Silica Spray Showdown: McKee's v. Gyeon v. CarPro

[kevincwelch]

Routine week. Entire car washed with DP Xtreme Foam and then hood wiped down with N914 in the waterless dilution.

Sheeting is non-existent across the board. Still getting "beads."

A




B




C



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[WRAPT C5Z06]

A looks the best.

[jaxshawn]

Just curious but where is the mckees made. Carpro and gyeon are both made in Korea.


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[JeffM]

Just curious but where is the mckees made. Carpro and gyeon are both made in Korea.


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If I were to guess, Florida.

[The Guz]

Just curious but where is the mckees made. Carpro and gyeon are both made in Korea.


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Probably in Nick's bath tub lol.

[WRAPT C5Z06]

Any update?


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[kevincwelch]

Heading into week 8; it`s basically been 2 months since application. Lots of water spots on the hood now. Bird bomb (Panel C/Product C) was harder to clean with N914 and wet MF towel. Some very minor etching from the bird bomb present. Here are the shots and video.

Panel A/Product A




Panel B/Product B



Panel C/Product C



Video



Comments
I find the beading to be variable after rain and after spraying it with distilled water (on a cleaned hood). The sheeting with high volume water is miserable to watch. Low volume sheeting is easier to take, but it is obviously slower on all three panels. I`m still going to conclude that there is some protection still there given the nature of the beading. Neither the beading nor the low volume sheeting are terrible at this point, so these products just may make it to 3 months. I suspect, however, that the level of protection will be far less than what we would all consider acceptable at that point. I may be judging.

I haven`t used any Gyeon spot remover or CarPro spotless for fear of degrading the coating somewhat. I`ll see how far it goes up to the three month mark.

At three months I`ll do the reveal, polish and coat with Wolfgang Uber.


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[Cruzscarwash]

Thanks man

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[kevincwelch]

The results are in!

It`s been a little over two months since the application of my blinded silica sprays. Initially they exhibited some strong hydrophobic characteristics: tight beads and rapid sheeting. If you haven`t followed my thread, basically by 1 month, the coatings lost that super tight beading and rapid sheeting. Rapid sheeting precipitously worsened between months 1 and 2, and while beading took a hit, the fact that there were some tight beads here and there made me conclude there was still some protection.

However, between months 1 and 2, I started noticing water spots. There were a lot of them this weekend when I washed my wife`s car.

Water was just sitting on the hood. Here are the shots at 5 minutes. Not ideal.

Product A



Product B (look more in the center)



Product C


I decided that it was time to do something about it. Good thing I did. I used Gyeon spot remover and it got rid of some. I polished the car with HD Polish and it got rid of all of the spots except one, and that required some Menz FF3000. After prepping with Panel Wipe and then with Wofgang prep (uh, synergy maybe?), I applied Uber Ceramic to the hood.

So, here`s the reveal.

First, here`s how you voted:

1. Which one looked the best: 14% Product A, 86% can`t tell.

2. Which product beaded the best: 29% Product A, 71% can`t tell.

3. Which product sheeted the best: 29% Product A, 14% Product C, 57% can`t tell.

4. Which offered the best protection: 100% can`t tell.


The products used...













Final thoughts:

First, let me reiterate that I had no idea which product was which during the test. If my wife randomized them or even if she simply labeled them as I placed them, I had no idea and no biases throughout the test.

I felt that Product A (Wet Coat) started strong, but I`m my opinion, it ended up like the other three. I think the sheeting universally fails around 6 weeks and that the beading around 2 months. The protection is pretty good for about 1 month, and then stasis causes water spotting to form. In terms of durability, I did not get 3 months of protection out of these products. I did get more than 2 months of "beading," but not ideal beading. Certainly not the "protection" that I wanted. Some will say that even a good coating can display water spotting, but I generally have not experienced this with any traditional coating so soon.

I think these products do have a place - topping traditional coatings and using as a quick spray on wheels to help them maintain their shine and cleanliness.

Nevertheless, I think that if you`re going to ask the question of which you should buy, I think any one of these three will suffice for your application. But, if you are hoping to get at least three months of durable protection, you may want to think about boosting the silica spray coating every month.

Just my thoughts, as always...

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[fly07sti]

Awesome test Kevin. Thank you for all the updates and info.