SECRETS They Don't Want You To Know: Ceramic Detail Sprays VS Ceramic Spray Coatings
The Auto Detailing Podcast
SECRETS They Don't Want You To Know: Ceramic Detail Sprays VS Ceramic Spray Coatings
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Term
waterless wash
A waterless wash is a cleaner for your car that you spray on and wipe off without needing to use any water. It's great for quickly cleaning off dust without a lot of fuss.
Term
detailer
A detailer is someone who cleans cars really well, making them look like new. They use special products and techniques to clean both the outside and inside of the car.
Term
rinseless wash
A rinseless wash is a way to clean your car using a special soap that doesn't require rinsing with water. You mix it with a little water, use a sponge, and wipe your car clean.
Company
Optimum No Rinse
Optimum No Rinse is a brand that makes a special soap for washing cars without needing to rinse them with water. It's useful for people who want to clean their cars quickly and easily.
Term
synthetic polymer
Synthetic polymers are special materials made by people that help protect your car's paint. They can make your car shiny and keep it safe from dirt and damage.
Term
detail sprays
Detail sprays are special cleaning products that make your car look shiny and clean quickly. You can use them to wipe off dust and make your car look good without washing it completely.
Term
SiO2
SiO2 is a chemical that helps make car coatings stronger and more protective. It helps keep the car's paint safe from scratches and dirt.
Term
ceramic spray coating
A ceramic spray coating is a special liquid you can spray on your car to protect the paint. It helps keep your car clean and shiny by making water and dirt slide off easily.
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I've been getting a ton of questions lately with,
hey Jimbo, what's the difference between a detailed spray,
a rinseless wash, a waterless wash, a ceramic spray,
a spray wax, and everything in between. My head is spinning,
I'm just super confused. And so, you know, it doesn't help when you go down
what I've effectively called the Isla Confusion at like a retail store.
And there's ceramic wax, there's ceramic detail spray,
there's ceramic waterless wash, there's regular detail spray,
complete detail spray, wipe down spray, all that.
It's like, oh my goodness, what is the difference?
So I thought instead of answering all these questions one by one,
it would be much easier to just put it into one simplified video
that's easy to follow and makes sense. I'll give you my opinion
on what product I think is best or what products are best.
And then, but the idea is to just answer this question that keeps coming up
and to give you the most information possible from my experience of being a
detailer forever and in the product manufacturing space for a long time now.
What are we at like since 2016, I think it is, so we're at like nine years
working, you know, at the blender for the blender and now with the chemist.
And so I've learned a lot, I'm not a chemist, I don't plan to have this be high level,
but at the end, I just want to show you, you know, kind of break it down for you.
What product does what and when you may use a waterless wash,
when you may want and use a detail spray and when you may want and use a ceramic spray.
That way you can make your best decision based on the information that you have
and I'm trying to weed out a lot of the confusion that is there sometimes
on purpose and we'll get into that too.
So first is this rinseless wash, waterless wash, those terms kind of get
thrown around together, but they're essentially the same thing.
A rinseless wash is where you just add usually a couple ounces of concentrate to a bucket with
water and you wipe down the car panel by panel. It's less water, rinse less, you are not necessarily
rinsing the car, but you are using more water if you're dealing with, you know, water restricted
areas where you can't have a lot of runoff or you live in an apartment and just have a carport
and your car isn't super dirty. This could be a very good viable option for you versus the
traditional, I think rinseless kind of came out of the waterless industry or the segment, I guess,
if I can remember correctly, but waterless wash has been around for a long time,
hoseless wash and this is your traditional like spray on out of a spray bottle, wipe off product,
no bucket needed. It's good for, you know, light dust, maintenance cleans.
I did it a lot when I was a detailer at like a vintage Porsche dealership where the car sat
inside all the time and really just had like a light layer of dust, a waterless wash could be
perfect. They can kind of get streaky and so sometimes I prefer a rinseless wash because
sometimes the waterless wash just, I don't know, the dirt junks up on the towel more,
but either way you're actually going through a lot of towels. I know people nowadays are using,
like they'll use a sponge with a bucket and a rinseless wash and kind of do the whole car and
then hit it with the big drying towel. I guess that's an option to do that. I wouldn't necessarily
feel super comfortable doing it that way. I feel like there's still a lot of dirt on the surface.
