Quick Review: Waxco Hi-Tech Water Wax

It has been a while since I last did a review for spray waxes. Most of the products I tested so far are from overseas - USA, UK & Japan. And boy, they are expensive stuffs due to the currency exchange. So, I thought that I could skimp a little and buy something more affordable to test.

Waxco is a local brand that has many products. They have a few products in the hardware DIY line that I use regularly but this is not our topic of discussion here. In recent years, they have released a few products for car care - from shampoo to polish. I never really thought of trying their product because they do not have any history or rich legacy in car care product. Then again, legacies are not built in one day. So, I decided to try one of their products for car care. Something wallet friendly and easy to test with almost immediate result. Their spray wax or what they call the Water Wax.

Well, it is packaged in a bright orange-red bottle. Very eye-catching but there is one thing that is a little unappealing in my opinion. All the labels on all the bottles on the shelf do not stick well and all seem to be peeling off on their own. See the top right corner of the label. This was the best I selected from the shelf. This gives a sense of a poor quality product. It shows the lack of attention to detail and it seems to me that Waxco simply slap on a cheap label just to sell their product.

Another thing that some companies tend to make mistake is that they try too hard to sell their product. Overselling. Look at the label!

- power glass coat?

- always sparkling shine body?

- nano tech?

- new innovation technology?

Frankly, this kind of over-selling seems bogus. Reminds me of snake oil products.

Okay, maybe I was a little too harsh there. Maybe they intend to keep the packaging cost low to keep the overall cost low. Let's hope the ingredient inside is good. 

Well, the back label shows the instructions. Nothing too bombastic here. And yup self-peeling label and a QC passed sticker.

After giving my wife's daily drive a good wash and thorough drying, it was time for the show to begin.

Squirt! A purplish or pinkish liquid came out. The liquid has some viscousness and is not very watery. The viscousness did give me some sense of confidence that this product would be good.

After spraying and wiping off the entire car, the surface did not feel slick when I ran my fingers on it. Comparing to other products like Autoglym Professional Express Wax or Meguiar's Ultimate Quik Wax (see Spray Wax), they always feel slick. Not a good sign. And yeah, the whole body did not sparkle (tongue and cheek).

Well, after spray waxing the car it rained the next day. In fact, in rained for the entire day. Checking the water droplets on the car surface, there was no beading and there was no apparent improvement in water sheeting (Sorry no picture here. I guess you'd just have to take my word for it). It seems to me that there was nothing added on to the surface.

What a disappointment. The viscous liquid really did give me some confidence that this product would work; at least to a certain degree; but sadly nothing. Well, purely looking at the price of this product, I could not say much about it as it is about half the price of Turtle Wax Express Shine. For that, I would say save on something else (eat a meal less :D) and buy a decent reputable spray wax. The money saved is not worth the effort wasted.

That's it for this post.
As usual, the above are only my personal opinions from my personal experience.
Happy detailing.

Alternative Wheel Cleaners - Optimum Power Clean & Simple Green

I had tested various wheel cleaners pH levels. See here and here. Sadly, my quest to get gallon packs of Chemical Guys Diablo Gel Wheel & Rim Cleaner has not been successful. Firstly, it is almost impossible to get it locally and secondly, importing from Amazon is way too costly. Also, it seems hard for me to find Turtlewax F21 Wheel Cleaner Tesco nowadays. This was the most cost effective, acceptable performance wheel cleaner that is not too harsh that I reviewed. So with the above options getting hard to reach. I had to revert back to my old favorite non specific wheel cleaners.

Optimum Power Clean

I used to buy the small bottle that comes with the sprayer. I decided to get a gallon of it recently. Optimum products are easily available in Malaysia through their authorized distributor Detalien. They even have a dealer in Penang. And if you are not familiar with the brand, you are missing a lot. Check out their site at Optimum Polymer Technologies. I have quite a few of their products (ONR, ONRW, Opti-Clean, Opti-Bond, OPC) and boy they are great.
Disclaimer: I am not advertising for Optimum. I do not receive any incentive from Optimum.

Here, if you were to get the small bottle that comes with the sprayer head, you could only get the repacked version by Detailien known as Alien Clean. There might be some slight variation on the bottles on different batches but they come in 500ml.

If you go for the gallon pack, it would most likely be in its original packing. See below.

For general wheel cleaning, I follow a 10:1 (10 part water, 1 part product) dilution rather than the recommended 3:1 and it does a pretty good job cleaner the wheels and tires. I would say they cleaning ability is better than Chemical Guys Diablo Gel Wheel & Rim Cleaner. For heavier soiling, a higher strength could be use but care should be taken not to get them on the brake calipers (especially untreated brake calipers on Japanese cars). It would tends to "dull" the calipers. It is also important to rinse off before it dries.

Though not as bad as this, it might hurt the brake calipers. Treated (painted/ coated) calipers should be safe.

OPC is not pH neutral. At 10:1, it has a pH of about 9. This is actually on par with some other OTS wheel cleaners that I tested previously. See here.

