The 9 wax showdown!

[Erik Mejia]

Re: The 9 wax showdown!

Excellent write-up. Can't wait for further updates. keep up the good work.

[Wolf-Strong]

Re: The 9 wax showdown!

Ok, it is 11:30 pm, I just home home from work after a 14 hour work day, and to top it off, I have to wake up at 7am, so needless to say I don't have the time to do anything tonight, but trust me when I say I am probably just as, if not more anxious than all of you to see how well the waxes protect (I will be doing the test in the morning).

Since I have had yet another delay, I will post up some more thoughts. I said that the two biggest surprises where NXT and Souveran, well add Eagle One Nano wax to that list. What the surprise is that NXT exceeded my expectations and is very honestly, worlds different and better than the old version. Eagle One also exceeded my expectations and I honestly had no idea how good this stuff is, and that reasoning will appear in the following reviews. Souveran though, while it did surprise me in a few areas, highly disapointed me in terms of looks. I was shocked to see that this wax did not give me the results I was hoping for, and perhaps I just had my expectations too high (and believe me, they were very high). I am not saying Souveran is a bad wax; far from it! I still would say Souveran is an unbelievably good wax, especially for a WOWO wax, but I was just expecting it to make the paint look like water was literally running down it, which I have come to realize is just expecting too much from any wax, period.

Turtle wax also gave me a bit of a suprise, and that includes the ICE that I had just thought to not even consider. I explained all the reasons why on this all in the videos, so I don't want to give that all away!

With that said, I need to get some much needed sleep right now! Gnight!

EDIT: I will be Photoshopping a picture of the differences in looks to show you guys what I am talking about for the 1-5 scale, so stay tuned for that as well!

[Capt. Dan]

Re: The 9 wax showdown!

Thanks for the write up and sacrificing your car with the water spots. Looking forward to see the outcome.

[Capt. Dan]

Re: The 9 wax showdown!

Thanks for the write up and sacrificing your car with the water spots. Looking forward to see the outcome.

[Wolf-Strong]

Re: The 9 wax showdown!

I will be out at 6pm sharp, so I will head to buy the batteries and such so I can get on the move with this and finish this review! (Crosses fingers) I really hope its just the batteries that isn't allowing me to dl the videos! I am still looking for a video compressing program so I can put the videos up on youtube, so please anyone, advice on this?

[Wolf-Strong]

Re: The 9 wax showdown!

FINAL REVIEW!!!

Ok, after waiting 2.5 hours for the video to upload, it froze up on me! I decided I am just going to talk about it until I solve my computer problems, which is probably going to require a reformat of the computer (my computer is pretty messed up right now). It isn't the beading video that I am excited about, rather the sheeting video! That just happens to be the one stuck on the camera.

Ease of Application
Ease of application basically consists of how smooth the wax lays on the paint, how easy it is to spread evenly and thinly, how easy it is to get the applicator inside the tub, and all that fun jaz. Just simply read the first review on my thoughts on all the waxes in general, but here I am going to put a point system to them as some have requested, though personally, I think that the first review will give you a better insight than just numbers. Also note that there are both pastes and liquids here, so while I am grading on one scale, some things like Liquid Glass's runny nature took away from its score along with ICE's oversize applicator with undersized tub, while likewise Gold Class and Souveran were incredibly easy waxes to work with with everything nicely sized and everything just done right. Collnite's finicky nature also took away from its score, along with both the Turtle Waxes, but remember that I also still do stand strong that once you get the technique down, it really is much easier, so keep that in mind.