So I usually worked a couple panels at a time and would use the sponge and wipe down the panel
and then use a separate towel to dry and kind of remove the rest of the dirt. And so I tended to
blow through a lot of towels, which made me not like rinseless washing at all. But again,
that could have been my thing. I was also like a mobile detailer doing rinseless washing and
fleet washing rinslessly, which is not the best. It's kind of terrible. But if you're on the go,
you can't bust out a hose, you apartment dweller, only have a carport. These are good ways. I wouldn't
necessarily say perfect, but they are good ways to clean your car, but they're not really leaving
any protection behind on purpose. Even I know Optimum No Rinse, they offer a wash and wax.
I've tested that a bunch and though there is maybe Carnuba in the formula, it's really not
enough to leave any, you know, good protection behind. And I don't think even if you are using
that product, because you like the gloss or the slickness that comes after it, I just don't think
rinseless washes or waterless washes in general, you should depend upon them for protection. I
think that's just asking a little bit too much of the product, because really it's more about
cleaning the car than it is about protecting the car. But again, in certain situations,
it could be really, really beneficial. So from there, the step up from that would be a detail
spray. This could be a ceramic detailer. This could be just a regular quick detailer. And they're
usually a lot of water in the formula with light lubricants or usually gloss enhancers.
And they usually, in most cases, have minor protection, maybe a little bit of wax in there,
some sort of synthetic polymer. And that will vary depending upon brand. There's quick detail
sprays that I've used from brands that you feel like you are doing nothing. It literally feels
like nothing, except for maybe removing the dust, right? And then there's other ceramic sprays,
ceramic detail sprays that I've used from brands that are actually better than their quote, unquote
ceramic spray, right? And so that's where the confusion kind of starts to happen, too, is
what happens when a brand has something labeled as a detail spray, but it's actually better than
what they have branded as a ceramic spray coating. That gets tricky, right? And so that's where a lot
of this not only doesn't get confusing with names, but it gets confusing with results,
because then you start getting better results from products that are labeled
something that they're actually way better than. And that's what I found a ton of times through
my torture testing, is that sometimes brands don't know what they even have. Sometimes it sounds crazy
saying it out loud, but sometimes, not every time, brands don't even know how good or how bad of a
formula they have because they really test in their own ecosystem. And what I found, this is a
little bit of a tangent, but what I have found working directly with manufacturers and chemists
is a lot of times the chemist will put something together that makes sense on paper and makes
sense with the chemistry, but then it doesn't translate into real life and real world. I remember,
excuse me, even when I started working with Tom on the polish and I said, hey, I want this,
this, and this, and then he put something together and he's like, I don't know if it's going to work.
I actually don't think it's going to work because on paper it seemingly didn't make any sense,
but then it does. It translated perfectly. And so usually as I try to demonstrate working with
Tom, usually the chemist and the detailer are working hand in hand and trying real world,
on real world cars and stuff like that is, is ideal. But what I found working with brands like
Turtle Wax, testing a bunch of products from, you know, brands like McGuire, some of these bigger
brands, they test in their own ecosystem. And because the testers also work for the brand,
they're sometimes hesitant to give honest feedback to the higher ups at the brand because
they're worried about repercussions for their jobs or there's just all types of kind of politics
and politicking that goes into it. And so what you end up with is a lot of yes men and yes people
that just tell the chemist, whatever they made is awesome. And then they go to market with this
thing that maybe isn't as awesome, but everyone said it was awesome. And it's hard to get real
outside feedback. And you could see how the loop spirals pretty quickly. So spiraled almost as,
almost as much as my tangent there. So detail sprays, though, are for people that just want
quick in theory. And that's, I guess, why I have to preface everything like in theory, people,
detail sprays exist for people who want like quick results, you're at a car show,
you need to wipe it down, you have a garage queen, you're taking it out for a sunny morning drive,
it's not dirty, you don't need to do a full wash, you just want to kind of add some gloss.
