I have heard that zymol makes the best car wash soap, but I would like to get more peoples opinions. Also, what cloth do you use to get the car dry; I have heard that the absorber is good, and that an English cod tanned chamois is the best. I appreciate your input. Regards

 

The Absorber is the best thing I've used as compared to natural chamois, cotton towel, or micro fiber towel. Takes off a lot of the water, easy to wring out, simple to store. And cheap too!

 

I have yet to find a soap I really like, I use the absorber for the heavy water and then a micro fiber towel to finish the job.

 

Best soap
Best Drying Cloth

 

I did an experiment where I took the Big Blue drying towel and The Absorber and soaked them for a sufficient amount of time, fully immersed in water. Then, I hung each product to drip dry for about 5 minutes and lightly shook, until no more drips were coming off the products. Then I weighed them both and subtracted the original "dry" weight from the final "wet" weight. Here are the results:

DRY weight
The Absorber - 6.2 ounces
Big Blue - 7.7 ounces

WET weight
The Absorber - 13.70 ounces
Big Blue - 35.50 ounces

Weight of water absorbed:
The Absorber - 8.4 ounces
Big Blue - 27.80 ounces

"Absorbtion factor"
The Absorber - 1.35x absorbency by weight
Big Blue - 3.61x absorbency by weight

If you do the math - the Big Blue towel absorbed OVER ONE LITER of water!!! Case closed.

There's a new sheriff in town now - no need to overpay anymore:
Big Blue drying towel - Under $18
P21s Bodywork Shampoo

 

Yes but does that towel ring out to fully dry and do it over again?? I personally have over 5 absorbers and I LOVE UM, work VERY well...
I also use the Meguires (sp?) car shampoo, stuff works GREAT!!
Evan

 

Actually, yes, it wrings out great - but I normally only wash one car at a time and I can do my whole roadster without wringing out ONCE, so it's moot!

 

I use the Zymol Clear and love it...

 

Impressive!!!!
Evan

 

I just orderd some absorbers, I will try them out.

 

I have never used soap, just plenty of warm water (it can be cool here in England), panel by panel, rinsing well.

As for drying, I have used loads of chamois over the years and like most work on the principle that you get what you pay for. So I brought the best I could find.

After meeting a very good detailer and Zymol dealer, he told me the first thing he learnt was to work with synthetic - not leather, only due to leather taking so long compared. This was only a month ago, I would not go back.

But, I don't know any brands, The Absorber and Big Blue sound good I will have to pick one up when I'm next in the states.