(5) Meguiar's Gold Class
(4) Meguiar's #26 Hi-Tech Yellow Wax
(5) Meguiar's NXT 2.0
(1) Turtle Wax ICE Polish Paste
(5) Pinnacle Souveran
(3) Collnite #476 Super DoubleCoat
(3) Liquid Glass Auto Polish/Finish
(2) Turtle Wax Super Hard Shell
(4) Eagle One NanoWax® Paste

Ease of Removal
This did not only take into consideration of how easily the product wiped away, but also how it did with drying time. Collnite was going to be the hardest to rate in ease of use, because while it is super easy to remove with a good drying time, it can be impossible if not applied properly, which is why I have seperated the two catagories. I had to rate the Meguiar's waxes down half a point, because while they were unbelievably easy to remove, they do require a drying time, while Souveran does not, making it the clear winner. Otherwise, all went well! The Turtle Wax Hard Shell was as my first review said, a royal pain in the you know what to remove simply due to the thing not wanting to dry! Removal was very streaky as well, which ICE also seemed to share a bit of the same problem. Nanowax was still easy to remove, but did require extra drying time, hence the knock down in the score.

(4.5) Meguiar's Gold Class
(4.5) Meguiar's #26 Hi-Tech Yellow Wax
(4.5) Meguiar's NXT 2.0
(3.5) Turtle Wax ICE Polish Paste
(5) Pinnacle Souveran
(4) Collnite #476 Super DoubleCoat
(3) Liquid Glass Auto Polish/Finish
(1) Turtle Wax Super Hard Shell
(4) Eagle One NanoWax® Paste

Clean hood with cured wax - Water Beading:
This was without a doubt, my hardest test believe it or not, because they were all so simular in their beading, I spent well over half an hour looking at water beads trying to find out which one beaded better than the other, and while in my initial testing I had made a few observations in the video, after spending a lot of time off camera, I realized much of that was probably due to the sprayer itself and the curves of the hood. As much as I hate to do this, on a scale of 1-5, all of them deserve a rock solid 5.

Clean hood with cured wax - Sheeting:
This is where it got REAL interesting and where the differences in the waxes became apparent! After I took the video, again I spent a long time with many gallons of water dripping on my boots from the hood on trying to observe the difference. This was, without a doubt, the easiest one to grade and the most fun! What I have to stress here is that they all do, without a doubt, sheet water, and none of them do a bad job at all! However, there are a few, namely Eagle One NanoWax and NXT that just blew me away, with NanoWax being the big surprise! The water literally just fell right off the paint with this wax and I was just blown away that I had never heard of anyone who made raved about this product because it really is good stuff, especially for the price! ICE also gave me a bit of a surprise because this stuff seriously does sheet water as well. I made a scale down below to give you guys an idea on how I thought they compared.

(3) Meguiar's Gold Class
(4) Meguiar's #26 Hi-Tech Yellow Wax
(4.5) Meguiar's NXT 2.0
(4) Turtle Wax ICE Polish Paste
(4) Pinnacle Souveran
(3) Collnite #476 Super DoubleCoat
(3) Liquid Glass Auto Polish/Finish
(3.5) Turtle Wax Super Hard Shell
(5) Eagle One NanoWax® Paste

Water Spot protection
I was very disapointed with this test, and the reason is that all the waxes seemed to have failed miserably. Every single one has completely lost all of its shine, and trust me on this one, because I spent a good 45 minutes with 1000watt halogen lamps looking at every possible angle. No one wax wiped off easier than the other, and here is the difference that the wipe off made (note that the tape took some off when I tape off an area).


This was done with a clean microfiber and ONR quick detailer mix for the reason that I have found ONR to leave behind the least, if any shine agents that would change the results of the test. Now note that while it does look clean of water spots, this is what the paint actually looked like:


Another oddity that I noted was that Liquid Glass seemed to fog up for some reason. I tried to capture this with the camera, and I think you can see the difference here with some fogging in a small area. You will notice it right where my hair is in the picture, that cresent shape that looks like it could be glare is actually a fog:

I tried to debunk this with putting the light against it to see if it is due to the cold, or due to the heat of the light, and it seems as though it is due to the cold, though I still can't be sure. This again just stresses my thoughts on Liquid Glass not being a good winter wax.

So, unfortuneatly, none of them were scorable in the protection ability as they all performed the same, so I thought I would try some beading to see how they acted, and this is where some of you may be in for a bit of a surprise, I know I am!


