-
Ceramic Paste Wax Showdown / Test
First off, let me say this: Ceramic Waxes are my favorite type of LSP due to the protection, longevity, number of applications per jar, unique look/gloss, nostalgia of application and ease of removal. Additionally, they don`t expire in a year or two like many coatings and SiO2 sprays.
I decided to use the Acura for a 9-way showdown of ceramic paste waxes. The horizontal panels (hood, roof, trunk lid) were clayed a month ago. On 03/16/2020 they were prep washed, polished with Wolfgang Finishing Polish, then prep sprayed twice with Wolfgang Perfekt Finish Paint Prep Spray. After all this, the surface was squeaky clean to the touch.
The Challengers (applied 03/17/2020):
1) DP “Not Your Father’s” (“NYF”) SiO2 Paste Wax
2) Mckees 37 Krystal Diamond SiO2 Ceramic Wax
3) IGL Ecoshine Wax
4) Dodo Juice Supernatural Hybrid Nano
5) PBL Synergy
6) Angelwax SEMA 2019 (Graphene infused)
7) Angelwax Fifth Element (Titanium infused)
8) Angelwax Enigma
9) Polish Angel High Gloss Paste Wax
10) BONUS WAX (applied 03/19): Wowo’s Contact 21 (Carnuaba, Montan, not-sure-what-else!)
Layout (drivers side to passenger side):
Hood
DP “Not Your Father’s” (“NYF”) SiO2 Paste Wax
Mckees 37 Krystal Diamond SiO2 Ceramic Wax
IGL Ecoshine Wax
Dodo Juice Supernatural Hybrid Nano
PBL Synergy
DP “NYF” SiO2 Paste Wax (2nd appearance)
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...b9cc4ca7.plist
Trunk Lid
Angelwax SEMA 2019 (Graphene infused)
Angelwax Fifth Element (Titanium infused)
Angelwax Enigma
DP “NYF” SiO2 Paste Wax (3rd appearance)
PBL Synergy (2nd appearance)
Polish Angel High Gloss Paste Wax
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...77f6e36af8.jpg
Roof
PBL Synergy [drivers side, front to back] (3rd appearance). Two coats applied.
BONUS: Wowo’s Contact 21 [middle, front].
DP “NYF” SiO2 Paste Wax [drivers side, front to back] (4th appearance). Two coats applied.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...8699c9ab4e.jpg
Notes:
- DP “NYF” shows up 4 times because it’s new and I was comparing it to others. I particularly wanted to see it up against Synergy (the gold standard in my opinon) and against Mckees (it’s rival cousin).
- Synergy shows up 3 times because I just love it and I think it’s the measuring stick in many ways.
- Wowo’s Contact 21, while I’m not positive it’s ceramic from reading it’s description, I’m guessing it is coating-ish in some way due to the supposed 121 contact angle. I received it 3/19 and applied at 6pm. It will not have the 48+ hours cure time that the other 9 waxes have. But I’ll monitor and add a second coat later as needed… it’s a bonus anyways.
- Wipe off and cure times were followed per directions.
Interesting Info:
- All of the waxes used in this test include carnauba in their formula except: The 3 Angelwaxes, DP “NYF”, and PA High Gloss Paste. These 4 are purely polymers and silica or titanium or graphene or combo.
- They are all finishing LSPs except IGL Ecoshine Wax which has cleaning properties.
- Only Fifth Element and Synergy recommend application of 2 coats (but neither require it). The only instances that I used two coats in this test was on the roof. Everything else is one coat.
- The longest recommended cure time identified (prior to moisture) was Dodo Juice Nano. It requests only 1-24 hours prior to being topped, but 48 hours dry time. This is unfortunate because I missed some good T-storms after the 24 hour mark. Instead, my car will have remained in the garage for around 54 hours before going into rain (48 hours for Nano plus 6 extra for Wowo`s.
Application Thoughts:
All applied very easily. Ceramic waxes wipe off so easily and cleanly compared to most SiO2 sprays. I consider this a great benefit of ceramic paste waxes.
