# Nanolex Glass Cleaner & Premium Glass Sealent



## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

Over the past few weeks I have had the pleasure of trying out some of the Nanolex products: paint sealents, wheel sealents, textile sealents and I am impressed so far with the range... very impressed! Writeups will follow with my more detailed thoughts.

The first of the products I have put through more rigorous testing are the products for the glass: the cleaner, and the premium sealant.

So, a mucky car window, never been cleaned let alone cleansed for months!




























The cleaner I chose to apply by hand for this test, using a foam applicator pad. The key here is to use a small amount of the product as if you use too much it is difficult to remove the residue. Small amounts, and work the polish in well on quite a small area at a time (I split this window into two) for a minute or so with medium pressure.

Buffing off with a clean microfibre, straight away. I found a tendency in the colder conditions of this test for the residue to be a bit tacky to remove if left a long time, but right after working it removed a breeze. Cleaned inside and out, and the clarity was beautifully restored to the window:



















In the "50/50" shots below you can clearly see how effective this product was at cleaning the glass. The cloth and pad used also were covered in ingrained grime pulled out by the cleanser which highlighted further its effectiveness:



















Under the Sun Gun you can see the window is now free from the scummy haze that was on it before:










With the window now cleaned it was time for the Premium Glass Sealent... Said to last one year or 12,000 miles when applied, this will take a longer period of time to assess durability... However, initial applicaton was certainly nice and easy, especially if you are used to the more finnicky nature of RainX! Simply spray onto a towel, wipe across all glass on the car and then go round and buff away the reside which removes with ease. No hard buffing, just an easy to use product.

The results are impressive!

Look first at the window that is not treated...



Compare with the water repellancy of the window that has been treated:





The product requires two hours to cure after the wipe down, so use outside relies on two hours of dry weather and ideally inside use would be best which may slightly count against it in terms of easy use... But that is nit picking. The product performs excellently on initial application, and was a real joy to use compared to RainX. Highly recommended based on this, and durability is looking good too as this is being applied to quite a few vehicles I look after, and will soon be on the Volvo as well!

All in all though, I am very impressed so far. More review to follow next week


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## perm (Oct 26, 2005)

Dave,
did you apply to the windscreen also ?
Also have got some Nanolex window sealant and basic paint sealant.... just waiting for some dry weather to apply it.


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## Chris424 (Dec 5, 2007)

Good write up Dave! 

I found this stuff ace to apply but it didnt last very long, around a month or so...
This could have been my technique, so let us know how long it lasts. :thumb:

I went for the GTechniq G1, which I cant rate it enough!


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## Nanolex (Jun 8, 2008)

Chris424 said:


> Good write up Dave!
> 
> I found this stuff ace to apply but it didnt last very long, around a month or so...
> This could have been my technique, so let us know how long it lasts. :thumb:
> ...


Are you sure you used Nanolex Premium Glass Sealant?


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## Chris424 (Dec 5, 2007)

Nanolex said:


> Are you sure you used Nanolex Premium Glass Sealant?


I am so sorry after reading the heading again, it was the CarLack one. 

I am very sorry! Apologies! :thumb:


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## ahaydock (Jan 4, 2007)

Interesting - thanks for sharing mate :thumb:


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## West (Jan 11, 2009)

Interesting..
Could you check if the windows bead in the morning, because the last time I used anything nano on my sidemirrors it was a pain after 2-2,5 months.. They beaded and raindrops or moisture from the air stuck to the windows but I had to drive 60-60+ km/h before they would fall off..
*OBS. It WASN't Nanolex but another Nano-based product..*


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## FlyingfocRS (Aug 15, 2007)

Using my car as a Guinea pig for this as well.
Rear screen of my 5 series has been 50/50'd with Rain X and by Dave with Nanolex.
Will get a beading pic this afternoon then again another one in a months time to compare durability.


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## AndyReinlo (Oct 26, 2008)

good write up, i used the carlack sealant recently and it may just be the videos but imo the carlack performs slightly better based on what i can see... just seems to bead and roll off slightly more, also with the 2hrs curing time.. seems much simpler/quick to apply. real test will be durability, if it does last a year i think that will swing along of people thier way


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## Mr Face Jr (Feb 20, 2009)

Thanks Dave, very helpful! I will bare in mind!


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## Nanolex (Jun 8, 2008)

FlyingfocRS said:


> Using my car as a Guinea pig for this as well.
> Rear screen of my 5 series has been 50/50'd with Rain X and by Dave with Nanolex.
> Will get a beading pic this afternoon then again another one in a months time to compare durability.


This sounds really interesting, looking forward to see the results!


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## rapidseven (Apr 26, 2007)

Not impressed in the slightest to be honest, 2 hours to completely clean a window.

Its way overboard imo, conventional methods such as glass cleaner then polish is perfect and works great, and only requires a rub down when re-cleaning, takes 5 minutes to do a whole car.