I'm not sure if I caputred it on camera very well, but they all seem to be beading very, very differently. Liquid Glass and NXT don't seem to be fully beading up at all anymore! Compare them to the beading in the video, and I believe you will draw the same conclusion. What also leads me to believe this is that they are not showing a tape line anymore, while Turtle Waxes ARE, especially ICE paste! All the other waxes were showing the tape lines which shows simply that they do infact have a higher surface tension over the unwaxed paint, which would lead me to believe wax is present.

I then went onto trying to sheet water on this, and it again left me with a very hard test. All the waxes dropped down a lot in points here, but surprisingly, some do a bit better than I thought:

(2) Meguiar's Gold Class
(3) Meguiar's #26 Hi-Tech Yellow Wax
(1.5) Meguiar's NXT 2.0 *****
(3) Turtle Wax ICE Polish Paste
(2.5) Pinnacle Souveran
(2) Collnite #476 Super DoubleCoat
(1) Liquid Glass Auto Polish/Finish
(3) Turtle Wax Super Hard Shell
(3.5) Eagle One NanoWax® Paste

*****I also HAVE to note to everyone that I could be wrong on NXT not beading up in this test, but I can assure you I studies it long and hard and while it may be beading up, it is not doing it NEARLY to the extent of the others, which is maybe where Ultimate Quick Detailer is suppose to come into play, but I personally wouldn't take that beading over the others in any situation given a choice![/i]

I didn't bother taking a video because of all the headache I am having with my computer, and considering it officailly takes 4+ hours to get a video on youtube for me, I will probably just upload the sheeting one since that is the impressive one, once I get that whole thing figured out with getting it off the camera!



Final Thoughts
Well, I can honestly say that I have learned a WHOLE lot from this little test, probably the most important thing being just how important it is to prep the surface prior to waxing with a REAL good clay job to where not even the plastic baggy can pick something up, and polishing the paint to absolute perfection. I also learned just how little importance a wax actually plays in this game, because after this test, I am convinced on just how little time you have to remove whatever is on your paint, and just how thin of a layer of protection these waxes offer, even with some of the best in this test like Collnite and NXT.

As all of you probably have done by now, adding up the points gives a final score of this:
(17.5) Meguiar's Gold Class
(19.5) Meguiar's #26 Hi-Tech Yellow Wax
(20.5) Meguiar's NXT 2.0
(12.5) Turtle Wax ICE Polish Paste ******
(20.5) Pinnacle Souveran
(14) Collnite #476 Super DoubleCoat
(13) Liquid Glass Auto Polish/Finish
(10.5) Turtle Wax Super Hard Shell
(19.5) Eagle One NanoWax® Paste

What I want to note on ICE is that let's say that it might not of marred the surface if application was easier (again, still up in the air or not if it is a bad batch) and which in turn made removal easier, it could of had the chance to score a 21, which would put it as the winner, but that is all dealing with if and buts, and the point of me saying this is that the scores really don't matter, it is just something there for fun. So, as you can see Meguiar's NXT 2.0 and Souveran scored 20.5 which puts them in a tie for first place while Eagle One NanoWax and Meguiar's #26 scored a 19.5 for a tie in second, and third left up to a solid 17.5 from Meguiar's Gold Class. So don't go out and buy simply based on the scores, READ what I wrote, and see which one seems like you would enjoy using the most!



I have to say in all this, Souveran was a bit of a letdown for me, and Eagle One NanoWax was a HUGE surprise! NXT also, obviously is just a solid, all arounder wax. So the question is probably in everyone's mind, "So what wax are you going to use on your car!?" and for my situation, my car is one that is driven every single day, get's a lot of abuse from the weather, and I plan to want to wax about every month at the most. Overall, I am leaning towards Eagle One NanoWax or Meguiar's #26. NXT would probably be my top choice, however I do have the dilema with it falling apart after that water spotting abuse test on how it would hold up against other containments and if it would just fall on its face again. Durability also comes into play here, and as many know, Collnite lasts a good, long time, and I am sure with a little practice, it wouldn't be a bad product to work with. I have heard horror stories about ICE's durability, so I can't say much on that. So I guess my answer to which one is:

The test must go on!. I am going to strip them all with a paint cleaer, re-apply, and test for durability, but this time take care of the paint and make sure to avoid water spots at all costs! For all those who don't believe me on the NXT looks vs Souveran, I might also do a side by side of those two for everyone to see! It is now past midnight, and I have to wake up at 7am, so gnight everyone! I hope you learned from this as much as I have!

