Cost: £30
Date of Review: 22 April 2019
The Sales Pitch from auto Finesse:
The ultimate in long-lasting hydrophobic coatings for exterior automotive glass and windscreens an ultra hydrophobic, easy clean coating for better vision in all weather conditions.
Source: https://shop.autofinesse.co.uk/caramics/caramics-glass-protection-kit
What You Get:
Opening up the box to see the contents.
Kit Contents
1x 100ml Glass Polish, 6 x Glass Coating Wipes, 1 x 100ml Residue Remover
Protective Gloves
Instructional Guides
Sticker Emblems
Product Description:
This product is intended to be the next generation in glass visibility with some serious hydrophobic properties.
Instructions:
This is the instruction book as supplied. A simple three page fold out leaflet.
Before you begin
Before application ensure the vehicle is clean, dry and free from any contaminants.
THE DO NOTS
Do NOT apply in direct sunlight or to a hot car
Do NOT leave the coating to cure for longer than the specified time
Do not apply to a wet vehicle
Do not apply to any other surface than stated
Application:
A multi stage process, the car needs to be clean and out of direct sunlight. As it was a hot cloud free and bright sunny day, I applied the caramics in the garage which was cool and out of direct sunlight.
Step 1) Deep clean the glass with the supplied prep polish, which just happens to be AF Vision, which I already own a full sized product of.
I had some spare lint free paper towels to clean the glass, which I prefer to microfiber to be honest, unless it’s a dedicated glass cloth. Pour some polish onto the cleaning cloth and work into the glass. The white paper towels gives a much clearer idea of how clean your glass is, more so than a coloured microfiber cloth I find.
Ths product will disappear fairly quickly. You can just about make out the cleaning marks on the glass.
This glass polish is a great product and does bring the glass up to proper sparkle. There wasn’t much to clean of the glass to be fair, but I followed the instructions.
I used a new towel for each piece of glass on the car. With all the glass cleaned it did look rather good. There is a plenty of this glass polish in the small sample sized pot for the car. I only used around a third to half of the bottle.
Step 2) Put on the supplied gloves which are non powdered and a snug fit on my big hands. There are six wipes for the whole car. The first wipe application is for vertical lines and then the second wipe for horizontal. For the largest of the glass areas which would be the windscreen and the back window you would need two for each glass. Which leaves only one for the side windows. I personally think that there should be and additional two wipes to allow the double wipe on each side of the car.
Tip: When I spoke to the guys at AF they recommended that the windscreen should have the second application wipe in vertical lines. The theory is to allow the rain to run up the glass when moving. The sides should be horizontal to allow the water to run to the back when moving. I’m not to sure that this would really make that much difference, but I did as advised. As long as the glass has two opposing coats I cant see that it matters.
Step 3) Only work on one section of glass at a time. Unwrap the cloth which is not very big and you are hit with smell of isopropyl alcohol, that means it will be fast evaporation. No pretty scents here for this particular product.
Tip: You need to work quickly and efficiently or the cloths will dry out.
I had to take a rushed photo, but the process is the same for each piece of glass. I have arrowed the first half of the rear glass wipe process before ut started to evaporate. Make sure that you cover the glass all the way to the edges.
With the glass fully coated you will see a residue or haze in the right light angle.
With the side windows I would work the main glass first, then work to the quarter lights or other side glass. Work both directions with the single wipe. The product dries very quickly on the glass remember.
Step 4) The last step is to remove the residue or haze. This step will use the supplied white lint free paper towels. These are not like normal paper towels, they are quite robust and will not tear in normal usage.
The residue remover is a pump spray bottle.
Spray the residue remover directly onto the glass and buff away until clear and streak free. There is no rush now at this stage and you can take your time to clean the glass.
Results:
Super shiny glass, but it looked like that after the glass polish. With the ceramic added it still looks crystal clear.
Instructions advises not to expose the car to the elements for at least two hours. I left Caramics to cure overnight and placed a cloth under the wiper arms to keep them of the glass.
The next day I was very interested to see what would happen with a few drops of water on the glass. I filled an old syringe with plain water and dropped some water onto the windscreen to simulate light rain drops.
I was horrified. The water droplet have left a definite trail behind them. When dried it looked like a snail trail. The water droplets did bead nicely though.
However. With a clean cloth the marks wiped away with very little effort to leave a crystal clear glass again.
I had some serious concerns on how the glass will react in the rain. A few says later I was going to the first car show and on the way there it started to rain. I was pleasantly surprised and relieved to see the rain instantly bead up and run up the window due to the wind pushing it straight off the screen. There was no smears or run Mark’s, In fact I didn’t need to use the wipers while others were using theirs. But, I turned them on and the first wipe instantly cleared the screen and continued to do so.
After arriving and parking up, the water beading from the slight spit of rain could be clearly seen.
Rating: 6 out 10
I must update this review at a later date when I have a much clearer idea of how the water reacts in a few months time. The box says should last up to 12 months, I would hope so. Why not a top score? This is down the multi stage application and the fact the product wipes dry out to quickly, they need to slow that step down a bit to allow you to take your time and not miss any bits.
Ease of use – 6 A four step process for the ceramics product, five if you include cleaning the car first. You got to get it right first time.
Finish – 10 The glass looks great and super deep gloss. when dry.
Conclusion:
In the past a top quality glass cleaner or even AF Aqua Coat provides an awesome protection on the glass without any marks left behind when a few drops of rain land on it. With this product now on the glass with up to twelve months protection (?). The next day I thought I had made a big mistake when I saw the streaks after dropping a few drips onto the glass. But, the extra cure time has left a great clean result and the rain just flies of the windscreen and glass.
Not sure what was going on with the next day cure time, perhaps it needs the sun to cure or longer with no sun?
Like I said earlier, I must be fair to the product and review the results objectively, so I will do a follow-up. It’s not cheap at £30 a go, but if it lasts a year and helps with the rain during driving then it is a good price to pay.
Would I recommend it? Yes. But be prepared for the steps to work quickly.
Would I buy it again? Yes, providing the product lasts!
Update: 28th April 2019
Driving home from a car show I was caught in a heavy rain shower. The water just ran straight of the windscreen with the force of the wind. I could see clearly with the wipers on and there was no streaking on the glass. Just a clear windscreen.
Update: 14th September 2019
Caught in rain downpour and after a little while of driving the effects of the Ceramics became less apparent. From what I can see there was no advantage to the product on the glass. It certainly didn’t last a year.