Again, not much long term benefit. It's short term, you're mainly going for
gloss, getting rid of the dust, stuff like that without needing a full rinse of swash or full
wash at all. You may also use it after a car wash, after a wash to, you know, every car drips. And so,
you know, like me personally, car drips forever, right? I used the Inez water, but I still like
to go back through and kind of touch up the car, get those little drips that may have been dripping,
touch up any areas, that's where detail spray can really come in handy as well after the wash.
And then we had spray waxes, right? So these are usually like a natural wax, like a Carnuba
based, or what we started to see that became more popular is kind of like a hybrid wax,
which is another term that gets confusing, ceramic hybrid, hybrid ceramic.
And then you start adding a few of these terms together, hybrid ceramic spray wax,
hybrid ceramic detail spray, you see where the confusion starts to get really heavy.
And so, but a spray wax by definition, traditionally adds light protection, we're
easier to apply than a paste wax. That's kind of where the technology evolved and how it developed,
much easier than a wax on, wax off, right? So low durability, they usually streak,
usually pretty bad because of the Carnuba. Anytime you get a natural wax in a formula,
my experience has been that you tend to get heavier on the streaking, but the streaking is also what
adds the gloss. And so, and the fill, if you ever get like waxes that fill, it's because they're
heavy on these waxes that will do that. And so streaking usually is a big issue, you know,
seal and shine, not necessarily, it's not ceramic at all, streaky, but very durable,
adds nice gloss, right? And so you're constantly from the chemist point of view and the manufacturer,
the brand's point of view, you're constantly weighing this balance back and forth of,
you know, durability, gloss, easy use, right? And so you're constantly adding and taking away,
depending upon what your key, like, you know, top three factors are that you're looking for
in a product, right? So if you don't want it to streak, you want it to be easy to apply,
but you also want it durable, that is super hard to formulate that because it's kind of some of
the things that make it durable, don't make it easy to apply, right? I remember another tangent,
sorry, but there was someone who kind of put a hit piece out on my toughest shell, and they were
comparing it to some unreleased, of course, you know, unbranded, unreleased product. And I remember
a key point of the video was that they were talking about the application process of this super
robust, super durable product, but they couldn't even apply it to half a panel without it streaking.
And I thought to myself, well, how silly is that? Like, no one's ever going to use that product
because it'll imagine doing that on a black car in the heat, like, who cares that it's super durable,
you'll never be able to apply it to a whole entire car if you couldn't even apply it to half a panel
without it streaking on a light color car in ideal circumstances. So that's really not even a viable
product because, of course, it's you can make something ultra durable like that. But if it
streaks like hell, who cares, no one's going to use that. But the trick is not creating a product
like that. The idea and the what you're trying to, I think what I try to accomplish is how do I make
something slightly less durable than that, but apply like a detail spray or like a waterless
wash. So you almost feel like you're not applying anything at all, or it's so simple. But yeah,
you're getting like extreme durability. That's the secret sauce. That's how you what you should go
after, right? Not something that's, you know, 18 steps to apply and you got to apply it, you know,
upside down with your offhand and your right big toe to get it to not streak. That's just insane.
It's not even a viable product. So as you can see, I'm not pissed about that hit piece at all.
So next up would be the ceramic sprays. Ceramic spray coating. These are usually
SiO2 infused. They're usually 100% synthetic. They sometimes have ceramic particles, lubricants.
They are using kind of the same chemistry or piggybacking off the chemistry of the wipe on
small glass bottle ceramic coatings. They're meant to give, you know, high, high contact angles,
which means really tight water beating. They're meant to give really good protection on a multitude
of surfaces, glass, paint. Sometimes you can even use them on interiors. I typically use
Tuffa Shell, which is my product, my ceramic spray coating. I will use that on interior
surfaces as like an interior detailer. It's a little off-label use, but it is super, super
effective. And the ceramic spray coatings are really for people who want ceramic performance.
