Natural sea sponge, getting bad wrap

l33

l33

New member
Did a search on the Natural Sea Sponge, it seems they get a bad wrap on this site, and i'm not sure why. It seems most of the criticism came from members who haven't used them but were weary of sponges. Of all products to wash a car, the sea sponge is by far my favorite and i've tried pretty much all of them.



17123sponges.jpg




Pros -

They are SUPER soft when wet and very gentle on the paint. I find they glide over the surface with no tension.

They absorb a lot of water, when you dunk it in your bucket the extra water and soap provide added lubrication.

As often as i use them, i never ever see any dirt spots or marks on them, and not a few, i mean absolutely none.

They seem to be very durable, although i haven't used the same one for years, i've been using the same one for several months and it shows no signs of deforming or degrading.

I haven't had problems with using any side of the sponge.

With our washing tools we look for products to absorb dirt into itself and away from the surface. IMO a sea sponge that is 4-5" in height has much more room to do so than a mitt with a 1/2-1" of "hair" that trap dirt between the surface and your hand.



Cons -

They are expensive, but IMO will outlast other tools.

When NOT wet, they seem hard which may scare people.

Must be washed before use. I found a small shell in one of mine. I take them to the tub and run the water over them for a minute. That little piece of shell was the only particle i've ever found.

I order 1 from CMA and 3 from Autogeek. The 1 from CMA is noticably larger (upper left in the pic) than the ones from geek, but they are natural so maybe it was just the selection i got.



You can't classify these sponges with square man made sponges that don't inhale dirt like these. One of these and a Big Blue on my black car weekly, i never have any marring. If you are looking to buy one I definitly recommend them.



I was just wondering what other peoples experience with these sponges have been.



Thanks! :)
 
Hi L33,



Thank you for your review. However, I have used a sea sponge once before but opted to go with a genuine sheepskin wash mitt. All it takes is a small shell or sand granules to really scratch up your paint. And I'm not comfortable with the fact that dirt and dust is pushed around with a "sponge". I prefer to have the fibers from a sheepskin wash mitt pulling away dirt and dust from the surface of my vehicle. This is just my personal opinion.



With Aloha,

Ranney :)
 
I ditched all my sponges way back, and have since used Genuine Sheepskin wash mitts. Nothing like them. I just cant get comfortable knowing there may be errant sand in all those crevices........
 
spicules.GIF




sponge_spicules.gif




I hope they market the sponges made of spongin and not spicules but I could never bee to certain, as when I picked up a spicule sponge and then accidentally rubbed my eye, it hurt quite bad.



This is what it looked like under the microscope, other then the orange of course:

spicules.gif
 
Again i think they are a little misunderstood.

The idea that these are covered in sand simple isn't true. Unlike man made sponges, these don't "push" dirt around, they pull dirt away from the surface into a much bigger area than a mitt.

Sheepskins don't get dirt trapped in them?

When a sheepskin pulls the dirt away, where does it go? It goes in between your hand and about a 1" of the material.

I've never had a problem with the ones i own, but to each his own.

Anyone ever try on of these?

Thanks for the responses!
 
L33, just enjoy your sea sponges. I prefer sponges myself, but your won't sway many here. After reading the posts of the masses here praising chenile covered sponges and mitts and sheepskin mitts, I re-aquainted myself with these, and found them in no way superior in performance nor safer for *my* (I stole that asterisk thing from Accumulator) finishes. Hey, but that is just me (and now, I guess you) :D



Speaking of Accumulator, he should be weighing in on this; as this is one of his favorite subjects (NOT!).
 
L33- Yeah, I've used the sea sponges and I still have two (still in the bags) from TOL that I bought a long time ago. Don't take the following as a flame (see penultimate paragraph ;) ), it's just the reasoning behind my switch to other tools.



Assuming there's not grit/sand trapped in them to come out at the wrong time (whole 'nother topic and IMO not that big a danger)-



Yeah, they can work well. They hold a lot of wash solution and are quite gentle (that's when they're wet, folks- they're very soft). The reasons I quit using them are that I found other things I like better: BHBs for some cars (where they don't mar the finish) and cotton/MF mitts for the cars that get my "extreme wash technique".



