S
SameGuy
Guest
Sorry about the long-overdue review, but I was really hoping for the weather to change before conducting a fair review of CarPro's latest miracle product, HydroFoam.
Sky's The Limit graciously sent me a 500 ml bottle of new HydroFoam for review, which took about a week to arrive in Way Upstate New York from Florida. Another few days passed before I was able to run to the USPS and my PO box to pick it up. That day and the day after, somewhere around the first week of August, were two of the wettest, darkest days of the summer, with torrential downpours. And that was the last time the sky was cloudy this summer. The forecast over the following weeks was constantly the same, partly cloudy and hot... but it was constantly WRONG for my neighborhood! We've enjoyed one of the sunniest, driest, and hottest spells in August in the last 30 years, with daily highs in the upper 80s to upper 90s, and blazing sun every day. I kept hoping for an overcast, dry day to try HydroFoam, but it simply never happened. The few rains we got since the first week of August were overnight showers. Notice it mentions not to use it in direct sun or on hot paint not once, but THREE times!
I finally gave up and decided to use it OFF-label by trying it out in direct sunlight. I don't yet have a pop-up canopy for my driveway to provide any sort of shade, and the work area is in full sun from 9:00 am until sundown. But as we'll learn, I think a canopy has leapt to the top of my wish list for the 2016 detailing season!
So let's get started. I rolled my wife's daily-driven 2002 Accord SE sedan into the sun and gave it a once-over. The paint was in average to below-average shape late last fall when I corrected it one cold afternoon with a well-known and widely-used reconditioning creme on the Flex with white and orange LC Hybrids. After an Eraser wipedown, I protected it with a spray-on, wipe-off silica sealant from a British company. The car was driven all winter in our harsh, salty, deep-frozen conditions and was rinseless-washed about once a month through the winter. In April I gave it a proper two-bucket wash with Reset from the MTM cannon followed by decontamination with Iron-X Classic. The paint was still in reasonably good shape, with only a few new defects installed over the winter. I cleaned the summer wheels, coated them with original Hydro2 and installed them. I dried the car off and rolled into the garage, where I applied a new coat of protection from Reload 2014. My wife was happy with the results, though she commented that the trunk lid and door handle had now become unusually slick! Since April, though, the , car has been washed just about once a month (bad husband!). When I took these "before" shots, it hadn't been touched in almost two months...
Knowing that there might still be some Reload at work, I decided to take advantage by giving the loose surface dirt a go with the electric pressure washer.
The sun was high in the sky at this point, and the temperature was 93° with a slight breeze and low humidity, and I couldn't power-wash the whole car before the panels I started with were already dry. Uh-oh. This will be an unfair test! Ah, but by testing it in extreme conditions I should be able to gauge how well HydroFoam will work under the proper conditions. So this is what we have before hooking up the MTM:
Notice below that even filthy, the Reload is still doing a remarkable job of beading water after four months and only a fourth wash!
I filled the 32 ounce MTM bottle with 29 ounces of water then measured out 3 ounces of HydroFoam, poured it in with a small funnel, closed it up and gave the cannon a quick agitation to blend the solution.
I set the cannon to maximum foam as directed ("close foam valve completely"), set the angle to vertical pattern and let 'er rip. The resulting foam isn't quite as dense as what I get from Reset (which is just a smidge less dense than Hyper Wash from another company) but is still remarkable considering the additives which give HydroFoam its sealant properties...
At this point I had to work quickly because the lather was dispersing quickly and the car was drying fast, so I didn't take more photos while foaming or rinsing with a full stream from my fireman's nozzle. Remind me next year to get a Y-splitter from Gilmour and a second hose for the garage so I dont have to waste time disconnecting from the pressure washer. Even using quick-connectors on my hose, accessories and washer, it's still a PITA to bleed off the pressure in order to disconnect.
