I bought the Mr. Clean thing on a whim. I don't use the Mr. Clean soap, but regardless, I like it since I can throw water and soap on the truck at the same time, wash, turn a dial and rinse (regardless of whether it's regular or the filtered water). I still dry by hand.

 

My brother-in-law has one, and has been raving about how well it works, so I tried his last week. I used it near the middle of the day, and it worked good for being hot out.

 

Got one for Daddy's day, hope to use it soon.

 

OK, I love having a clean vehicle, but I admit I don't enjoy washing it every weekend. And so I'm always looking for shortcuts. I am a skeptical person by nature, and don't take any marketing claims very seriously. But after reading a couple good reviews, I decided I might want to try this thing out for myself. For only $12 (after $5 coupon), I figured what the heck, why not? If I don't like it, I'll just give it to my dad or my neighbor.

Well, I followed the instructions, and when the car was nice and clean (but still wet), I proceeded to clean my wheels and let the air dry the car. It took me 20 min to clean my wheels, and by that time, most of the water had dried up (in nice sheets) but a few drops remained. I rubbed my palms in anticipation, hoping to prove Mr. Clean wrong. I *knew* those little drops would end up as spots on the paint. So I went on to apply Vinylex to all the exterior trim, and 15 min later the car was 99% dry (except for the usual spots like around taillights, front grill, etc). I re-examined the car from several angles, looking for the tell-tale spots... and to my humble amazement... the product worked as advertised! Not a single spot on the paint. How about the windows? Surely there would be some spots there... NONE.

About an hour later I hit the road, and saw one drop of water dribble down my side-view mirror. It ended up drying into a little water spot on the glass, but that is the only spot I found from this wash, and it's my fault for not aiming more water into the cracks around the mirror to rinse out the "contaminated" tap water.

Some things I learned during my first car wash:

- The nozzle attachment/spray gun device has pretty nice ergonomics. The adjustment **** is large and can be turned easily while wearing a wash mitt. It has an audible click and tactile detent when you reach one of the 3 desired modes. Very comfortable to hold for the duration of a car wash.

- I was worried about durability and damaging the "cheap" plastic case of the $12 product when laying it down and picking it up repeatedly, so being the [Oops!] person that I am, I added little rubber bumpers on the sides of the case (the self-adhesive rubber feet you buy to cushion kitchen cabinet doors or for the bottom of furniture). Working well so far to protect the product's finish.

- A little soap goes a long way. At first I was using way too much and it took a long time to rinse off. The soap works well on bug and tar too, and doesn't seem to strip off wax.

- I can see how working in the sun would be bad. If the tap water dries before you have a chance to rinse it off properly with the de-ionized water, you will have spots.

- As long as you rinse all of your bad tap water off with the de-ionized spot-free rinse water, you should have no spots. I can imagine someone rinsing too quickly and letting some of the tap water remain on the car, leaving spots. It's important to work your way from top of car to bottom when rinsing.

Would I buy it again? In a heartbeat. The refill PUR water filters last ~10 washes, and the soap refills should go a long way too. At only $5-$6 a pop for each, not a bad investment for the savings in time/effort. Plus the look of horror on the face of my neighbor as he watched me wash my car, and leave it standing soaking wet was PRICELESS!

 

My wife got one for me and it works great. The only thing I notice is that its harder to keep the sponge kleen, so I fill a rince bucket with water and some of their soap. I haven't used my chamois once since washing with the Mr Clean. If it broke today I'd buy another one.

MR

 

I got a Mr. Clean autodry car wash kit for Christmas. I'm going to try it out when it warms up, but I like to dry my truck with a microfiber towel. I got hooked on MF towels buy reading this site thanks to RP and 01 XLT Sport. If this Mr. Clean thing can do better than MF towels, I'd be surprised. But I think a good MF towel will last alot longer than a 3 car wash filter. Just my 2 cents.

 

Still haven't had a chance to try it out yet. Dang rain!

 

Same thing here...

I wish it'd rain hard for the next couple of days and stay around the 60 degree mark to melt off all of this nasty snow...

 

No snow here RP. Just a little rain here and there. The weatherman says there's a 30%-40% chance of rain all week long and nightly lows in the low 40's and daytime highs of 55* to 60*. But as long as there's no snow and warmer temps, I ain't complaining. I hope that nasty snow melts for ya up there. I know your dying to detail that KR.

 

Man... you have absolutely NO idea.

 

Peacemaker, rain you say?? You got it easy...here we have sunshine but it's only 13° outside and there is snow on the ground...my poor truck is UGLY dirty and no hope of washing it soon.

 

I got the Mr. Clean autodry car wash kit and it works ok,if you wash each section at a time. Don't try too wash it all your vel at one time and let it dry on the paint. I fine that it's great for cleaning your house windows in the spring and fall.Have a clean mitt and clean the windows fast with no drying,makes short work on getting the house ready after a dirty summer or winter.If you had a filter system on your hose to keep out the hard water then you you could keep the spots off.

 

RockPick,

I think we all know how you feel.

wild-mtn-rose,

Cheer up. Snow doesn't last forever. I don't know about Alaska though...it just might. J/k.

WildmanNP,

Thanks for the tip on cleaning house windows. I might try that.

I finally got to use the Mr. Clean autodry on my truck yesterday. It did ok. There were a few spots, but nothing a MF towel can't take care of. Oh, I accidentally forgot to close the soap cap on the side of the nozzle, and spilled half of it out. Clumsy me. And after all that we got rain today!

 

I know you all do but that doesn't make me feel any better! LOL!

I just checked the weather forecast at intellicast.com and it looks like rain EVERY SINGLE DAY THIS WEEK until NEXT Monday.

I think I'm going to have to take her down to the wand wash and at least spray off the salt... No need to really wash it but, my truck is WHITE right now... the warm water should do it some good.

RP

 

Yep, might as well spray the salt off at least. We're supposed to have rain everday this week too. Bummer.