Who wants to chime in on the "Mr. Clean Auto Dry" car wash?

[MercenaryForHire]

I've heard two basic stances to this argument.

1) It absolutely rocks, and works as advertised (no drying, no spots)
2) It strips your wax off, leaves a film, and doesn't work as advertised.

Anyone used this stuff, or am I better off just sticking with "Do it by hand"?

- M4H

 

[minendo]

All of the threads I have seen here state that it is utter crap.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Nice thread....I've been thinking about getting one of the kits.

 

[MikeMike]

i dont get how it would strip off wax. all it does it remove the impurities in the water.

MIKE

 

[Idex]

Tried it and it works.

 

[MysticLlama]

I have one, and I mostly use it for the filtered water rinse. The way my house sits, I don't ever get shade to wash the car in, one side is always in the sun, so it makes a huge difference, especially with my crappy water.

I still use a mitt to wash it, I just spray on some regular water and soap (you can use any liquid car wash soap you want in the gun), and wash it by hand, then use the filtered water to rinse it all.

I don't get any water spots after using it, I generally rinse twice.

Per section:
Rinse w/regular water per
Soap and Wash
Rinse again with regular water
Rinse with filtered water

Then one more filtered rinse over the whole car when I'm done. I have to do the in betweens because of the sun drying it too fast.

I can't see why it would strip off wax, my car still beads up just fine, and I've done three washes with it.

The filtered water rinse doesn't bead up, so I can see why people might think it's taking the wax coat off.

 

[RagingBITCH]

I got one the other weekend but it was raining this past weekend, didn't get to try it out. Supposedly it only really sucks once you let the filter run out or not change it when you're supposed to.

 

[jadinolf]

This is funny. I'm going to the big city tomorrow and it's on my shopping list for Wally World.

 

[Murphy Durphy]

I have it, and it seems like some of you have some misinformation.

A) It works. But only if you dry your car. If you use it and then don't do anything with drying at all, your car will look terrible. My car is black so it is especially bad.

B) You can't use just any soap in the gun. Anything besides the soap that came with it will clog the filter and break the machine.

C) The water doesn't strip the wax, the soap does.

D) I wouldn't really recommend it.

When I first got it I thought it was great. But I had never used it without trying to dry my car as well. Once I found out the soap stripped wax it still wasn't too bad, I'd just use a seperate bucket of soap. And then when I tried to use it without drying at all, both times it made my car look horrendous. So on second thought, skip it. Pressure hose and some towels will do just fine.

 

I MUCH, MUCH prefer Eagle One Wax-As-U-Dry spray. Wash car as normal, spray WAUD on surface sparingly, and dry with 100% cotton towel. I've never seen my silver car look better, and the beading is awesome.

I'm sure the coat of wax that it puts on is thin, at best, but when it's applied after my weekly wash and takes pretty much no time at all, durability doesn't matter to me.

 

[RagingBITCH]

Originally posted by: HajikuFlip
I have it, and it seems like some of you have some misinformation.

A) It works. But only if you dry your car. If you use it and then don't do anything with drying at all, your car will look terrible. My car is black so it is especially bad.

B) You can't use just any soap in the gun. Anything besides the soap that came with it will clog the filter and break the machine.

C) The water doesn't strip the wax, the soap does.

D) I wouldn't really recommend it.

When I first got it I thought it was great. But I had never used it without trying to dry my car as well. Once I found out the soap stripped wax it still wasn't too bad, I'd just use a seperate bucket of soap. And then when I tried to use it without drying at all, both times it made my car look horrendous. So on second thought, skip it. Pressure hose and some towels will do just fine.

Wait isn't the purpose of it to DRY BY ITSELF? That seems to defeat the purpose.

 

[Murphy Durphy]

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH

Originally posted by: HajikuFlip
I have it, and it seems like some of you have some misinformation.

A) It works. But only if you dry your car. If you use it and then don't do anything with drying at all, your car will look terrible. My car is black so it is especially bad.

B) You can't use just any soap in the gun. Anything besides the soap that came with it will clog the filter and break the machine.

C) The water doesn't strip the wax, the soap does.

D) I wouldn't really recommend it.

When I first got it I thought it was great. But I had never used it without trying to dry my car as well. Once I found out the soap stripped wax it still wasn't too bad, I'd just use a seperate bucket of soap. And then when I tried to use it without drying at all, both times it made my car look horrendous. So on second thought, skip it. Pressure hose and some towels will do just fine.

Wait isn't the purpose of it to DRY BY ITSELF? That seems to defeat the purpose.

