Big CD Test: Various Applicator Pads and Microfiber Cloths

[4DSC]

I didn't feel like conditioning the leather on my car this afternoon, so while sorting through my various products I remembered I had wanted to perform a CD scratch test on some of them. These are what I tested:

Turtle Wax Professional Cleaning Cloth (pn MC1C)
Supertek Micro Fiber Miracle Cloth (no pn)
Home Hardware Micro-fibre Wiping Cloth (pn 4532-394)
Eagle One Xpress-it Polish & Wax Applicator (pn 5140601)
Turtle Wax Emerald Series Pocket Wax Applicator (pn TW-78P-CA)
Meguiar's Applicator Pads (pn W-0004-4)
Ghetto Shoe Shining Pad!! (pn? you gotta be kidding!)

I apologize for any redundancy this test may have with any previous tests.

The first thing I noticed when doing this test was that when people say that CDs are soft, they mean SOFT and aren't kidding! I got lots of marring and fine scratches just from the mild callouses on my fingers by gently handling the CD. This was a good sign though, that this CD would make a good test surface. The test was performed on a Maxell silver 74 minute CD-R which had been "coaster-ized" some time ago. It was difficult at first to find the right lighting to view the CD well, but I eventually found it was best viewed at the interface between light (sky) and dark (carport roof) reflections. Lighting conditions were slightly overcast and temperature was in the low 20s (70-ish F). Both CD and test object were kept as clean as possible, but where marring was observed additional attempts to use a clean surface were tried and the test repeated.

All applicator pads were rubbed with medium to heavy pressure, limited by the compressability of the foam media.

All microfiber cloths were rubbed with heavy to very heavy pressure.

TEST RESULTS:

There really isn't that much to report with regards to scratches since NONE (except one) of these products was capable of scratching or marring the CD. As you may have guessed, the exception is the cheap shoe shining pad.

Additional Product Notes:

Turtle Wax cloths: While I don't have any of the more famous towels often mentioned here to compare it to, these towels have a "okay" amount of plushness to them by any standard and exhibit low to very low linting. Relatively inexpensive. 16" x 12" size, 70/30 blend, made in China.

Supertek cloths: More expensive than the TW cloths, they also are less plush and lint like crazy. I found these at Walmart Canada, Home Hardware, and stores that sell infomercial goods. One 16" x 16" and two 12" x 12" cloths per box, 70/30 blend, made in Korea. Distributed by Ontel Products, who also sell various other infomercial type products.

Home Hardware cloths: This cloth is not as plush as the TW cloth, but more plush than the Supertek. Slightly less linting than the TW and appears to be of superior quality and uniformity. It's price of over twice as much as the TW cloth makes it a poor buy however. Found only at Home Hardware stores, which are only located in Canada. 16" x 16" size, 80/20 blend, made in Korea.

Eagle One pads: This pad has a hard plastic backing that fits to contour your hand. Probably good for polishing or anything requiring pressure, though fairly pricey. Imported to Canada, probably made in US.

Turtle Wax pads: These are foam-backed pads with a terry cloth shell which includes a pocket to fit your hand into. Although there are no indications of it, the terry material is probably cotton since it also was scratch free. Approx. 5" diameter, made in Mexico.

Meguiar's pads: Although I discovered these pads I have are almost 10 years old (!) they look identical to the usual round yellow pads seen today. 4" diameter, made in US.

Ghetto shoe shining pads: I bought a couple of these at a dollar store to try out since they felt soft, had a nice stiff backing on them, and were dirt cheap! I found out they are also lightly impregnated with an oily substance which I hadn't noticed before. These produced light scratches on the CD with hard rubbing and I wouldn't be surprised if this was because of factory dirt contamination. Made in China.

Conclusion:

A big thumbs up for almost all these products for being scratch free and paint safe. The nice Turtle Wax microfiber cloths have the bonus of low price and store availability, and the Eagle One, Turtle Wax, and Meguiar's pads all will work safely and give you a good selection of applicator types.

One thing this test highlighted was the importance of keeping detailing applicators and cloths at an almost surgical level of cleanliness. I kept them segregated in a clean 5 gallon pail with a lid but will be watching them even more carefully now.

Thanks for reading!

[YoSteve]

Recall that just because an object scratches a CD it still might not scratch your car's paint. This is because the surface of a CD is a lot softer. But you're right if it doesn't scratch a CD then it's a pretty safe assumption it won't scratch your car.

That's the only drawback to the test.

Way back when, I wanted people to test their stuff way back when. Now I just do it for my own personal verification, because I think it is a good indicator. Here's the old link.

[carguy]

Thanks for doing this - I love it when board members take some time to COMPARE products side by side - I think it is the best way to get objective data.

The more I test and examine, the more I believe that the towels (at least any decent ones) really don't do the scratching in the 1st place. It is the microscopic dirt particles that get dragged along as you wipe that do the scratching, no matter what kind of towel you use.

So I have concluded that the important differences between towels have more to do with their ability to pick up and hide dirt (at which t-shirts, diapers and chamois really do pooorly), and to get their job (buffing or drying) done with the minimum number of wipes (which is where MF really shines, pun intended.) Linting is a consideration as well, but not as important to me.

[4DSC]

Thanks for the comments I know this test leaves something to be desired, but it's the only one we have at the moment. Hopefully there will never be a case where the opposite is true (product scratches CAR but not CD)!

A strange thing to note is that I've discovered Turtle Wax has reduced the size of their MF cloths at some point! I therefore have two 16" x 16" cloths I bought originally, and the rest I bought recently are 12" x 16". This is a big difference (to me) since this is equivalent to getting another 8x8 cloth! I was kinda wondering why on earth I'd reported 16x16 before but now report 12x16...

I'm just happy people are reading because what they don't know is that they are reading copy number two! I was 95% done when my browser decided to crash. Lots of anguish and cursing later, I calmed down enough to retype it faithful to the original.

[Scottwax]

I just bought some of the Turtle Wax microfiber towels and I must say I was really impressed. Very soft, no linting problems and two will easily dry the average sized car. They work great with QD as well-absolutely no streaking.

[RX-8]

Originally posted by carguy
The more I test and examine, the more I believe that the towels (at least any decent ones) really don't do the scratching in the 1st place. It is the microscopic dirt particles that get dragged along as you wipe that do the scratching, no matter what kind of towel you use.

I think you nailed it right on the head.

[YoSteve]

If you've ever dusted the house with a regular cotton towel versus a plush microfiber, there's a huge difference. Dust and dirt trapping from a plush microfiber helps prevent marring.

[cvcaelen]

Related to the topic:

Can it be that not all clearcoats are equaly hard?

I'm asking because I 've had the weird experience with a non-woven white cotton cloth that didn't swirl a German car (BMW), but did swirl my (Japanese)car.

[porterdog]

I read your question and was comparing the difficulty of SMR'ing my friend Robbin's BMW vs. how easy it was to do my Miata even before I read the second sentence. In my experience, you are exactly right!

Robert