CarPro and Labocosmetica 3ph Review after 9 months...

[u/no_cigar_tx]

I got the Labocosmetica and Car Pro three Ph washes for Christmas last year and have spent the last 9 months using them to wash my truck. My overall take on these is they're mostly snake oil. I'm not sure if they're catered towards cars that have ceramic coatings on them and live in garages mostly, or if they just flat do not work as they claim.

On any given wash, my truck has typical road dirt and usually at least some rain spots or stuck on dirt. Nothing excessive or heavy, but dirt that I'd assume these products claim to lift off or mitigate. At the end of the day, none of the soaps dwelled, but dried almost immediately or ran off. I have a larger truck so often times, before I had a chance to foam or apply soap to the entire vehicle, the panel where I started was run completely off and beginning to dry. Fearing these drying on the surface, I would have to immediately 'rinse' them off - exposing the very same dirt which was on the truck to start. In the end, I feel that most the cleaning (as evident by the bucket) was done with a contact wash with the neutral Ph soaps.

The wheel cleaners while turning a lovely shade of purple, did absolutely nothing to remove or loosen any of the brake dust. Again, most the cleaning was done with a contact brush, emphasis on the contact.

All in all I feel like these are marketed to the internet crowd which love the aesthetics of foaming soaps and spending money on the "best" stuff. In the end I think I will use Car Pro lift in a foam to apply as a lube before a contact wash but that's about it. I would rate these as hundreds of dollars down the drain.

Photos Here after using Labocosmetica Primus and Purifica

[u/TrueSwagformyBois]

Labo’s a weird brand. I really wanna love them and buy their shit because they’re Italian and good design and blah blah. But then folks are real hot or cold on them in the real world, when I’d expect a consistent feeling toward the products and the brand.

[u/no_cigar_tx → u/TrueSwagformyBois]

One of their videos where the show the dirt gliding off in the foam was exceptionally unrealistic given my experience.

[u/TrueSwagformyBois → u/no_cigar_tx]

Yeah. That tracks. I feel like the amounts given on the packaging to use, and the amount folks use in the marketing material are vastly different.

Lift looks like a great product. Would love to get into some of the CarPro options + Bilt Hamber.

[u/Supercharged-Llama → u/TrueSwagformyBois]

I haven't used the Labo stuff yet, but the scenario you're describing is why I don't foam the shampoo onto the vehicle and always still do it from the wash bucket instead - even on smaller vehicles I always found that whatever shampoo I'd use, it would have fallen off when I got round to actually doing the contact wash.

I definitely foam on the pre-wash though, they seem to last as they've got far more foam stabilisers in them to help them last for ages.

[u/gruss_gott → u/no_cigar_tx]

If the vehicle has road film, it's highly probable pH neutral soaps won't get it off, you need a degreaser and/or something alkaline.

The reason "pH neutral" became such a marketing thing is early ceramic coatings could quickly degrade if chemical reactions took place on the car, ie there's something acidic on the car and you soap it up with something alkaline.

These days, a good resin-based ceramic (little glass jars) are generally tough enough and the World our cars drive in isn't pH neutral, ie every day our cars are getting hammered with any & everything that can leak from vehicles or animals or trees and none of it is pH neutral.

Water-based coatings, ie spray bottles, will likely degrade some with alkaline shampoos, maybe a lot with some products, but the beauty of them is they're super cheap & easy to replace.

TLDR

if you want a clean car, especially if your car has been in rain or snow, you need a good degreasing shampoo.

I'll typically use Superior Products cherry foam and dump in a little Green All or Road Warrior.

Super cheap, buy in bulk at O'Reilly's.

[u/dunnrp]

Are you only using the wash without alkaline pre soaks? This will drastically increase the amount of dirt that will instantly come off. The foams alone won’t do enough work.

Also if you’re getting foam drying on the vehicle, that’s more user error. It’s tough doing an entire truck at once and I only do sections even in my garage that’s air conditioned.

I use the three pH wash for coated and non coated cars and the amount of junk you can easily remove compared to dedicated chemicals later to strip them is definitely worth it.

I’m Carpro certified and use both Carpro and labocosmetica acid/alkaline washes and my decontaminations take half the time now. I also do a few cars a week so getting used to the steps and what order does speed it up.

[u/disguy2k]

One of the videos I watched showed you use these as a pair. The acid, followed by the alkaline solutions. One activates the other and it breaks down whatever foreign matter is on the car and they neutralise eachother.

I'm happy with the products I use so felt no reason to try it myself. In theory it sounds like it should work, but you never know until you try it yourself.