pad life?

T

tssdetailing

New member
So i had to throw away a pad for the first time yesterday. It was my white LC Kompressor pad. I had a back up, but I was just curious if it's typical for a pad to only last about 5 cars? I had not cleaned it and left compound it it for 3 weeks at one time, did that damage it?
 
ive had some of mine for a year now, only reason ive ever had to throw one out was because the backing on the pad separated from it when i was removing it from the backing plate.
 
While some cutting pads seem to get more/too gentle with use, milder pads usually last a long, long time for me (years). Five cars is a *very* short lifespan IMO.
 
What's the best way to store them so they last a long time? How thoroughly do you have to clean them after each use before you store it away?
 
I seem to be getting 5 cars out of my Lake Country pads. Can anyone else comment. Time wise this is over a few weeks. Wash them after the detail with water only. Put them back on the pc to spin the water out on low speed. And let dry for 24 hours.



Autogeek was kind enough to replace my 4" pads that deteriorated on one car, first panel for each of them. I dont expect them to replace the others but I feel they should last longer. I also only use the weight of the machine on the pads. Im am not aggressive with them.



Those of you saying they last years, is this just for your car? Or are you doing multiple details?



Just curious.



Thanks

Dan
 
If your pads are lasting a year they must be torn to shred and have nothing close to the original foam density.



And as far as they last just depends, on about a 1000 different variables. Only pad issue I had was a the velcro coming off after half a car. But AG replace it and sent me two back up ones just in case :D
 
So should I be looking to get the other pads replaced?



Whats a reasonable pad life? At 2-5cars a pad separates from the velcro, is it justified for a replacement?
 
I clean the pads as well as I can (by hand, no pad-washer here) using Dawn, either regular or Power Dissolver. Rinse thoroughly and air dry. Then I store them in cheapie plastic drawer units (new pads are stored in RubberMaid Rough Totes).



I find it odd that people's pads aren't lasting all that long (no, that's not some :nono it's just different from my experience). I don't do much correction these days, but even when I did my pads lasted for a long, long time and always stayed like-new looking. Only issue was the way some cutting pads got a bit more gentle. Maybe it's the new-tech abrasives or something like that wearing pads out quickly :think: Still, multiple uses of M105/M205 haven't worn any of my pads to a discernable degree.
 
Thanks for the info Accumulator.



I think I am going to change me technique a little and see home my new batch of pads lasts. Ill post some pics tonight of the pads and what has happened.



But I have only been doing correction work as of late so my pads are being used everyday.
 
Going back to answer my own question....pad life seems most dependent on what your buffing over. Small things like a screw or weird corner or anything protruding will wreak havoc on a pad moving at top speed and thus result in early deterioration. I have to replace all of my Cyan hyrdotech's b/c i've "run over" something that clipped the foam and over time that smal tear became large fractions in the face of the pad rendering it useless =(
 
My Lake Country pads seem to have a much shorter life span than my old Edge pads (about 5 cars, like those above). I have some old cutting pads from Edge that are years old while I have gone through two orders of LC pads so far. It could be the difference in the foam, the fact that the edge pads are flat while the LC pads are CCS, or the frequency of use (don't use the Edge pads much lately). I've been thinking of either switching to the flat LC pads or going back to Edge pads lately.
 
I beat a tangerine hydro-tech to death tonight.



The body line on my Sonoma had an angle in it and I tried to tip the pad up a little to get in that corner.



The rotating/vibrating disc started cutting into the pad that had just been rolled between the body and the backing plate.



I wonder if others are doing the same thing.
 
I work by the job, so I beat the sh*t out of 5.5" OJ pads on my PC if thats what I'm using, just to get it done faster. A pad will last three cars before I toss it and grab a new one.
 
I'll concur with most it seems on the Hydrotech pads. I've only been able to get a few uses out of them before they are tore to shreds. In fact I'd say all of these new foam pads of late don't have near the life span of my old foam pads. Probably my technique of using the big 8" pads for years and then going down to the 5.5" and using what I know. I just can't seem to make them last. My flat LC pads are shredding off their Velcro backings like crazy lately. I ordered a dozen of them about a month ago and I think I only have 2 left out of that order that still have the Velcro attached... Going to start looking into other options for my next order.
 
I've had something similar happen to me on a Megs cutting pad.

Left some compound in there for a few weeks and when I tried

to clean it chunks of the pad came out with it.



So maybe that does have something to do with it.



Ever since that happened I've started hand washing my pads like

Accumulator does.



Haven't had any chunks of the pad come out like that since then.
 
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