PRODUCT SHOWDOWN: 4 tire dressing/gel/spray going head to head!

[Dr_Pain]

Good morning ladies and gents and welcome my first official product showdown!!

The subject (for this experiment) is the enormous sidewall of my beloved Ford Raptor. I chose this set of wheel, over any others, because there is a LOT of surface area to cover and to observe

The products
1) Pinnacle Black Onyx Tire GEL. 16 fl.oz. @ $29.99 Pinnacle Black Onyx Tire Gel dresses your tires in a dark, satin finish that protects the rubber for weeks! This tire dressing and protectant enhances
2) Blackfire Total Eclipse Tire Gel. 16 fl. oz. @ $24.99 BLACKFIRE Tire Gel, tire dressing, tire shine
3) Poorboy's World Bold N Bright tire dressing. 32 fl. oz. @ $17.99 Poorboy's World Bold 'N Bright Tire Dressing Gel 32 oz.
4) Pinnacle Black Onyx Tire Dressing. 16 fl.oz. @ $19.99 Pinnacle Black Onyx Tire Dressing, tire protectant, tire dressing

As you can see these are PBMG house brands + Poorboy's. Why did I select those over others? Because I had them on hand.

The intent of this "showdown" is to compare and contrast in a side by side the above 4 products to see if we have a clear winner in each of the following category, and a grand champion (short term and long term).

Categories include:

1) Smell
2) Application ease
3) Post application look (gloss/shine)
4) Sling
5) .... and finally durability!

So on to the showdown!! This was the state of my tires after 3 weeks of fighting sugar cane grinding season and an overly business professional and detailing schedule.



As you can see, there is no shine and quite a bit of browning/blooming.

The next step was to clean the wheels, which was accomplished with some diluted APC, a couple of good brushes, a general soaping and a thorough rinse





The tire was then dried with a black MF and the rims were tended to. The tire was then sectioned and marked.



The sections were as follow:

1) Radial line (vertical line) was reserved for the Pinnacle Black Onyx Tire Gel
2) Circumferential line (horizontal line) was reserved for the Blackfire Total Eclipse Tire Gel
3) Positive line was reserved for the Poorboy's Bold N Bright Tire Dressing
4) Double circumferential line (equal sign) was reserved for the Pinnacle Black Onyx Tire Dressing.

Method:
The gels were applied using a separate Carrand brush Carrand Brush & Shine Tire Dressing Applicators, tire brush, tire shine applicator and the tire dressings were agitated (as per instruction with a brush and dressing was reapplied for a shiny look.

Impression of the application

In a few words, a little tire gel goes a LONG way, whereas a lot more product needs to be dispensed for coverage using tire dressing (and a lot of overspray on unintended surfaces).

Impression of the products

1) Pinnacle Black Onyx Tire Gel

This product is a translucent red colored product. I would describe it as thick mucus consistency, which dispenses very well out of the bottle. It has a strong pungent cherry smell to it which does not overwhelm. It applies very easily and does seem to have cleaning agents as some browning surfaces even after a thorough cleaning of the sidewalls. This image below shows the product seconds following the application. It offered a wet and shiny coverage, as you can see



2) Blackfire Total Eclipse Tire Gel

This product is a more opaque light pink product which also looked like thick mucus. It dispensed very easy out of its bottle, and its application was effortless (using the Carrand Tire Dressing brush). The smell could be described as Cherry Cough Medicine. The following picture shows a well covered shiny surface.



3) Poorboy's Bold N Bright Tire Dressing

First off, I did purchase the Poorboy/s spray head and was very pleased with the atomization of the product. I definitely recommend the spray head. It is a very thin liquid that can be diluted to any specification. For the purpose of this experiment, it was used undiluted. Its smell is Pina Colada (coconut), which is very mild and pleasant. After the initial application which took 2 spray, the tire was gently agitated and a second application was made (2 light mists) in an attempt to equal the shine of the tire dressing.



4) Pinnacle Black Onyx Tire Dressing.

This product is a slightly thicker white liquid compared to the Poorboy's dressing. Being that it is water base, it can also be diluted to offer different levels of gloss/shine. For the purpose of this experiment, it was used undiluted. The smell of this product was that of a bubble gum snowball. Very pleasant to say the least. The biggest flaw of this product was the spray head as it did not atomize the product well leaving to use more product for even coverage (this may be in part due to the viscosity of the product). Only 2 sprays were used for the surface area and a lot of brushing was necessary to distribute the product (unlike the Poorboy's product which had much better and even coverage). No reapplication was deemed necessary to provide the level of gloss sought.



