Best car wash wax sprays 2024
Want to just wash and go but also need protection? Here’s the answer
While there are generally few shortcuts to keeping your car looking its best, new tech has brought us a few innovations that make it easier to maintain a shine.
Among the most interesting are wash waxes. These can be applied after cleaning your pride and joy simply by spraying the car with the solution, usually via a snow foam bottle. After rinsing and drying, the paint will seem to bead water just as if it had been coated with wax, without the effort of rubbing and buffing that’s associated with a traditional coating.
How we tested them
To test the products, we followed the manufacturer’s instructions, applied them to a scrap bonnet and left it outside for 10 weeks, washing it once a fortnight with a wax-free and pH-neutral detergent. We assessed the water-repelling ability, ease of use and value for money.
Reviews:
Dodo Juice Future Armour
- Price: Around £12
- Size: 500ml
- Website: dodojuice.net
Dodo Juice’s Future Armour can be applied in several ways, making it very versatile. The first is to spray it directly from the bottle onto wet or dry paint and wipe off with a microfibre cloth. But if you’re in a hurry, it can be diluted and fed through a snow foam bottle.
Whichever method you use, one bottle should be enough to treat a car at least 10 times. But Dodo Juice suggests you’ll need to leave the Future Armour to cure in the dry for 24 hours, which could be tricky in our unpredictable climate.
Used - available now
2006 SsangYong
REXTON DIESEL ESTATE SPECIAL EDITIONS
46,822 milesManualDiesel2.7L
Cash £16,500
2024 Kia
XCeed
17,720 milesManualPetrol1.5L
Cash £16,107
2022 Kia
XCeed
22,763 milesManualPetrol1.0L
Cash £12,468
2022 Volvo
XC60
38,489 milesAutomaticPetrol2.0L
Cash £27,999ValetPro Snow Seal
- Price: Around £12.60
- Size: 500ml
- Website: valetpro.global
There was just one point between the Dodo Juice and ValetPro in our scores. Snow Seal is applied with a pressure- washer foam lance at a ratio of 1:4, so the 500ml should do 10 average-sized cars. You then dry the surface using a microfibre or drying cloth. Unlike the Dodo Juice, there’s no curing time.
Ultimately we preferred the choice of application methods offered by Dodo Juice. There wasn’t much in it, but our winner’s protection lasted longer, too, with a better beading performance.
Autoglym Polar Seal
- Price: Around £28
- Size: 1 litre
- Website: autoglym.com
Autoglym has a three-stage process that’s designed to clean and protect a car using products dispensed from a snow foam lance. Polar Seal is the final treatment, following Polar Blast snow foam and Polar Wash shampoo.
To give a fair comparison to its rivals, we skipped these and applied Polar Seal to clean paint that had been stripped of other products. Its beading performance was initially impressive, but had faded by the end of our test. It would work well if you are willing to use it after every wash.
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Sonax Xtreme Spray+Seal
- Price: Around £22
- Size: 750ml
- Website: sonax.co.uk
Sonax has previously won this category, but a £5 price increase has hit its value score, and it doesn’t have the versatility of our winners. There is only one way to apply Xtreme, and that’s spraying it from the bottle directly onto wet paintwork. You then rinse it and dry the car.
This is more effort and takes longer than pressure washer-applied methods, but limits overspray onto areas such as glass. The beading performance was strong at first, but was noticeably behind the leaders by the end of our test.
Now you can pick out the best paint protection, take a look at the best glass cleaners on sale...
