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**Rockpick** · Apr 24, 2004, 08:36 PM

Can you be more specific about the problem that you're describing?

Beading is a typical characteristic of numerous products out there on the market and is generally considered by many consumers to be the main thing that they look for once they've waxed their vehicle. In a sense, when they see it beading, they know it's working.

RP

**DAC17** · Apr 25, 2004, 08:17 AM

Sure. Car gets wet, and the wax causes really good beading of the water. Sun comes out and dries the car, but the water (which now has a significant amount of chemicals in it from acid rain, etc.) dries, leaving acid rain-type spots on the paint. Oddly enough, if there are no beads, the rain just dries "flat", without the possible spotting.

**Tim Lingor** · Apr 25, 2004, 08:26 AM

Hey,

Water spots drying on the paint are a concern for any brand of wax. Meg's Cleaner Wax is a real over-achiever (ie. an excellent product especially for the money). Unfortunately, many people equate the beading water with wax protection when that is simply not the case. Beading water indicates high surface tension.

Sealants on the other hand tend to sheet water rather than bead up.

Personally, I prefer the sealants.

Tim

**jfelbab** · Apr 25, 2004, 09:11 AM

Originally posted by DAC17
Sure. Car gets wet, and the wax causes really good beading of the water. Sun comes out and dries the car, but the water (which now has a significant amount of chemicals in it from acid rain, etc.) dries, leaving acid rain-type spots on the paint. Oddly enough, if there are no beads, the rain just dries "flat", without the possible spotting.

Actually it goes like this. You have a drop of water containing acid but it is a low dilution of acid. Water starts evaporating, acid does not. Drop gets smaller but acid content increases making it more and more damaging as the water evaporates and the drop gets smaller.

I agree with Super Moderator, I'd prefer a wax that didn't bead water at all, but sheeted water off. The polymers seem to do that.

**rusty bumper** · Apr 25, 2004, 11:33 AM

Re: Cleaner Wax

Originally posted by DAC17
I bought some of the reformulated Meg's cleaner wax in the maroon bottle. I was planning to use it on my daily driver that sits outside, but I'm concerned about a comment I read somewhere about this wax's beading ability causing problems if the rain dries on the surface.

Comments from anyone who's used this product?

Thanks.

When I use Meg's Cleaner Wax, I like to follow up with either #26, MPPP, and here of late, NXT.

**Don** · Apr 25, 2004, 12:13 PM

Originally posted by jfelbab
Actually it goes like this. You have a drop of water containing acid but it is a low dilution of acid. Water starts evaporating, acid does not. Drop gets smaller but acid content increases making it more and more damaging as the water evaporates and the drop gets smaller.

I agree with Super Moderator, I'd prefer a wax that didn't bead water at all, but sheeted water off. The polymers seem to do that.

I think what he meant about beads of water being bad is that some think that each bead acts like a miniature magnifying glass and under direct sun, MIGHT cause a micro burn in the paint's finish.

**Basic science experiment**

Take a sheet of clear plastic wrap and put a drop of water on it. If you hold that above a newspaper (or something similar) you will see the "magnifying glass effect" of the drop of water

**Slats** · May 2, 2004, 09:14 PM

First off, I think the cleaner wax is a great product. However, I don't like the way the water beads and dries on the surface. My car is a really light gold color, but I can still see the water spots on the surface after a rainstorm. If I had a new car or something I would probably just go over it with quick detailer after every rain. I've been told that both Gold Class and NXT make the water sheet off the surface rather than bead up and stay there. Maybe one of you can tell me, which sheets better?

Thanks,
Slats

**Lynx131** · May 7, 2004, 05:32 PM

i did sort of an experiment, i waxxed my whole car with nxt, then i polished the hood one day and did the hook with gold glass. It seemed the gold class beaded up the water really well ( extrememly small beads of water ) and the nxt seemed to run the water off more. But then again the only flat places with nxt was the roof and the trunk lid. So next time i wax my car, im going to try half the hood NXT half the hood Gold Class

**Mosca** · May 7, 2004, 06:22 PM

Y'know, the Cleaner Wax used to not bead water so well, and people thought it wasn't any good, so it was reformulated to "bead like crazy", as Mike said.

My opinion is, you waxed your car. It's not like all you did was put little magnifying glasses on your car, or acid sinks; you put a wax there first, a barrier to protect it from those things.

As the wax fades, so does the protection... but also, so does the beading. I'm thinking that the wax is strong enough to resist the bad effects of tight beading. And, many small beads hold less water and acid than a smaller number of large beads. At the risk of creating a tautology, or an argument by design, I think that if it was a problem Meguiar's wouldn't have made it that way.

I like that wax a lot, by the way. A lot of companies could market it as their premium brand.

Tom

**Lynx131** · May 8, 2004, 03:13 PM

Nice article... Im interested to see what Mike has to say on this...

**GearHead_1** · May 8, 2004, 05:41 PM

Originally posted by 2hotford
Beading water indicates high surface tension.

Surface Tension, sounds like the writings of Ray Bradbury.