Denzil's Review: Grit Guard Universal Pad Washer

[Denzil]

Product name:
Grit Guard Universal Pad Washer

Mfg’s Description:
From their website:
The Universal Pad Washer cleans ALL types of buffing pads, and works with all buffer and polishers. Cleans your buffing pads and accessories so well you'll think their new!

From the included manual:
Whether you're using a rotary buffer, orbital polisher, dual-action polisher, corded or cordless drill, pneumatic polisher, or even a dual-head polisher, the Universal Pad Washer will work with your tool.

Use for cleaning foam pads, wool pads, felt pads, buffing bonnets, round microfiber applicators, round foam applicators, brushes, goblet buffs, and polishing balls.

Mfg’s Directions for Use:

1. Always use a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI) when using any corded electrical device around water.
2. Fill the bucket with water as shown in Figure 2. The water level should be no more than 1/4" - 1/2" above Grit Guard Insert, with springs fully compressed.
3. Orient the Universal Pad Washer so the wing nut on the Splash Guard Assembly is on the user's right hand side.
4. Apply three to five sprays of PRS (Pad Renewing Solution) (included in your box) to the object you wish to clean.
5. Place polsiher/buffer inside Universal Pad Washer and close the Splash Guard.
   Heavily soiled pads:
   For pads with heavy dried compound, run polisher/buffer on the Universal Pad Washer first for about 10 seconds to deeply moisten the pad. Next, apply PRS and allow up to one minute for PRS to penetrate the pad.
6. For best results, START POLISHER/BUFFER ON LOWEST SPEED SETTING, and clean for 20 to 40 seconds. While cleaning, move polisher/buffer around inside Universal Pad Washer as required to clean all areas of the pad.
7. Speed setting on tool may be increased as necessary, however, limit your polisher/buffer to no more than 25% of its maximum speed setting while cleaning on the Grit Guard Insert or Grit Guard Extension.
8. Proceed to the next page for drying instructions.
   Standard Drying:
   After cleaning, keep Splash Guard lid closed, raise polisher slightly off Grit Guard and spin out excess moisture at a higher speed.
   Advanced Drying:
   Place the Grit Guard Extension in the Splash Guard Lid, over the area printed "DRY PAD HERE". Operate polisher/buffer on higher speed setting against the grit Guard Extension.
9. Clean-up:
   Cleaning the Universal Pad Washer is as simple as disposing of the old water and spraying off the parts of the Universal Pad Washer with a garden hose. Always dispose of chemical solvents properly and do your part to help keep the environment clean. DO NOT dump used water down storm drains or sewers, and avoid disposal around lakes, streams, and rivers.

Mfg’s Detailing Tip:
There are a few tips here and there but I'm not going to spoil these!

Mfg's Disclaimers:
As you may know, when used incorrectly, wool pads on a rotary buffer can generate enough heat to burn paint, and even melt plastic. This puts the plastic cleaning surfaces such as the Grit Guard Insert and Grit Guard Extension at risk from careless and/or reckless operators.

The Universal Pad Washer is designed to clean all types of accessories and buffing pads with minimal added down force. Excessive pressure or impact on the Universal Pad Washer may cause accelerated wear of your pads and the pad washer components!

Grit Guard, Inc. is not responsible for any misuse, damage to equipment, or personal injury caused from the use of this product.

Mfg’s Guarantee:
None mentioned.

Price & from where:
I purchased mine from Auto Detailing Solutions for $134.95.

Ease of use:
Pretty straightforward. Just follow the video demonstration from the supplementary information links below and you're set!

Compared to:
The only other system that's comparable to this is the System 2000 Pad Washer which I have not tested.

Specifications:
It's a special 5-gallon bucket. Only relevant specification I can think of.

Process & Equipment/Misc. Used:

• Metabo PE12-175 rotary
• Porter Cable PC7424 random orbital
• Propel 5" backing plate
• Propel 3.5" backing plate
• Lake Country Purple Foamed Wool
• Lake Country 6.5" blue foam finishing pad - Thank you Heath!
• Propel 7" yellow foam cutting pad
• Propel 7" green foam polishing pad
• Excel Erasure 4" Turbo yellow foam pad
• Excel Erasure 4" Turbo white foam pad
• Excel Erasure 4" Turbo green foam pad
• Meguiar's M105, Meguiar's M105/Optimum Compound 75/25 mixture, Menzerna Super Intensive Polish, Poorboy's SSR3, Poorboy's SSR2.5, Poorboy's SSR1
• Pad Renewing Solution
• Water

Pro’s:
What can I say, it's an awesome tool. It sure beats the hell out of washing them by hand and at a fraction of the time (at least with me anyways)! You can clean any type/size of pads with just about any type of machine. What's also particularly nice about this product is that it includes the Gamma Seal Lid for those mobile details or what have you, which can be leak proof if it's screwed tight enough to the top of the bucket. Oh, and you could always pull all the internals but the Grit Guard Insert and use it as your rinse bucket.

Con’s:
Cleaning pads with the Metabo was not a problem at all! It definitely helped having the adapter extension on the Metabo so that it would not come into contact with the Splash Guard. However, the Porter Cable did in fact come into contact with the Splash Guard several times when applying pressure to the Grit Guard Insert. It's points of contact were often the handle and the main unit itself. I suppose this could be remedied by using some sort of adapter extension for the PC but I'm not sure what kind of repercussions this may have on the performance of the PC.

In addition, drying the 4" foam pads within the unit itself (Standard Drying) is a large risk. In fact, my yellow Excel Erasure foam pad suffered a casualty, as can be seen in the pictures below. Essentially, I was drying the pad at speed 6 on the PC and it somehow caught the backing of the Splash Guard and literally ripped the pad off of my backing plate.

