AIOs - how do they stack up in the paint cleaning dept?

[Dan]

I have two cars that are parked outdoors 24x7. As much as they need good paint protection, they need clean paint. I have noticed that claying, while getting the surface smooth, does not clean the paint completely. If I continued to apply a wax or sealant on top of this grime, the surface would not look its best and it would suffer from the contamination. I think a lot of Autopians are anxious to use a polish, but since I keep the vehicles fairly free of marring/swirls, I`d rather not waste clear when I can use a strong chemical cleaner to remove surface contamination. To this end, I`ve been toying around with lots of AIOs (All-In-One cleaner, polish and wax/sealant).



I`ve collected over a dozen AIO`s in the quest for finding something that really works well for me. I wanted to see what actually cleaned the paint the best. I decided to round up a few that I thought were good contenders. The testbed is a 2001 Audi S4. It has been washed and clayed but has not seen any polish in over five years. I separated equal sized sections and used cotton makeup applictor pads. The choice to use the applicator pads was for two reasons, white shows dirt well and I didn`t want to clean a bunch of foam applicators. I`m not sure I`d advise using them on soft clear, but on the test car, they seem to induce no marring.



Round 1:

The contenders:

DG101 - A well known cleaner/sealant from Duragloss. It produces a nice wet look, not as sterile as your typical sealant.

DG105 - Duragloss` latest generation Selant with a good cleaning package, claimed their most durable sealant.

DG501 - The strongest paint cleaner Duragloss has, seems to have a bit of cutting power unlike DG101 and DG105.

FK215 - A jack of all trades. This is probably the strongest polish of the bunch, but packs good cleaning ability. Durability is not its strong suit.

KAIO - A near legendary AIO with amazing cleaning power.

Optimum Poliseal - Another jack of all trades that seems to suffer a bit on the durability side, but it makes up for it with good cleaning power and finishes out very well. A great substitute for a finishing polish and its just super easy to use.



Wild Cards:

3M Finishing Polish - I wanted to see how well a polish can clean

PoorBoys ProPolish - A cleaner only product, could this be better than an AIO?

Zaino Z2 - Wait what? Why a "pure sealant"? Well, it seems to clean surfaces very well.





PB Pro vs Poliseal vs FK215 vs DG501







DG501 and FK215 are pretty clearly on top. The surprise is how little PoorBoys ProPolish cleaned.





Z2 vs DG101 vs D105 vs 3M FP vs KAIO











The surprise here is how well Z2 cleaned. KAIO was effortless to use and it was a strong hitter too, keep in mind KAIO is white so the pad doesn`t look as dirty compared to the others, but it seemed to hit the strongest. DG101 and 105 seem to be close but the edge goes to 101. Its also very surprising that 3M FP doesn`t put much of a dent in the dirt. While the KAIO`d paint easily felt the smoothest, the roughest was the 3M FP.



While KAIO is without a doubt the best cleaner, it lacks in durability (obviously not tested here). DG501 stood out as the best all around with great cleaning ability and a bit of cut to reduce any micromarring when used via machine. Its so cheap and easy to use and durable that it has become on of my favorites.



However, how does it stand up to the leader in my other AIO test, ZAIO?



http://www.autopia.org/forum/car-det...-way-test.html



Time to find out.



Round 2:



I split the car into two areas with some masking tape, took out the Griots and some brand new white pads and got to polishing.







ZAIO seems to clean very well, but is it better than DG501?







DG501 Side (the picutre of this side is pretty bad, the color seems very washed out, which it wasn`t.







DG 501 is in back, ZAIO pads are in front. Its really too close to call via the pads. Both sides of the car feel very smooth (contaminants wise), but the ZAIO side is a little bit more slick(the LSP seems slicker). The thing that was not hard to tell was the looks. ZAIO looked much better in this case. In my other test, the ZAIO wasn`t the best looker, however, on solid yellow, it looks amazing, it seems to have a carnauba like glow while being ridiculously shiny. On a lighter metallic, the DG501 may have won, but not here. Either way these two are great choices for a quick paint cleanup.



On a side note, I proceeded to top these with ZFX`d Z5. DG501 did not play along very well. Any hope that they shared similar chemistry was destroyed at this point. The DG501 side was very grabby and made it a pain to apply Z5. I would not recommend using DG501 as a base for Z5.

[JCturboT]

Yakky,

Intersting to hear your findings in Zaino AIO, especially since I own a yellow car. I just might have to give it a try.



