Car Wax VS Sealant VS Glaze | What's the difference?

Detailing market offers you various options for DIY paint protection, but when you are just a beginner, it's hard to find in such variety what suits your best.

This is the reason I made this video to help you make the right decision, and decide if you need wax, sealant, or glaze for your car.

Let me know what is your favorite one!

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[jaimedpcaus]

This was great. Excellent presentation!

[pigeonpoo]

Excellent descriptions there, thank you. Do you have any recommendations for a glaze with additional protection? I've only found one so far. Thanks

[rubenharris]

This cartoon character has been originally used for a lawn care channel. Same guy??

[AndreasSchwarzinger]

Unfortunately, the information you provided in this video is outdated and also at least partially incorrect and superficial.

„I like the durability and ease of use of a sealant, but I also like the warm glow from a wax.“

Sentences like these stem from a completely outdated understanding of protective detailing products, from a (too) simplified generalization approach, and also a lack of experience with the huge variety of products available in today‘s market.

Here’s the simple truth: The terms „wax“ and „sealant“ are just that - terms! By themselves, in today‘s market, they don‘t mean anything! They don‘t describe what products do.

For a start, the distinction between the different product categories becomes harder and harder as they start to fade into each other. That‘s because we as consumers become harder and harder to please and we expect more and more from products.

In the olden days, a „wax“ for example was often referred to as a „natural“ product with mainly ingredients like carnauba, bee’s and/or montan wax combined with some more or less natural carriers (oils) and some solvents. Whereas paint sealants, on the other hand, were understood as products with synthetic ingredients. So, yes, im the olden days, sealants were more durable than waxes.

However, there are now synthetic waxes (e.g. Soft99 Fusso Coat, Infinity Way Synergy Wax, Neowax No. 2) which look and feel like natural paste waxes which is why some call them „paint sealants in paste wax form“. And then there are paste waxes as well as liquid waxes which have both, natural and synthetic ingredients (so-called „hybrid“ waxes). Realistically, the vast majority of paste and liquid waxes which are newly introduced in today‘s market will be much much more durable than they were 10, 20 or 30 years ago. And in regards to their ingredients, they will often contain synthetic ingredients and/or additives (silicones, silazanes, siloxanes, polymers, graphene oxide, resins, paraffin wax…) which makes them at the very least „hybrid waxes“, but you would be forgiven to call them sealants, too.

So, today, there are „waxes“ which will outlast „sealants“ and vice versa. The old saying that sealants last longer than waxes really is overhauled. This doesn‘t mean that there still exist products from both categories of products which will act and behave a lot like in the olden days. And as much as it hurts me to say this, these products mainly come from the US as the majority of US made paste waxes (Pinnacle, Meguiar’s, Zymöl, McKees, Chemical Guys, Adam’s…) for example still are traditional examples of old-school „waxes“: easy and effortless to apply, glossy, slick, but not durable nor hydrophobic. In the same way, there exist many old-school sealants in the US (Wolfgang, Jescar, Poorboys, Meguiar’s…) which will be more durable and more hydrophobic than US-made paste waxes - but are surpassed by waxes, hybrid waxes or sealants by manufacturers from outside the US (e.g. from Infinity Wax, Soft99, ServFaces, …).

Also, the notion that waxes create a better, richer, deeper… finish is somewhat overstated. Gloss comes from defect free paint. No protective product will be able to achieve the same levels of gloss and finish as a proper polishing job can. Plus, once again, the finish a product can achieve is completely dependent on the specific ingredients of that product - and not whether it‘s called a „wax“ or „sealant“. Most importantly though, things like a „wet look“, „candy gloss“, „mirror finish“ etc. were, are and will always be highly subjective as they cannot be quantified or measured. So, I personally would never base my decision for or against a product on that.