alot) pressure?
I use a moderate amount of pressure. Too much tends to heat the pad and backing plate too much, puts FAR too much stress on the bearing assembly in my machine and doesn't make a huge difference in the correction as I'm relying more on the pressure for the correction than the pad/product combination I'm using.

My answers to your questions are in bold above.

[Rsurfer]

On the 3m pad , it looked like there was a lot of heat generated .

So much so it melted the center of the backing plate and the center of the pad. There must be a metal plate within the backing plate that the rivets hold on to and is transfering the heat to the top of the plate which in turn is transferring the heat to the pad.

[O.C.Detailing]

When I was working in direct sunlight my backing plate would get too hot to touch with a bare hand, but inside our garage and being so cold, the surface of the vehicles actually tends to cool the pads and backing plate since it's winter and the garage temperature floats between the 40's and 50's at full temp.

[David Fermani]

How do you clean your pads before going to another fresh one?

[Rsurfer]

When I was working in direct sunlight my backing plate would get too hot to touch with a bare hand, but inside our garage and being so cold, the surface of the vehicles actually tends to cool the pads and backing plate since it's winter and the garage temperature floats between the 40's and 50's at full temp.

I agree with you on the temp, but when the machine is working for awhile, it will generate heat. Is it enough heat to concave the pad like it did on my 3m backing plate and pad? If it was a defect in the foam then the Flex would probably have the same problem, which it doesn't.

[O.C.Detailing]

How do you clean your pads before going to another fresh one?

We clean with either pure luke warm water if we can, or, if necessary, we use a 10:1 APC and rinse with luke warm water until the pads are squeezing out clean water.

[Harleyguy]

Maybe this still goes back to what i orginal posted that the heat and water cause steam and pad failure.Maybe the product is also heating up too much and causing some form of reaction that's just a guess.Anyone who i spoke to about this failure hasn't had it happen using a rotary.

[O.C.Detailing]

I agree with you on the temp, but when the machine is working for awhile, it will generate heat. Is it enough heat to concave the pad like it did on my 3m backing plate and pad? If it was a defect in the foam then the Flex would probably have the same problem, which it doesn't.

The flex has forced rotation, but it doesn't spin anywhere near as fast as my Griot's does, so it probably produces less heat. Not only that, but the design of it's rotating assembly is such that there isn't a center section to product heat like a standard DA machine. It's stress is geared more towards the outer portion of the pad rather than the center like on mine. The engineering of the machine in heat dispersion is superior to the Griot's as it won't produce a focused heat area like mine will.

The thing to make sure we're remembering though is that I would check the pad and backing plate every other section or so to gauge the heat that was being generated both at the pad level AND on the backing plate itself and it was warm, but no where near hot.