Cost: £24.95
Date of Review: 14th February 2025
The Sales Pitch from CSL Shelby:
What Sets It Apart
- Waterless formula that lifts dirt, grime, and contaminants while providing ceramic protection
- Infused with advanced ceramic technology to create a hydrophobic layer that repels water, dirt, and debris
- Enhances gloss and depth, leaving a high-shine, showroom-quality finish
- Provides long-lasting scratch resistance, UV protection, and durability
- Convenient and easy to use for on-the-go detailing with added benefits of ceramic technology
Shelby’s Ceramic Infused Waterless Wash combines the power of ceramic protection with the convenience of a waterless wash, delivering a superior clean and lasting protection in one simple application. Infused with advanced ceramic technology, this formula not only lifts dirt, grime, and contaminants but also leaves behind a hydrophobic layer that repels water, dirt, and other environmental contaminants. This innovative formula enhances the depth and gloss of your vehicle’s paint, leaving a high-shine, showroom-quality finish while providing long-lasting ceramic protection.
The ceramic infusion creates a durable, protective layer that bonds to the paint, offering superior scratch resistance, UV protection, and enhanced durability. It acts as a shield, preventing contaminants from adhering to the surface, making future clean-ups easier and keeping your vehicle cleaner for longer. Shelby’s Ceramic Infused Waterless Wash is ideal for on-the-go detailing, providing a quick, convenient solution with the added benefits of ceramic technology for long-lasting paint protection
Source: Ceramic Waterless Wash – CSL Shelby
What You Get:
A dark bottle with 500ml of a liquid product designed to make cleaning your car easy without access to water.
The trigger is a positive feel with an even spray when depressed covering a wide area.
Product Description:
A product designed to clean your car where water is not readily available. The product is acwatety liquid to be sprayed directly on the vehicle, wiped of the buffed to a shine.
Ceramic is seen to be the next level of detailing moving on from the common Carnauba infused products. Many products now days have this ‘Ceramic’ infused ingredient which I have found to be rather random
Instructions:
Instructions from CSL:
Spray liberally on to your vehicles surface.
Using a clean high quality microfibre cloth, wipe away the dirt and liquid from your car. This then activates the ceramic technology to bond with the surface of your car.
Using a clean DRY microfibre cloth, buff to a better than brilliant showroom shine.
Testing Environment:
Slightly overcast with the odd outbreak of sunshine. Cool ambient temperature.
Application:
Easy action trigger provides a good amount of product to the car. I had a selection of microfiber cloths to choose from, for the dirt removal and the buffing step.
The car was dirty but, not muddy after a single trip in heavy rain and going through some rather large puddles.
As this is very watery the liquid will run if over applied, but a liberal application was applied to one third of the hood to see what the product would be like.
Removing:
After a single wipe the hood wiped clean with plenty of dirt on the cloth.
I applied more product and wiped the rest of that side of the hood.
After the removal I used an 800gsm cloth and noticed that there was a dull streak left on the paint, shown between the arrows.
During the buffing with the deep pile cloth the surface felt very grabby and didn’t remove the product marks. I had to re-apply and buff quickly in smaller areas to remove the marks. Not what I was expecting, as other waterless products don’t leave behind the marks like this.
I continued on the roof of the vehicle and noticed the same effect. Left image shows half the roof wiped up to the arrows, then the whole roof was cleaned and buffed. Again the product marks were visible and needed to rebuffed to remove the product properly.
The rear door was cleaned next you can make out the cleaned door to the passenger front door cleaned up well. During the buffing I had to use another cloth as the others were dirty. This cloth was very difficult to buff as the lint was being dragged onto the surface of the paint. You can just about see it on the below right image.
Standing back from the door shows just how bad the lint drag problem was.
A further change to a shorter pile 300gsm cloth was able to buff the car better to remove the lint and the marks. At this point I was having to effectively clean it three or four times to get a nice result. All well and good if you got the time.
I used the Waterless on the lower door sills which removed all the debris very easily in one swipe after letting the product soak for around 20 seconds.
The next day rain had arrived and these are the pictures of the Waterless wash water beading behaviour which was pretty good with a nice run off beading.
I also used the Waterless on the wheel rims which did a really good job to remove the brake dust without much effort at all.
Rating: 6 out 10
The product goes a good job of removing the dirt as expected but buffing was a pain hence the ease of use being just a five. Finish is not the best gloss I have seen but respectable.
The cost of the product is right up there with the premium big brands, so I tend to be harsher with the marks at this level.
Ease of use – 5
Finish – 7
Conclusion:
This product did clean and remove the dirt, but the effort needed to get a good result I felt wasn’t worth the aggravation. A Waterless wash in my eyes should be quick and efficient, to save shampoo, clean, and dry. This was Clean, buff and buff again. You can get the same result from other products with a lot less hard work.
If you have the time to Waterless then buff, the quick detail again then the results are good. The sales pitch was “Using a clean DRY microfibre cloth, buff to a better than brilliant showroom shine”. I wasn’t better than top quality showroom shine, maybe a private showroom on a budget. Yes it was convenient, but not a fast clean by any means.
The wheels – wow. This was a punt on my behalf just to see what would happen. It was just as good as another big brand ‘Waterless’ wheel cleaners. How it would behave with a seriously contaminated brake dust I’m not sure, but if you keep on top of the wheels, the ‘Ceramic’ coating on the wheels should prevent build up and make cleaning easier anyway.
Water beading was respectable, not the tightest of beading I have seen. The water was constantly running of the hood and the slight gradient of the roof.
Black paint is susceptible to showing everything and all marks you can think of. Having a different colour vehicle you may not need to re-buff the product off the paint as much as I had to. Having only black cars for daily drivers I can’t prove otherwise.
Final thought; I found the Standard Shelby Waterless Wash & Wax easier to use and would be my go to product out of the two comparisons. That product I would buy again for performance and value for money.
If you’re willing to put the work in, then respectable results can be achieved, but for the price point and effort this one isn’t for me.
Would I recommend it? No
Would I buy it again? No