Some of you might have seen the commercials on TV for this thing. You put it on the end of your garden hose. And wash your car with it. Spot free shine garrunteed with no hand drying. Using special polymer technology and an ionized filter made by "PUR" the water sheets off the car eliminating water spots.
I'm surprised Ron Pompiel wasn't doing the comercial.
Anyway, it seemed like a good idea to me and at the risk of wasting my own money, I asked for it for Christmas. I get it, and on Dec 26, I wash my MINI. (Ya, it was a little cold, but once your fingers go numb they stop hurting)

THE VERDICT:
It actually worked!
Water spots are a major problem for me and my MINI. I have very hard water at my house, and my MINI is black/black.
No need to run around the car with my chamois in a race against time.
Rinse it and forget it!

Some drawbacks:
-It's not anymore convient then washing the car in a traditional manner. Like I said, I have water spot problems, and the thing helps in that department only.
-Cheap plastic. It feels like the thing would break apart if I dropped it.
-Special soap and filters. I can't find replacements anywhere! (though, I haven't looked very hard) Hmmmm, I'll have to send an e-mail to these people.
-You have to keep an eye on the car while it dries. Occassionally, I found very small areas where water began to bead and form spots. But, a little swipe with my trusty chamois solves that problem.

 

Chow!

Donna

 

The Autodrys are now sold at Target stores. Saw one just after Christmas. Ordered two online after seeing them demonstrated at SEMA in Nov. The refills for the water filter and soap are also available at Target, and the filters are listed as good for 10 uses, not 3 like the ones you buy over the internet. Same with the soap...a much bigger bottle.


Charlie

 

I ordered mine two months ago and it just got here!!

 

Any idea if the soap is wax-friendly? Some of the cheapo car wash soaps strip the wax right off...

 

Being an auto detailer on the side a few years back, this product also caught my eye. Did you ever notice the guys pressure spraying cars at the auto dealer and not drying them off? They run the water through two seperate tanks first. All it does it take out the minerals in the water. This is what causes water spots. This is nothing more than a smaller consumer version based on the same principal. I was a bit shocked at the $40 retail price.

The money will be in the refills for the manufacturer. No different than a cell phone. I see them giving away the nozzle, knowing that only the MANUFACTURERS refills fit inside. Pretty slick marketing. They will have the corner on the market untill the competion catches up with a better, lower priced nozzle. I will keep my eye on this one.

 

https://pgmrcleanautodry.inktel.com/pgmrcleanautodry/

 

....

 

hmm, I'm interested. I'll have MSFITOY be the guinea pig and tell us how it goes, hee hee

 

hey guys i swung by target earlier and they have the whole kit for only $20

the refill soap and chargers were $5 each

a lot cheaper than what they sell for online

 

Just discovered this stuff for the first time at Walmart today. The starter kit is about $18, the soap and deionizer refill canisters are less than $5 each.

Does anyone have a follow-up report? How long do the canisters really last? Does spotting gradually increase as you use up the deionizer canister or do the spots return only after the ionizer canister is fully used up?

Most importantly, do you like this product enough to buy more canisters or do you plan to go back to your previous washing/drying method?

Thanks.

 

I bought a Mr Clean kit two weeks ago.
I used it for the first time last week, as a precursor to my first Zaino application.

My first wash was to get rid of most of the salt, dirt, etc.

I used unfiltered water, then the Mr Clean cleaner, followed by unfiltered water, followed by filtered rinse.

It was very interesting seeing the filtered water "dance" on the surface...
It left the car reasonably clean, but this was with no sponge/washcloth... just the sprayer.

I followed all that with another washing, this time with Dawn dishwashing liquid (not in the Mr Clean gun), because I wanted to strip off all wax in preparation for the Zaino.

Then applied the Zaino Z18 Clay Bar.

I used the unfiltered water followed by the filtered rinse.

I then applied 3 coats of Zaino Z2 + ZFX (with Z6 after each coat)

Ok, that was last week... today's adventure was a little different.

I wanted to put another couple of Z2 coats on, and dared to replace the Mr. Clean soap with Zaino Z7 car wash liquid. The Z7 is sudsier than the Mr Clean stuff, and the application went pretty well.

However... when I went to filtered rinse, the water beaded up instead of sheeting off the car. Now I'm not sure what caused this. It could be the change in soap, or it could be the underlying 3 coats of Z2 with Z6 finishing coats. The filtered water application looked quite different than it did last week on the naked paint.

Because both the soap and surface changed, I can't pinpoint it yet, so I'm just reporting my findings. I used a water blade to gently sweep the beads of water off the car, and that worked very well.

So, next time I try the Mr. Clean system, I'll go back to the Mr Clean soap and see if that promotes sheeting. If not, it might be the Z2/Z6 that's forcing the beading, even with filtered water.

 

Zaino is most likely causing the beading. These are not going to be compatible systems. Pick one or the other.

 

I got the AutoDry system and have used it twice now. It seems to be very mild soap and doesn't appear to strip the wax. After using it and getting non-filtered water on the car a few days later, water beaded up as if it were still waxed.

