Water Rinse- Less Car Washing

Water restrictions

In a (very) few more years the waterless wash will be the only legal way to wash vehicles. The environmental protection agency (EPA) is going to continue to put restrictions to conserve our lessening water resources, which will put an end to traditional car washings methods.

Disposal of Aqueous Solutions

One should never assume that aqueous solutions can be disposed of down the drain. Your local water treatment authority or publicly owned treatment works will have information on treatment and disposal of these cleaners. Adjustment of pH and dilution are usually required before disposal to a drain. Always comply with current water usage and disposal regulations / water usage restrictions

Optimum No Rinse Wash & Shine

To the list of oxymorons add – the sunless tan, cheese less pizza, soap-free detergent and the no-water carwash.

An innovative product that protects automotive paint, while preserving our most valuable resource, water; enabling you to wash your car anywhere, anytime even inside your garage. Its a multi-purpose product that serves as a shampoo additive, no rinse wash, quick detailer and clay lubricant.

Use as a winter car wash or in areas that have hosepipe ban, water usage restrictions, or where a water supply is not readily available (apartments, car shows, etc; cleans and protects while minimising water usage, 100% environmentally safe and it reduces water usage to a fraction of a conventional car wash, 1- oz ONR per 2- gallons of water to wash the entire car.

When sprayed on a dirty surface; surfactants break down the soil by releasing its surface tension or bond with the surface, encapsulating the soil particles, and the polymers provide surface lubrication to enable safe (marring free) removal

How does ONR work?

[The polymers in No Rinse have reactive groups that bond and trap dirt particles making the dirt particles virtually non-abrasive. They also bond to oily particles and emulsify them into water. The latter is equivalent to the cleaning action from soaps which also work by emulsifying oil particles into water. However, with soap there is no interaction with dirt. This is why adding No Rinse to a regular wash also helps protect the paint from dirt particles.
The No Rinse polymers also bond to all automotive surfaces and create a slick surface and act as a barrier to protect paint from marring. That is something that soap will not provide since surfactants in soaps have no affinity for painted or other automotive surfaces.

When you use 1 oz. of No Rinse in 1 or 2 gallons of water for your wash at the molecular level this provides hundreds of billions of polymer molecules to do what was said above. Additional product will not be necessary except if you are using tap water that contains high levels of minerals such as calcium hydroxide or silicates. In these cases some of the polymers will bond to these minerals and take them out of solution therefore more product might be necessary to compensate for this effect. This is another reason why adding No Rinse to regular car wash soap improves the results when using tap water. ] [David Ghodoussi]

To remove stains the surface tension that bonds them must be released, then the stain encapsulated and held in suspension to be removed. ONR is an almost waterless wash that doesnt require rinsing, its formulated with surfactants to keep dirt in suspension, avoiding surface contact; it also provides surface lubrication, thereby avoiding surface marring. A surfactant or surface active agent is a substance that, when dissolved in water, gives a product the ability to remove dirt from surfaces. They emulsify the dirt; the polymer protects the paint surface by forming a molecular bond, which remains even after the wash, offering protection comparable to that of a spray wax

ONR is an ionic wash that contains zwitterions (hybrid) [: a chemical compound that carries a total net charge of 0, thus electrically neutral but carries formal positive and negative charges on different atom] This allows the polymers to attach to the dirt and form a molecular bond to the surface at the same time. ONR binds the dirt to the wash media intentionally; so you should change washing media as needed

The No Rinse polymers also bond to automotive paint surfaces and create a slick surface and act as a barrier to protect from marring. That is something that soap will not provide since surfactants in soaps have no affinity for painted surfaces (unlike a polymer).

Surfactants

A surfactant or surface active agent is a substance that, when dissolved in water, gives a product the ability to remove dirt from the surfaces by lowering the surface tension of the medium in which it is dissolved. By lowering this interfacial tension between two media or interfaces (e.g. water/stain) the surfactant plays a key role in the removal and suspension of dirt. The lower surface tension of the water makes it easier to lift dirt and grease off of surfaces, and help to keep them suspended in the dirty water

ONR Directions (Label)
1. Add 1oz to 2 gallons of water in a wash bucket
2. Soak wash media (Zymol sponge or wash Mitt) in solution and wash vehicle in sections
3. Dry each section with two clean towels consecutively

Clean the vehicle in this order

1.Hood, front windshield
2.Trunk, rear windshield
3.Half roof, each side to rockers
4.2nd Half roof, each side to rockers
5. Bumpers, rockers
6.Wheel surfaces
7.Engine compartment

This is usually a progression from the least to the most soiled areas.

ONR Wash Methodology

Optional Pre-Soak (very dirty surfaces) – Spray down individual panels with a 1:20 solution ONR / distilled water with a fine mist spray bottle, then wipe-down each panel with a wet micro fibre towel
Use a Monster Fluffy micro fibre towel for washing.
Take one towel and wet it with ONR mixed as per directions (1- oz / 2- gallons of water)
Wring it out and make a single pass per clean side of the towel.
You can get 4-8 passes, with the towel folded in quarters. Each pass is then done with a perfectly clean towel surface and you’re never rinsing any dirt out and releasing it in to your wash or rinse water. You can do the whole car with 2-4 towels.
Apply no pressure to the towel. I just glide it over the surface and only make one pass in one direction with a clean surface.
If you use the two bucket method (one fitted with a grit guard) which highly recommended with this type of product, the wash solution will stay clean enough to be reusable as a pre-soak solution or for cleaning wheel surfaces.
ONR is formulated to ensure that dirt particles wont mix with the solution but fall to the bottom of the bucket.
There is no need to rinse afterwards with ONR, but if you feel you must, please ensure that the water goes to a sewer and not a storm drain; either way the lubricating polymers in the No Rinse do a better job of protecting the finish than conventional car soap.
ONR is ultra violet (UV) sensitive, it causes it to lighten its colour, but has no detrimental effect

Used in tandem with Optimum Instant Detailer & Gloss Enhancer, Finish Kare 425 or Ultima Detail Spray for a just waxed look. If you use the two bucket method (one fitted with a grit guard) the wash solution will stay clean enough to be reusable. ONR is formulated to ensure that dirt particles wont mix with the solution but fall to the bottom of the bucket.

The key to using ONR is to make sure your panel is thoroughly washed. This doesn’t mean that you have to saturate your mitt and/or panel with the ONR but rather go over that panel 2 or 3 times if needed. When you wipe dry there should be no remaining dirt on the panel. If need be use several mitts, discarding a mitt as it becomes visually dirty. When finished there should be little or no water on the ground.