They kind of want to tip their toe in the water of the ceramic realm, but they don't want to deal
with the hassle of a real ceramic spray coating, or sorry, they don't want to deal with the hassle
of a real ceramic coating. And so that's kind of by definition the difference between those
four different segments, those four different categories. But the truth is that some
products are glorified detail sprays with ceramic marketing slapped on. Not all are bad,
definitely not, but some are underwhelming. And like I mentioned before, some of the ceramic
sprays are better than the ceramic spray coatings from that same brand. And so unfortunately,
to find that out, you just have to test a lot of stuff, but definitely brands aren't helping us
out. And so again, ceramic sprays are going to have a higher concentration of this SiO2. Usually,
you're going to get months of durability, not weeks. You're going to get that extreme water
repellency that people are looking for, UV protection, chemical resistance. I've shown a
lot of that through my torture test. In fact, developing my own products were based on this,
based on chemical resistance, easy use, and kind of the secret sauce that I tried to accomplish was
getting that like wax glow. That was a lot of feedback that I was getting from people that they
still do, you know, carnival wax and natural waxes because they like that glow that a natural wax
will give that sometimes you don't get from a ceramic spray. Sometimes with ceramic spray,
especially the earlier ones, the application can be really finicky. And a lot of them are
prone to streaking. And they're super temperamental. I will say just in general,
for the detailing industry, we're getting to a point with the chemistry, it seems to me, and
talking with the chemist that we're at such a high level with the chemistry that the downside
to that, because everything in detailing is give and take, we're at such a high level with the
chemistry that it makes the products very temperamental, usually. So humidity, temperature,
kind of towel used. And so a lot of high level products, cutting edge formulas are very
temperamental. The confusion gets, there's also a lot of old school formulas that are not
temperamental. They're just bad, but you think they're temperamental, right? And so I think what
people really, really want, my opinion, my kind of gist of, you know, what people want is a ceramic
spray coating that applies like a detail spray and doesn't suck. That's kind of my gist. If I had
to summarize it into a sentence, it would be that like, give me the most durable product possible
that is the easiest to use, but also gives me that glow like wax. I guess that's more than one
sentence, but that's kind of how I've summarized it and what I think, right? And so the truth is,
though, is that most brands create, you know, three to five different products to make up for one
product that doesn't really work well. You know, they, instead of, you know, fixing the ceramic
spray or being honest that they just are changing manufacturers, they'll make a ceramic detailer,
then a topper, then a prep spray, then a refresher. And it's really confusing, but by design, right?
It gets you to spend more of your money on the next new product. They get to shelf an old formula
or bring back an old formula and say that it's new, which is the different, you know, color, scent,
or label. I've seen that too. And so it just is confusing by design. And to be honest with you,
again, I wanted to change that. I felt like if I'm confused, and I've been doing this since 2008,
if I'm confused, what is a casual observer to the industry thinking? And I think brands have done
a big disservice just in general of confusing people and not being clear and concise with
their product line. But I see that as an opportunity. So for me, I mentioned it before, but that's,
you know, when I was creating Tough as Shell, it was built out of this frustration. I wanted,
you know, the ease of use of a detail spray, something that I could use often because I like
to touch my car or wash my car often, but I wanted the protection of as close to a true ceramic
as I could possibly get. And that's it. I didn't want any of the BS. I didn't want streaks. I didn't
want weird humidity, humidity issues. I just wanted to spray, wipe it and be done. And that's
exactly what I was able to create with Tough as Shell, applies like a detail spray, protects
like a ceramic. You don't need toppers or extra protection. You don't need a detail spray on top
of it. And I wanted to keep my product line tight and clear and concise and super, super, super
simple. Again, I use the analogy of In-N-Out Burger compared to McDonald's all the time,
but it, you know, it kind of works again here of like, if I see, because I got people writing in
with my torture test videos, with my podcast, with all this stuff, people would be like,
I don't know. I don't know what to do. So I'm frozen and I do nothing. I go to the Isla Confusion.
I see all these ads on Facebook. I don't know what to do. Right? All these people are screaming
from all these different angles and I don't know what to do. And so really what I did and what my
whole product line stands for is just simplified products that are done right. And they're done
right the first time. They're done well with Tough as Shell. I've private labeled and sold
literally, not over exaggerating, literally millions and millions of dollars of that formula.