The beauty of OPC is that it is an all-purpose cleaner. Besides using it to clean wheels, it can be used on any surface with a very mild dilution. It can be use for interior surfaces too. See my interior care post here. Buy one gallon and you can use it for anything, even household items. And the dilution ratio could be adjusted too. Great, right?

Hold on, I have something even better.

Simple Green All Purpose Cleaner

There are two versions of Simple Green APC, concentrated and ready to use (RTU). This can be easily found in Ace Hardware or Lazada.

What I got here is their old packing (maybe?). From their website, I could not find this kind of packing anymore.

Simple Green has a long history in industrial and household cleaning solutions. Their all purpose cleaner is marketed as being environmental friendly, non-toxic, and biodegradable. They openly post their products safety data sheets on their website. Not many manufacturer would do that. If you are interested you could read the safety data sheet for Simple Green APC.

Simple Green APC is by far the one of the most economical when it comes to dilution ratio. 1:10 (1 part product, 10 part water) for heavy cleaning and 1:30 for light cleaning. I personally use 1:30 for all my household cleaning from kitchen to glass to literary any hard surface on my furnitures.

I never used it for wheel cleaning before but I experimented and am really satisfy with the results. Cleaning ability very good for 1:10 dilution. It is also better than Chemical Guys Diablo Gel Wheel & Rim Cleaner. The same precautions of using OPC (or any other strong cleaner or degreaser) apply. Test on small surface first, rinse off before dry, avoid full strength on untested surfaces, yada, yada.

Though this stuff is not pH neutral. From what I tested, it is around pH9 with a 1:10 dilution. This is less harsher than OPC.

So there you have it, my non-specific wheel cleaners.
As with any strong cleaning solution, care should be taken to protect yourself. Wear gloves. Do not inhale. You know the deal. Test on small inconspicuous area first. Use at you own risk. If you feel unsafe, just stick to specific wheel cleaners. I do not endorsed or get paid for any of these products. These are just my personal opinion.

That's it.
Happy detailing.

Quick Review of Soft99 Kiwami Extra Gloss Shampoo

Ever since I tried the Soft99 Fusso 12 Month Wax (see here), I am very impressed with its water beading capability. Though high water beading does not always mean better protection as discussed here but it surely gives the "wow" effect. So, when I saw a discounted Soft99 Kiwami Extra Gloss Shampoo on sale, I just couldn't resist to test it out.

There are several variants of this shampoo but I am really not sure about the differences. Since my main car is silver, I went for the silver shampoo. The other 2 variants are white and black. See Soft99 website for details.

Well, the bottle that I bought came bundled with a wash sponge. Yup, the dreaded wash sponge. I am not going to go into the debate of wash sponge here but it is something that I never use.

So I left the sponge unopened.

Well, when I was trying to read the back of the bottle for instructions, I realized that I can't read Japanese :D

Yup, everything is in Japanese.

So I had to go to Soft99 website and read the English version. I am quoting the instruction word for word below.

"1. Rinse off dirt or dust in car wash.
2. Put shampoo directly with soaked sponge, make the bubble well. If the bubble get weaken or difficultly remove dirt area, put the liquid more.
3. Rinse off with water until the bubble is disappeared.
4. Wipe off water with towel or absorbant cloth.
* In case of unevenness occured, wipe off with wrung towel or dry towel."

Apart from the Japan-glish, all seems good.

Wait! What?!

Pour directly on the sponge? Err... ???

So it seems to be like applying body shampoo when I am taking my shower?

Okay, this really freaks me out a little. I ended up not following the instructions because of 2 reasons. First, I don't use wash sponge. I don't like the idea of using a sponge. Second, if I were to pour the shampoo on the sponge for each panel, I am afraid I might finish up the entire bottle in single wash like what I did with the Fireball Premium Easy Coat. So, I improvised. I pour out the shampoo and used a 2 bucket wash method. As for the dilution, I just followed Meguiar's Gold Class Car Wash.

Doing so resulted in a car wash that has zero suds. Think of it like Autoglym Bodywork Shampoo Conditioner (if you are familiar), divide it by 100 for suds.

This is how the car looks like after wiping it with the wash mitt filled with the car wash.

Although there is no suds, the wash mitt did feel "lubricated" when gliding over the surface. The lack of suds does not make it less effective as a car shampoo. In fact, the cleaning ability seems good. This is the condition of the second bucket after washing.

Well, putting the steps and instructions all aside, the end result is pretty amazing for a shampoo that I did not use according to the manufacturer recommendation.

After hosing down the car, I noticed that there is a high amount of water beading all over the car. I have not gave my car a full wax since months ago. All I did was regular wash and spray wax. And because I was a little busy recently, the last time I wash was about a month ago. So I don't think the beading is due to the previous spray wax. This Kiwami shampoo really made the water bead. Great job Soft99.

Anyway, after wiping the car dry, I followed with my regular spray wax routine as I do not feel that the surface is slick and I just wanted some protection as high beading might cause water mark. This is evident in the Soft99 Fusso 12 Month Wax comparison test.

Alright for the conclusion. Would I recommended this? Yes and no. Yes, if you are okay with wash sponge and zero suds and looking into high beading. No for the opposite :P

So, that's all for this post. As always, the above is just my opinion.
Happy detailing.