Optimum No Rinse Wash impressions

I

imported_Aurora40

New member
I just tried this stuff out today. I purchased it instead of Protect-All QEW because of an unsatisfying experience with their customer service. I've been using QEW for several years with no complaints.



I used two buckets, one filled with 6 quarts of water, and 1.5 ounces of No Rinse. This is the same ratio I use for QEW. I had a second bucket with about a gallon of just water. I rinse the wash mitt in the water bucket after washing a panel and wring it out well, to keep dirt out of the bucket of wash.



I will just get the favorable part out of the way. No Rinse Wash left the panels nice and slick. That is about all the positive I can say about it. I was extremely unimpressed.



The product felt extremely slick, and made the wash mitt feel very slimey. It both felt and smelled like regular fabric softener. I found the smell a bit objectionable as I continued to use it, it was sort of nauseating.



The NRW did not seem to break up dirt or bug guts or road grime particularly well. Nor did dirt seem to release from the wash mitt particularly well. It was as if the mitt was getting sticky or something, again not unlike a fabric softener.



My car was fairly dirty. From experience with QEW, had I used that the rinse bucket would have been jet black from all the dirt coming off the car. With NRW the rinse bucket did not get all that dirty, but the wash mitt got extremely dirty:







I've tried a lot of products that for one reason or another didn't do it for me. In most all cases though I felt like what I got was a quality product, just not one that was tuned to how I liked to use it. But NRW is one of the few things I've ever tried where I really feel like I got ripped off. I feel like I could have bought a $5 gallon of generic fabric softener, mixed it up in a bucket of water, and had a similar experience washing my car. Except I would have saved about $35.



If I've made some egregious error in using it, by all means let me know. Otherwise, if you are in the northern VA area and want to trade some QEW for an almost full gallon of NRW, give me a shout.
 
It has been posted numerous times that ONR will make your wash pad dirtier so that shouldn't have been a suprise. Personally, I don't care all that much how my wash pads look, I do care how the car looks when I finish. Not a lack of pride in my pads or anything like that but how the car looks is more important. I used QEW for 12+ years on probably close to 10,000 cars total and I don't feel it cleans any better than ONR (or any worse). In addition, as you noticed, ONR makes the car slicker and based on side by side use with QEW, glossier as well.



If I still had any QEW, I'd be more than happy to swap out with you if ONR is not for you. :nixweiss
 
I use ONR quite often, and have never noticed this sticky feeling you are talking about. Granted I do a traditional wash once every 6 weeks, and ONR about 1 to 3 times a week, so I don't get the dirt nearly as bad. I've never had issues with it not breaking up bugs, and dirt though. Seems to work great for me.
 
Aurora40 said:
I feel like I could have bought a $5 gallon of generic fabric softener, mixed it up in a bucket of water, and had a similar experience washing my car.
Click to expand...



Please try this and let use know if it works. I'd like to save a buck too.
 
I do agree the scent is a little odd, sort of like lemons and pinesol. I believe the scent selection had to do with how much or little it would affect product performance.
 
Scottwax said:
It has been posted numerous times that ONR will make your wash pad dirtier so that shouldn't have been a suprise. Personally, I don't care all that much how my wash pads look, I do care how the car looks when I finish. Not a lack of pride in my pads or anything like that but how the car looks is more important. I used QEW for 12+ years on probably close to 10,000 cars total and I don't feel it cleans any better than ONR (or any worse). In addition, as you noticed, ONR makes the car slicker and based on side by side use with QEW, glossier as well.



If I still had any QEW, I'd be more than happy to swap out with you if ONR is not for you. :nixweiss
Click to expand...

If all the dirt is staying in the wash mitt, that sort of concerns me. It's not just that the mitt looks like hell, but also that the rinse bucket does not. However, I had not read that. Mainly what I'd read was it's basically like QEW but slicker and glossier.



Do you mix it at the same ratio as you did QEW?



For comparison, this is generally what the rinse bucket looks like for me after using QEW:

qewyuck.jpg
 
Scottwax said:
I do agree the scent is a little odd, sort of like lemons and pinesol. I believe the scent selection had to do with how much or little it would affect product performance.
Click to expand...



Poor Dr. G... He probably got a ton of "The smell is disgusting!" feedback when ONR had no added scent. So he adds a scent. Now he's getting a ton of "The smell is disgusting!" feedback again. I wish he'd make an unscented version. ONR's scent reminds me of very cheap airfreshener.
 
nrengle said:
I use ONR quite often, and have never noticed this sticky feeling you are talking about. Granted I do a traditional wash once every 6 weeks, and ONR about 1 to 3 times a week, so I don't get the dirt nearly as bad. I've never had issues with it not breaking up bugs, and dirt though. Seems to work great for me.
Click to expand...

Sticky is probably a bad description. The mitt felt extremely slick, but it had sort of a thick/coated feeling. The water would also leave that feeling on my hands. Again, fabric softener is the only analogy I can think of. Like how a towel feels when you use fabric softener, it does end up soft, but not really a good soft. Rather it feels like it is coated with something.
 
the only things I can agree with here are-yes, the panels are very clean and slick and yes, my wash media gets dirty when using ONR.



I usually use 3 MF mitts to ONR a car. I also mix 4 capfuls for 2 gallons of water. For my rinse bucket, I add 1 cap. This helps 'soften' the water in teh rinse bucket and guessing it also helps encapsulate the dirt and helps it sink to the bottom of the bucket.