[Sydster]

Re: The 9 wax showdown!

Great Write up man!

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: The 9 wax showdown!

Wolfstrong, very good work. It was a very interesting writeup. Thanks for taking the time and effort to do this for us. it is greatly appreciated.

[Wolf-Strong]

Re: The 9 wax showdown!

I just thought I would post up the scale on the difference the waxes made in their ability to darken the paint:

[roushstage2]

Re: The 9 wax showdown!

I like all of the EO Nano products. I use them on my truck. I cleaned and polished the paint with the Deep Crystal System, and have been washing with the EO Nano Wash and Wax, I wax with the liquid version of Nano Wax. Use WAUD every time I dry it. Every other wash, after drying it, I use the spray EO Nano Wax. I use the Nano Protectant on the entire interior. I haven't used the polish on anything yet.

Eagle One would probably be my go to if Meguiar's wasn't around. Thanks for the testing and information!!

[CWM3]

Re: The 9 wax showdown!

I actually use EO Nano Wax topped with #26 exclusively on my car. I am glad to see that they held up very well in the test.

I still want to try NXT 2.0 topped with #26 though.

Great test and I applaud the effort.

[MoJam]

Re: The 9 wax showdown!

Eagle One would probably be my go to if Meguiar's wasn't around. Thanks for the testing and information!!

I've used Eagle One in the past, and achieved good results.

[yalerd]

Re: The 9 wax showdown!

Thanks for the taking the time and sharing!

[Wolf-Strong]

Re: The 9 wax showdown!

Well I just did another side test on the trunk while it was unprepped and swirled up (I just clayed it) with Souveran, NXT V2, and Eagle One Nanowax. Simply put, Souveran did add a little shine, but it was on the scale of more like 1 on that scale I posted. Eagle One did a FANTASTIC job of covereing up swirls and I would say a good 50-70% of the swirls were covered up! I simply could not believe how good this stuff is and why no one ever brought it up before, or at least not more often. Then, there was NXT 2.0. Guys, I simply could not believe it...not only did NXT add a good wet look, but, you may not believe this, but it covered up at least 80-90% of the defects! The paint literally just looked like I just polished it!

This also leads me to another conclusion. When I had prepped the surface prior, even with a cleaner that contained polish (M9), Souveran showed more improvement than on the unpolished surface. What this leads me to believe is that Souveran was indeed made for the paint that is perfectly prepared with zero orange peal and the works. If you have that kind of paint job with that kind of prep work, than I would say give Souveran a shot because it does seem as though it may produce an unbelievable result. Outside of that though, it seems whether the paint is prepped or not, NXT V2 is unreal in its ability to make the paint shine. Who knows, it might even still out perform Souveran on that perfect finish considering ho well it is doing right now, but as I said before, that was never the intention of this test.

I also did a little fun comparison between Mother's Cleaner Wax paste, Meguiar's Cleaner wax paste, and ColorX. Mother's Cleaners wax was slightly easier to use than the Meguiar's Cleaner wax, and came off a bit easier. It also had a more pleasant scent, and the old style tin from the 60s. Neither though, completely removed the water spots. ColorX on the other hand not only went on easier, not only did I not work it as much as the others, and not only did it remove easier, but it removed 100% of the water spots! This was just a fun little test I wanted to do, but I gotta say, I am impressed!
Considering I have a stockpile of Ultimate Quick Detailer, Meguiar's NXT V2 will be the official wax that goes on my paint!

[davey g-force]

Re: The 9 wax showdown!

Thanks for the info Wolf-Strong.

I am surprised that NXT V2 is really that much better than V1. V1 is my wax of choice at the moment and I've got nearly a whole bottle of it to use up before I try V2... can't wait!