bclexus

Is anyone familiar with the 'Rain-X Complete Surface Protectant' that many of the automated car washes offer?




I was talking with a fellow that owns a number of beautiful high-end cars and he said the Rain-X Complete Surface Protectant offered in some automated car washes is very similar to the HydrO2 sealant in that an once or less of the Rain-X product is mixed with water at a 1:3 ratio and sprayed onto the car's surface at a prescribed time in the car wash cycle of events (after cleaning but before something else that I don't recall) and within seconds is blasted off with high-pressure water. He seemed to know what he was talking about - he said he works with nanotechnology and specializes in surface catalytic reaction (I think I remembered that correctly).

Anyway, removing the fact that an automated car wash is involved in applying/delivering the Rain-X Complete Surface Protectant' product (in lieu of doing it manually yourself by hand when applying HydrO2) I was wondering if anyone has studied this Rain-X product and done any comparison.

bclexus

I'm not sure what to think about no one responding about the Rain-X Complete Surface Protectant I asked about over a week ago. I surely would have thought that someone was bound to have been familiar with it. But, I guess not...

Anyway, it's been raining here in the Dallas area for the last couple of days and I happened to see the fellow today I mentioned in my original post and saw that his one year-old Jaguar F-TYPE V8-S was parked outside in the rain. The car is a beautiful red and the entire car had water beading on it so tightly I do not see how the water beads could have had any less surface contact.

The owner claims the car has never been waxed, and has never had a sealant or coating applied. He said that he has only washed the car himself a couple of times a year ago when it was new. All the other car washes (once every two weeks of so) this car has ever received were through an automated car wash located nearby where he always gets just the exterior washed with the full exterior treatment, which includes the Rain-X Complete Surface Protectant I was asking about. The same goes for his other 3-4 vehicles, two of which (that I know of) are black.

As much as I've tried I just can't seem to find much information about this Rain-X Complete Surface Protectant on the web so I can learn more about it and how it works. I have learned that 1 ounce of concentrated product is the recommended amount used per vehicle. I suspect it works very similar to the HydrO2 product in that the application is made by spraying the product on the car's entire surface diluted with water, and then pretty much immediately it is blasted off with high-pressure water spray, much like the HydrO2 product is applied.

Anyway, I found his entire car repelled water like it was a lotus leaf. Unbelievable! I sure would like to learn more about it, but there's just not much information about it that I could find... If anyone knows what this Rain-X product is all about, or has tried it themselves, I'd really like to hear about it...because I am most definitely impressed. Thanks...

NTH

Huh, very interesting. I'm willing to try this out, but have not seen any in my area. First up would be my Heep Grand Cherokee for the test.

zmcgovern4

iTrader: (2)

Driving through that car wash will damage your paint, guaranteed... regardless of what they're putting on it for 'protection' it is not worth the damage that is inflicted in the process.

While I am no expert on Rain X products, here is my overall impression... The products are probably OK, but there are better options. Rain X is targeting the mass consumer market, just like Armor All or Turtle Wax, but there is a reason you don't find seasoned professionals using the products. The simple reason is that there are just better products... nothing wrong with walking through Autozone to pick up detailing supplies as there are decent products at a low cost, but as the saying goes, you get what you pay for.

Just my $0.02 on these types of things.

-Zach

LexBob2

I did a search and in the Chicago area Fullers Car Washes (throughout the area) offer the Rain X treatment It's included in their more expensive packages and $4.00 if you add it to one of the cheaper ones.

Just FYI, they aren't touchless washes, but for those who don't mind, or are desperate in the winter months, they are clean, well run and maintained car washes.

I don't know anything about the product or the performance.

Jlin89

personal experience with the rainx car washes is that the coating will last you about a week or two in the summer, it soon diminishes after that, In the winter months, up here in canada, we have some salty roads, the coating is useless against salt water. The beading stops after one snow storm where salt is used on the road.

A good coating of sealant is better than the rainx stuff.

bclexus

Anytime the paint is touched during car washing it is damaged to some degree, guaranteed... To suggest that [all] people who hand wash their cars do less damage compared to driving through a modern, well-kept and operated, car wash is simply unwarranted and not being realistic in my opinion.

