I wanted to test the new Dual Polymer Waterless wash on a really dirty vehicle. I once read in a Hagerty article that “every car loving guy needs to have a vehicle they hate”. In my case that is my trusty 2007 Ranger. It doesn’t get the love the other cars in the stable receive, but I love it and would not take double what I paid for it 9 years ago. The Ranger gets a DriWash about three, or four times a year, so it is the dirtiest car I can use for this test.
Before I rate the waterless car wash, I need to tell you that I could probably write a few paragraphs of praise for the sprayer that came with the Dual Polymer. It sprays the PERECT mist that covers evenly. Some DriWash trivia for you; when DriWash was first introduced they constantly spoke about the need to have a mist sprayed on the paint to keep from overusing the product and making the application easy. When the ‘air-o-sol’ pump bottles went away DriWash supplied cheap crappy sprayers that basically puked the product on the paint (and wasted material). Kudos to Dual Polymer for providing a great mist sprayer!
So, the Ranger had some bugs on the windshield and mirrors, and the requisite bird droppings on the hood and roof. Not much road grime, tar, oil, etc, so this should be a somewhat easy waterless car wash.
I’ll just list below some figures of merit and comment on the Dual Polymer capabilities.
Bird Droppings: Definitely took more effort than DriWash. I had to reapply the Dual Polymer product quite a bit and really hit the elbow grease. Knowing this I wonder how the product will remove road grime, oil, etc?
Bugs: The Dual Polymer product performed the same as DriWash in getting the bugs off the bumper and windshield, etc.
Black Plastic Trim: A slight lean towards Dual Polymer here. I didn’t need as much elbow grease here to buff out the black trim (bumpers and mirrors).
Wheels: Performed as well as DriWash and I’m satisfied here.
Glass: Performed as well as DriWash.
Paint: I saved the most important for last. Buffing took about the same effort. I did have one area on the roof and hood that showed some slight streaks. They will probably go away once the sun hits the paint. I could have lightly gone over these areas with another application of Dual Polymer and probably buffed the streaks out, but they were so slight the untrained eye (for example people not meticulous about the car’s finish) would not detect them.
I did not measure in ounces how much product I used to clean the exterior of the Ranger, but I’ll take a hip shot and say it’s about the same as DriWash. Back in the day DriWash used to say it took about $4 worth of material to do a Honda Accord, so with inflation that should be $8 today. I probably used that amount on the Ranger?
I am giving the Dual Polymer a ‘pass’ and the product is good enough now to be tried on my babied daily driver 2012 Mustang. If it works well there it will be approved for the MOPARS in the garage! I’ll keep you posted.
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