The best application and removal goes to High Gloss Paste. It melts on and whisks away when buffed. It does request 30 minutes prior to removal though. The next tier of easiness IMO is Synergy and IGL Ecoshine Wax. I’ll put the remainders in the last tier… but this whole application discussion is nitpicking. None of them are difficult.
Looks:
My garage lighting sucks, but initial assessment includes:
I can tell the candy coated look of DP vs the carnauba ones. The carnaubas have some warmth. DP looks like a sealant / SiO2 hybrid. Most the waxes that have carnauba do also have some glassy SiO2 look mixed with the familiar carnauba glow. The Angelwax products all look fairly unique and have a colder, sharper look. More coating look than sealant look, but still a mix of both in my eyes.
Overall they all look awesome. They are high end waxes. They all have the coating-ish glassy look to some degree. Some have the warmth, some have the candy coat / colder look. I can’t say that any of them look completely like a traditional sealant or a traditional carnauba wax.
I’m not going to attempt subjective appearance rankings until I get the car outside and see the paint under different conditions.
Slickness:
Most the waxes are pretty slick, but have a smoothness and softness to them. None of them are as ‘slide-off’ slick as a traditional sealant slickster (i.e. DGPS, UPP, Powerlock, Blackfire, BM). High Gloss Paste may be closest. IGL also seems to be slightly slicker than the rest. They all feel nice to the touch, one way or another.
…For everything else such as water behavior, self-cleaning, dust attraction, etc., I hope to add observations when conditions allow. I’ll see how long I can leave these before I need to touch, top or ceramic wash them. Stay tuned if you`re interested. Thanks for reading.
-
Re: Ceramic Paste Wax Showdown / Test
Very interested in self cleaning properties and longevity.
I would never have considered these products until you did this test.
Thank you!
-
Re: Ceramic Paste Wax Showdown / Test
Subscribed. I’m really hoping HGPW doesn’t win i’m gonna have to wait till this Corona BS is done.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
-
Re: Ceramic Paste Wax Showdown / Test
I was expecting PA to be a stand out. Look fwd to your updates.
-
Re: Ceramic Paste Wax Showdown / Test
Update @ 3 days 03/20/20
Some beading shots from 03/20/20, the day the car came outside.
NOTE1: I used a sealant to cover the tape lines so I wouldn’t have unprotected lines. The tape lines now are causing larger beads which may roll onto the ceramic wax areas. Probably would have been best for me to leave paint lines unprotected but I’m an Autopia and didn’t want months without “no protection lines”.
NOTE2: The beading wasn’t very pretty this day on any of my cars, I’m guessing due to lots of dust/pollen or acid rain (my X5 LSP went from still semi-ok to 90% dead during the rain storm. The Q5 with CanCoat had terrible beading until I washed it.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...cd508b8c50.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...ce5824ae08.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...22f245b7.plist
Since beads on silver are tough to see, here’s my short summary of this day:
They all had similar , nice bead quality, but Mckees Krystal and DP “NYF” were a little behind. These are two of the more affordable-per-ounce options. But then I must give credit to IGL Wax for not being behind the pack with a cost tied for the lowest per ounce.
Another observation is that PA HG Paste was not miles ahead/better at beading. It’s spray version isn’t a great beader on its own but I’ve seen it bead amazing as a topper on Cosmic (noticeably better than Cosmic alone which is saying a lot). Perhaps the paste is similar in that it has best behavior as a topper. I’ll find out soon as I have it on my wife’s car as a topper.
-
Re: Ceramic Paste Wax Showdown / Test
Update @ Day 4, 03/21/20
I didn’t clean the horizontal surfaces but gave them a spray down and did a few sheeting checks. Note that the variable nozzle on my hose broke and it’s rusted on... so I only have one spray mode. I call it “sloppy water splatter”. Whatever, below are brief videos of that water test:
Hood
https://youtu.be/hQXt09GWiTk
Front Roof
https://youtu.be/Z4g0JP0-hFA
Trunk
https://youtu.be/qbBwVMUfQcs
Since readers may want to go back and check lines to see what’s happening, I’ll try to summarize my observations, particularly for areas next to each other where it’s noticeable to make a statement:
Hood:
- Mckees and DP are sheeting noticeably slower than others. Mckees is a bit better off.