How would you compare Klasse VS Zaino in the the cleaning aspect? Are they close?



My typical detail always starts with KAIO as the base then topped with something like Collinite 845 or more recently Meguiares 16/26.



If I can save a step and have good longevity that would be great.



Jeff

[mikenap]

Good job Yakky! I`ve been loving the AIO test, now it looks like I`ll have to bookmark this one too. :goodjob

[Alfisti]

Great work!

[Dan]

Yakky,

Intersting to hear your findings in Zaino AIO, especially since I own a yellow car. I just might have to give it a try.



How would you compare Klasse VS Zaino in the the cleaning aspect? Are they close?



My typical detail always starts with KAIO as the base then topped with something like Collinite 845 or more recently Meguiares 16/26.



If I can save a step and have good longevity that would be great.



Jeff

It depends if you are talking about by hand vs machine. If you are using a machine, hands down ZAIO. By hand KAIO is easily 25-50% stronger as a cleaner, its just so effortless and produces baby smooth paint. For something that is heavily oxidized but doesn`t offer much room for correction, KAIO. For a non trashed vehicle, ZAIO is the clear answer.

[Alexshimshimhae]

hehe yakky never cease to be super useful xD thnx

[Accumulator]

Regulars here know I`m a big fan of Autoglym`s Super Resin Polish, an AIO that fills/conceals and is often compatible with a sealant topper.



FWIW, the SRP doesn`t clean as well as KAIO, at least not IME, and it doesn`t last all that long untopped. It`s more abrasive than KAIO (which isn`t saying much) but significantly less so than ZAIO.



FWIW#2, the only AIO I`m using untopped (as a primary LSP) is ZAIO, which I have on the Crown Vic (just a quick something since portions are gonna be repainted, a "two birds, one stone" approach to wrap up a beater car cleanup that was taking far too long). Some of that car`s exterior black plastic does have (only) KAIO on it, and I expect that to need redone before too long; some of it is already looking less-than-fresh after just a few weeks and no wash/weather. KAIO just doesn`t last untopped, at least not for me.



Yesterday I did two sets of wheels by hand, using KAIO on one set and ZAIO on the other. My experience mirrored that of yakky, the KAIO generally cleaned better but the ZAIO had significantly more abrasion (which can do some very effective "cleaning" in its own way, depending on what`s getting cleaned off).

[DM101]

Yakky is your choice for a AIO on a 24/7 ??? Thanks.... good test

It depends if you are talking about by hand vs machine. If you are using a machine, hands down ZAIO. By hand KAIO is easily 25-50% stronger as a cleaner, its just so effortless and produces baby smooth paint. For something that is heavily oxidized but doesn`t offer much room for correction, KAIO. For a non trashed vehicle, ZAIO is the clear answer.

[Pats300zx]

Great job Yakky. I love DG 501. I use it every spring and fall in prepping my boat and jetskis.

[wannafbody]

DG and ZAIO work well. My experience is that ZPC is hands down the best cleaning polish I`ve used. I`ve even used it to remove aerosol paint overspray on a couple different surfaces.

[Dan]

Yakky is your choice for a AIO on a 24/7 ??? Thanks.... good test

I`m really liking the ZAIO but its hard for me to endorse it just yet. If someone forced me to pick one, I`d say DG101 or DG501, I`ve had pretty good luck with both. DG101 seems eerily similar to ZAIO. That said, I`m slowly getting drawn back into Zainoville since abandoning it a few years back. It really is like a cult, you can`t seem to get rid of it!

[David Fermani]

Great test. Very informative.

[tonipieleanu]

Fantastic review! I love paint cleaning

[Brad B]

I unfortunately missed this post the first time around. Great testing. Fantastic!



I am a ZAIO user, as well as other Z stuff. But you have given me the urge to to some more playing around. Time for some fun.

[Accumulator]

I`m really liking the ZAIO but its hard for me to endorse it just yet...

Are you now solidly in the ZAIO camp? Still liking it without a topper?



When I reread your finding that

...but the ZAIO side is a little bit more slick (the LSP seems slicker)...

I guess that, per our discussion, the ZAIO on my Crown Vic is indeed dead



I`m slowly leaning back towards topping it with FK1000P, but then I`m abusing the [crap] out of that vehicle so maybe no AIO (by itself) is gonna be enough. The ZAIO sure does hold up better than KAIO or SRP when untopped though, by a huge margin. The parts of the car that were done with KAIO were *REALLY* bad, whereas the ZAIO bits were so borderline that, well... I discussed it with you