Rating of the best car shampoos of 2020

These car shampoos can attract at first glance the price — for example, a five-liter canister will cost two to three times cheaper than four liters of Hi-Gear. But only in one case (if you read the smaller inscriptions) — if the canister contains not a concentrate, but a ready-made mixture. So, as a result, Astrohim turns out to be even more expensive per liter of finished shampoo, but it is unlikely to be superior in terms of efficiency.

The foam is applied well — in a dense layer with small bubbles, it flows slowly. It’s worth holding it longer — its “acidity” to dirt is weaker than that of the Hi-Gear. In this case, the result will be comparable — but if you take into account the prices, then the positioning in the ranking of the best car shampoos will become clear.

Advertising is, of course, good. Here, the brand name attracts attention (whatever one may say, we call car washes «Kerchers» in the same way as copiers — «Xeroxes»), and the promise of some kind of «three in one». True, let’s be realistic — and the quality of even the professional series of Karcher sinks cannot be said to be ideal, for their money (it was possible to reanimate at work literally a month after the end of the warranty), and the essence of this «three in one» is rather doubtful. Here we seem to be paying more for brand than for performance.

Karcher foam does a good job with normal dirt, softening it and flowing together. But the same bitumen «specks» will require to hold it no less than other compounds. Namely, for some reason, these pollution were in the lead in our time on cars unloaded from car transporters — and, it should be noted, with the initially used «Karcher» composition, the washers swear no less than with cheaper ones. Again, we recall the price, the lesser prevalence in stores … No, this foam cannot rise above the third place in our rating.

If, by and large, in the first three positions of the rating, the effectiveness was in the allowable plus or minus range, and the price and prevalence became the decisive factor, then GraSS car shampoo concentrate (originally this name was spelled that way, but then the trademark owners all -they seem to have realized that they only have to write it in runes) loses in the price / efficiency ratio in both parameters at once.

«Superfoam» from the «leading Russian manufacturer» (according to the advertisement) was not particularly impressive. For ordinary foam nozzles of common household sinks, the manufacturer recommends a concentration from «half» to 1: 7, it is economically consumed only through professional foam generators (the difference is literally an order of magnitude — not about 300 grams per liter, but about 30!). Do you have such a foam generator? Here’s the thing, no.

Since we are talking about the use of active foams in conventional non-professional washing machines, the rating of this composition definitely falls down. More money is spent, and the result is worse. Now, if you have your own car wash, then yes, you can take note of Grass, it will come out quite economically.

Neither the inscription «Premium» on the package, nor the low price, nor the possibility of using it at a concentration of 1:10-1:30, as indicated on the label, helped this composition: «premium» remained only in words, in reality, the result of contactless washing did not especially impressed. In general, there was a feeling that the manufacturer did not write in vain about the possibility of using shampoo for manual washing — just such a purpose is logical for him, but “non-contact” was rather added to the tick.

If we are talking about mild pollution, then, in general, an inexpensive composition is even more or less viable. Yes, and washing with your own hands will cost mere pennies, if you remember the price and the opportunity to buy such a car shampoo, probably in all Auchan, Attacks, Globes, Crossroads and others like them from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok. So you can buy it “in reserve” — but do not forget that in which case it is better not to rely on the “magic properties of active foam”, but to work with your hands in the old fashioned way.

Considering that this brand is primarily known for polishes, I would like to hope that the “2 in 1” on the label will not deceive us. Zip Wax concentrate is diluted even in an even more “economical” version than indicated in the instructions for Liqui Moly: half a cap per bucket of water. And here we will repeat the same words to the manufacturer as previously addressed to Liqui Moly, but twice as much. Because at the stated concentration, the shampoo does not even really foam anymore. If you use a larger concentration (at least similar to Liqui Moly), then, in principle, the shampoos will already go “head to head”, and for the “wax effect” you will have to spend the concentrate even more actively.

The positions in the ranking of the best car shampoos could be corrected by a lower price than that of Liqui Moly, but for the impossibility of normal use of the shampoo according to the instructions, we, on the contrary, will reduce the rating points. Here the gentlemen from Turtle Wax either overestimated themselves, or do they have other buckets in England? Be that as it may, the Russian translation of the instructions can be read only for laughter, and not for practical use.

“Fill the tavern” (namely, the strange name Fill Inn is literally translated from English, although it is clear that the owl drawn above was meant) at a fairly favorable price, if you bring it to a liter of concentrate, it is also very good in terms of efficiency. Moreover, the manufacturer, at least, honestly advises to throw as many as 3-4 caps of concentrate into a bucket, and does not promise miracles from one drop.

In such a concentration, the car shampoo foams well, and the dirt washes off with high quality — if the active foams of the same brand are impressive, to be honest, not really, then when washing by hand, «Filin» works in good faith. Of course, no special “polishing” effect is noticeable, but the team coped with the main task with an acceptable level of spending money, time and labor, which means that they deserve their place in the rating.

Here, the manufacturer does not promise an additional protective effect from his shampoo, but okay: let’s first see how he copes with the «basic duties» at the specified dilution with water (1:120-1:320). And it copes well, by the way — if we are talking about “1 to 120” (that is, about four caps per 5 liters of water). But other participants in the rating of car shampoos, we note, best demonstrate their properties at approximately the same concentration, so this composition will have to “leave” only due to the minimum price per liter, but for the lack of a protective effect, it will still “sag” in the rating way down.

The Japanese (which is easy to understand by the acid hieroglyphic design, beloved by the descendants of the samurai) car shampoo took the place of an outsider for good reason — it is supplied ready-made, so that at the price of a single wash, the “Japanese” lost to all other participants. No, of course, it washes perfectly, and I was especially pleased with the presence of two sponges in the kit at once, the yellow one is “for all occasions”, the black one is for especially resistant dirt, and the “polishing-water-repellent” effect is pronounced, but we Let’s not just talk about the price.

Firstly, which was expected — all the information is not in Japanese, only on a separate sticker in small print, and “secondly” is hidden in it: there is no warning that the shampoo can irritate the skin of the hands, but it really can. Thirdly, using it according to the instructions is not very convenient: the manufacturer advises washing the car not entirely, but in parts, repeating “wetted — rubbed with shampoo — washed off” from element to element.