SiO2 Ceramic Spray Sealant comparison test

acuRAS82

acuRAS82

New member
I figured “why not?” after correcting the X5 M. Roof was coated, polished with WG Finishing Glaze, then wiped with Kleen-Strip Prep-All a few times for prep, then CarPro Essence with Gloss Pads..

The two coats of applications for each product occurred on 6/10/20 and 6/11/20.

Front Roof - The Easy Applicators:
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c64f51c80deff6a8654575d9e4134c6a.jpg





Middle Roof - The Coating Lite Wannabes
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Near-Rear Roof - The Maintenance Sprays
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d6f3ee270b1e3a3f8c6bd0f9920fdede.plist

NOTE: The far back roof/spoiler is wearing KK Infinite Wax like the rest of the vehicle... not part of this spray sealant test.


Fast forward 3 weeks to 7/1/20, after being a garage queen with occasional travel, the car had its first bath with CarPro Reset. The short videos after washing don’t show much to takeaway besides strong properties from all products. No rough weather yet.

Front:
https://youtu.be/G_-D4Aj-Cos

Middle-Back:
https://youtu.be/HE2b4lY8lKM


I plan to add my application experiences soon, despite being applied to very small areas.

I’ll add occasional updates. I may add a larger field onto another roof as part of a separate, parallel test since there were some I wasn’t able to fit on here (GG 3-in-1, DPC Armor, Overcoat, some Polish Angel).

Thanks for reading.
 
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Coatings=crack said:
Nice test. Good variety of sealants
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Ya know, I thought of you specifically when I knew I had a lack of space and omitted 3-in-1 due to it still had the seal on the top. I could have used the far back spoiler area but water acts so different on that angle.
 
acuRAS82 said:
Ya know, I thought of you specifically when I knew I had a lack of space and omitted 3-in-1 due to it still had the seal on the top. I could have used the far back spoiler area but water acts so different on that angle.
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I haven’t used nowhere near the amount you’ve used but it’s a winner. It’s what i use and recommend for all my friends cars. Mine still see’s cosmic mainly but for price and performance considered it might be the best.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Update 7/9/20 (1 month):

Only about 1 week of not being a garage queen, but it was a week of low to mid-90s highs, so that counts for something. No further washes besides the one posted above.

Reference:
92288f5f85c6bcb9de38437d8d2107f1.plist

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Below is video of the first rain the vehicle has endured, after a week+ of drought.
YouTube


Since videos don’t always come out great, below are some pictures all taken within a ~20 second time period:
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And then one pic once the rain stopped:
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Only a few takeaways for me:

1) Feynlab isn’t looking as good as the other 3 heavy hitters, particularly compared to IGL which some have wondered how they compare. I’m still rooting for Feynlab due to price, maybe it will age well.

2) Although the front roof can’t be assessed in these pics, WG CSC, as seen on the strip on the right side of the moonroof seems to still be a little better behavior than VS1. Nothing major, but a slight lead especially when viewed in person.

Everything else seems like good performing, fairly new spray sealant performance to me.
 
William_Wallace said:
Thx I was looking forward to fenylab test
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As for an informal update, Feynlab is still looking the least impressive of the heavy hitters in its row, and it’s not even doing as well as it’s adjacent counterpart (Remax).

Of this current test, Feynlab is the surprise and will probably warrant a good shake and a new test spot somewhere.
 
Nice thread, great comparisons.
Do you notice a significant difference between these coatings and the paste waxes, so far?
I recently read a thread of your comparing waxes (very nice, btw) and it does not seem like you get much more (longevity, self cleaning ability) from these coating. But maybe I am missing something. Or maybe I just like waxes.
 
lloydrm said:
Nice thread, great comparisons.
Do you notice a significant difference between these coatings and the paste waxes, so far?
I recently read a thread of your comparing waxes (very nice, btw) and it does not seem like you get much more (longevity, self cleaning ability) from these coating. But maybe I am missing something. Or maybe I just like waxes.
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Tough question! I had one comparison with SiO2 waxes in early spring where almost none of them lasted the way I expected or have seen in the past. Not sure if it was too cold during application/curing or whether my prep spray of choice really did a good job. I also washed with harsh soap. I’ve since moved on to prep sprays and my opinion about beading is that colder water does not bead as well as warmer water in warm weather. Anyways, I ended up stripping those, but I don’t necessarily know if they were dead, clogged or just showing poor performance due to poor weather. I have seen 5-6 months out of Synergy and I know others have seen that or more, but as an example it looked poor after a month or two.