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## Nanolex (Jun 8, 2008)

rapidseven said:


> Not impressed in the slightest to be honest, 2 hours to completely clean a window.
> 
> Its way overboard imo, conventional methods such as glass cleaner then polish is perfect and works great, and only requires a rub down when re-cleaning, takes 5 minutes to do a whole car.


2 hours (at least one hour) regards the curing time of the sealant after it was applied to the glass surfaces. 
Cleaning should indeed not take longer than 5 minutes...

But good question - how long did it take to clean the window Dave?


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## Iain Pitstop (Aug 29, 2006)

Took me ten mins to clean and apply the sealant to the glass.....:thumb:


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

Nanolex said:


> 2 hours (at least one hour) regards the curing time of the sealant after it was applied to the glass surfaces.
> Cleaning should indeed not take longer than 5 minutes...
> 
> But good question - how long did it take to clean the window Dave?


Sorry, missed this question but as above - no longer than about ten minutes to thoroughly clean the glass and apply the sealent... the application of the sealant was about a minute tops in honesty, wipe on, let haze, buff off.


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## Nanolex (Jun 8, 2008)

Dave KG said:


> Sorry, missed this question but as above - no longer than about ten minutes to thoroughly clean the glass and apply the sealent... the application of the sealant was about a minute tops in honesty, wipe on, let haze, buff off.


exactly the way it should be - a couple of years ago the Glass Premium version we offered was much harder to buff off, it took around 1 hour for 4 windows + windshield and quite a bit of muscle play was demanded, we are really content with the way the sealant can be applicated now.

How much would you say you used on the windshield Dave?


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

Nanolex said:


> exactly the way it should be - a couple of years ago the Glass Premium version we offered was much harder to buff off, it took around 1 hour for 4 windows + windshield and quite a bit of muscle play was demanded, we are really content with the way the sealant can be applicated now.
> 
> How much would you say you used on the windshield Dave?


Two or three squirts out of the bottle - very little to be honest.

I still have 3/4 of the bottle left and must have treated the glass on coming up for 10 cars...


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## Nanolex (Jun 8, 2008)

Dave KG said:


> Two or three squirts out of the bottle - very little to be honest.
> 
> I still have 3/4 of the bottle left and must have treated the glass on coming up for 10 cars...


I knew we should have used smaller bottles 

Joking... My personal experience is basically the same, it's enought for 2-3 cars or for 2-3 years of protection - good to hear that you made the same experience!


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## FlyingfocRS (Aug 15, 2007)

I'm going to wash the car just now, will take some pics and post my observations on the performance of the product later.


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## rapidseven (Apr 26, 2007)

So let me get this right, it now doesnt take 2 hours to completely clean window ?

Im confused ?


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## Nanolex (Jun 8, 2008)

rapidseven said:


> So let me get this right, it now doesnt take 2 hours to completely clean window ?
> 
> Im confused ?


Dave wrote on page 1:



> The product requires two hours to cure after the wipe down, so use outside relies on two hours of dry weather...


It only takes a couple of minutes per window, and even if the cleaner should dry on the screen you can still remove it with water.

10-15 min max for the whole process I'd say!

and then you need to let the sealant cure for 1-2 hours...

Cheers,

Florian


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## rapidseven (Apr 26, 2007)

Okey dokey, thanks very much for clearing that up for me 

If I wanted some, im I correct to assume I use the nanolex website ?

ta


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## Nanolex (Jun 8, 2008)

rapidseven said:


> Okey dokey, thanks very much for clearing that up for me
> 
> If I wanted some, im I correct to assume I use the nanolex website ?
> 
> ta


At the moment the kits are 25% off - just drop [email protected] a line and he'll help you!

or check here:

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=110425

Cheers,

Florian


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## FlyingfocRS (Aug 15, 2007)

Well here are the pictures.
Left hand side of screen has Nanolex, right hand side has Rain-X
Jet of water, Rain-x side sheets onto screen Nanolex side repels water almost immediately.








Still sheeting on one side other side almost clear already








About 20 seconds later








This is approximately 5 weeks after application of both products.


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## Nanolex (Jun 8, 2008)

Definitely looking like it should! Did you treat the windshield also?


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## FlyingfocRS (Aug 15, 2007)

No we only did the 50/50 on rear glass.
Because without a rear wiper water on the rear screen is a pain when you get back to the car and have to reverse straight away.
Also because there is no wiper the screen will be untouched and we could see how long the treatment lasted.
Unforunately if all goes to plan I'll not have the car after this week so won't be able to monitor it's progress.
Think I'll buy some though and do a complete 50/50 of all the glass on my new vehicle.


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

FlyingfocRS said:


> Well here are the pictures.
> Left hand side of screen has Nanolex, right hand side has Rain-X
> Jet of water, Rain-x side sheets onto screen Nanolex side repels water almost immediately.
> 
> ...


