Buffing Pad Washer


Shawn F.

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Which pad cleaner/washer is everyone here using? I see that Lake Country makes one, Auto Geek and another place and they all look similar. Is one better than the other or are they identically the same? I really need to buy one of these now because halfway through a buff job my pad is caked with polish or compound. Can these cleaners be used on wool pads or no? I know your not supposed to wash wool pads so this is why I am asking. It looks like the pad washers are just a bucket with water in them and a few gears that rub and clean the pads...???

Thanks for any info!

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I believe the Universal Grit Guard is the best one available. You should just spur your wool pads and not wash them or they will deteriorate overtime.

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Shawn

 

We use the Lake Country pad washer with great success. Using it with Optimum products is a great thing. The Optimum products react well witha humid pad, be it wool or foam. We use the pad washer 3-6 times per car to keep the pad humid, and makes sure that there is no grit on the pad.

 

We use both wool and foam, both get washed imediatly before starting to work.

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Which pad cleaner/washer is everyone here using? I see that Lake Country makes one, Auto Geek and another place and they all look similar. Is one better than the other or are they identically the same? I really need to buy one of these now because halfway through a buff job my pad is caked with polish or compound. Can these cleaners be used on wool pads or no? I know your not supposed to wash wool pads so this is why I am asking. It looks like the pad washers are just a bucket with water in them and a few gears that rub and clean the pads...???

Thanks for any info!

 

Lake Country's has spurs which would be nice for wool and do OK for foam. Grit Guards has a Grit Guard (shocking I know) which appears to be on a spring that you press you pads on the Grit Guard to dip into the wash solution. Grit Guards looks like it would be really good for foam and OK for wool.

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Well since I use the foam/wool blend pad and foam pads and I only use a rotary then I am going to go with the Lake Country. I may try out the Grit Gaurd one later on though for my foaming pads. Yvan, thanks, you answered my next questions which were should I use it right before buffing/polishing to make them damp or humid and how many times to use it during a car? I tested out Stoner's polish/sealant and polymer sealant today with the Lake Country pads. It works great but like others have said you have to use a LOT of polish and sealant to work and it just soaks into the foam pads and then it's hard to get out of the pads. As for really swirled paint the Optimum Polish works better than Stoner and also I didn't use this today on the car I was working on but I like 3M Ultrafina swirl remover the best.

The car I did today I am not happy with at all. The front end was in a collision and was repaired but the rest of the car is oxidized badly and VERY chaulky and thin paint. I buffed and polished it the best I could and it is 10 times better but not as deep and shiney as it should. Only thing the guy can do is repaint the car. If I buff it anymore it will be too thin and go through. I noticed a lot of edges of the car are through to the primer and metal from previous body work that was done to the car in the collision so I know the paint is very thin. Time for some new pads because this paint messed up my old pads and my newer Lake Country ones I got from Justin. :beerchug[1]:

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  • 7 months later...

Well guys, I wanted to update this. My birthday was July 10th and for my birthday my girlfriend bought me a Lake Country pad cleaner. She asked me what I wanted and that is something I have really needed and wanted for almost a year now and just never bought one. Well I used it tonight on 3 pads that I thought were junk and was going to throw away on Friday when my new ones came in. Either that or use these for headlight repairs. Well I figured I'd see how much it would take off (thinking that it wouldn't take much of this caked on polish off) and man was I surprised. The pads came out very clean and like new! I dont have to throw them away after all! This is one of the best investments I have bought for detailing in a LONG time. I cant believe I never bought one of these about 3 years ago or so!

I will now use the heck out of it on details and it should help cut down some time as well. If anyone here details and is without one of these pad cleaners then you have GOT to get one! I kept putting it off when I had the extra money and kept buying other things when I should have bought this thing a long time ago. I give it a 10 out of 10 for the top things that you need in your detailing rig.

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Thanks! I guess being 22 isn't much of a hype as my other birthdays. After 21 it seems all downhill from here and no big deal. Just another day and one step closer to becoming old (I know, I am far from it still haha).

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