# opti wash mitt



## stevept (Nov 22, 2009)

Im going to buy onr on thursday from motorgeek, ive seen the opti wash mitt on there website has got good reviews but is it gonna be any better than ether any other mitt or a grout sponge?


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## DIESEL DAVE (Jul 26, 2007)

stevept said:


> Im going to buy onr on thursday from motorgeek, ive seen the opti wash mitt on there website has got good reviews but is it gonna be any better than ether any other mitt or a grout sponge?


You`ll find that out when you get it, whats suits one person may not suit another.
I prefer a MF cloth and hate a Zymol sponge with ONR yet others swear by them.


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## Lazy-Moose (Sep 7, 2011)

I've used a few things from mf towels, to noodle mitts and currently on the grout sponge, but I think I will go back to a microfibre towel as I'm rather unimpressed with a grout sponge. Infact the noodle mitt was better than the grout sponge imho.

My reasoning is, it is too small an area and on a heavily soiled car, all the dirt just accumulates at the front of the sponge when wiping a panel, whereas with a towel laid flat on the panel, there is a much greater area and the dirt does not accumulate into a pile, it all absorbs even into the towel. 

There seems to be a lot of fads that happen on DW and when one person says "this is awesome", a thousand people take their word for it and follow. I think because a grout sponge is so soft, they think it is better for the job, but the grout sponge being soft doesn't make the dirt any softer......it's still just dirt.

As Dave says it's down to personal preference! See what works for you and stick to it.


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## Lowiepete (Mar 29, 2009)

Lazy-Moose said:


> My reasoning is, it is too small an area and on a heavily soiled car, all the dirt just accumulates at the front of the sponge when wiping a panel


Placing any sponge flat to the metal is always going to be risky, so it's a
good idea to try to lift the leading edge by gently scrunching up the sponge.
It's a similar principle to raising the leading edge of a folded MF cloth. Using
single vertical strokes aids simply pushing the dirt off the car onto the ground,
which is much better than it ending up in the bucket.



Lazy-Moose said:


> I think because a grout sponge is so soft, they think it is better for the job...


The point of the grout sponge, and indeed a noodle mitt, is that you can 
carry some extra ONR to the panel and squeeze some out before you start 
wiping. This may not be so important in the summer, but when the winter
salt is present, then this part is pretty vital to avoid swirls. Bear in mind
that partially dissolved salt can be as abrasive as sand and nigh on invisible!
In these circumstance I'd not advocate using an MF cloth until the final drying
wipe, and even then I'd dampen it with a squirt or 3 of ONR first.

As for the OptiMitt, well it's a tad expensive for what is not much more than
a glorified sponge. There are cheaper alternatives that work equally well. I'd
practice different techniques with the ONR first.

Regards,
Steve


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## Steampunk (Aug 11, 2011)

I too am unimpressed by conventional wash medias with ONR, and am a strong believer in using a short stack of deep pile microfiber towels instead. I think that the microfibers clean better, and the multiple wash surfaces you get out of one towel (Let alone two to three like I use.) minimizes your chance of marring. On a really dirty car, I actually change sides after every pass, and move to a new towel once all eight sides are used. The MF towel also helps because with ONR washes, you can only clean what you can actually touch with your wash media, so the flexibility of the towel helps to pick up dirt in the strange little crevices that a mass quantity of water and soap would normally flush out. So far the Eurow Shag Pile towels are my favorite for ONR washing, but I would REALLY like to try out the Microfiber Madness Summit 800 towels if I could ever find a distributor willing to ship to the states. 

Hope this helps!

Steampunk


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## Lazy-Moose (Sep 7, 2011)

Lowiepete said:


> Placing any sponge flat to the metal is always going to be risky, so it's a
> good idea to try to lift the leading edge by gently scrunching up the sponge.


Yes, but again, the sponge being so small an area,the dirt quickly accumulates at the front of the sponge be it slight upturned at the front or not. Infact having it slightly upturned has more potential for marring due to the pile of dirt/grit/salt now being under the sponge instead of at the front of the sponge (with no weight on it).



Lowiepete said:


> It's a similar principle to raising the leading edge of a folded MF cloth. Using
> single vertical strokes aids simply pushing the dirt off the car onto the ground,
> which is much better than it ending up in the bucket.


I use 2BM with ONR all year round so I don't care how much dirt ends up in rinse bucket. My wash bucket is always crystal clean and blue 



Lowiepete said:


> The point of the grout sponge, and indeed a noodle mitt, is that you can carry some extra ONR to the panel and squeeze some out before you start wiping.


If the car is that dirty where you feel the need to take extra ONR solution in your wash media, then you should really be pre-soaking your panels with ONR first. Even so, I find microfibre towel carries plenty of ONR solution to take to the car, probably the same amount as a noodle mitt.



Lowiepete said:


> This may not be so important in the summer, but when the winter salt is present, then this part is pretty vital to avoid swirls. Bear in mind that partially dissolved salt can be as abrasive as sand and nigh on invisible!


I strongly advocate getting in the habit of pre-washing the panels with an ONR solution, I do this using a pump action pressure sprayer. Depending on the season and the cleanliness of the vehicle, I will do just the lower of the car, the wheels and the boot, or just into cracks and crevices and along trim to blow out dirt that could get caught in drying towel. In winter I pre-wash everything with ONR.



Lowiepete said:


> In these circumstance I'd not advocate using an MF cloth until the final drying wipe, and even then I'd dampen it with a squirt or 3 of ONR first.


I only use a dry MF for drying stage, no other time. Every other stage the mf's (or whatever wash media you use) should have ONR in them. If you feel the need to have ONR in your drying towel for fear of marring, then you have not cleaned the car adequately.

I know pre-washing and 2BM with ONR seems counter-intuitive for a system that is meant to be quicker and easier than traditional methods. But everyone is different, for instance I have a 1km dirt road to get to my house, so that is why I use such methods as their is ALWAYS dirt/grit/sand particles present. Infact it would probably be quicker with a hose etc but I care about the fishes!

It is really down to the individual and there is no EXACT system you should have with ONR, there are many ways to do it, all of them satisfactory and some better than others. It is all down to the scenario, how often you clean the car, how dirty it is, where you live, the condition of your roads etc....

Lowiepetes system doesn't work for me, my system might not work for him, and neither of our systems might work for you [op] it's all down to the individual


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