imported_Aurora40
New member
Well, this is not a product that really filled a need I had. I have a 2 gallon garden sprayer I fill with distilled water if I want a spot-free rinse, but even when I do that, I still dry the car off. Typically I find just washing, sheeting with the hose, drying, and later QD'ing the car works the best for me because the QD step ensures any spotting is removed, and also brings out a lot of gloss on the paint, and helps protect the wax.
However, I found myself on vacation with the Regal and no cleaning supplies. No prob, except every night the car would get covered in a salty, sandy grime. The windows were so bad that I could barely see out of them each morning, so I'd drive to the gas station and sop them with that gross cleaning water to avoid scratching the glass while wiping it off.
So, since I couldn't let that continue (fortunately the winds died and the car didn't get nearly as dirty after the first couple of days), I decided to get the Mr Clean thing. I felt it would fit the bill because I could clean the car off, but not have to dry it. This means I wouldn't have to search for a suitable drying implement that I was very unlikely to find, and also means that if the car isnt' completely clean, I won't introduce marring in the drying stage. I knew it would not come totally clean as the environment wasn't that clean.
So, the Mr Clean was excellent because it could improve the finish with little possibility of causing more harm. As it turns out, I couldn't find a 100% cotton chenile wash mitt or a sheepskin one, so the mitt might be a source of some marring. It seemed ok, though, and I used very gentle pressure to wash and a lot of soap and water.
I found the Mr Clean easy to use, though having no bucket means it is hard to rinse the sponge out well, and you have no bucket to set it in while you rinse the car. But you could always use a rinse bucket with the Mr Clean.
The soap cleans well, and doesn't seem like it would strip wax off. It noticeably improves the sheeting action on the paint, and I suspect it must leave some residue behind because the paint sheets like that no matter how much you rinse it (I'm curious to see how it behaves when I was the car with normal car wash). The soap also sprays out in a useful pattern, nice and wide, and is quite sudsy and feels pretty slippery.
The rinse is great, very powerful, and the unit as a whole is very quality, sturdy, and easy to use. It would be hard to rinse wheelwells with it, though, as the handle is so large (much larger than you expect it to be).
The spot free rinse is nice, it's a weak stream that takes several seconds to ramp up, but sprays out a wide even pattern. It is a bit like spraying paint or something. It can be hard to displace large pools of water because the sprayer puts out so little water. I was able to rinse the Regal and a Trailblazer with the filter, and it seems to still have a little life left (and it was the trial filter included, not the supposedly better one you buy as a replacement).
However, as I expected from using distilled water many times, nothing will dry completely spot free. There are areas where water pools a bit that will have some spots, and sometimes you can see trails where water dripped out of the body and spotted. But, both cars seemed to be free of heavy spots, the kind that etch and cause damage, so to me it was a big success.
My goal was to make the cars cleaner without any risk of damage from drying or water spotting on the paint. So the Mr Clean came through big-time, and I'll probably make it a vacation must-have (along with a decent wash mitt). But, it's very unlikely I would use it at home as I'd still have to QD the car afterwards to remove the light spotting, and some of you mentioned the soap leaves a film that gums up with QD. And the soap and filter would make each wash more expensive. It just doesn't solve any problems I have with washing at home. But on vacation it solved a huge one! :xyxthumbs
However, I found myself on vacation with the Regal and no cleaning supplies. No prob, except every night the car would get covered in a salty, sandy grime. The windows were so bad that I could barely see out of them each morning, so I'd drive to the gas station and sop them with that gross cleaning water to avoid scratching the glass while wiping it off.
So, since I couldn't let that continue (fortunately the winds died and the car didn't get nearly as dirty after the first couple of days), I decided to get the Mr Clean thing. I felt it would fit the bill because I could clean the car off, but not have to dry it. This means I wouldn't have to search for a suitable drying implement that I was very unlikely to find, and also means that if the car isnt' completely clean, I won't introduce marring in the drying stage. I knew it would not come totally clean as the environment wasn't that clean.
So, the Mr Clean was excellent because it could improve the finish with little possibility of causing more harm. As it turns out, I couldn't find a 100% cotton chenile wash mitt or a sheepskin one, so the mitt might be a source of some marring. It seemed ok, though, and I used very gentle pressure to wash and a lot of soap and water.
I found the Mr Clean easy to use, though having no bucket means it is hard to rinse the sponge out well, and you have no bucket to set it in while you rinse the car. But you could always use a rinse bucket with the Mr Clean.
The soap cleans well, and doesn't seem like it would strip wax off. It noticeably improves the sheeting action on the paint, and I suspect it must leave some residue behind because the paint sheets like that no matter how much you rinse it (I'm curious to see how it behaves when I was the car with normal car wash). The soap also sprays out in a useful pattern, nice and wide, and is quite sudsy and feels pretty slippery.
The rinse is great, very powerful, and the unit as a whole is very quality, sturdy, and easy to use. It would be hard to rinse wheelwells with it, though, as the handle is so large (much larger than you expect it to be).
The spot free rinse is nice, it's a weak stream that takes several seconds to ramp up, but sprays out a wide even pattern. It is a bit like spraying paint or something. It can be hard to displace large pools of water because the sprayer puts out so little water. I was able to rinse the Regal and a Trailblazer with the filter, and it seems to still have a little life left (and it was the trial filter included, not the supposedly better one you buy as a replacement).
However, as I expected from using distilled water many times, nothing will dry completely spot free. There are areas where water pools a bit that will have some spots, and sometimes you can see trails where water dripped out of the body and spotted. But, both cars seemed to be free of heavy spots, the kind that etch and cause damage, so to me it was a big success.
My goal was to make the cars cleaner without any risk of damage from drying or water spotting on the paint. So the Mr Clean came through big-time, and I'll probably make it a vacation must-have (along with a decent wash mitt). But, it's very unlikely I would use it at home as I'd still have to QD the car afterwards to remove the light spotting, and some of you mentioned the soap leaves a film that gums up with QD. And the soap and filter would make each wash more expensive. It just doesn't solve any problems I have with washing at home. But on vacation it solved a huge one! :xyxthumbs
