Shampoo-does it really matter which?

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pwaug

New member
one you use as long as it is a name brand car wash solution? If I'm using say DG products or M21, both synthetic based, do I really need to use each company's shampoo or could I use any good shampoo such as Mothers or Megs Gold Class, etc
 
You should be ok to use the Mother's or Meg's you mentioned. Other good one's are: FK1, Tropi-Care, Werkstatt's, Zaino, Prima......
 
Everyone had their own opinions here, its what you feel is best...lubrication is most important...Megs GC works just fine...no need for a botique shampoo in my eyes...also if your using a foam cannon or foam gun, you might need the higher end shampoos...
 
Some carwashes are better than others. I like Armor All carwash, NXT, Duragloss and I've heard Mothers is good as well. I'm not overly impressed with Gold Class wash.
 
Twista is correct. Lubricity is the important thing when doing a normal wash, this will minimize marring. Stick with a decent wash, in fact DG car shampoo is cheap and highly rated by users here. You don't need to stick with a company lineup.
 
I had Armor All wash and wax but it doesnt compare at all to the DP xtreme foam shampoo I bought. DP xtreme foam is really good imo.
 
kkjv1 said:
..Lubricity is the important thing when doing a normal wash, this will minimize marring..
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Yeah, and dirt enacapsulation, while much harder to evaluate, counts for something too.



For a long time I used whatever was on sale for the beaters, and Pinnacle Bodywork Shampoo on the Jag. But switching to a better shampoo for all the vehicles was one of the best moves I ever made (not as good as developing my foamgun technique though ;) ). Less marring, cleaner vehicles without getting aggressive with the wash technique, and longer LSP durability too.



I'm sticking with the oh-so-pricey Griot's. Other than the price, and the need to order it, I simply have zero criticisms of this product; IMO it's as close to perfect as something can get. Well, it doesn't work all that great as clay lube (my Sonus clays don't like it all that much, but work OK for quickie jobs).



I tried GC after reading so many rave reviews, but it didn't come close to the Griot's with regard to lubricity. The best Meg's shampoos IMO are their #62 and #00, which I found vastly superior to GC. I gave away my one gallon of GC, and kept the other for washing service dept. loaners :D



I do hear that the DG is the next best thing to Griot's.



For people who want a lot of foam, that's a whole different set of criteria IMO.
 
NickelPlated.45 said:
But you'll never know because you won't try it!!
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Heh heh, you're probably right there :D



IF I start hearing people (well, people whose opinions I value ;) ) say that DG is *better* than Griot's, I might track some down and give it a whirl.
 
Accumulator said:
I'm sticking with the oh-so-pricey Griot's. Other than the price, and the need to order it, I simply have zero criticisms of this product; IMO it's as close to perfect as something can get.
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I feel the same. Products like Griot's soap and also, I think, 1Z Perls/Exclusiv Glanz, make one realize how inferior some of the other soaps really are. The 1Z stuff ranks low on the suds scale, but is stellar in the lubricity department. Nevertheless, Griot's is still at the top of my list. Have yet to find a soap that trumps it.
 
How do you tell if x car wash is more lubricant than the Y car wash? By feel? Ingredients? It seems like the more soap you used, the more 'lubricant' your mixture would be.
 
Not to be glib, but you can tell partly by how many scratches you end up with ;). I view lubricity as a measure of how well a soap is able to dislodge dirt particles. The more slippery the soap, if you will, the less grinding you're doing with the wash media and the less likely you will be to mar the surface. ONR or QEW would be extreme examples of this, wherein there are virtually no suds, but they are of course very slick.



For traditional car soaps though, I do think suds serve a purpose as far as encapsulation goes.



With regard to the amount of soap, I always compare based off the same dilution, which is 1 oz per gallon, regardless of what the instructions might say.
 
Civicman86 said:
How do you tell if x car wash is more lubricant than the Y car wash? By feel? Ingredients? It seems like the more soap you used, the more 'lubricant' your mixture would be.
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But wouldn't that eat more of your LSP away...?
 
Civicman86 said:
How do you tell if x car wash is more lubricant than the Y car wash? By feel? Ingredients? It seems like the more soap you used, the more 'lubricant' your mixture would be.
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Heh heh, IMO Pennypacker wasn't being all that facetious with his reply ;) You can tell a bit by feel, and by how easily the wash media glide over the surface being washed. This is probably more readily apparent when you're used to one shampoo and try something at the other end of the spectrum. But overall IMO you *really do* determine which soap has great lubricity and encapsulation after a months of washes with no marring, especially in the winter when dealing with lots of gritty dirt. Of course technique sure does factor it too (gross understatement).



More shampoo won't always equal more lubricity (e.g., a mighty strong mix of Westley's car wash still won't have the lubricity of a weak mix of Griot's), and I use a *greatly* diluted mix of Griot's in my foamgun, so for its lubricity to impress me IMO it has to be really something.
 
some points are spot on about marring but it depends on your wash medium. if you use steel wool to wash your car (god forbid ) no matter how much lubrication you will wind up with scratching and marring.

I don't use "boutique" soaps as I use a Natural Sea Sponge and Megs #00 of the GC if I'm in a pinch. I get all the lube and foam I need but thats just me
 
icu812 said:
some points are spot on about marring but it depends on your wash medium. if you use steel wool to wash your car (god forbid ) no matter how much lubrication you will wind up with scratching and marring...
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Yep, and it pays to CD-test all wash media both before the first use and periodicaly thereafter.
 
Accumulator said:
Heh heh, you're probably right there :D



IF I start hearing people (well, people whose opinions I value ;) ) say that DG is *better* than Griot's, I might track some down and give it a whirl.
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You do know that 16 oz of DG can be bought locally at Napa or Carquest only costs about $6 right? Or are you just stubborn?:grinno:
 
bert31 said:
You do know that 16 oz of DG can be bought locally at Napa or Carquest only costs about $6 right? Or are you just stubborn?:grinno:
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Heh heh, well, you sure wouldn't be the *first* person to call me stubborn, not by a long shot :D Let's see how I can rationalize this one, leaving aside whether DG is as good as Griot's...



No CarQuest around my area; I bet there's a NAPA but I dunno where, not anyplace nearby that's for sure. Ordering from Griot's takes a few minutes on the phone or online, done before I'd be out of the driveway (and I order stuff from Griot's anyhow).



Let's see...the DG is 16 oz. for ~$6 = ~$48/gallon; Griot's is ~$40/gallon + 10% ship = ~$44. Cheaper and more convenient to buy the stuff I know I like :nixweiss
 
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