- Synergy, Dodo and IGL sheet very well (left side of Synergy seems slightly compromised though but maybe it’s just water hanging around from the DP area).
Front Roof:
- Synergy beads better on the front roof than DP by far and a bit better than Contact 121.
Trunk:
NOTE: I need to pick a higher/better angle to shoot down on the trunk lid so the water spray doesn’t get hung up on the glass before sliding back down and off the back of the car.
- DP is next to non-Mckees waxes, and it stands more so out as the slow sheeter, big beader.
- HG Paste is the second slowest sheeter. I feel this is meant more as a topper to get the top water behavior.
- Of the Angelwax trio, 5th Element looks like it sheets a teeny-tiny bit slower than SEMA and Enigma. It’s also the only one of the trio that recommends two coats, which it did not receive.
-
Re: Ceramic Paste Wax Showdown / Test
-
Re: Ceramic Paste Wax Showdown / Test
Thanks for taking the time to do this informative test/experiment! I`m sub`d to see continuing results!
Again, thank you!
-
Re: Ceramic Paste Wax Showdown / Test
Thank you for doing the testing and tracking the data! I`m surprised the graphene one isn`t noticeably better since that is allegedly the "latest and greatest" technology offered at the moment. Perhaps the consumer graphene stuff is still in it`s infancy and could use some more refining? I`m in for results, nonetheless.
-
Re: Ceramic Paste Wax Showdown / Test
Quote:
Originally Posted by
SNP209
Thank you for doing the testing and tracking the data! I`m surprised the graphene one isn`t noticeably better since that is allegedly the "latest and greatest" technology offered at the moment. Perhaps the consumer graphene stuff is still in it`s infancy and could use some more refining? I`m in for results, nonetheless.
Yeah, it’s hard to know how “infused” the SEMA 2019 is. It was a small batch, possibly a test sample. It’s very possible that it’s beta version of something more they have planned.
But it’s also possible that the paste waxes need a bit of time to level out. I haven’t washed the car yet besides a very light N-914 Rinseless and the behavior seemed to get better after that. Whether the behavior wasn’t as good prior due to curing/leveling/wax oils, or because of wind/dust/pollen, or due to cold rain on a cold car making water bond slightly (think how ice bonds very hard to surfaces, maybe rain/surface in low 40’s is “stuck” to the paint a little bit)... I’m not sure.
Anyways, I’ve been waiting to do a real wash for the 1 week mark. For this case it will be Wednesday (8 days) due to rain schedule. Maybe we’ll start to see some further distancing between product performances.
-
Ceramic Paste Wax Showdown / Test
Update @ Day 7 03/24/20
I was able to water the HG Paste on the trunk Acura today...
https://youtu.be/qq_9KZk4Am4
...And then on the hood and back of the Q5 that has HG Paste on top of CanCoat.
https://youtu.be/5ttS0XZVfaE
https://youtu.be/37JsMjn87ak
HG Paste on CanCoat beads:
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...225a22d9ac.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...f7ca526726.jpg
Pretty drastic difference. The Q5 has a bulletproof vest on. Probably helps that CanCoat of all things is underneath... but now I wonder if either:
1) The Acura horizontal panels weren’t prep wipes good enough, or
2) The Acura’s soft paint combined with no base coat just doesn’t get the most out of HG Paste.
-
Re: Ceramic Paste Wax Showdown / Test
-
Ceramic Paste Wax Showdown / Test
Update @ Day 9 03/26/20:
Interesting observation while driving in the morning while the car was wet with morning dew. The entire hood sheeted it off like normal except Mckees Krystal barely sheeted any dew off.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...716571479d.jpg
Not sure why, just something to share.
