raymond_ho2002
New member
So I just received my shipment yesterday and of course I rushed out to the garage to try this out. My car was just [conventionally] washed last friday, 3 days ago, and on saturday night and the whole day sunday and monday it was out in the rain. The car wasn’t too dirty; there was a thin film of dirt on the test areas, nothing big and chunky.
Process:
mix qew with water in spray bottle, ~7mls in 20oz of water, which gives a ratio of qew:water slightly less than double above the recommended amount. I spray this generously on each panel as a pre-soak prior to wiping with a microfiber mitt that I use for normal washing. I had a bucket with 1 gallon of water mixed with about 35ml of QEW solution (suggested amount is 28.4ml, or 1 oz). I figured that there was no need for a rinse bucket since i was only trying this on the hood and fender and the c-pillar on one side. after wiping gently with the mitt, i would dry with a waffle weave towel.
Results: I didn't get major scratches that were clearly visible under 1000 watt halogens, but i did see some tiny ones that were seen with a flashlight put a few inches from the paint. I didnt know how many of these small swirls I had on the car to begin with, so it's hard to say whether or not i caused much more damage than a normal wash. I did notice some heavier swirling towards the outer edges of my wash panels, and I am guessing that this was caused by my drying towel brushing in some dirt from adjacent dirty panels.
I looked this afternoon at the washed parts under direct sunlight at about 2pm , and nothing TOO bad stuck out.. I really had to put my eye next to the car to see the tiny swirls that I saw with the flashlight last night.
Conclusions, observations:
I’ll admit that I’m pleasantly surprised. I’ve had serious reservations about this product partly because it seemed like another hyped up product, but mainly because it just didn’t make sense how something like this wouldn’t damage paint. In the end I did get suckered into trying it because of the hype, if it did cause some damage, I could always use up it on cars I don’t care much about.
Although I did get some minor swirling, I am not sure whether or not this is above the rate of accumulation from normal washing. A more appropriate test would be to do side by side washing of QEW vs. conventional soap and water to see if there’s any difference over a series of a few washes. But even this method of testing would be skewed, since by regular washing, one would inevitably get the QEW side wet, which would have to be dried, which would mean that the QEW side is getting rubbed more than it normally would if used just by itself.
One major concern I have is about the dirt that gets picked up by the drying towel. I would assume that the wash mitt would not be able to pick up every bit of dirt. Since there is no rinse step, that means that the remaining encapsulated dirt would be picked up by the drying towel. Wouldn’t this towel be likely to scratch the next vehicle it dries? Does this mean that the drying towel must be washed in between every QEW wash?
To sum it up, I think QEW is a nice product. I definitely need some practice in order to get comfortable, but I see potential in this stuff. I like to wash weekly, but sometimes the cars get only slightly dirty where I feel like a full wash is a big waste of water. For now this would be the perfect intermediate between QD’ing and a full wash. Maybe one day I’ll get comfortable enough to wash with this exclusively.
-Raymond
Process:
mix qew with water in spray bottle, ~7mls in 20oz of water, which gives a ratio of qew:water slightly less than double above the recommended amount. I spray this generously on each panel as a pre-soak prior to wiping with a microfiber mitt that I use for normal washing. I had a bucket with 1 gallon of water mixed with about 35ml of QEW solution (suggested amount is 28.4ml, or 1 oz). I figured that there was no need for a rinse bucket since i was only trying this on the hood and fender and the c-pillar on one side. after wiping gently with the mitt, i would dry with a waffle weave towel.
Results: I didn't get major scratches that were clearly visible under 1000 watt halogens, but i did see some tiny ones that were seen with a flashlight put a few inches from the paint. I didnt know how many of these small swirls I had on the car to begin with, so it's hard to say whether or not i caused much more damage than a normal wash. I did notice some heavier swirling towards the outer edges of my wash panels, and I am guessing that this was caused by my drying towel brushing in some dirt from adjacent dirty panels.
I looked this afternoon at the washed parts under direct sunlight at about 2pm , and nothing TOO bad stuck out.. I really had to put my eye next to the car to see the tiny swirls that I saw with the flashlight last night.
Conclusions, observations:
I’ll admit that I’m pleasantly surprised. I’ve had serious reservations about this product partly because it seemed like another hyped up product, but mainly because it just didn’t make sense how something like this wouldn’t damage paint. In the end I did get suckered into trying it because of the hype, if it did cause some damage, I could always use up it on cars I don’t care much about.
Although I did get some minor swirling, I am not sure whether or not this is above the rate of accumulation from normal washing. A more appropriate test would be to do side by side washing of QEW vs. conventional soap and water to see if there’s any difference over a series of a few washes. But even this method of testing would be skewed, since by regular washing, one would inevitably get the QEW side wet, which would have to be dried, which would mean that the QEW side is getting rubbed more than it normally would if used just by itself. One major concern I have is about the dirt that gets picked up by the drying towel. I would assume that the wash mitt would not be able to pick up every bit of dirt. Since there is no rinse step, that means that the remaining encapsulated dirt would be picked up by the drying towel. Wouldn’t this towel be likely to scratch the next vehicle it dries? Does this mean that the drying towel must be washed in between every QEW wash?
To sum it up, I think QEW is a nice product. I definitely need some practice in order to get comfortable, but I see potential in this stuff. I like to wash weekly, but sometimes the cars get only slightly dirty where I feel like a full wash is a big waste of water. For now this would be the perfect intermediate between QD’ing and a full wash. Maybe one day I’ll get comfortable enough to wash with this exclusively.
-Raymond