Thank you for the update! Thought i recognised the car :thumb:


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## FlyingfocRS (Aug 15, 2007)

Aye got the rest of the paintwork finished as well.
Just in time to sell it LOL
The Nanolex definately works better than Rain-X in my opinion.


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## dannyd2134 (Jan 2, 2009)

FlyingfocRS said:


> Aye got the rest of the paintwork finished as well.
> Just in time to sell it LOL
> The Nanolex definately works better than Rain-X in my opinion.


You can see that in the 50/50.

Nanolex looks alot like carlack, i guess if you let carlack cure for 2 hours it'll last even longer.

i've never rated rain-x even when it first came out. :lol:


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## Nanolex (Jun 8, 2008)

FlyingfocRS said:


> Also because there is no wiper the screen will be untouched and we could see how long the treatment lasted.
> Unforunately if all goes to plan I'll not have the car after this week so won't be able to monitor it's progress.


On surfaces without wiper contact you have a durability of at least 3 years!

Wiper contact is, besides strong cleaners with very high or very low ph-value, the only thing that limits the durability.



> Nanolex looks alot like carlack, i guess if you let carlack cure for 2 hours it'll last even longer.


I'm not quite sure that you can compare it to Carlack - I was looking at the Carlack Sealant, I think it's a different system, but it seems to work quite nice also.

Cheers,

Florian


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## Bigpikle (May 21, 2007)

dannyd2134 said:


> You can see that in the 50/50.
> 
> Nanolex looks alot like carlack, i guess if you let carlack cure for 2 hours it'll last even longer.
> 
> i've never rated rain-x even when it first came out. :lol:


I'd like to see this vs the Carlack - I have used Carlack extensively and rate it highly.

I thiink people are getting confused on the curing - its only the time before you get it wet, not the time before buffing it off. Carlack needs 10 mins curing time, but I often leave it much longer when doing multiple jobs. It doesnt appear to change performance, BUT I always put 2 layers of the sealant on as its so easy, and that makes a definite improvement on the speed water rolls off.

Carlack lasts many months m=by itself on my front screens, although I dont think it would last as long as Nanolex is supposed to. It easily lasts 6+ months on side & rear glass though.

The value thing has to be a point here as well. About £12 IIRC for Carlack and the bottle will do dozens of cars, both cleaning and sealing - I've done maybe 10-15 applications to various cars in the last couple of years and its barely touched it. Its fast and easy to apply, so doing a front screen every 3 months for max performance isnt really an issue.

I'd really like to see Nanolex in action though. I ythink hoses and PWs are not a great test for these products as rain doesnt come at my cars like that  I want to see which has decent roll-off from my front screen in a rain shower at 40mph. I know how Carlack performs in those conditions, as well as how Gtechniq performs (not as good for the older formula) so if this does better I'll be impressed


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

Bigpikle said:


> I'd like to see this vs the Carlack - I have used Carlack extensively and rate it highly.
> 
> I thiink people are getting confused on the curing - its only the time before you get it wet, not the time before buffing it off. Carlack needs 10 mins curing time, but I often leave it much longer when doing multiple jobs. It doesnt appear to change performance, BUT I always put 2 layers of the sealant on as its so easy, and that makes a definite improvement on the speed water rolls off.
> 
> ...


Hose and pressure washer do make very viable tests for a product like this IMHO, especially when you have a Hozelock connector set to shower and mist mode  The pressure washer shows well how a product deals with vast quantities of water, and its ability to sheet a large volume which is directly related to how well it will shift beads of water - you are measuring the same basic quantity which is the water repellancy of the underlying layer.

I also use shower settings to see how the product sheds water droplets and mist settings to assess the maximum droplet size before run off, and when comparing all of these values you get a very good indication of its performance.

Alas, I am not able to film water flying off my screen at 40, 50, 70mph on the road, I like my liscence clean and I have a feeling Diane may tell me to get stuffed if I asked her to film it, but it does repel rain water and also motorway spray very well indeed on the road


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## Bigpikle (May 21, 2007)

cheers Dave - I agree with all that, but want to see real world use so I can gauge it to the 3 products I have used. 

For me, its the speed at which significant roll-off starts to happen that is critical. Gtechnic used to need almost motorway speeds to work, while fresh Carlack would start to do it at about 35mph, so making it a very much more practical product for a good chunk of our driving. I have no doubt Nanolex performs very well, having applied it with Jon, but would really like someone to film it at 40mph 

Please talk Diane into filming it, pretty please.....


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## Nanolex (Jun 8, 2008)

Bigpikle said:


> ...BUT I always put 2 layers of the sealant on as its so easy, and that makes a definite improvement on the speed water rolls off.
> 
> Carlack lasts many months m=by itself on my front screens, although I dont think it would last as long as Nanolex is supposed to. It easily lasts 6+ months on side & rear glass though.
> 
> ...


