Adams or Other (Meguiars and so on)

[Random]

Hello,

 

New here... 

I am in the market to buy a foam canon and soap to keep a car clean.

I am not anal about washing and waxing and polishing and rubbing and spending 4 hours on a car thats only gonna get dirty the very next day. Its a work vehicle, SUV, white, and has signage made/stuck on it to advertise my business. (was told not to use pressure hose on that stuff as it can damage the signage - I assume if you are far away enough to not hit it hard it should be ok?)...

Anyway, for a car thats used like that, going to work with a brown white car does not look good for business. So I need to wash it once a week to keep it nice.

However, because of who I am, It gets done once a month because its a pain in the butt to have to spend 2 hours getting wet to wash a car.

 

Anywho - I thought about a foam canon/soap so I can just spray the stuff on and finish washing the car in a quarter of the time, then it wont be such a chore to clean and most likely then get cleaned weekly as its much simpler to do.

In the past I have always used Meguiars NXT 2.0 to wash my car but have been reading about Adams.

 

People swear by Adams "foaming" capability (all the youtube stuff) - however there is the other side of the coin... more foam does not mean better clean. 

So theres what I am wondering... 

Car Wash by Adams (the blue stuff) compare to Meguiars NXT 2.0 or even the hyperwash (or any other brand name) -

Which actually 'cleans' better (gets the dust, dirt, road stuff black spots etc), not which foams better?

I was interesting in car detailing, I have seen the most exceptional work done with Meguiars, the wool pad, red pad yellow and the polish, the finish on pain the guy was achieving was a Glass finish, not 1 swirl mark not 1 scratch on any angle of light, LED light, Hallogen, you name it, shine anything you want on it, it was perfectly scratch free, and I mean... it just cant get better than perfect... I have no experience with Adams and nor am I detailing... but still had to ask in terms of "actual washing" which actually will leave my work car clean, easier etc... or does it make stuff all difference what I use in that regard they will all clean it and just get whats cheaper?

[Rich]

This is the Adam's forum, so naturally, we're not going to tell you to use any other brand. I've tried other brands  but Adam's seems to stick better, which is important when it comes to breaking down the dirt.  Results also depond on your choice of foam gun or cannon.  Cannons work better than guns, but if you're worried about hooking a cannon up to a pressure washer because of your signage, then go with a hose and a gun.  All I can say is I've been using nothing (few exceptions) but Adam's for over 20 years, and have zero reason to change brands. 

[falcaineer]

We appreciate your membership! Under terms of our user agreement, we ask that this discussion be kept light and not excessive, and appreciate your understanding.

[RayS]

Based on your description of keeping it simple and being able to skip a week or so, sounds like it would be a good candidate for a Adam's Foam Gun and Adam's Wash & Wax.  Not only does Wash & Wax work well with the Foam Gun it adds protection that will give you a week or two without needing to do anything extra.  

 

There is one other thing that really makes White vehicles look good and that is Adam's H20 Guard & Gloss.  This is a bit of a different product where you need to do a good wash with my preference of Adam's Ultra Foam if using a Foam Gun.  Then you apply the H20 Guard & Gloss.  This will not need to be repeated for a month to 6 weeks and you'll just need to do a basic wash every week or so to keep it looking good.

[Random]

Thanks. I understand its the "Adams forum" and everyone gonna be promoting their own brand of loyalty... I am just trying to get beyond that part and get to the 'actual' stuff. If you wash car with X product, then wash same car (say a hood half with 1 half with adams) which will wash better, which actually makes it easier to wash (less rubbing/muscle etc) required... like which actually 'works' better whether it is the product of choice or not. Or do they more or less all do the same job with more or less the same difficulty and so really none of it matters as its not even quantifiable ?

I guess down here I asked because I found Adams to be about $30 less than meguiars.

When I get a response like "i been using this for 20 years and etc and have tried other stuff" - fine... what stuff did you try, and in what way (descriptive) did Adams stand out to you to 'choose to use this over other brands' ? 

Was there an 'actual' noticable difference, or you just comfortable with Adams even though there is no actual visual difference or ease of use or whatever else?

Had I not read elsewhere that "adams foams good but doesn't clean good" - I wouldn't be asking. Foam is one thing, actual cleaning capability is another. I can foam a whole car, wash it and it will still look dirty if the agents in the cleaning product don't work all that great... I also don't want to be stuck putting my whole body pressure all over the car because the soap itself works very little (doesn't clean good). 

I am more looking at that direction, ease of use and the product doing more of the work than me having to. 

Figured instead of believing what I read somewhere about Adams not cleaning good, that I would be better off asking people here that use Adams and have used other products and stuck to adams... why did you stick to adams? Did you find your car looked cleaner? Shinier? Did you feel like you had to use less elbow grease to clean the car while with other products you had to work harder to clean it... etc?

Thats what I am trying to work out.

Edited June 23, 2023 by Random

[RayS]

Let me see if I can help you by telling you why I went all in on Adam's products in 2018 after using various products from a multitude of vendors for 30 years before that.   I am not going to name the products or vendors I switched from, but will tell you that the vast majority were good products and some were very good.  Throughout my car care years, I also tried some that were poor, a few of which are no longer around.

 

When I started with Adam's, I was after a few specific items and the one thing that stood out immediately was how well the Adam's products worked together.  There was no longer a question of whether the Shampoo from vendor A worked well with the paint protection from vendor B.  Any product that came from Adam's worked well with other products from Adam's, so there was no doubt in my mind that Adam's not only had good chemical engineering, they also had extensive testing. 

 

In the last couple of years there has become two product lines, Ceramic and non-ceramic, so that is a decision on which path to choose.  I maintain so many vehicles that I have a stock of both so I can use whichever is best for the vehicle or owner.    Each person has a difference goal for their vehicle and once you determine your goal and effort you want to put forth, then you can determine the best product line and which of those products you want to use.

[Random]

I see. Well based on that I guess Meguiars is fine too. I have seen professional detailers use the range of Meguiars in its proper form (Ultra cut, ultra polish, final inspection) along with the NXT wash and clay bar and the pads, n there was nothing I could look at and think it was not impressive.

The car was finished like glass, the depth of paint and metalic popped like nothing I ever saw, it basically looked like a SEMA car thats under LED/Down lights to get that effect. 

I guess it just comes down to method more than the product itself.