By Jamie Frost
Wash, Rinse, Shine, and annoy Nigel whilst you're at it - the secret to Rinse Aid.
Rinse aid - let's talk about this novel, sometimes overlooked and very important part of giving your car a good bath. Show of hands those who haven't used detailing rinse aid, or maybe not even heard of rinse aid before...? Anyone.. those at the back? No...? Okay - that's kind of what I thought.. And whilst we're at it - who the hell is Nigel?
Firstly, why bother with rinse aid in the first place? Apart from adding gloss and depth to paintwork, it displaces water from washed panels so there’s less water for your drying towel to soak up and adds a layer of protection at the point where you'd normally simply rinse shampoo away without even a second thought. Rinse aids are water repellent – either hydrophobic (water hating) or hydrophilic (water loving) and that means they either encourage water to bead up and run off paintwork rather than just sitting there. Or if the rinse aid is hydrophilic, it breaks the surface tension of the water beads entirely, causing the water to disperse. In detailing terms, we call that clearance effect ‘sheeting’ and it not only makes drying the car quicker and easier but it also minimises the chance of annoying water spots afterwards.
As well as this (as we're coming into winter), when using your car on filthy, salt-ridden winter roads, rinse aid will add a little protection to your paintwork. It may not be much – it’s no PPF – but even a tiny chemical barrier between salt and a stone chip helps. Plus all that slipperiness to your paint means less of an opportunity for any contaminants to stick, and that protects your car even further and makes your next wash a lot easier.
In a nutshell, it's maximum reward for minimum effort - which during a freezing cold Sunday morning in the middle of November, is most welcome. Especially when Nigel from down the road joyfully and annoyingly pipes up with, “You can do mine after, mate!”
Shut up, Nigel.
Luckily for you, Stjärnagloss offers two fantastic (and beautifully smelling, to my nose at least) products that will make your car bead, sheet and gleam like never before, and the most magical part? Even if your car has never seen so much as a glimpse of clay bar, wax or sealant, a single coating or a few quick squirts can make it look like you’ve spent hours out on the driveway sealing, waxing and perfecting the paintwork.
GLATT
First up, we've got Glatt. Glatt is Stjärna's spray on, rinse off product... Yeah, that's it, that's all you have to do. Glatt is a rinse aid/water repellent that's been carefully and strategically designed to protect your paintwork with one simple spritz, after swilling off your car following a careful two bucket method wash (covered in a previous blog).
Application is dead easy. After the contact wash, rinse the car with water as normal but don’t dry it. Instead reach for the Glatt… spray on, rinse the Glatt off thoroughly (almost immediately), and you're done. Maybe cover the windscreen with a drying towel to prevent a thin mist of Glatt drifting over it and causing weird wiper smears in the low winter sun, and if you have a dark coloured car always run over it with a drying towel after to buff off any excess product. But then you’re good to go… there’s so little water left on the panel that you probably didn’t need to dry the car at all. Just a few minutes and a couple of spritzes per panel and Glatt is hard at work repelling any water spots and contamination. Try Glatting a wet panel and seeing it instantly turn water repellent! It’s almost magical in the way it works. And no need for dwell time, it works as soon as it hits the panel.
GLÖ
Next up we have Glö. For those that love the satisfying feeling of applying snow foam with the strategic placement of a lance, making sure every square inch of the car is covered, then this one is for you. I mean, there’s not really much more to say about this product. It does everything Glatt does, just in a more hands-on, satisfying and, dare I say it, fun way. Just make sure you run a flask of clean tap water through the lance afterwards to wash away excess sealant; otherwise it can gum up the foam lance filter and compromise future foaming.
So, there you go, two amazing products that will reduce drying time or even remove that process completely, that also protect your paintwork and make it bead like never before. If you didn't know about the benefits of rinse aid, you probably do now!
Either way, it’ll leave your paintwork glossier and far better protected than Nigel’s Honda Jazz down the road - and really, isn’t that what matters?
Finally, if you're planning on storing your car over winter, using a rinse aid is also a very good idea, but you can find out more about this in our 'winter storage tips' blog next month.