Ceramic coatings are incredible products, and personally I think every vehicle out there on the road should have one. They keep your vehicle looking incredible for a very long time, make maintenance super easy, and protect your paint from the elements.
With the popularity of coatings exploding, and buzzwords like "ceramic" and "graphene" being used in almost every type of product these days, it's important to know what you're really getting with a ceramic coating. There's a lot of NOISE to sift through, and unfortunately a lot of it is marketed hype. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about...ever seen those social media ads of people lighting their hoods on fire!?
Now I could go on for days trying to cut through the noise of ceramic coatings, but rather I'll get straight to the point with this article and just highlight a few points that I feel are extremely important.
- Any product in a plastic spray bottle is not a TRUE ceramic coating. The word ceramic is being slapped on every type of product out there these days. Heck, even your local automatic car wash probably has the word ceramic in one of their options. These spray bottle types of products are water based, don't require much skill at all to apply, and will not give you the benefits of a true ceramic coating. A TRUE ceramic coating will be in a small glass bottle, not be available in a store like Walmart or Autozone, will cost around $50-$150 per bottle, and has a short shelf life so can only be used on one, maybe two vehicles. The scary part here, is that some detailers may say they're applying (and charge for!) a true ceramic coating when really they are not. Please do you research to make sure you know exactly what you're getting! TRANSPARENCY and INTEGRITY are two of the biggest aspects of how I run High-Def Detailing.
- A ceramic coating will not prevent rock chips. Ceramic coatings can not stop a small rock hitting your vehicle at 75mph from chipping your front bumper or hood.
- You still need to wash your vehicle, but it will be a whole lot easier :) I often see people thinking they can just rinse off their vehicle after it's coated. This will get most of the dirt off actually, but you still need to wash the vehicle with a proper wash mitt and quality soap. More importantly, you still need to dry the vehicle either with forced air or a quality drying towel.
- Make sure your detailer is certified and has plenty of experience installing ceramic coatings. Professional level coating companies require installers to be trained and certified in installing that specific coating. Typically, the higher performing coatings are trickier to install and require plenty of experience, and a climate controlled shop.
I see the benefits of TRUE ceramic coatings every day on my personal vehicles and they really do perform how they are intended to if it is installed and maintained correctly. You even have some wiggle room on the maintenance as I may or may not have been "unable" to wash my wife's SUV for 2 months after it was coated and it still looked incredible :)
To wrap this up, if you're interested in getting a TRUE ceramic coating make sure you are doing the research and asking your detailer the right questions so you know exactly what you are getting. You can see more information about the ceramic coatings I offer at High-Def Detailing
HERE!
