So I finally got a chance to try this Mitt today and decided to write a little review based on my experience with it and comparing it to the claims found in the Lake Country (LC) and Autogeek (AG) web sites. I used Ultima Paint Guard Wash and a two bucket system with grit guard. First I rinsed down the car with a high pressure nozzle at full blast. I did half of the car with the mitt and the other half with my GS from Lowes.
1)"Grid design channels dirt particles into grooves and away from mitt" (LC)
"the channels create an avenue for dirt to move away from the paint"(AG)
"As the tabs massage the paint, loosening dirt, they push the dirt into these channels." (AG)
In theory this makes total sense, but in practice it could not be further from the truth. I inspected the mitt closely after washing half a panel (both before and after rinsing the mitt) and found that most of the grime was found on the foam tabs and very little inside the grooves. In fact, the tabs do not even open enough for the dirt to get into the grooves. Furthermore, the tabs do not "push the dirt into these channels"; this could not possibly happen given that the tabs are flat and hardly move.
2)"Grid design permits “self-cleaning� with simple squeezing action" (LC)
"The foam sheds dirt, rather than trapping it, so the paint rinses clean" (AG)
"From there (the channels/grooves), the dirt runs off the paint in the soapy water." (AG)
Again, I inspected the mitt after rinsing it, squeezing it, and rubbing it against the grit guard and found that there was still a lot of grime trapped on the foam tabs, but very little inside the channels (since not much was going in there in the first place). I found this to be the most difficult to rinse medium, it just would not let go of the grime that easily.
3)"High performance foam retains suds longer" (LC)
"The entire mitt becomes drenched in wash water each time you reload the mitt." (AG)
True, it does retain a lot of solution (but grime as well) and squeezing it releases tons of solution; however, the solution released contains very little suds. In addition, most of the solution is absorbed into the foam, leaving the surface poorly lubricated. One huge downside to this tremendous absorption is that you end up wasting a lot of solution.
4) "Protects your vehicle's paint by holding lots of soapy water for excellent lubrication." (AG)
As I mentioned above, it does hold a lot of the solution, but it does not spread the suds well. In fact, as you move the mitt across the paint, you encounter tremendous resistance and friction because of insufficient suds and water since most of it is absorbed into the foam, leaving little on the surface which means insufficient lubrication. This was a problem even with Ultima Paint Guard Wash, which suds like nothing else.
5)"Minimizes marring of painted surface" (LC)
"The paint rinses clean without leaving swirls." (AG)
"It has no cut and is completely nonabrasive" (AG)
I agree that this mitt has not cut and it is nonabrasive in and of itself since it is the same material as the red LC pad. However, after blow drying the car, I inspected it closely with the halogens and the Infratech CM5300 and found new swirls on the half I did with the LC mitt, especially on the hood. These were not severe, but definitely unacceptable by Autopian standards. These swirls were not caused by the material of the mitt itself, but by spreading the dirt and grime and rubbing it into the paint and by the poor lubricity of this mitt.
Overall, I give this mitt two big :down:down. I am definitely sticking to my GS by Proline from Lowes and wool mitt (occasionally).
1)"Grid design channels dirt particles into grooves and away from mitt" (LC)
"the channels create an avenue for dirt to move away from the paint"(AG)
"As the tabs massage the paint, loosening dirt, they push the dirt into these channels." (AG)
In theory this makes total sense, but in practice it could not be further from the truth. I inspected the mitt closely after washing half a panel (both before and after rinsing the mitt) and found that most of the grime was found on the foam tabs and very little inside the grooves. In fact, the tabs do not even open enough for the dirt to get into the grooves. Furthermore, the tabs do not "push the dirt into these channels"; this could not possibly happen given that the tabs are flat and hardly move.
2)"Grid design permits “self-cleaning� with simple squeezing action" (LC)
"The foam sheds dirt, rather than trapping it, so the paint rinses clean" (AG)
"From there (the channels/grooves), the dirt runs off the paint in the soapy water." (AG)
Again, I inspected the mitt after rinsing it, squeezing it, and rubbing it against the grit guard and found that there was still a lot of grime trapped on the foam tabs, but very little inside the channels (since not much was going in there in the first place). I found this to be the most difficult to rinse medium, it just would not let go of the grime that easily.
3)"High performance foam retains suds longer" (LC)
"The entire mitt becomes drenched in wash water each time you reload the mitt." (AG)
True, it does retain a lot of solution (but grime as well) and squeezing it releases tons of solution; however, the solution released contains very little suds. In addition, most of the solution is absorbed into the foam, leaving the surface poorly lubricated. One huge downside to this tremendous absorption is that you end up wasting a lot of solution.
4) "Protects your vehicle's paint by holding lots of soapy water for excellent lubrication." (AG)
As I mentioned above, it does hold a lot of the solution, but it does not spread the suds well. In fact, as you move the mitt across the paint, you encounter tremendous resistance and friction because of insufficient suds and water since most of it is absorbed into the foam, leaving little on the surface which means insufficient lubrication. This was a problem even with Ultima Paint Guard Wash, which suds like nothing else.
5)"Minimizes marring of painted surface" (LC)
"The paint rinses clean without leaving swirls." (AG)
"It has no cut and is completely nonabrasive" (AG)
I agree that this mitt has not cut and it is nonabrasive in and of itself since it is the same material as the red LC pad. However, after blow drying the car, I inspected it closely with the halogens and the Infratech CM5300 and found new swirls on the half I did with the LC mitt, especially on the hood. These were not severe, but definitely unacceptable by Autopian standards. These swirls were not caused by the material of the mitt itself, but by spreading the dirt and grime and rubbing it into the paint and by the poor lubricity of this mitt.
Overall, I give this mitt two big :down:down. I am definitely sticking to my GS by Proline from Lowes and wool mitt (occasionally).