I say you give it another chance. Post this same experience over on the optimumforums.org and Dr G or Anthony will surely help you out. They have great service.
 
Aurora40 said:
If all the dirt is staying in the wash mitt, that sort of concerns me. It's not just that the mitt looks like hell, but also that the rinse bucket does not. However, I had not read that. Mainly what I'd read was it's basically like QEW but slicker and glossier.



Do you mix it at the same ratio as you did QEW?



For comparison, this is generally what the rinse bucket looks like for me after using QEW:

qewyuck.jpg
Click to expand...



I'll take a picture of the wash bucket next time I use ONR on a dirty car, it will look at least as dirty as the water in the above picture. It may be what the content of the dirt was this time. :nixweiss I don't use a rinse bucket though, single bucket method only. If the car is absolutely filthy, I just change it out halfway through. I use 1 oz for about 6-7 quarts of water.



I just washed my car with ONR, didn't notice the "coating" feeling you are talking about but what I do notice is how the pad glides over the paint. Maybe that is what makes it feel like a coating to you? Just tossing suggestions out.
 
I believe how a product feels and smells makes for the total experience. While I don't understand the slick feeling you get on the mitt (I use a thick MF towel - Cobra 530) and I can tolerate the ONR smell, it's the condition of the vehicle after washing that's important to me. Was it clean afterwards? (in my experience, yes) Is there marring? (in my experience, no) Did it save time? (in my experience, a resounding YES).



I'm guessing that because the product encapsulates dirt, half of it readily falls down to the floor during the wash itself. The ones trapped in the wash mitt and rinsed away in the bucket is probably a small portion of the total dirt on the car.
 
I think QEW and the old version of ONR smelt a lot worse than the new version, the new version at least tries to smell good. And I know what you mean about sheepskins feeling slimy, but I think that is the way they feel with any wash I have used. I use a cotton wash mitt (Meguiars) with ONR.

But sure it could release the dirt better from the mitt, If the mitt gets dirty I feel it might scratch also. This is the only complaint I have with ONR.
 
This is exactly the reason I stopped using sheepskin mitts. Using it with ONR(optimum no rinse, this is the commonly used abbreviation on this forum) makes it clump together and is very dirty looking with an extremely odd feeling. Give ONR a chance with something other than sheepskins maybe a grout sponge or a microfibre mitt. It really makes the difference. I never change back from the grout sponge to sheepskin; it just has a better usability and much more durable.
 
fstb88 said:
This is exactly the reason I stopped using sheepskin mitts. Using it with ONR(optimum no rinse, this is the commonly used abbreviation on this forum) makes it clump together and is very dirty looking with an extremely odd feeling. Give ONR a chance with something other than sheepskins maybe a grout sponge or a microfibre mitt. It really makes the difference. I never change back from the grout sponge to sheepskin; it just has a better usability and much more durable.
Click to expand...



Agreed. I like the grout sponge with ONR. I use the sheepskins for conventional washes with soapy suds. Grout sponges are really cheap and you can find them at lowes.
 
For use with ONR we have found the Lake Country Ulti-Mitt to be the tool of choice for application(the red version). I am sure you can find it at most well stocked detail product distributors.



It cleans well, is easy to rinse, offers good water control(no product on the floor, just where it's needed) and releases the dirt easily.
 
Try a MF mitt and see how ONR works. Personally I always found it kind of neat how dirt always falls to the bottom of the bucket when using QEW.
 
I, like some others, have to agree that it most likely the sheepskin mitt. I ONR'd two vehicles today. A sheepskin mitt was used for the first pass and a grout sponge for the second pass so I am familiar with what you are talking about. The grout sponge didn't take on the same "strange feel" as the mitt. The funny part is that I usually use different media but for some reason I grabbed the sheepskin today :confused:



Try a different wash media and I think you will like ONR as much as QEW. :2thumbs:
 
Personally I think some are using too much ONR in the thinking that `More is Safer` which is not always the case and are left with a slightly `Sticky` feel.

The dilution rates are on the side of the container and should be used for the best results.
 
I've had some of the same observations as you from using ONR...



I have an almost identical mitt and stopped using it with ONR washes as it does seems to be a challenge to get clean. I now tend to either use a plush MF like the Eurows, or a grout sponge. I have just got some Zymol sponges and plan to also try those. Sponges do clean out more easily but ONR does make it a little harder to clean out your wash media for sure. PNR has impressed me right from the first use with how well it cleans muck from my paint though - absolutely NO complaints in that arena :thumb:



I use 2BM with ONR and my rinse bucket does get absolutely filthy, so I know muck is coming off the wash media in there. ONR tests my anti-swirl beliefs to the absolute limit so still retain a 2nd bucket, especially after seeing just how dirty mine gets. I often swap it out half way just to be very safe as well.



I'm one of the people Dave refers to above, using 2x the recommended dosage, but due to the product cost in the Uk I really need to cut back and have more faith I think. I have no idea if this might make the above issues be more exaggerated?
 
Bigpikle said:
I'm one of the people Dave refers to above, using 2x the recommended dosage, but due to the product cost in the Uk I really need to cut back and have more faith I think.
Click to expand...



Optimum in their wisdom will have erred well on the side of caution when they decided the dilution ratio anyway, so being a greedy begger I use 1/2 the rec. dosage.:lol

I`ve got to laugh at the price comparison with us in the UK when they talk on here of buying gallons of this and that, we`d have to take out a morgage :rolleyes:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top