Buy this product right now. I mean it. Trust me...order it right now, even before you finish reading this review. I'll wait.
I have a car I care a lot about, a Porsche 997. I cover it every night and detail it every Sunday. It has been a sort of ritual: gather the soap, wash mitts, microfiber towels, 2 buckets, finishing spray, wheel cleaner, window cleaner, wheel dressing, chamois. it's about an hour's project, sometimes more. Granted, I love this car and it's a sort of bonding experience, but still--I wondered whether there was a quicker way to take care of it and keep it looking its awesome self while using less water (I'm in California).
I did a search of the many Porsche-centric websites out there, and found that one product in particular kept appearing on multiple sites: this one. The price was not horrible, so I ordered a bottle, along with some fresh microfiber towels.
I was a little skeptical at first; there is something reassuring about big mountains of fluffy soapsuds when you're washing your car. That's what does the cleaning, right? This stuff has NO suds or foam. Zero. How could it possibly do anything beneficial?
The first time I used it, I wiped the wash mitt over half the roof. The car never gets very dirty, but there were some bird droppings and a thin film of dust. At first, it was like just using plain water, except for the rather pleasant smell of the stuff (I used two capfuls--about an ounce--to a gallon of cold water). I wiped it off with a dry towel, and...well, renowned SciFi author Arthur C. Clarke famously said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." That's what this was. One pass with the mitt, a little gentle swabbing with a clean towel, and it was clean and shiny. The "magic" is in some kind of polymer these guys have figured out; it floats the dirt and crud to the surface, encasing it somehow so that it can't harm the paint when you wipe it off.
These days, it takes me about 30 minutes or less to do the entire car--including detailing the wheels. Unless I've done a lot of hard driving (and hard braking), Optimum will clean the brake dust off fine without resorting to the stronger stuff. I use a long-handled wooly swab on an 18" handle to get the interior of the wheels (the rears are 11" wide) and a round brush to get into the lug nuts. I use another microfiber towel to dry them, using the long handle of the wooly thingie to reach all the way into the rim. Today, it took me less than 2 minutes per wheel.
Some days, I'll still use a finishing spray to get just a touch more gloss, but that's more a part of the ritual than actual necessity.
There is one major disadvantage that I just experienced today. The Wife, seeing me heading out to wash the car, said, "Honey, since it's so easy to wash your car, could you do mine, too?" Batting of eyelashes. She has a Toyota Rav4, which is quite a bit bigger than the 997. Big sigh. Sure.
Bottom line: if you are still washing your car the old way, with suds and hoses and such, you are making the job MUCH harder than it needs to be. Get this stuff.
| Manufacturer | Optimum |
|---|---|
| Brand | Optimum |
| Model | NRWW2012Q |
| Item Weight | 2.29 pounds |
| Product Dimensions | 10.2 x 3.1 x 1.8 inches |
| Item model number | NRWW2012Q |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Manufacturer Part Number | NRWW2012Q |
| Folding | No |