Exactly, which is why I wouldn't recommend it. But if you can't dry your car in the garage or shade and need to buy a little extra time, it might be worth purchasing it to somewhat prevent water-spots.

 

[Yzzim]

Originally posted by: MysticLlama
I have one, and I mostly use it for the filtered water rinse. The way my house sits, I don't ever get shade to wash the car in, one side is always in the sun, so it makes a huge difference, especially with my crappy water.

I still use a mitt to wash it, I just spray on some regular water and soap (you can use any liquid car wash soap you want in the gun), and wash it by hand, then use the filtered water to rinse it all.

I don't get any water spots after using it, I generally rinse twice.

Per section:
Rinse w/regular water per
Soap and Wash
Rinse again with regular water
Rinse with filtered water

Then one more filtered rinse over the whole car when I'm done. I have to do the in betweens because of the sun drying it too fast.

I can't see why it would strip off wax, my car still beads up just fine, and I've done three washes with it.

The filtered water rinse doesn't bead up, so I can see why people might think it's taking the wax coat off.

I think you've got the steps down perfect. If everyone would wash their car like that they wouldn't have a problem.

Also, I don't see how it could strip the wax off. It's not a high pressure wash, just uses the pressure from your garden hose.

 

[RagingBITCH]

Originally posted by: Yzzim

Originally posted by: MysticLlama
I have one, and I mostly use it for the filtered water rinse. The way my house sits, I don't ever get shade to wash the car in, one side is always in the sun, so it makes a huge difference, especially with my crappy water.

I still use a mitt to wash it, I just spray on some regular water and soap (you can use any liquid car wash soap you want in the gun), and wash it by hand, then use the filtered water to rinse it all.

I don't get any water spots after using it, I generally rinse twice.

Per section:
Rinse w/regular water per
Soap and Wash
Rinse again with regular water
Rinse with filtered water

Then one more filtered rinse over the whole car when I'm done. I have to do the in betweens because of the sun drying it too fast.

I can't see why it would strip off wax, my car still beads up just fine, and I've done three washes with it.

The filtered water rinse doesn't bead up, so I can see why people might think it's taking the wax coat off.

I think you've got the steps down perfect. If everyone would wash their car like that they wouldn't have a problem.

Also, I don't see how it could strip the wax off. It's not a high pressure wash, just uses the pressure from your garden hose.

The soap strips the wax off, not the pressure.

 

[HiTek21]

I have one and its now sitting in the back of the garage. The first try it came out some what spotless even though I managed to find some kind of waterspot residue (not white but brown) on the hood. I figured I did something wrong so I tried again a week later and the same thing.

I used it a couple of more times (I replaced the filter) on different vehicles and I kept finding soap film residue on areas I had rinsed with the regular water sprayer so I had to re-wash the areas with soap residue and go over it again with that filtered water. The whole process takes as much time as a regular bucket of soap and drying with a chamois.

Bottom line is it doesn't come out as good as using some good car soap w/ sheepskin wash mitt and a chamois to dry.

Edit: The soap and filters can cost a lot seeing as you get approx 10 uses out of the filter (depending on how hard your water is) and 6 washes out of a bottle of soap. Soap cost about $5 - $7 per bottle and the filters are $6 - $7. I do like the way the soap smells though, like a citrus air freshner.

 

[Nebor]

It won't beat a chamois, but if you don't have the time for that, it's better than regular water spray. Of course, if you don't have time, then why do you care about water spots?

Basically, there are two kinds of people in the world. People who take care of their car, and people who don't. Items like this, and the "Quick spray wax" and such cater to those people who don't take care of their car. It makes them think that they're doing just as good as the real thing, but in no time at all!

 

[icarusx]

I have one and I have used it. The thing sucks, you water pressure is very low when in the purified water mode

 

[mztykal]

It sucks. The soap strips off the wax. Plus it takes forever and a day to dry in the sun using just the filtered water.

Bucket of Meguiars soap with water, Absorber to dry the car, and then Meguiar's cleaning wax, and a top coat of NXT Tech wax. Comes out nice and shiny in the same amount of time it takes the damn Mr. Clean stuff to dry the car without wax.

 

[Kishan]

garbage...used it on an 02 SLK and it was black so it sucked even more-swirls aren't the car wash's fault, but sh!tty washing/drying is. Use meguiars-you may need some effort, but wow!

 

Originally posted by: Nebor
It won't beat a chamois

Chamois are not the way to properly dry a car. Any dirt left on the car will be dragged across the surface by the chamois becuase there is no nap to pick it up and tuck it away. I always use a 100% cotton towel or (if you've got the dough) a nice microfiber cloth.