I'd say there is likely a significant number of car fanatics that consider themselves car wash experts that truly 'think' they are causing no paint damage, or the absolute minimal damage possible, when they wash their car...when in reality they are actually causing more damage to their paint's surface than driving through a car wash. I've seen it first-hand, and I suspect you have too.

It's an old, old story that car washes cause more damage than hand washing - just look at all the pictures of scratched paint surfaces on the internet. No one ever seems to explain the circumstances - so without seeking the truth that means that all car washes cause deep, heavily scratched paint...because that is what a select group wants to think. The reason we seldom see pictures of scratched paint from hand washing is because hand washing is not supposed to result in damaged paint, and to self-admit that you've damaged your paint's surface from hand washing is admitting that you have failed the test, and that just can't be allowed to happen. It kind of makes one wonder why hand wash experts are always looking for that magical method or that latest nano product to correct the surface and fill all those scratches...that mysteriously came from...uh, hand washing.

I'm told that modern car washes are nothing at all like they used to be in the days of old (not all that many years ago) when they used to use old-fashioned plastic brushes and archaic chemicals and methods. No doubt there are many of them still around, but there are plenty modern ones around...including some at Lexus dealerships. My Lexus dealership is the largest one in the U.S. and it has two car washes on the dealership's 27 acres of land. These two car washes are used to complimentary wash hundreds of Lexus owner's cars most every day. I have asked half a dozen people in various positions at the dealership that would know if they've had many owner complaints about the car wash scratching the cars. Surprisingly, they've all said no... I've yet to try it myself. Maybe these new fangled car washes aren't anything like what people remember of the old ones. I recall that products from Japan used to be considered junk - but for a long time now products from Japan are known to be high quality. Look at Toyota and Lexus!

Anyway, thanks for your opinion about car washes. I was pretty sure that I already knew your view about that. If you ever do happen across any information about the Rain-X Complete Surface Protectant, let us know. I will be interested, and I suspect some others here will be interested also. In the meantime, I'll continue to hand wash my cars. Thanks.

zmcgovern4

iTrader: (2)

As a professional, I certainly know that there are more ways to damage your paint than driving through a car wash. Improper washing and drying in general is the source of all of the swirls and other light defects on vehicles... This certainly includes improper hand washing. My Lexus dealership hand washes vehicles, but they use the same mitt for paint, wheels, etc and use it over and over for each vehicle (I've watched). This is the same practice that many owners follow, and is obviously incorrect... This will also cause a tremendous amount of damage.

At no point did I specifically say driving through a car wash is the only way to damage your car, but I do stand behind my statement that driving through a brush wash will scratch your paint. How could it not? It's not like the brushes are thoroughly cleaned in between each vehicle.

A touchless wash, or preferably a proper 3 bucket method wash, is much safer. If you choose to drive through a tunnel wash, you must feel the conveniences outweigh the consequences... And sometimes that is ok. Most owners don't even know what a swirl mark is, and many times I wish that was the case for me lol. It is very hard work to properly maintain the paint over the years.

-Zach

zmcgovern4

iTrader: (2)

Regarding your dealership stating no one complains... That goes back to my statement about how most owners don't know what a swirl mark is. If everyone was aware of this type of damage and wanted to prevent it, these washes would be out of business... Guaranteed.

I have several first hand experiences with damage from simple washes at dealerships... I can provide photos directly from a Lexus customer if you're interested

Long story short... There is no one who cares about your car as much as you do, therefore if you want it maintained properly, wash it yourself (using the 3BM)

-Zach

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

I have no doubt the Rain-X stuff can be good, but the problem is the lack of prep prior to the Rain-X application. Hydro2 will probably diminish just as fast if one were to spray it over paint with heavy contaminants.

bclexus

A positive reflection on the automatic wash

A landmark study by the Technological University of Munich (Germany), in association with Mercedes-Benz, showed automatic car washing to be far superior to driveway washing for preserving automotive finishes. Subsequent tests by the University of Texas Construction Research Center confirmed these findings.

The machine washes, also, were done under real-world conditions, unannounced beforehand, at a modern commercial car wash. After 25 trips through the automatic wash, microphotos of the vehicle's surface showed no sign of the tangle of deep scratches created by handwashing. In the Texas University tests, especially, machine wash "reflectiveness readings" (i.e., retention of the factory paint's original luster) were 300-700% higher than with hand washing.