Conclusion:
Despite the soundingly large price tag for this beauty, it's definitely well worth the hard earned cash. It will pay for itself for any professional detailer and some weekend warriors. Hell, if you have money to throw around, but it, especially if you value your time (although it's only minutes per detail but it adds up!). You can virtually clean any and all pads and sizes but just be very careful about those little guys (4" pads). You won't be catching me drying 4" pads in the UPW anymore. I'll stick to the Advanced Drying method for those little guys, hehe.

Would Recommend:
Sure, why not!

Pictures:
Universal Pad Washer with Pad Renewing Solution




Gamma Seal Lid


Top Views










Internals of UPW


Grit Guard Extension


Grit Guard Insert

[Denzil]

The Victims
Dirty








Clean


Dirty




Clean


Dirty




Clean


Dirty




Clean


Dirty




Clean


Dirty




Clean


The Casualty










Supplementary information and a video demonstration can be found at the Grit Guard website or PadWasher.com.

I hope everyone enjoyed my review of this product! All comments/questions (negative or positive) are welcome. Thanks for looking!

[Setec Astronomy]

How is this device used for cleaning applicators, as suggested in the instructions? By hand? Hm....I just thought of a new use for my Grit Guard...

Oh, and those after pictures definitely look like the cleaning process caused wear to some of the pads; comments?

[abbeysdad]

Great write up and photos and I think you likely made more than one of us think 'hey, I could make something like that'.

But I agree, it seems to me the pads are no cleaner than you could do by hand and there's definately some damage. Maybe you were a bit too agressive during the process and applied too much pressure or 'cleaned' them too long?

I wouldn't pay $134 for something to chew up pads, no matter how quick it could do it!

I just soak mine over night in pad cleaning solution and wash 'em in the sink the next day - doesn't take long at all.

[SuperBee364]

Great review and pics, Denzil! Sure wish you and Rob would stop spending my money...

[Denzil]

Originally Posted by Setec Astronomy

How is this device used for cleaning applicators, as suggested in the instructions? By hand? Hm....I just thought of a new use for my Grit Guard...

Oh, and those after pictures definitely look like the cleaning process caused wear to some of the pads; comments?

I believe the applicators would be washed by hand as I didn't see any photographs in the manual demonstrating any sort of applicator cleaning process. I'm not quite sure how you would attach it to a rotary or random orbital, not that I would.

Yeah, the cleaning process did look like it caused a bit of wear to the pads but I think that may have attributed to my learning curve of the product. I'll have to do a follow-up review on this after I've become better at the technique.

Originally Posted by abbeysdad

Great write up and photos and I think you likely made more than one of us think 'hey, I could make something like that'.

But I agree, it seems to me the pads are no cleaner than you could do by hand and there's definately some damage. Maybe you were a bit too agressive during the process and applied too much pressure or 'cleaned' them too long?

I wouldn't pay $134 for something to chew up pads, no matter how quick it could do it!

I just soak mine over night in pad cleaning solution and wash 'em in the sink the next day - doesn't take long at all.

Hehe, yeah I always thought of making something like this but I didn't feel it was worth my time to reinvent something that already exists. To each their own. The pads did end up "slightly" cleaner than doing it by hand and it sure saves a lot of your time but like I said to Setec, I suspect my technique isn't perfect just yet and I'll have to do a follow-up review sometime in the future.

Originally Posted by SuperBee364

Great review and pics, Denzil! Sure wish you and Rob would stop spending my money...

I don't know about that Supe...

[Totoland Mach]

I got the Grit Guard Pad Washer about a month ago....saw the unit demo'd at Detail Fest.

Prior to using the washer, I tried to keep a constant rotation of pads (especially wool) when compounding.

That all changed with the washer. I now have 2 pads: the 1 that's being used and 1 that I just washed with the pad washer. I clean wool pads now after every panel and it makes a difference in outcome on the car. It only takes approx. 1 minute to wash and spin dry a wool pad (plus I blow compressed air afterwards to totally dry out the pads).

I've only used it with a Dynabrade and DeWalt rotary, but can see where a Metabo would have difficulty reaching into the water area.

Oh, BTW.....USE A GFI EXTENSION! Well worth the $20 for a margin of safety.

Totoland

[Denzil]

Thanks for the advice Toto! I'll pick up a GFCI extension before I use my UPW again. By the way, where did you find one for $20? It seems all the ones that I've found online were ~$30 or so.

[Totoland Mach]

Originally Posted by Denzil

Thanks for the advice Toto! I'll pick up a GFCI extension before I use my UPW again. By the way, where did you find one for $20? It seems all the ones that I've found online were ~$30 or so.

Home Depot is where I got mine: it's a 18" extension cord with a GFI box in the middle. At the female end, it has 3 receptacles.

I did have some slight damage to one of my 3M compound pads. It's the pad that is curved and has a ridgid top edge. When drying for the first few times, I bought the tool up too close to the lid and the pad edge and lid were scraping. Learned that one the hard way and fortunately didn't affect the working of the pad.

Toto

[michakaveli]

Thoughts, from a newbie.... I saw this item @ the Detail Fest and was hooked. The first time I attempted "detailing" I found that I was using too much product, and ultimately too many pads in the process, (ruining some pads). With the pad washer I've cut down to basically one pad per color (i.e. 1 white pad and 1 orange pad) to work an entire car.

After every panel or more, you can run the pad through the washer, and off you go. For me, it's actually made using my UDM much more enjoyable with BETTER results. It's expensive, but WORKS!

[Denzil]

Great to hear you're enjoying the UPW michakaveli.

[Flashtime]

Ok, i'm sold.