No Rinse car washing - A revelation! (warning, long post)

[Jem]

I've been meaning to try THIS for a while as I've read very good things about 'ONR' on Detailing World. So I ordered some during the week.

It's great if you have difficulty getting a hose to the car, or you want to wash the car away from home at a show or meet for example. Also I couldn't wash the car last weekend as I would have left loads of water on the ground outside in the communal carpark which would turn to ice. This method leaves no water on the floor at all, you could wash the car in the garage if you have one large enough. All you need is a bucket, the Optimum No Rinse, a sponge or microfibre mitt, a couple of microfibre drying towels and just eight litres of water

It's basically like a car shampoo and you mix it in a bucket in the same way but you don't rinse it off at all. It's made in the US, and you just add 1oz to 2 US gallons to of water. Then using a sponge or microfiber wash mitt, squeeze out any excess so the sponge is wet but not dripping with soloution and gently, with very little pressure wipe over a panel, flip the sponge over and wipe over again. If the car is really filthy you may need to repeat that to ensure the panel is clean. Then immediately dry that panel with a microfibre drying towel. Then onto the next panel till the car is done. I did the wheels in the same way.

My car hadn't been washed for a month and I drive 350 miles a week so 1400 miles in all weathers including the last week of snow ice and salt! So about as filthy is it's ever going to get. I live in a first floor flat, so to use a hose and the normal two bucket method I need to throw a short length of hose out of the bathroom window, take downstairs a hose reel, two buckets, wash mitt, drying towels, wheel cleaner in a pump spray bottle, a large and a small wheel brush. Then move the car from where it's normally parked as I can't get a hose all the way out there, wash the car and then haul all of that back upstairs.

With the Optimum No-Rinse it's a simple case of fill the bucket, add the ONR, throw in the wash mitt, grab a couple of drying towels and walk out to the car, wash and walk back in twenty minutes later!

Yep, I turned my car from this:




(half way through I took this pic)


To this in twenty minues with just eight litres of water




You could justifiably ask is it as good as the normal two bucket method, a hose and gallons of water? Well the car looks just as clean as it normally does after I've used the two bucket method. I half expected to notice nooks and crannies where a normal wash would get clean, but all the nooks and crannies are just as clean. The only part of the car which I would say is washed better using the normal method is the wheels. Yes they are clean, but I normally use a fairly weak dilution of wheel cleaner sprayed on, left to dwell then brush the face and the drum and rinse off. With the No-Rinse I can't really clean the drum, but the face is clean.

This does go against the grain of using lots of water, rinsing the car off first, maybe snow foam, two buckets ect. You are basically wiping a wet sponge over the paint, so you'd expect it to cause swirls and fine scratches all over the place But the polymers in the ONR do lots of magic things and bind the dirt away from the paint so it doesn't cause any marring. I've seen a couple of threads on Detailing World where ONR had been used long term and has caused no more swirls than you would expect from the two bucket method. I deliberately used a white drying towel so I would see any dirt that had been left on the paint. And while it wasn't spotlessly white afterwards, it was no more dirty than I would expect it to be if I'd washed the car in the normal way.

So all in all, very impressed. I think I will now be washing the car once a week or more using ONR and then a two bucket method once a month or so.

[pdh 14a]

At the end of the day you "dont have" to use the hose using normal car washes!
But no matter how fancy the stuff you use,that dirt is a million bits of sand grit etc,and has to get wiped off somehow.i'd rather leave my car dirty till i can at least get a hose or pressure washer onto it!

Nice job though

[Jem]

But no matter how fancy the stuff you use,that dirt is a million bits of sand grit etc,

And that's exactly what the ONR is designed to do, remove the dirt away from the paint and the polymers bind to it so the dirt doesn't mar the paint. The polymers also keep the dirt in the bucket and not the sponge. It feels quite different to normal car shampoo, there is no suds at all and it feels very slippery.

[McLarenboy]

i would love to see that mitt as it's the key element

[Sideways Simon]

And you'll still have to use a hose to wash in around the archs and that?? i wouldnt feel comfortable rubbing a cloth over my paint dragging all that shit with it over the panel

[Jem]

And you'll still have to use a hose to wash in around the archs and that?? i wouldnt feel comfortable rubbing a cloth over my paint dragging all that shit with it over the panel

That's why I will wash the car using the normal hose and two bucket method once and month or so and ONR in between.

And yes it does feel very wrong wiping a wash mitt over a dry filthy panel, totally alien to all that you learn regarding washing a car, but it's been shown the using ONR causes no more swirls than the two bucket method. The is a thread on Detailing World where someone has used nothing but ONR for two years and there is no more swirls than you would expect after two years of the two bucket method.

It does feel alien and it goes totally against the grain, but it works

[Jem]

Used this for the second time today. Think i prefer it to normal washing with a hose

[Mitch]

I think you'll find the "normal" two bucket method isn't actually that normal

Cracking results though, going by your pics

[Rude Dog]

I wonder how well the car would come out if you used the ONR as a shampoo and washed the car with that and a hose?

[Benkid]

Sod that. I haven't got it in me to try it lol. I'll have a word with my mate about this. He's a full time detailer.

Interesting read none the less.

[Jem]

I wonder how well the car would come out if you used the ONR as a shampoo and washed the car with that and a hose?

It would be a bit pointless really, as once the polymers have bound the dirt up, you're basically leaving clean water on the car ready for drying, so by rinsing you're just rinsing of clean water.

[Si W]

I'm so getting some of this! I'm in the same boat as you accommodation wise and i'm fed up with driving a filthy car and not being able to wash it without hauling my arse over to my folks place!

Thanks for sharing!

Edit:also must be excellent for the engine bay as you dont have to get everything soaking wet!

[pk]

I am in the a similar position - do about 350motorway miles per week and live in a flat block so good alternative than to keep paying for car washes.

Finally got this a week back, just need to go out and try this (maybe when it is not freezing!!) - reviews on DW are really good despite being counterintuitive

Obviously if it is really really dirty then 'normal' wash is a better bet and then use ONR regularly (was surprised by the above as I thought that would be classed as too dirty)

[diamondsink]

Is that the stuff you see on QVC etc?

[pk]

don;t know as don't have a TV

but would be surprised if it was based on what they used to sell before but things might have changed. The one on the weblink is the right one.

[strawberryS14a]

This stuff has gotta be bullsh*t, you can't clean a car without rinsing the shite off.

[Jem]

This stuff has gotta be bullsh*t, you can't clean a car without rinsing the shite off.

Yes you can

[Johnny]

its got to be worth it alone for the mornings you come out to the car and find bird sh1t across it ..... rather than break out the hose, 2 buckets etc etc .... you can just spot clean panels

I would use it on a lightly dusty car in the summer .... but I dont think I could bring myself to trust in polymers stopping the amount of grit on the car in the winter from scratching the paint

[Grim]

so these polymers are trained. when you put a cloth in water they jump on it. when you put it near dirt they grab it and keep it away from the bodywork, and when you put it back in water they jump back off.

so they are more highly evolved and trainable than the average chav?

it's going to be like Terminator, but with smart polymers, instead of Arnie!!!

stick with Fairy, save the world

[sxbaz]

id like to see this used on a shite old car which hasnt been detailed, as im sure jem's paintwork is probably better protected than most before the salt etc goes on.. may give it a try myself