I foamed the whole car, pulled my prized Microfiber Madness IncrediPad out of the "rinse" bucket and speedily wiped the entire car down, sweating like a horse. I rinsed and wrung the IncrediPad after each panel in my Grit-Guard-equipped rinse bucket (the "wash" bucket was not used). After hosing down, I was temporarily dazzled by the truly astounding beads on the imperfect paint, rounder and smaller than beads I've seen with other sealants, waxes and "wash-&-wax" products; these are closer to the beads from coatings like CQuartz!
Like with original Hydro2, the "depth" of the gloss was also noticeably greater than with any of the wash-&-wax products or SOWO quick-waxes I've tried, indeed closer to what I see from dedicated sealants and hybrids. The slickness is wicked, too, like both Reload and Hydro2 display.
Of course, that's where the fun ended, as I couldn't force the car dry quickly enough before Mother nature beat me to it! While I couldn't see many streaks or moiré patterns as I finished -- unlike those I got Reload 2013 -- the fine beading allowed my fairly hard water to leave stubborn deposits embedded. As I didn't want to be aggressive with the drying, I let it be for now in the hopes of trying it again once the weather changes. I'm quite sure a reapplication a couple of weeks after the fact will have a similar effect to doing the label-advised corrective step of applying fresh HydroFoam with a microfiber. It's difficult to tell from the following pictures as I wrapped things up and went inside to central air and a cold adult beverage, but you can see some of the streaking and stubborn water spots on the glass and certain reflective areas of the paint. But look at the gloss and paint color rejuvenation... the pictures truly don't do it justice, but you'd swear I just spent two hours buffing out a decent, traditional sealant, when in fact the entire job from start to finish took less than 15 minutes! Look:
Overall I'm thoroughly impressed with HydroFoam, its ease of application, convenience and results. The water-shedding characteristics are stunning. Longevity remains to be seen, but if it's even half of that of Reload or Hydro2 it is a major breakthrough. My only niggle is that direct sun and heat present a real challenge to overcome; if I were using this as a labor-saver in a smaller commercial detailing environment -- which it would definitely achieve over traditional hand-applied sealants and waxes -- I'd be forced to invest in a big, heavy-duty canopy for working outdoors.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to try what I now firmly believe is a game-changing product. I can't wait to use it again soon!
Sky's The Limit graciously sent me a 500 ml bottle of new HydroFoam for review, which took about a week to arrive in Way Upstate New York from Florida. Another few days passed before I was able to run to the USPS and my PO box to pick it up. That day and the day after, somewhere around the first week of August, were two of the wettest, darkest days of the summer, with torrential downpours. And that was the last time the sky was cloudy this summer. The forecast over the following weeks was constantly the same, partly cloudy and hot... but it was constantly WRONG for my neighborhood! We've enjoyed one of the sunniest, driest, and hottest spells in August in the last 30 years, with daily highs in the upper 80s to upper 90s, and blazing sun every day. I kept hoping for an overcast, dry day to try HydroFoam, but it simply never happened. The few rains we got since the first week of August were overnight showers. Notice it mentions not to use it in direct sun or on hot paint not once, but THREE times!
I finally gave up and decided to use it OFF-label by trying it out in direct sunlight. I don't yet have a pop-up canopy for my driveway to provide any sort of shade, and the work area is in full sun from 9:00 am until sundown. But as we'll learn, I think a canopy has leapt to the top of my wish list for the 2016 detailing season!
So let's get started. I rolled my wife's daily-driven 2002 Accord SE sedan into the sun and gave it a once-over. The paint was in average to below-average shape late last fall when I corrected it one cold afternoon with a well-known and widely-used reconditioning creme on the Flex with white and orange LC Hybrids. After an Eraser wipedown, I protected it with a spray-on, wipe-off silica sealant from a British company. The car was driven all winter in our harsh, salty, deep-frozen conditions and was rinseless-washed about once a month through the winter. In April I gave it a proper two-bucket wash with Reset from the MTM cannon followed by decontamination with Iron-X Classic. The paint was still in reasonably good shape, with only a few new defects installed over the winter. I cleaned the summer wheels, coated them with original Hydro2 and installed them. I dried the car off and rolled into the garage, where I applied a new coat of protection from Reload 2014. My wife was happy with the results, though she commented that the trunk lid and door handle had now become unusually slick! Since April, though, the , car has been washed just about once a month (bad husband!). When I took these "before" shots, it hadn't been touched in almost two months...