I don't really expect my wash tool (sponge/BHB/mitt) to "soak up much dirt", I want it to only pick up some dirt while the majority is gently dislodged and rinsed off the surface (hopefully with no pressure on it to cause marring). I believe that the cotton/MF mitts are less likely to cause marring in this manner.



And *I* honestly think that dirt will "stick to" rather than get "sucked up into" the item in question anyhow. It's not, IMO, the same as soaking up a spill as in the Bounty commercials.



Also, note that I generally don't let my cars get too dirty between washes, I use slick LSPs that dirt doesn't stick to very tenaciously, and if the vehicle *is* really dirty, I use the showerfoam gun for a pre-soak and take radical measures to avoid wash-induced marring (which I only have to polish out every few *years* on the cars I really pamper). On vehicles I *don't* pamper, I use the BHBs simply because I like them, and if I get marring, I polish it out.



Perhaps my wash techniques are too far outside the box for a fair comparison between the sponge and the others. For people who wash their cars "normally", I *do* believe the sea sponge is a viable alternative to mitts and that they get a bad rap based on sorta a knee-jerk reaction to the word "sponge". A few Autopians have used "grout sponges" with great results, though some others tried them and got all sorts of marring. The big thing is to find tools and methods that work for *you*. If the sea sponge works for you, great. If you haven't tried one, maybe you should check it out and see *if* it works for you. It seems that most people get some wash-induced marring anyhow and the sponge isn't gonna make that a whole lot worse, IMO. And you just might find that, like L33, you really like using the things.



I'll happily sell one of my new sea sponges for about 1/2 retail to anybody who'd like to try it. Gimme a PM if you want it, but I'll expect a post about how it works ;)
 
Accumulator,



Nice informational post :up including good background reference for the reader.



Accumulator said:
L33- Yeah, I've used the sea sponges and I still have two (still in the bags) from TOL that I bought a long time ago.

Click to expand...



No need to wonder if you were still holding on to those sponges ;)
 
I had the carpeting in my home professionally cleaned the other day.



I have two cats, so after the rugs were finished, the guy used a wet sea sponge to go over the carpeting by hand to ensure all the hair came up.



I aksed to feel the sponge and I was quite suprised on how very soft it was. It was almost weird feeling because I am so used to sponges being abrasive. It was pillow-like.



I strictly use sheepskin for washing but would definately try it out.



If anything, they would be good to use on wheels that I clean with car wash soap.



(I am trying to convince myself that I need yet ANOTHER detailing accessory!!)
 
To L33 and Mr.Clean: I think we're in the minority here. I too use sponges, but I use a grout sponge. Any other sponge besides the grout and the sea, I would agree that it probably wouldn't be the best option. I prefer the grout because in my opinion some wash mitts while they trap the dirt very well, don't release the dirt when you put the mitt back in the bucket. I also like to cut the sponge up into smaller sponges and wash my rims where the surface area is smaller and just too big with a full size sponge. Try cutting a wash mitt up and see what happens. I've done it and it wasn't pretty. I've been using the grout for 4 years and I've never noticed marring as a result of the sponge. Just my opinion folks.



Here's food for thought: I don't know if the link is still there, but on showcargarage, now megsonline, there was a post on a mobile detailer who uses grout sponges. This is the same person who details Barry's cars. I was curious so I called the guy up and asked him some questions. Sure enough, he told me that he did tests with vehicles that were washed with mitts compared to sponges. The vehicles with sponges had less marring.
 
L33 said:
III - Very interesting post with the mobile detailer, where do you get the grout sponges and do they have the same characteristics of sea sponges?

Are these them? -

http://www.contractorsdirect.com/cgi-bin/WebStore/indexNEW.cgi/gl=tile-tools/1067.html
Click to expand...



I get mine at home depot which is where the detailer gets his also. They are made by QEP and they are in the tile and grout section of the store. No, grout sponges don't have the same characteristics. Sea sponges seem to have larger pores which could be bad or good depending on how you look at things. The grout sponge link that you provided is similar to what I use. Like I said, the ones I get are made from a different company.



