Let it Bead..

bob m

bob m

New member
Ok, dumb question. Whether it be by wax, sealant or coating, is water beading or sheeting more desirable? I understand that if your car beads water and you let it dry chances are greater to get water spots. But doesn`t it also mean you are getting greater protection?
 
Sheeting is superior imo but most common folk think beading is better due to the ability to see it and therefore meaning its working in their feeble minds.


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Many use rinseless washes to reduce water spotting. Some of the car wash soaps have a sheeting action that`s short lived.
 
Beading usually means better level of protection. But water spots suck. Most hi end products that I’ve seen in the coating world bead.... those feeble minded rich people!


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Sheeting is preferable. Beading looks pretty, but it allows contaminants to dwell on you paint longer. Sheeting is a hard sell though as it does not look as dramatic as beading. I bought a bottle of a Japanese product that sheets water, I hope to try it soon.
 
Water beading looks really cool, but with my experience of HydroBlue, the car remains dirtier after the rain storm that gave me the cool looking beads. Sheeting keeps the car much cleaner, as is the case with Reload on my car, it doesn`t look as cool but having a relatively cleaner car, compared to beading, is nice after a rain storm.
 
I think it was Meguiars that developed a sheeting sealant wax and IIRC it was the NXT Wax. But it got reformulated to bead more as the people wanted that before the released it. I think it`s best if a LSP sheeting as much as possible and the remaining water is beading tight and high. And also even with a high beading angle it`s also need the ability to roll off which always isn`t the case just because of that. The Lotus effect that coatings want to mimick is a great step forward and some sealants has it too. The problem with this lotus effect is that the surface don`t get slick to the touch. And that`s also many people wants. But what the masses want and what`s best often don`t go hand in hand. And it makes it harder to find those products since they don`t marketing them to be those sheeting and not slick surfaces. Sonax PNS and BSD is such a products with great sheeting and the downside to get that a not so slick of feel from it. Even coatings going to want the slick feeling and they do it often with a topper that ad that but the good sheeting behavior and the easy roll off is comprimised cause of that.
 
SWETM said:
I think it was Meguiars that developed a sheeting sealant wax and IIRC it was the NXT Wax. But it got reformulated to bead more as the people wanted that before the released it.
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I think there are varying accounts of what happened with NXT. I heard 2.0 was reformulated to bead. The issue with NXT 1.0 was it beaded for a couple of rains, then it sheeted like a dead wax, so people thought it was dead.
 
I lean towards putting the "advantages" (scare-quotes kinda intenional..) in the theory vs. practice category. I understand the rationale (and guys like Ketch can sure make a great argument against beading), but I like beading and since the beads generally roll/blow off the vehicle I just keep using/doing what I like.

These days there are great products in both camps. If the beading results in spotting that bugs you, you could try something that sheets instead, but if you`re not having a problem now I wouldn`t go looking for one just so you can solve it ;)
 
Dan said:
I think there are varying accounts of what happened with NXT. I heard 2.0 was reformulated to bead. The issue with NXT 1.0 was it beaded for a couple of rains, then it sheeted like a dead wax, so people thought it was dead.
Click to expand...

Part of the problem with NXT is that it was loaded with oils like most Megs products. That beaded nice until the first rain or wash.
 
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