Using wet PC pads?

S

superstring

New member
Sorry if this has been covered before, but I'm wondering if it's OK to use a wet/damp pad for applying polish (might depend on the polish, I guess)? Or should you let it dry?



I'm thinking about a situation where the pad gets clogged, you wash it, squeeze the excess water out of it and continue to use it.



Thanks! :)
 
ahhh i just asked that question and was thinking about it lastnight. Wash it or with the backplate use a hose and hose it down until all the polish is gone. Then put it back on the PC and spin it so some of the water is completely gone. Get my drift.
 
I wouldn't suggest ever "squeezing" the water out of a pad. You can usually fling most of it out just by making the motion like you are going to throw it on the ground. Its hard to describe the motion, but you can figure it out. Just shake it with as much power in one swing as you can without spraying water all over the place. Usually just raise it above your head and swing your arm down hard will force most of the water out. Then put it back on the PC and spin the rest out on a low setting. Remember to put your hand in front of the pad so the water doesn't spread everywhere. Likely it will be milky and will leave marks everywhere.



You can use the pad wet for a number of different products. Polishes work best if the pad is dry, but a damp pad doesn't really hinder it too much. It just waters down the polish and limits effectiveness. That is why it is good to get it as dry as possible. It would be best to have two pads so one could be out sitting in the sun while you use another one. Then when you need to clean one the other one might be dry enough.



Some products like AIO work best with a wet pad, so its just not always a bad thing to have it be a little damp. Just sling as much water out as you can before going back to work and you should be fine. Start looking at getting a backup pad if you find that you have to clean your pad out a lot or are using it alot.
 
Thanks for the advice, guys.



Posted by Jngrbrdman



I wouldn't suggest ever "squeezing" the water out of a pad.
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Why not? Do you think it might damage the pad? I'm not talking about "wringing" it out, just gently squeezing. I do understand what you're saying about "flinging" the water out.



Cheers!
 
superstring said:
Thanks for the advice, guys.







Why not? Do you think it might damage the pad? I'm not talking about "wringing" it out, just gently squeezing. I do understand what you're saying about "flinging" the water out.



Cheers!
Click to expand...



I always hold it vertical so the excess water runs to the bottom of the pad and then wedge it between my hands and squezze the excess water out. It will remove the majority of the water and then I hang it on a rope in the garage for more water to continue to run to the bottom and occasionally squezzing it to get the water out. I don't see anyway that it will damage the pads.:)
 
The problem with wringing or squeezing the pads is that it's easy to get them out of shape. If a pad becomes oblong or out of round in any way it will have adverse effects on the PC at higher speeds. Basically the counter-weight in the PC will not be able to compensate for a mis-shaped pad and it could literally vibrate right off the backing plate. Yes, I learned that the hard way :o LOL!! .
 
I wring out my pads and they're fine. I have the LC white pads and after soap and water to rinse, I fold them in half and compress the pads a couple times. The adhesive is really good on those pads.
 
Wringing can also cause problems with the backing coming off. The heat transfered through the pad to the backing can melt the glue and cause the backing to peel away. Wringing out the pad will make that even worse by getting it wet and cooling the glue to where it won't bond back to the pad. Its something that happens with Meguiar's pads all the time. Getting the backing part wet is just not a good idea anyway because it makes it harder to hook to the backing plate. Wringing out the pad is difficult to do without getting the backing on the pad wet. That isn't doctrine or anything. That's just my own personal experience. Your experience may vary.
 
Posted by Jngrbrdman



Wringing can also cause problems with the backing coming off. The heat transfered through the pad to the backing can melt the glue and cause the backing to peel away. Wringing out the pad will make that even worse by getting it wet and cooling the glue to where it won't bond back to the pad. Its something that happens with Meguiar's pads all the time. Getting the backing part wet is just not a good idea anyway because it makes it harder to hook to the backing plate. Wringing out the pad is difficult to do without getting the backing on the pad wet. That isn't doctrine or anything. That's just my own personal experience. Your experience may vary.
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I must be dense :D But I don't understand how you can wash the pad out properly without getting the backing wet :confused:
 
Jngrbrdman said:
Wringing can also cause problems with the backing coming off. The heat transfered through the pad to the backing can melt the glue and cause the backing to peel away. Wringing out the pad will make that even worse by getting it wet and cooling the glue to where it won't bond back to the pad. Its something that happens with Meguiar's pads all the time. Getting the backing part wet is just not a good idea anyway because it makes it harder to hook to the backing plate. Wringing out the pad is difficult to do without getting the backing on the pad wet. That isn't doctrine or anything. That's just my own personal experience. Your experience may vary.
Click to expand...

