I've used my schmitt for over 20 washes now and have a good feel of how to properly use it with the foam gun & etc. When new, the schmitt did induce significant micromarring, but as it softened up the marring was less (after a good polish). Anyways I had the suspicion that the schmitt might not be so good for LSPs after I did a full detail with JW Acrylic Prime & 3x layers of Acrylic Jett spread over 3 days, and noticed at the first wash that most of the slickness was gone.
As a test, I applied opti-seal to the car last week and washed the car today, one half with the schmitt and the other half with an old lambswool (JW lambchop) that I had lying around. Prior to the wash, the surface was still very slick and only displayed slight dusting and faint waterspots. I washed one side of the car with the schmitt and the other side with the lambswool. The wash solution I used for this test was Adam's car wash which is CG Maxi-Suds II, applied via gilmour foam gun on the middle setting. With both mitts, I applied very little if no pressure at all, letting the weight of the mitt do the work for me. After drying both sides with a Sonus WW, I could immediately notice the difference in slickness between the sides. The lambswool side still retained about 75% of its original slickness, whereas the schmitt side was probably around 30%, even being slightly grabby.
Subsequently, I used DG AW for the first time and am very impressed with the product. It took me 7 minutes to completely DG my car and the finish was rather bright and slick. Even with one coat of AW, I could tell the difference between the sides washed by the different mitts. The lambswool side was super slick, whereas the schmitt side was just smooth. Applying another coat of AW to that side brought the slickness up to par with the lambswool side.
Overall, I do like the schmitt due to its ease of use and ability to get into tight cracks, but certainly am not fond of what it is doing to my LSP. Although it does make my wash a lot easier, I think I'll end up retiring it for the sonus sheepskin, which looks identical to my JW lambchop.
As always, YMMV.
Dave
As a test, I applied opti-seal to the car last week and washed the car today, one half with the schmitt and the other half with an old lambswool (JW lambchop) that I had lying around. Prior to the wash, the surface was still very slick and only displayed slight dusting and faint waterspots. I washed one side of the car with the schmitt and the other side with the lambswool. The wash solution I used for this test was Adam's car wash which is CG Maxi-Suds II, applied via gilmour foam gun on the middle setting. With both mitts, I applied very little if no pressure at all, letting the weight of the mitt do the work for me. After drying both sides with a Sonus WW, I could immediately notice the difference in slickness between the sides. The lambswool side still retained about 75% of its original slickness, whereas the schmitt side was probably around 30%, even being slightly grabby.
Subsequently, I used DG AW for the first time and am very impressed with the product. It took me 7 minutes to completely DG my car and the finish was rather bright and slick. Even with one coat of AW, I could tell the difference between the sides washed by the different mitts. The lambswool side was super slick, whereas the schmitt side was just smooth. Applying another coat of AW to that side brought the slickness up to par with the lambswool side.
Overall, I do like the schmitt due to its ease of use and ability to get into tight cracks, but certainly am not fond of what it is doing to my LSP. Although it does make my wash a lot easier, I think I'll end up retiring it for the sonus sheepskin, which looks identical to my JW lambchop.
As always, YMMV.
Dave