If people are interested in the name of the mobile detailer PM me and I'll give you the info. Mike Phillips also could tell you the name and place of who I'm talking about. Out of respect for the guy I don't want to mention it here because he might get tons of phone calls or e-mails about this issue. While I'm sure he would be happy to talk with people, like he did with me, it might get old after a while real fast.
 
Ok, my 2 cents :D



I now only use microfiber because it's the only thing I know from photographic evidence that doesn't leave scratches (I've seen magnified pix of clear coat rubbed with microfiber and rubbed "actually, scratched is a more descriptive word" with 100% cotton terry toweling). I used sea sponges for years because of the extreme softness when wet and the claims of grit going up inside sponge and filtering out like on the seabed, etc., etc., but have no photographic proof that it is true. I decided to be safe rather than sorry.



I too know detailers that swear by sheepskin. I've always wondered how you can wash the grit out of them. Of course, alot of the ones I've seen in people's garages have been flung on the ground and who knows where.
 
alineal- Yeah, when you see pics of what "normal procedures" do to automotive paint, it's pretty :scared



In the pics you're referring to, were the various materials used wet with shampoo or dry? As best I can tell (with magnification), there are cottons that, at least when wet with shampoo, don't mar at least some automotive finishes (heh heh, notice all the qualifiers ;) ). But *dry* is a very different story!



If they don't get contaminated, yeah, I'd say the MF is the softest thing you can use, and it does clean well too. It's that "if" that worries me, at least when a vehicle's pretty dirty.



Your concerns about how-do-they-rinse-clean regarding sheepskins are the same ones I have about MF. I use MF mitts in some cases and every now and then they pick up some contamination that just *won't* rinse out (I have to pick it out by hand) and this can happen with cotton ones too. I also worry that such stuff might get into a sponge and then migrate back out at the wrong time....guess there's no easy answer here. The only things I've found to be fully free-rinsing are the BHBs, and they're definitely not soft enough for some finishes, even when wet/lubricated.



Ya know, when I need to clean optics, I only use MF...but it's interesting that I have lenses from back *way* before MF that are still unscratched (and some older lens coatings are pretty fragile), so there must be some leeway here.
 
I guess I'm one of the few that prefer the natural sea sponge. I found that sheep skin wash mits to mar the paint finish as with other mits and regular sponges. About a year or so ago I tried a natural sea sponge that my supplier imports from the Mediterranean sea. These are far better than anything I've ever used. I've never found shels or anything else in these sponges. They do not mar the paint on my black VW Jetta or any car I've detail. I've been informed that sponges from the Mediterranean and Atlantic sea's are the highest quality.
 
You're right, Accumulator, there are alot of "ifs" and we're probably better off HOPING we're using the best methods, and not really KNOWING what we're actually doing to our paint. I think most of us Autopians would be crazed if we really knew. Maybe we need a life:) I know most of my customers would be highly amused (smirk, smirk) if they knew how anal we are! Anyway,whether you use sea sponges, wash mitts or microfiber, we probably are getting some scratching. Dirt's in the air (and definately when my neighbor cranks up his lawnmower - always when I'm washing my car). We just need to keep them rinsed often, and use a little wisdom.



I too have found stuff on my microfiber, usually it's tar. The sheepskin I'm referring to was lying around the wash bay of a shop that I used to detail at. It was scary, with these hard, dried tips.



The pics are at my website, under FAQs. The first two are with dry towels, the second two with a cleaner wax and a pure wax. I'm sure that a shampoo with lubricating oils would make a big difference.
 
alineal said:
..Maybe we need a life:)...
Click to expand...



Heh heh, ain't that the truth! Some of the things we obsess (and obsessively post) about make me :rolleyes: and I'm one of the people doing it :D



All this about sea sponges *has* lead to my rethinking my recommendations; they're back on my short-list when people ask "what to wash with", though I'd still prefer that everyone use my Non-marring Wash Technique :D (but hey, life is short, and hard enough without doing *that* all the time :o ).



Heh heh, I'd still rather flush dirt off the paint than let it get absorbed into my cleaning media ;) which happens to be something for which the sponge works pretty well.
 
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