I keep seeing these comercials for the Mr. Clean Autodry system. Has anyone tried this yet? Seems too good to be true. I've tried the spotless rinse at the carwash on my everyday driver, but doesn't see work that good.

Lucky68, If you go to the bench racing section and do a search you will see a thread about the Mr. Clean system. I bought one a couple months ago and I really like it. Yes, it does work. I had my doubts so I used it on my company car first (black paint) and it worked perfectly I did not dry it at all. We have VERY hard water in my area and it still worked.

Thanks for the info. I'm thinkin I'll have to give it a try.

I was wondering about it too. I think it is guaranteed to work.

One of the local television stations here in austin does a piece on consumer products. They reviewed the Mr. Clean thing and had great things to say about it. Expect other companies to come out with competative products once the patent wears off.

Just follow the directions and it works great. Change the filter when needed and you will be happy with it. The filter is the key (deionized water for the rinse).

I've got one for the daily drivers... I used the starter kit up right away and think it should have come with the same filter they sell for refills, the start is only good for three rinses and the used indicator doesn't change color to tell you it's time to replace it. I also used half the supplied soap in 2 car washes. The next time I mixed the soap in a bucket of water and just used the filtered water for final rinse. I'll be able to wash 10 more cars with the half bottle of soap I have left. The 3rd wash wasn't completely spot free but like the soap I used too much of the filter on the first 2 washes... The starter filter is only good for about 3 rinses...

Now to find a store thar has the refills... It worked as advertised and for the weekly wash of the drivers it's a time saver.

Dennis, You can get the refills at Wal-Mart that's where I bought the starter kit, I bought refills at the same time. I agree the 3 wash starter filter is a crock. The refill filters are good for 10 washes (this of course depends on how hard your water is and how much water you use to rinse) it is a guidline. The replacement filter changes color much better than the starter.

I don't have my reciept in front of me but, the price for the refills was not bad at all ~$10 for a bottle of soap and filter. The bottle of soap is WAY bigger than the starter bottle. That comes out to about $1 a wash.

Overall I give the system a graemlins/thumbsup.gif Like you said it cuts down the wash time I would say by half at least.

Royce - we can't talk about wall-mart at my house right now :eek: I told the wife if she went to wall-mart and picked up the Mr Clean for me I'd wash her car first. She went out of her way to swing by and they had not even heard of the product. This was just 2 weeks ago. She tried several other stores and ended up at Kragen, they only had the starter kits, no refills... My next stop will be across town to pep-boys, I hope they have the refills...

What happens to a car when it rains? Does the water sheet off or does it bead up?

Haven't been out in the rain since washing but IMO it's a car wash system and not a paint protection system. Take the hose to it or get rained on after you hit it with the filtered water and it's dried I'd expect spots...

I'v used it and it does work. Did anyone else have trobule with the little rubber plug where you put the soap in, it poped open on me. Leaked soap out. Not very well made there. Also, with the low pressure final rinse, you could dry your car faster than you can rinse it.

I will continue to use it though, I have a black car and they are a pain to dry.

Don't forget to go to the web cite to get a $5.00 off coupon. It does take several weeks to get it though.

If you don't want to wait AutoZone has something going where after mail in rebate it cost a little over $13.00.

Originally posted by DjD:
Royce - we can't talk about wall-mart at my house right now :eek: I told the wife if she went to wall-mart and picked up the Mr Clean for me I'd wash her car first. She went out of her way to swing by and they had not even heard of the product.Hmmm.... we've had it at the WalMarts here for a while now. I didn't see it at AutoZone though. I'll have to check that rebate out! graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Picked up 2 filters at lunch. No prob with the soap plug on mine, after filling it I set it down plug side down and when I picked it up about 15 min later I thought I was going to have a mess to clean up but it didn't leak...

Rinse the the soap off with the reg water setting and then go over it with the filtered water. It isn't high pressure but you don't need to flood the panels like you are trying to rinse the soap off. Just a quick spritz so to speak is all it takes...

I am glad you guys chimed in on this. I was wondering to a certain extent, but always new that deionized water would work. I always washed my motorcycles then took water from household air conditioning systems collected and then rinsing. This worked great.

I am going to use it on engine bays more than anything!

Originally posted by HOTRODSRJ:
...took water from household air conditioning systems ... Deionized water is not the same as distilled water which is what A/C condensation would be. In fact A/C condenation will probably have quite a few ions from dirt and metals of the coils.

Wouldn't It be cheaper to install a commercial type water filter on the outside water line?

Got my kit and refills at Target.........
Seems to work well. I'd say I had 90%+ success on the almost-black 69. I didn't dry it on purpose just to see what happened. :D
Of course, I was planning on waxing it afterward anyway........... graemlins/beers.gif

joe

Originally posted by A69RS:
Wouldn't It be cheaper to install a commercial type water filter on the outside water line? DI water is different than typical filtered drinking water. I don't know how cost effective it would be to have a DI water system installed at ones home. I've heard it would be a few hundred to have someone like the culligan man set it up and then about $20 a month to service it... At about 10 car wash rinses per $7.50 filter you would have to wash a whole bunch of cars to justift the monthly service charge...

That is correct....

But, I believe the Mr. Clean unit only filters the water.... it doesn't soften it. For real DI (de-ionized) water, you really need a resin softener bed system / RO (reverse Osmosis) system to make good water.

What the Pur and Brita filters do is filter the water through activated carbon and fabric to remove the dissolved minerals.

Newbie here. Just saw an opportunity for my first post. smile.gif

Wife got me one. I used it for the first time on the driver Z28. Quazar Blue looked nice after the rinse. Still saw a little residue after completely dry. Wouldn't replace hand toweling the show cars, but ok for a quickie wash.