I thought these two independent studies (that agreed in their findings) were interesting:

Technological University of Munich (Germany), in association with Mercedes-Benz, Confirms Hand Washing Harms Vehicle Finishes...

HANDWASHING IS HARMFUL TO CAR’S FINISH: UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS STUDY

zmcgovern4

iTrader: (2)

Guess it's not worth the time to discuss it any further... You've clearly made up your mind

FSportIS

iTrader: (13)

Haha, let me tell you first hand experience. Yes yes yes, you can point out all researches that confirm going through these car washes is safe and all that but I have first hand experience seeing it ON MY VERY 2012 Lexus IS250 getting scratch ON THE DAY OF DELIVERY when the car is BRAND NEW because it went through the so-called Lexus dealership car wash machine.

Yes, this dealership is probably the biggest in California and 2nd biggest in the USA. In some of the maintenance service visits, they drove my car through the same car wash again and guess what, there are minor swirls all over the place. Yes, the paint might look excellent to an average person but to me, I examine my paint under various lighting and see swirls everywhere.

I then paid hundreds of dollars for a professional detailer to remove all the imperfections and top it with Opticoat 2.0. Since then, I washed my car using 2 bucket system for months and months. My car paint is perfect even under bright light at various angle.

This is first hand experience and I can SEE and JUDGE from my eyes, not from any fancy research nor any fancy big bang theory. I'm not discrediting university research though because I myself have done some researches at the graduate engineering school so i know many of the studies are very rigorous. All I'm saying is nothing beats your own eyes!

Now, whenever I go to any dealership, I will ask "NO CAR WASH" with a big paper "NO CAR WASH" sitting right int he passenger seat.

Your car will say thank you to you when you don't go to these automatic car washes.

Note that I'm a consumer just like you and also who really care for the car paint.

bclexus

Zach, I'm not sure why you think it is clear that I've made up my mind. Maybe you failed to read that I have not tried my dealership's automatic car washes. And, I said that I'll continue to hand wash my cars. (See my quote below.)

Zach, I am interested in learning more about how modern car washes have changed, and how the modern car wash equipment, chemicals and delivery, and wash methods nowadays prevent damage compared to that of years ago. If I (or anyone) just continues to believe the often-repeated tired old stories that all car washes are far more damaging than hand washing, then I am guilty of being ignorant because I failed to spend some time to learn about the topic in which I have an interest. I would think someone like yourself would make it his business to learn what was happening on the 'other side'.

When I see two different studies done in two different countries by two universities, and in association with Mercedes-Benz, in which the two studies both agree that automatic car washing is far superior to hand washing for preserving automotive finishes - I don't know about you, but it opens my eyes...and makes me want to learn more.

I saw a post earlier today in which a member said he polished his car 4 times a year. You even asked him - "You polish your vehicle 4 times each year?" He provided a list of products he had been testing and gave his view on their results. Polish - 4 times a year! After a couple of years he'll have cut through the clearcoat and into the paint. I wonder how many 'swirls' he has cut/burned into his paint's finish? Yet I'm pretty sure this fellow is probably considered by most people here to be an expert in all aspects of properly taking care of his car's paint finish - including 'hand washing'. My point Zach is that I am open-minded to learning more about products like Rain-X Complete Surface Protectant...and about modern car washes (like the two studies I referenced). Have I made up my mind about it yet? No. But, to use your own words Zach - You've clearly made up your mind. Right?

zmcgovern4

iTrader: (2)

I apologize... I did jump to conclusions without thoroughly reading your responses.

While it may be true that some auto washes are safer... I continue to see rather severe damage caused by them on vehicles I work on, therefore that is my sign that the ones in my area at least, are not safe. I am able to maintain a relatively swirl free vehicle for over 2 years with routine washes, therefore I have concluded that for myself, proper hand washing is the best option.

Regarding the individual who mentioned that he polishes his vehicle 4 times per year... it is sometimes true that people polish their vehicles without any real reason to (ie they dont have true defects to remove)... some people think that by polishing very regularly is just the right thing to do. If he is in fact removing swirls 4 times a year, then I think we can agree his maintenance washes are simply not up to par.

Again, forgive my previously ignorant comments... I did not do an adequate job of getting your story straight while skimming on my phone. That is entirely my fault... sorry.

-Zach