-
Re: Ceramic Paste Wax Showdown / Test
Quote:
Originally Posted by
acuRAS82
It’s definitely looks like the Q5 Cancoat is showing. That is definitely coating quality. My thinking is on a coating, when you use a sio2 wax, the sio2 adheres to the coating but the rest is shed off?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
-
Re: Ceramic Paste Wax Showdown / Test
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Coatings=crack
It’s definitely looks like the Q5 Cancoat is showing. That is definitely coating quality. My thinking is on a coating, when you use a sio2 wax, the sio2 adheres to the coating but the rest is shed off?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Well the paint certainly doesn’t look the same as CanCoat alone. The 10 Minute Paint Sealant would also have to have shed for this to be CanCoat. High Gloss Paste and Spray are (in some measurement) 80% TiO2 and 10% SiO2. So if we’re talking about other ingredients shedding, there’s not much else there to account for.
There’s no doubt using these toppers on coatings or coating lites allows them to benefit from being bonded to an already smooth, nano-surface, but I dont think things just shed off. If I put Megs Gold Class Carnauba wax on the car, that area will show changed beading for weeks. Same if I put a spray sealant on. If these don’t shed off then I don’t see why ingredients in toppers would.
-
Re: Ceramic Paste Wax Showdown / Test
^^ One addition to my above post that I didn’t want to get lost in the above: CanCoat beading was noticeably degraded prior to the toppings. The beading and video above are better behavior than CanCoat alone was after 3 months. It was still good but not ‘like new’. This observation doesn’t go against the shed/adherence argument as the SiO2 adhering from the toppers is obviously improving the behavior.
I had the similar experience topping Cosmic with High Gloss Spray last year. Cosmic was great but the beading/sheeting stepped upon a level once High Gloss was applied. I was able watch that comparison for quite some time since my hood was half Cosmic and half Cosmic+HG. After a few months though I think the hood even’d out as High Gloss wore away.
-
Ceramic Paste Wax Showdown / Test
Quote:
Originally Posted by
acuRAS82
Well the paint certainly doesn’t look the same as CanCoat alone. The 10 Minute Paint Sealant would also have to have shed for this to be CanCoat. High Gloss Paste and Spray are (in some measurement) 80% TiO2 and 10% SiO2. So if we’re talking about other ingredients shedding, there’s not much else there to account for.
There’s no doubt using these toppers on coatings or coating lites allows them to benefit from being bonded to an already smooth, nano-surface, but I dont think things just shed off. If I put Megs Gold Class Carnauba wax on the car, that area will show changed beading for weeks. Same if I put a spray sealant on. If these don’t shed off then I don’t see why ingredients in toppers would.
Usually those ratings of 80/20 sio/tio are after solvents/carriers have been wiped/evaporated. Sio2 and tio2 are solids and if fresh product was 90% solids it would be mud/paste.
Those are percentages of amounts left behind. And every product I have used on my bare hood and on my coated parts of car, The hydrophobics, contact angle’sand self cleaning are dramatically superior
From info i gathered (which could be complete) sio2/tio2 solids in toppers adheres to ceramic coating adding to the pile. Rest is just kind of carrier to get it there.
When you put it on uncoated parts of car you have less of a “pile”. So any sio2 product will perform better on coating.
I’ve seen this with every sio2 product I have used on coated vs non coated surface.
Note: I have not tried any Sio2 paste wax products.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
-
Re: Ceramic Paste Wax Showdown / Test
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Coatings=crack
Usually those ratings of 80/20 sio/tio are after solvents/carriers have been wiped/evaporated. Sio2 and tio2 are solids and if fresh product was 90% solids it would be mud/paste.
Those are percentages of amounts left behind. And every product I have used on my bare hood and on my coated parts of car, The hydrophobics, contact angle’sand self cleaning are dramatically superior
From info i gathered (which could be complete) sio2/tio2 solids in toppers adheres to ceramic coating adding to the pile. Rest is just kind of carrier to get it there.
When you put it on uncoated parts of car you have less of a “pile”. So any sio2 product will perform better on coating.
I’ve seen this with every sio2 product I have used on coated vs non coated surface.
Note: I have not tried any Sio2 paste wax products.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Understood, as far as percentages being of solids and not including carriers.
At what point do you separate performance credit away from your base coat(ing) then? I’m giving credit to my topper for improving looks, beading and sheeting.
Anyways, back to the thread, I’m considering adding second coats to the waxes, but that would change the dynamics of the test... so maybe it’s another test for another day. I wish I had 10 vehicles... hmmmmmm...