I upgraded it slightly for my own change the color, but that was a product that I developed.
That was my first product that I ever developed with the chemist because at the time back in 2019,
any ceramic spray coating was solvent based and it smelled like hell. The Adams Polishes,
the 303, they all had this horrible smell that when you use them, it filled up your whole shop.
It just smelled horrible. And so I went to the chemist and I said, hey, can we do this but in a
water based formula so it doesn't smell? He said, yeah, we can. And we developed it. And that is
eventually what became Tough as Shell. It was actually my first private label product that I
ever developed. And so yeah, I'm very, very proud of that product. I know what it took to get it to
where it is today. And I'm very excited because of all the things I said, it applies like a
detail spray, protects like a ceramic, doesn't smell like a heavy solvent, doesn't eat the bottle.
You don't put it in your cabinet and come back two months later and it's empty because it ate
through the bottle. It doesn't separate. It doesn't create flakes. It doesn't create a ring around the
top of the bottle. It doesn't settle to the bottom. And last month when you apply it, it's just a
perfect product. I just really, really am proud of it. So hopefully this cleared up the mystery of
all those types of products. You don't need 15 different bottles. You just need the right products,
the right tools. So if you want to try Tough as Shell, obviously I'll link it below. And if you
learned something, drop a comment. Let me know. Hit that subscribe button. And yeah, hopefully you
guys learned a lot. That was fun to explain. And now I could use this video kind of as a way,
as a, I could point to people when they say, Hey, I'm confused about this. I could point
them to this video. So thanks for coming along for the journey for that. So with that, I will
catch you guys on the next one. Don't forget everything over at jimbosdetailing.com. If you
want to see my personal product line and everything is up on Amazon as well for that prime free
shipping. So I will link everything in the description below. Thanks for listening. Catch you
guys on the next one. See ya. Marketing is hard. But I'll tell you a little secret. It doesn't have
to be. Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now and it's great.
You love the host. You seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working out,
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About this episode
Confusion surrounding detailing products is tackled head-on, as Jimbo breaks down the differences between ceramic detail sprays, rinseless washes, and more. He shares insights from his extensive experience in detailing and product development, explaining when to use each type of product for optimal results. The episode highlights the marketing tactics that contribute to consumer confusion and emphasizes the importance of understanding product formulations. Jimbo also introduces his own product, Tough as Shell, designed to simplify the detailing process while providing effective protection.
Original notes
In this podcast, we're breaking down one of the most confusing topics in all of car care — the difference between a waterless wash, a rinseless wash, a detail spray, a spray wax, a ceramic detail spray, and a true ceramic spray coating.
There are so many products that seem to do the same thing, but each one actually serves a very different purpose — and if you don't understand those differences, you'll waste time, money, and effort without getting the results you want.
I'll explain each one in simple, easy-to-understand terms — when to use them, what they actually do, and how to know which one is best for your situation. I'll also share the truth about why so many new products exist in the first place, and how companies made things confusing instead of just fixing the real problem: making ceramic sprays easier to use.
By the end, you'll understand exactly what each product does, how they fit together, and why I created Tough As Shell — a ceramic spray that applies as easily as a detail spray but gives you the long-lasting protection of a true ceramic coating.
Products I use and recommend in this video:
Tough As Shell Ceramic Spray – https://jimbosdetailing.com/products/hard-as-shell-ceramic-spray
The Super Soaper – https://jimbosdetailing.com/products/the-super-soaper
All Dressed Up – https://jimbosdetailing.com/products/all-dressed-up
Softer Than Soft Towels – https://jimbosdetailing.com/products/softer-than-soft-microfiber-towel
Everyday Microfiber Towels – https://jimbosdetailing.com/products/everyday-microfiber
All Blacked Out Applicators – https://jimbosdetailing.com/products/all-blacked-out-applicators
Also available on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/JimbosDetailing
The Auto Detailing Podcast
Jimbo Balaam interviews guest like Barry Meguiar, Jason Rose, Yvan Lacroix,
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22:28