Okay, let me give everyone the run-down of what I did and then I will share the results:
I washed my car this afternoon using the Mr. Clean AutoDry Carwash, but I did not use the Mr. Clean Car Soap like you're supposed to (which makes the water sheet off the car to help the drying process). Instead I used a bucket and some Zaino Show Car wash (2-3 capfulls of the stuff for every gallon of water, as directed), with two wash mitts. The Mr. Clean AutoDry Carwash unit worked pretty well. Only one pressure setting, but it was just the right setting, and the spray was well organized also. No leaks from the hose connector or anything. I rinsed the car with regular water, washed it using the wash mitts, and rinsed the soap with regular water, one section at a time just as I normally do. Then I got to the final part: the final rinse with the filtered water. I set the AutoDry Carwash to the filtered water setting and began to spraying my car. Unfortunately, when the water is being filtered, you lose like 60% of the water pressure from the AutoDry Carwash. So, I slowly sprayed down the entire car, working my way one section at a time, keeping the AutoDry Carwash unit about 6-12 inches away from the car. I made sure I covered every spot, including the windows, the mirrors, and the wheels. When I was finished, I cleaned everything up while letting the car "auto dry" and then I pulled it back into the garage. I should state that since I apply two coats of Zaino once every 3 months and I did not use the Mr. Clean Car Wash soap, the water was beaded up like crazy. There was no "sheeting action" occuring that is step 1 of the auto dry process. Basically, the Zaino caused the water to bead up the way a good car wax should, so the water had nowhere to go. After letting the car sit there a good hour or two, I finally got tired of waiting. The car was mostly dry, all the glass was dry, the wheels where dry, most of the body was dry except for the trunk lid and some of the hood.
The windows and mirrors were completely dry and absolutely spot-less. It was as if I used a towel and actually did work to make the glass look so good, but I didn't!! The rims and tires dried up spot-free as well, but the body was a different story. The sides and the rear of the car dried up pretty nicely, mostly spot-free, but horizontal surfaces, such as the hood and the trunk lid came out the worst. The spots were smaller and not as visible as regular water spots, but they were still very much there and they were all over the hood and trunk lid. I think if I had used the Mr. Clean soap, I really could have washed my car, rinsed it with the de-ionized water and walked away and come back an hour later to a perfectly dry spot-free car.
As soon as I get the chance, I'm going to use the Mr. Clean AutoDry Carwash on my dad's car (which is around 6-7 months old and was only waxed once by the dealership for prep for delivery, as standard procedure). I'm still working out what procedure to follow because I also want to try applying some wax to his car and then washing it with Mr. Clean and then wait like a month while he washes his car regularly in the meantime so the layer of Polymer wears down, and see if the wax is still there.
Personally, I think that if I just wash my car with whatever car soap I normally use (with a bucket and two wash mitts, as I prefer), and performing a final filtered water rinse and getting rid of most of the water with a waterblade, I can have a perfectly dry car after every car wash, without dealing with towels. I don't mind the effort of using towels to dry my car, but I just see them as kind of a burden because they just add swirl marks to my paint (thanks to crappy Infiniti paint job) and then I have to wash & dry them afterwards. If I could eliminate the use of towels for drying the car, that would really help my car washing process a lot.
![[xx(]](/images/smilies/icon_smile_dead.gif "Dead [xx(]")
![[:(]](/images/smilies/frown.png "Frown [:(]")
). The directions state that the Dry Rinse Polymer in the Mr. Clean soap intentionally makes the water sheet off the car to serve as the first step in the AutoDry process.