Interesting you mention that it performs better after a second application - this usually indicates that the product "fills" the glass surface, therefore makes it slicker and lets the rain fly off. This would be a whole different system than Nanolex is - the Glass Premium doesn't really fill the glass surfaces, it adds particles that add a hydrophobic characteristic to the glass.
Usually we find that Nanolex performs better because the droplets that form are much smaller than what other products achieve.

We also have an "urban" product in the pipeline that won't have the durability but will let the rain fly off at around 25mph already!

12£ is a good deal, but you might also get 4-5 windshields out of ours 

Cheers,

Florian


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## Nanolex (Jun 8, 2008)

Bigpikle said:


> cheers Dave - I agree with all that, but want to see real world use so I can gauge it to the 3 products I have used.
> 
> For me, its the speed at which significant roll-off starts to happen that is critical. Gtechnic used to need almost motorway speeds to work, while fresh Carlack would start to do it at about 35mph, so making it a very much more practical product for a good chunk of our driving. I have no doubt Nanolex performs very well, having applied it with Jon, but would really like someone to film it at 40mph
> 
> Please talk Diane into filming it, pretty please.....


The next time we get a good amount of rain over here I'll try to get someone in the car with me and take a flick! 40mph shouldn't be a problem, but it also depends on the angle of the windshield... we'll see!

Cheers,

Florian


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## organgrinder (Jan 20, 2008)

I put a single layer of the CarLack on at the weekend and the water on the windscreen disappeared just under 30mph with a bit of acceleration to help break its grip.

I am a long time fan of the CarLack also but the Nanoflex intrigues me!


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## Nanolex (Jun 8, 2008)

organgrinder said:


> I put a single layer of the CarLack on at the weekend and the water on the windscreen disappeared just under 30mph with a bit of acceleration to help break its grip.
> 
> I am a long time fan of the CarLack also but the Nanoflex intrigues me!


I'd actually like to see a 50/50 with Carlack, just to compare the performance, I'll see if I find the time to do it. The Nanolex Glass Premium also flies off at lower speeds if you accelerate (I suppose pretty much all glass sealants do that) - Looks like rain over here, if it starts before it gets dark I'll shoot a vid!


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## Nanolex (Jun 8, 2008)

Alright, here we go! Vid was just taken about 30 mins ago during light rain, speed was around 70 km/h!






We are thinking about having a couple of professional videos done, sorry about the poor quality, I was on my own and used my Blackberry!

BTW the sealant on the windshield was applied 10 months ago!

Cheers,

Florian


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## perm (Oct 26, 2005)

This looks similar to the effect I see on my screen at similar speeds.
I do not see much movement of water below 50 mph on my screen.

However for me the point of these type of products is not that you do not need to use your wipers but that when you do the rain clears better and the screen stays clearer before the wipers are needed again. Nanolex delivers against these criteria.


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## Nanolex (Jun 8, 2008)

and the Nanolex Urban Glass Sealant is also planned to be introduced this year


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## perm (Oct 26, 2005)

Nanolex said:


> and the Nanolex Urban Glass Sealant is also planned to be introduced this year


Excellent.

Any other new products planned.


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## Nanolex (Jun 8, 2008)

perm said:


> Excellent.
> 
> Any other new products planned.


A couple new products will be introduced - the first one by the end of next week as a DW exclusive pre presentation


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## SiGainey (Jan 29, 2006)

I very much agree with BigPickle here. After buying another "uber innovative" glass sealant, I was very disappointed with it's performance. I like carlack but it's one problem is that it doesn't last long enough 

So, what we have here looks interesting, but they always do, I think that I'd like to see some 50/50 with Carlack before I put my hand in my pocket for £30's worth of stuff that *may *not be any better.

One demo I'd be VERY interested to see is how it works on a rear screen of a VW Golf (particularly the mk3 or 4) as they are vertical and the only rain they get is very fine spray, so there's rarely enough water to clump together and bead off in the airflow. Would the urban sealant work better for this - I'd be happy reapplying every few months if the sealant worked well. Right now, Carlack isn't the best on the rear screen...


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## Nanolex (Jun 8, 2008)

Dave, how's the durability so far? I'm very interested because your car is one of the few (that we know of) that has the sealant on and covers a very high mileage...

Cheers,

Florian


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

On the vehicles I am currently using it on and monitoring its doing very well - the highest mileage is the little camper van you saw, its been touring Scotland as the owner was on holiday, and the sealant is still lasting on it though a slight edge has been lost to the speed of the water repellancy. 

Its currently been removed from the Volvo as I was dealing with some wiper sweep scratches from grit (joy of parking next to a building site), so will be going back on when I give my car a full once over...


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