After the initial application, the truck was detailed and a general review of the results was made 30 minutes later.

These were the results



1) Pinnacle Black Onyx Tire Gel



2) Blackfire Total Eclipse Tire Gel



3) Poorboy's Bold N Bright Tire Dressing



4) Pinnacle Black Onyx Tire Dressing.



RESULTS

Well, for this part, I chose my son as a my blind evaluator. Here is how he ranked the products

1) Smell:
Winner: Pinnacle Black Onyx Tire Dressing
Runner Up: Poorboy's Bold N Bright
Third: Tie between Pinnacle Black Onyx Tire Gel and Blackfire Total Eclipse Tire Gel (for their cherry mediciny smells)

2) Look:
Winner: Pinnacle Black Onyx Tire Gel
Runner Up: Blackfire Total Eclipse Tire Gel
Third: Pinnacle Black Onyx (described as streaky)
Fourth: Poorboy's Bold N Bright (described as splotchy)

From me (not blind):

3) Application

Winner: Tie between Pinnacle Black Onyx Tire Gel & Blackfire Total Eclipse Tire Gel
- Very little waste
- Quite easy to apply (Thanks in part to its consistency and the Carrand brushes)

Runner Up: Poorboy's Bold N Bright
- Very good spray head, but a lot of overspray on the rims and off the tire surface, and some run offs)

Third: Pinnacle Black Onyx Tire Dressing
- In part because of its sub-par spray head and the fact that I had to do a lot of work to spread the product. The stream (rather than an atomized spray) bounced off the tire and on the ground or created run offs which I had to chase not to waste the product.

Cost/Benefit Analysis

For the purpose of this experiment I will say that I up a small thin line of product about 2" long by 1/4' wide of the tire gel (maybe accounting to 1/10th of an ounce (no EXACT measures), whereas I believe I could extrapolate to about 1/4 oz. of the spray (with its two application)

Cost brake down is as follow :

Pinnacle Black Onyx Tire Gel: 16 fl.oz. @ $29.99 or $1.87/oz, so for this showdown, I spent $0.19 (1/10 oz.) and would extrapolate that I am looking at about $0.80/tire or $3.20/truck (car having less sidewall and therefore being less expensive. I would say 1/2 the price would be more than fair)

Blackfire Total Eclipse Tire Gel: 16 fl. oz. @ $24.99 or $1.56/oz, so for this showdown, I spent $0.16 and would extrapolate that I am looking at about $0.65/tire or $2.56/truck (1/2 that price for a car)

Poorboy's Bold N Bright: 32 fl. oz. @ $17.99 or $0.56/oz , so for this showdown, I spent $0.14 (1/4 oz) and would extrapolate that I am looking at about $0.56/tire or $2.24/truck (1/2 that price for a car.... MAYBE!! because you don't exactly control to fan of the spray and will most likely dispense 4 sprays for coverage)

Pinnacle Black Onyx Tire Dressing: 16 fl.oz. @ $19.99 or $1.24/oz , so for this showdown, I spent $0.31 (1/4 oz) and would extrapolate that I am looking at about $1.24/tire or $4.99/truck (1/2 that price for a car.... MAYBE!! because you don't exactly control to fan of the spray and will most likely dispense 4 sprays for coverage)

Showdown cost winner

Winner: Poorboy's Bold N Bright @ $0.14 or $0.56/tire
Runner Up: Blackfire Total Eclipse Tire Gel @ $0.16 or $0.65/tire
Third: Pinnacle Black Onyx Tire Gel @ $0.19 or $0.80/tire
Fourth: Pinnacle Black Onyz Tire Dressing @ $0.31 or $1.24/tire

The overall GRAND WINNER (Day 1)

Based on the look, smell, ease of application and product cost, I will have to choose -----> Pinnacle Black Onyx Tire Gel<------ as my WINNER!!. The Runner Up with a very slim victory would be Blackfire Total Eclipse Tire Gel, followed by Poorboy's Bold N Bright Tire Dressing. At this time I could not really recommend the Pinnacle Black Onyx tire dressing because of the cost/benefit, bad spray head and somewhat laborious application, not to mention product waste. I will however suggest that PBMG should strongly consider putting the smell on their Pinnacle Black Onyx Tire Dressing into their Pinnacle Black Onyx Tire Gel.... for a MAJOR WIN!