But I think you may be referring to the sealants thread which is still currently going on the Acura. Those are doing well and probably benefitted from being applied during warmer days and possibly the fact traditional sealants may be less finicky than SiO2-heavy waxes or spray sealants.

Regardless, hopefully this high level, general opinion partially answers your question:
1) Traditional sealants seem least finicky as far as preferred application environment. Most traditional sealants will last 3-6 months for me in mild weather. They are really good at keeping contaminants out and resisting etching. But they seem to have the least durability to harsh chemicals. They don’t self clean very well.
2) SiO2 Sprays I like to put into two categories: maintenance spray and coating lite, but there are some very durable maintenance sprays that last quite awhile too. Some maintenance sprays only last a month or two in mild weather but others can probably go 4-5-6 months. I think most SiO2 Sprays have pretty good resistance to chemicals. They are very easy to apply with the only issue usually being streaking. But as for speed, they apply quickly. There is such a massive variation between SiO2 spray sealants that I would generally say they do not last as long as traditional sealants across the board but the ones with highest longevity certainly can coniete or exceed top sealants. Especially in poor weather conditions.
Coating Lites seem very resistant to chemicals, can last 6-12 months even in bad weather and are harder to apply or at least if you do screw up and leave a high spot it’s a bigger deal. Great self-cleaning.
3) Ceramic waxes I will just say are in the middle, and I personally think most have that warmth that sealants lack. The good ones should get 6 months, about the same as the better sealants and SiO2 sprays in mild weather, but should be more resistant to poor weather. They self clean very well but maybe not quite as good as top tier SiO2 Sprays. I e had no issues with etching for these except one giant bird crap on top of Enigma Wax.
 
I got a little crazy typing above because I’m passionate about this topic and can’t turn my brain off. To answer your question more simply, from my own experiences: the top traditional sealants, SiO2 spray sealants and Ceramic waxes should all get similar duration of around 6 months max in mild weather. As weather brings more rain or snow/salt, I think sealants will die off first, Ceramic waxes and spray sealants should be close in resisting these with the same strength..
I think most sealants get you at least 3 months, same with most Ceramic waxes. SiO2 Sprays are all over the place with claims and actual durability and if you blindly pick from a group you might get 1 month or 6 months it’ll anywhere in between.
 
The thing that I wonder about is if the base ceramic coat is solvent based and if the topper is water based, do they actually bond to each other or does the water based topper end up being washed off by rain or hand washing.
 
wannafbody said:
The thing that I wonder about is if the base ceramic coat is solvent based and if the topper is water based, do they actually bond to each other or does the water based topper end up being washed off by rain or hand washing.
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According to topper product descriptions, it shouldn’t matter since they state they can be used on any existing coating. I assume Essence is solvent based but I would need to smell to make sure. I’ve never had an issue with anything bonding to it. Essence is a poor beader and therefore it’s pretty apparent when things fail on it, they bead poorly and remain poor rather than go back to sheeting immediately, at least that’s my observation when I do short term tests.
 
acuRAS82 said:
I got a little crazy typing above because I’m passionate about this topic and can’t turn my brain off. To answer your question more simply, from my own experiences: the top traditional sealants, SiO2 spray sealants and Ceramic waxes should all get similar duration of around 6 months max in mild weather. As weather brings more rain or snow/salt, I think sealants will die off first, Ceramic waxes and spray sealants should be close in resisting these with the same strength..
I think most sealants get you at least 3 months, same with most Ceramic waxes. SiO2 Sprays are all over the place with claims and actual durability and if you blindly pick from a group you might get 1 month or 6 months it’ll anywhere in between.
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This is great info. No need to apologize about sharing your experience and knowledge. I learned a lot. Thank you.
 
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