-
Re: Ceramic Paste Wax Showdown / Test
Quote:
Originally Posted by
acuRAS82
Understood, as far as percentages being of solids and not including carriers.
At what point do you separate performance credit away from your base coat(ing) then? I’m giving credit to my topper for improving looks, beading and sheeting.
Anyways, back to the thread, I’m considering adding second coats to the waxes, but that would change the dynamics of the test... so maybe it’s another test for another day. I wish I had 10 vehicles... hmmmmmm...
Did you polish trunk lid before applying? Could be old LSp clogging?
After having coating i dont look as a topper as a layer on top of coating but ingredients that combine with the coating. Only way to explain superior performance of same product on top of coating and on bare paint. Anyways not debating just theories on why the performance difference.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
-
Re: Ceramic Paste Wax Showdown / Test
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Coatings=crack
Did you polish trunk lid before applying? Could be old LSp clogging?
After having coating i dont look as a topper as a layer on top of coating but ingredients that combine with the coating. Only way to explain superior performance of same product on top of coating and on bare paint. Anyways not debating just theories on why the performance difference.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
For the ceramic wax test, everything was clayed a few weeks before and polished the day before. The only malfunctions I can think of could be that my WG Paint Prep Spray is not working well for me removing polishing oils, or that the temperature in my garage was not warm enough for some to bond well. I think the temp was around 60 or high 50’s when these were applied. But as for the HG Paste I applied that to the Audi in similar temperature and it’s doing fine there as a topper.
Edit: By the way, sorry if I was turning anything about toppers on bases into a debate. I wasn’t sure what was meant in the original post you made on the topic but I’m pretty much on board with what you’re saying about piling on and/or toppers mixing into the base to some degree. Regarding this test of mine, I still expected ceramic waxes to all work amazing as standalone but either conditions weren’t optimal, or maybe some do really intend to have 2nd coats applied, or maybe some such as HG Paste are really optimal only as toppers... or any combination of the 3 I just mentioned.
I’m still considering adding another coat of HG on top of HG just to see what happens. Maybe also a second coat on one of the Synergy applications (directions mention 2), on the 5th Element (directions prefer 2) and on one of the “NYF” applications as well.
-
Re: Ceramic Paste Wax Showdown / Test
Update 4/8 ~3 weeks:
Although the beads never started out as nice as I wanted, whether due to cold application or allowing water, WW or whatever, they have continued to behave similarly through constantly being outside through thick and thin. Heavy T-storms came through last night and I snapped a few pics after a sheeting drive this morning. Average sheeting speed is about 45mph which is faster than I would like but I don’t recall the good ‘normal’ on this car.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...9a0c08d187.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...2a51a10b.plist
The hood and trunk do self-clean very well and look superb when dry. Here’s the large moon last night.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...48de6e0f53.jpg
-
Re: Ceramic Paste Wax Showdown / Test
Still good characteristics. Nice shots, that moon shot was cool!
-
Ceramic Paste Wax Showdown / Test
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Sizzle Chest
Still good characteristics. Nice shots, that moon shot was cool!
Thanks Scott. I agree that behavior looks good still after a ride or a hose flush. The beads just look a little funky across the board after an initial rain. I should have taken a pic before going on my drive. I’ll have more chances though. The ‘enjoyability’ factor of these waxes are so high, and as mentioned previously, uniform wipe off is so guaranteed compared to most sprays.
Heres one more I took moments ago when the sun snuck out... no cleaning prior.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...b59ac67a7d.jpg
-
Re: Ceramic Paste Wax Showdown / Test
Update and Ending: 4/24
Sadly, I polished off the vertical panels today to start a different test. I didn’t even take any recent pictures, but I had tried Numerous coating maintenance washes and Feynlab Pure Rinseless. The waxes basically remained the way they were. I’m not sure if the Acura’s soft paint was an issue, or if it was too cold in my garage during application and cure time, but the results started blah and remained that way, and I yearned to try something new. I hope to do another ceramic wax test in the future under better weather conditions and maybe on different paint. I’m even keeping track of a few panels with done ceramic waxes on my German cars and the results are much better... this was just to prove to myself that my wax pots hadn’t gotten too old.