The surprising fact which came out of this showdown was the cost/benefit ratio. Like most on the forum, I was under the assumption that a spayed liquid would far surpass the cost of an "overpriced" tire gel. Well, I was proven wrong and hope to have made a few believers out of you! Even if the cost/oz is better in the sprayable dressing, you end up wasting a lot of product in run offs and overspray.

Parting words on product sling. I did not experience any sling from any of the products I have tested today, on any vehicles I have applied the products in the past, so if you do, please take a minute to ask if you are not applying this product "heavy handed". Even coverage can and will be achieve with a small amount of product, so don't need to be too liberal in your application. Thin is in!!

So what about Day #2....... well, this is the look of the product on the wheel day #2



Pinnacle Black Onyx Tire Gel was not only my winner on Day 1 but a clear winner of Day 2. If you look closely, you will see that the radial masked out line is GONE! I don't know if the product continued leaching into the side wall but it found itself covering the masked area !?!?! Some of the sploshiness of Poorboy's seems to have resolved itself but both dressing seem to have lost some of their gloss factor.

Feel free to comment or suggest or ask questions!

I will try and update this thread with future pictures and impressions.

Thanks for reading!

[Chris@AutoCleanse]

Excellent review and read, thanks for taking the time to post and share. Keep us posted as I am curious about the durability and longevity of the products used.

[Pats300zx]

Fantastic review. Thanks for putting it together...

[artofdetailing]

In one of your pictures...the one where the tire had been dried, I can see residue that wasn't cleaned off your tire from something (not sure what it is) but its in the same place as the Poorboys BNB
and Im certain thats why it came out splotchy. Ive used it before with great results. In fact, I've used all of the above tire gels with great results, but IMO blackfire was the hardest to spread evenly. Thanks for your review!

[Audi X2]

Really enjoyed the review!
Thank you for taking the time to provide the comparison of the tire dressings.

[Dr_Pain]

Excellent review and read, thanks for taking the time to post and share. Keep us posted as I am curious about the durability and longevity of the products used.

Thanks.... I will definitely try and update this thread for all to appreciate the longevity of the product.

Fantastic review. Thanks for putting it together...

Thanks!

In one of your pictures...the one where the tire had been dried, I can see residue that wasn't cleaned off your tire from something (not sure what it is) but its in the same place as the Poorboys BNB
and Im certain thats why it came out splotchy. Ive used it before with great results. In fact, I've used all of the above tire gels with great results, but IMO blackfire was the hardest to spread evenly. Thanks for your review!

I understand what you are saying but to be honest I feel that it has more to do with the fact that the 2nd spraying did not "evenly" coat the wheel (you can see the same uneven drying in the other areas without any end result splotchiness). I magnified the unresized picture and you can see a lot of little beads of dressings. Even if the product was equal to the gels in terms of look, I would still give the win to the Black Onyx Tire Gel. Dealing with the overspray on the rims and fenders add more time to my detailing of the wheels and rims..... and the cost sayings are not significant enough (for me) to warrant it. If I were doing production work (and did not care about some drying overspray on the rims and fenders) and was just slapping some quick dressing on to make the tires look pretty, the Poorboy's would be my go to.

Really enjoyed the review!
Thank you for taking the time to provide the comparison of the tire dressings.

Thanks, it was my pleasure!

[artofdetailing]

I apply it with a foam tire swipe and it works well but either way all great products IMO

[spiralout462]

Great read! I have been using the Blackfire Total Eclipse for the past several months. It has been my favorite dressing to date, but I may try the Pinnacle gel next. Thanks for the write up.

[Dr_Pain]

I apply it with a foam tire swipe and it works well but either way all great products IMO

Absolutely agree! All great products.

Great read! I have been using the Blackfire Total Eclipse for the past several months. It has been my favorite dressing to date, but I may try the Pinnacle gel next. Thanks for the write up.

If you like Total Eclipse, you will like Black Onyx. I actually started using it because I ran out of free samples I wanted to try and decided to get it! Now if I have an order and don't know what I want to try, I get a sample of Black Onyx and refill my bottle

[EvolutionDetail]

Great Review Claude, I have been scratching my head debating on if i should Tuf Shine my BFG A/T Tires.

I have personally used the Onyx and Eclipse. I often find myself using the Eclipse more, however when i apply it on my BFG tires, i will be lucky if it lasts 1 Full WEEK, (And that is considering NO RAIN). If it rains it be gone in a day or 2 lol.

I dont remember what i disliked about the Onyx.... so i guess i will use it again next time and see lol. If i remember correctly Onyx gives more of a GLOSS / OILY like appearance, that is probably the reason....

While Eclipse give it a nice dark sheen.