I wonder how do you clean a pad without getting the back part of a pad wet. Water soaks up pretty good in the pads. FWIW I usually squeez a pad in a bucket of water/soap by pressing it flat on the bottom of the bucket. It really cleans out the product from the pad. I also shake dry them too. I think spinning a wet pad can cause the backing to tear from the water weight. I usually just air dry them. If I needed to clean the pad to use again right away for the same product I usually use a towel to wipe the pad and even push some pressure down on them on the PC to remove product and give it a go again.
 
I hold the pad in front of me and spray it off with the hose. I just use the hose and my thumb to control the pressure and shape of the spray. I don't wring it out and that keeps the back from getting wet. My only goal is to spray out the polish that is caking up on the top half of the pad. For whatever reason, when I do it the way that I do it the back just doesn't get wet.



When I want the pad really clean then I throw it in the washing machine. It wears them out faster perhaps than if I took time to wash them individually by hand, but the time it saves me is worth it. I still get more than enough use out of my pads and I usually don't end up throwing them away because they got wrecked in the washer. In fact, once I figured out that keeping the backing pad dry was important to the durability of the pad, I have been getting more than twice the life out of my pads that I was getting before.
 
I dry my pads by hanging them on velcro strips I put on a line over my laundry tubs ... the water doesn't take long to all run to the bottom of the pad .. then I just squeeze it in an old bath towel .. then I rehang them. I also spin them on the PC in a bucket. Got tired of trying to figure out where the hell the pad went when it spun off.

BTW a damp pad works great with the Menzerna twins ..
 
I clean my pads by hand in soap and water. Rinse than put them in the washing machine on spin. I have never had a problem with the velcro backing seperating this way. I did have a problem when I used to spin the pads dry on the PC. This method was hard on the velcro.
 
I clean my Meg's softbuff pads by placing them in a tide solution that's about 1/4-inch deep so that the velcro backing doesn't get soaked.



I leave it for about 30 minutes so that the polish residue gets broken down by the detergent solution . I then tilt it to one side and let all the soot drain.



I soak it again but only in water this time and for only 2 minutes. I drain and repeat once more.



After I drain it the last time, I spin it on the rotary (1000rpm) for about 5 seconds. They always come out like new. :D
 
Jngrbrdman said:
I wouldn't suggest ever "squeezing" the water out of a pad. You can usually fling most of it out just by making the motion like you are going to throw it on the ground. Its hard to describe the motion, but you can figure it out. Just shake it with as much power in one swing as you can without spraying water all over the place. Usually just raise it above your head and swing your arm down hard will force most of the water out. Then put it back on the PC and spin the rest out on a low setting. Remember to put your hand in front of the pad so the water doesn't spread everywhere. Likely it will be milky and will leave marks everywhere.



You can use the pad wet for a number of different products. Polishes work best if the pad is dry, but a damp pad doesn't really hinder it too much. It just waters down the polish and limits effectiveness. That is why it is good to get it as dry as possible. It would be best to have two pads so one could be out sitting in the sun while you use another one. Then when you need to clean one the other one might be dry enough.



Some products like AIO work best with a wet pad, so its just not always a bad thing to have it be a little damp. Just sling as much water out as you can before going back to work and you should be fine. Start looking at getting a backup pad if you find that you have to clean your pad out a lot or are using it alot.
Click to expand...



Well, in my experience, I've found the opposite to be true. Wringing out by hand has caused me no problems, but I've found that spinning it on your polisher DOES cause the backing to separate.



Also, using a damp pad with a polish will actually (depending on the polish) make it more aggressive, not the reverse, though simple "logic" might make you expect otherwise.
 
I've been concerned about the velcro backing seperating from wringing out the pads. What I've started to do to dry the pads out is to just put them in a folded terry towel (I have to find some use for my old detailing supplies) of a flat surface and run over them once or twice with my wife's rolling pin.
 
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