Knowing that there might still be some Reload at work, I decided to take advantage by giving the loose surface dirt a go with the electric pressure washer.
The sun was high in the sky at this point, and the temperature was 93° with a slight breeze and low humidity, and I couldn't power-wash the whole car before the panels I started with were already dry. Uh-oh. This will be an unfair test! Ah, but by testing it in extreme conditions I should be able to gauge how well HydroFoam will work under the proper conditions. So this is what we have before hooking up the MTM:
Notice below that even filthy, the Reload is still doing a remarkable job of beading water after four months and only a fourth wash!
I filled the 32 ounce MTM bottle with 29 ounces of water then measured out 3 ounces of HydroFoam, poured it in with a small funnel, closed it up and gave the cannon a quick agitation to blend the solution.
I set the cannon to maximum foam as directed ("close foam valve completely"), set the angle to vertical pattern and let 'er rip. The resulting foam isn't quite as dense as what I get from Reset (which is just a smidge less dense than Hyper Wash from another company) but is still remarkable considering the additives which give HydroFoam its sealant properties...
At this point I had to work quickly because the lather was dispersing quickly and the car was drying fast, so I didn't take more photos while foaming or rinsing with a full stream from my fireman's nozzle. Remind me next year to get a Y-splitter from Gilmour and a second hose for the garage so I dont have to waste time disconnecting from the pressure washer. Even using quick-connectors on my hose, accessories and washer, it's still a PITA to bleed off the pressure in order to disconnect.
I foamed the whole car, pulled my prized Microfiber Madness IncrediPad out of the "rinse" bucket and speedily wiped the entire car down, sweating like a horse. I rinsed and wrung the IncrediPad after each panel in my Grit-Guard-equipped rinse bucket (the "wash" bucket was not used). After hosing down, I was temporarily dazzled by the truly astounding beads on the imperfect paint, rounder and smaller than beads I've seen with other sealants, waxes and "wash-&-wax" products; these are closer to the beads from coatings like CQuartz!
Like with original Hydro2, the "depth" of the gloss was also noticeably greater than with any of the wash-&-wax products or SOWO quick-waxes I've tried, indeed closer to what I see from dedicated sealants and hybrids. The slickness is wicked, too, like both Reload and Hydro2 display.
Of course, that's where the fun ended, as I couldn't force the car dry quickly enough before Mother nature beat me to it! While I couldn't see many streaks or moiré patterns as I finished -- unlike those I got Reload 2013 -- the fine beading allowed my fairly hard water to leave stubborn deposits embedded. As I didn't want to be aggressive with the drying, I let it be for now in the hopes of trying it again once the weather changes. I'm quite sure a reapplication a couple of weeks after the fact will have a similar effect to doing the label-advised corrective step of applying fresh HydroFoam with a microfiber. It's difficult to tell from the following pictures as I wrapped things up and went inside to central air and a cold adult beverage, but you can see some of the streaking and stubborn water spots on the glass and certain reflective areas of the paint. But look at the gloss and paint color rejuvenation... the pictures truly don't do it justice, but you'd swear I just spent two hours buffing out a decent, traditional sealant, when in fact the entire job from start to finish took less than 15 minutes! Look:
Overall I'm thoroughly impressed with HydroFoam, its ease of application, convenience and results. The water-shedding characteristics are stunning. Longevity remains to be seen, but if it's even half of that of Reload or Hydro2 it is a major breakthrough. My only niggle is that direct sun and heat present a real challenge to overcome; if I were using this as a labor-saver in a smaller commercial detailing environment -- which it would definitely achieve over traditional hand-applied sealants and waxes -- I'd be forced to invest in a big, heavy-duty canopy for working outdoors.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to try what I now firmly believe is a game-changing product. I can't wait to use it again soon!