Overall I think it makes the car look better because it avoids water spots completely, even on windows, and eliminates some ultra-fine swirls that I get on Indi Blue with my microfiber drying towels. I feel it's a pretty good system, and it does save you from having to dry with towels, which is great.

Pretty much works as advertised.

 

I am happy with my Mr. Clean autodry. I have used it once on my Mini and once on my brother's black Bmw. I can say that it works great. The trick (and profit key) is that you have to not only use mr.clean filter but also the soap. My first time using it, I didn't use the soap (I was planning on just using the filtered water to get a spot free dry cause I already have zymol soap) and the water didn't glide off (yes my car is wax) it just beaded up and that will leave spots cause the system works when the filtered water washes the "hard" water off and then sheets off. That sounds really confusing but I don't know how else to explain it. Anyways I would say that is saves a fair amount of time, especially on the mini cause all of the door/boot/bonnet sills let water in hard to get areas and before I had to open all the doors/boot/bonnet and use a chamois to dry them but now i just make sure I spray the seams with the filtered water and they dry spot free. I don't think it is that bad of a price, for $18 you get three uses so that i 6 bucks a wash which is high but then you get refills for both soap and filter for $10 and that last 10 uses so that is down to a buck a wash (plus the cost of the handle) and it saves time and time is money!

 

Well, I finally succumbed to the hype and tried this stuff. I didn't like it.

IMO, there are several problems with this product.

1. The soap metering - maybe my water pressure is higher than average but I used up almost all of the soap that came with the initial kit while washing my MINI, one of the smallest cars on the road. They claim the initial supply is good for 3 car washes.

2. The soap's aggressiveness - the soap stripped off all of the protectant on the vinyl bits, leaving them looking gray and dingy. I had to wait until the car was dry before I could reapply the protectant (Vinylex).

3. The flimsy plastic hose connector - I wasn't able to make a water-tight connection to the hose - the water leaked from the plastic fitting. This caused a problem in the final rinse phase because the tap water from the leaky fitting fell on areas which had already been rinsed with the deionized water, thereby causing spotting.

4. The meager flow rate during the deionized water rinse - this final rinse goes through the deionizer cartridge which severely restricts the water flow. Because of the lack of pressure, it's difficult to do a thorough final rinse (especially with the leaking hose water dripping all over the place).

The product basically works -- the car dried with only a few spots which were easily cleaned up. But I decided it's just too problematic to use on a regular basis. I took it back to Walmart for a refund.

 

I haven't tried this product yet but if you go to the Mr. Clean website http://www.homemadesimple.com/mrclea...y/coupon.shtml you can get a $5 off coupon for the autodry :smile:

 

>>hmm, I'm interested. I'll have MSFITOY be the guinea pig and tell us how it goes, hee hee weather to try it out.

 

I got one for $20 at Target -- It's the same price at WallyWorld. Seemed to work pretty well, though after a hard winter I really need a warm day to do a Claybar! This was with fairly low-pressure water supply since we have a rural boondocks well and never have a lot of pressure.

Biggest complaint was that the hose connector tends to come loose. You need to tighten it with Channel-Locks!

Tom

 

Tried it and don't care for it. I've used it on our Explorer and now my Mini. I will say that it works fairly well, but not as well as they say. I still have spots, and i still have to go in and dry the door sills and the hatch area and the engine comp. and under hood. Headlights didn't seem to get ANY advantage from the wash, they spotted like crazy. Maybe you've got to use it more than once, but it's just not what i was hoping for. I'll probably give it a couple more tries, but i'm not sold yet. Glad i only paid $20 for it!

 

Funny, I got one for Christmas too! Only thing is I just got to use it a week or two ago. It's been way to cold up here :smile: :smile: :smile: Major bonus!!!!

I saw the filters and soap at Wally World (aka Wal Mart)....

 

Tried it on the weekend on the big black Pontiac van....worked very well...Still like to wipe the Mini down by hand...

 

is it required to use the Mr. Clean soap??

 

I finally got to use my Mr. Clean machine. Works pretty good. You don't want to drop it . One thing though, I put Rain-X on my windows last week and when I used Autodry filter at the end of yesterdays wash, my windows spotted. The rest of the car looked great. Looks like Mr. Clean and Rain-X don't work together very well.

 

I got mine at Target for $18.99. It works for me...

Here's my method...

1. Rinse car with unfiltered water.
2. Spray on with the soap setting.
3. Fill a bucket with Dawn diswashing liquid, water, and a few drops of Jet Dry.
4. Scrub car with this soapy mix, using a soft rubber sponge.
5. Rinse car with the unfiltered setting.
6. Final rinse with filtered setting.
7. (My favorite step) Drive the car around the block really fast a couple times to get the water off. Watch for small children at play in the streets.
8. Hand dry any water still on the car using a big soft microfiber cloth.


I know, you don't need to hand wipe it, but I think it helps. I then use Fantastik cleaner on the wheels to get them clean, wiping with a soft terry cloth towel. (NEVER use this wheel towel on any other part of the car!)

The last step, vacuum the interior, and wipe it down with a clean, damp microfiber cloth.