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

[David Fermani]

Eric - Will product/material(paint) overload/oversaturation of the pad cause failure or center softening?

[The Pad Man]

Products overload ( too much polish), to much pressure, and heat will break it down. I am trying to think of a good comparison that will make sense.

[David Fermani]

Gotcha - so....it's much wiser to rotate pads more often to avoid failure?

[The Pad Man]

yes it is. Think about this. Let me know if this makes sense. Put a dot of lotion on your hands, massage it in. no problem, works fine. Now do it again, but this time rub your hands together as fast as you can, the heat has to go somewhere.

I am only using that analgy as in WI here in winter, my hands have a tendancy to crack due to dryness, chemicals, etc.

[David Fermani]

Eric -
Makes total sense and is what I've been doing all along. As a recap, these pads require a little more understanding by the user in comparison to many other pads. It is vital to not only their survival, but their effectiveness to be used clean and 100% dry. Oversaturation of anything (polish/water/abraded paint) can and will overwork the pad and cause it to ultimately fail prematurely. I personally have never had a problem with any LC pads but have noticed strange things occurring after closely analyzing the pattern of behavior that has been paralleled to other's techniques. When using M105 via DA, I think it its imperative to clean your pad after each section. I not only wipe the face of the pad, but also use a stiff brush to loosen up the debris/polish and then use compressed air to purge it out after every section. I then switch to a fresh pad after each average sized panel (door/fender/quarter/trunk). I have never witnessed any premature failure to the backing material or the face of the pad when using this technique. I'd be willing to bet that if people who experience problems should try fine tuning their technique to see if there is any improvement. I'm certain that it will create a better level of correction with less pad induced micro marring, and increase the longevity of pad life as well, ultimately saving you money and time.

Tell me if this makes sense?

[The Pad Man]

makes sense and I agree.

[O.C.Detailing]

Okay, so I agree to some extent, BUT, to use 1 pad per panel and ONLY when completely dry is COMPLETELY unreasonable. It removes the largest portion of your target customer-base. So, if you use 1 pad per panel, with an average of 9 panels per vehicle (for a 2-door vehicle only) and most use a 2-step process which means the average person would need to order 18 pads with their first order. Not only that, but you'd have to order at least 36 pads (18 of each pad) in order to do more than 1 car in 2 consecutive days unless you had a way to dry your pads externally, but even still, you'd need to start your order with 18 pads, use EXTREME amounts of caution while using them so they don't destroy themselves and go to completely unreasonable extents to make them last an acceptable amount of time. None of which you have to do with the CCS pads...

Sounds like a no brainer to me. I'll stick with CCS then. I love the correction abilities of the HT pads, but I don't have $180-360 +shipping sitting around to buy a batch of pads that I basically have to use with a surgeon's hands to keep them from destroying themselves. The Tangerine pad I used today worked out perfectly. The backing going to the edge of the pad seems to have resolved the tearing at the edge of the pads. That should help some people take the plunge to purchase them, but unless other alternatives can be come up with that make them reasonable to use then you're pretty much sectioning out a very very large portion of the people who are on the fence.

I would imagine most of us want a product we don't need to baby with every use or invest a ton of money in order to be able to use within the parameters you've set above. Anyway, you've read how many people are on the fence to buy these pads pending a resolution to the failure issues of which we're trying to demonstrate and resolve.

[The Pad Man]

You dont necessairly need that many pads, but when the get loaded, they should be changed. A DA type polisher does have its limits compared to a rotary.

[O.C.Detailing]

I understand that, but was going by David's recommended process and procedure for the HT pads.

A DA polisher also has advantages that a rotary doesn't as well to keep things fair in that statement, and the new DA polishers are quickly closing that gap if not overlapping it.

I really don't think things would be that different even if we'd had several of each pad to test. If you look at the Cyan pad from yesterday in John's photos, you'll notice that even that pad looks like it's been through several cars and not just half of one car. He didn't clean his pad until he was finished.

I used the Tangerine pad today with M205 and it worked absolutely perfectly. No wear, no tear, no softening in the center even at the end of the day. I washed it once all day and that was after I was finished, though I probably should have rinsed it sooner being as there was some very, very light marring at the rear of the car as I was finishing up. I'm not sure how the Tangerine pad will hold up over several cars or with a more aggressive product, but with 205 on the Griot's at speed 6, it was pretty amazing.

[Garry Dean]

I didn"t like the original hydro pads. I will be sticking to what I know works! Thanks for the review!