Anyways, during my last wash a few days ago, most sections were sheeting quite slow. Like, 30+ seconds to sheet ‘shower’ setting off (I don’t have access to the plain hose for sheeting). But if you turned around for 1 minute and looked back, the entire hood would be 95% dry. So still protection there, just low performance.
The best sheeting (by far) went to Angelwax Fifth Element (Titanium).
The other two that looked decent were Angelwax SEMA 2019 (graphene) and Dodo Nano.
Perhaps these 3 like the Acura paint the most or did best during colder application/cure time. Who knows. Dodo Nano in the past has been on par with Synergy for me, but Synergy looked fairly poor during this test period. On my X5, I have the two side by side on the roof and Synergy is doing great on that paint.
Thanks for following and sorry this was a bit of a disappointment, but don’t let it deter thoughts about using ceramic waxes. This is my first less-than-stellar experience with them. Hopefully more to come later in 2020 or 2021...
-
Re: Ceramic Paste Wax Showdown / Test
Quote:
Originally Posted by
acuRAS82
Update and Ending: 4/24
Sadly, I polished off the vertical panels today to start a different test. I didn’t even take any recent pictures, but I had tried Numerous coating maintenance washes and Feynlab Pure Rinseless. The waxes basically remained the way they were. I’m not sure if the Acura’s soft paint was an issue, or if it was too cold in my garage during application and cure time, but the results started blah and remained that way, and I yearned to try something new. I hope to do another ceramic wax test in the future under better weather conditions and maybe on different paint. I’m even keeping track of a few panels with done ceramic waxes on my German cars and the results are much better... this was just to prove to myself that my wax pots hadn’t gotten too old.
Anyways, during my last wash a few days ago, most sections were sheeting quite slow. Like, 30+ seconds to sheet ‘shower’ setting off (I don’t have access to the plain hose for sheeting). But if you turned around for 1 minute and looked back, the entire hood would be 95% dry. So still protection there, just low performance.
The best sheeting (by far) went to Angelwax Fifth Element (Titanium).
The other two that looked decent were Angelwax SEMA 2019 (graphene) and Dodo Nano.
Perhaps these 3 like the Acura paint the most or did best during colder application/cure time. Who knows. Dodo Nano in the past has been on par with Synergy for me, but Synergy looked fairly poor during this test period. On my X5, I have the two side by side on the roof and Synergy is doing great on that paint.
Thanks for following and sorry this was a bit of a disappointment, but don’t let it deter thoughts about using ceramic waxes. This is my first less-than-stellar experience with them. Hopefully more to come later in 2020 or 2021...
Thanks alot, this was great ! I always wondered about Synergy.
(don`t know if this helps, but I use WG paint prep. and it does leave a film. So I`ve started to use it only before polishing and Gyeon prep. for my last wipe down before LSP)
Thanx again.
-
Re: Ceramic Paste Wax Showdown / Test
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mary B
Thanks alot, this was great ! I always wondered about Synergy.
(don`t know if this helps, but I use WG paint prep. and it does leave a film. So I`ve started to use it only before polishing and Gyeon prep. for my last wipe down before LSP)
Thanx again.
Thank you! This is the first I’ve ever heard Perfekt Prep called out. I’ve had numerous issues applying after it but I have a half-gallon left and it’s a pricey prep spray so I have trouble justifying buying something new. This has beeen my only experience with prep spray other than N-914 diluted 1:8 (which also may leave film from what I read).
When I know I need a clean surface for sure, I reach for prep polishes as the only other option in my arsenal. I’ve had no questionable results with those that I can recall. A bit extra work but at least I can trust results.
I appreciate your feedback and since I’m trying to determine possible causes for this inconsistent test, I likely won’t be using Perfekt Prep for future tests. No need to have additional question marks.
-
Re: Ceramic Paste Wax Showdown / Test
One thing to note for all: DP “NYF” SiO2 Wax on the vertical panels is doing fine. This was put on Essence and didn’t have the same issues as the bare horizontal panel test.
