What is the BEST ceramic coating
How do you know which ceramic coating is the best? There are many options available to the consumer these days claiming to offer the best protection. But which ceramic coating is the best?
We’ll try our best to clear the air and make some sense out of this.
#1. First (and maybe most important): The Installer!
It does NOT matter how good the coating is, if the installer does not properly prepare the surface of your vehicle prior to installing the coating it will FAIL prematurely!
Ceramic coatings actually bond on a molecular level to the painted surface of your vehicle. That means we want the paint’s surface as “virgin” as possible. Any sealants, waxes, or oils can impede the coating from adhering correctly.
From a detailer’s standpoint, we would love to coat “perfect” paint. Now there is NO such thing as perfect, but it is best practice to correct the paint a bit first.
Even a brand new vehicle has been washed and touched multiple times. We often even see repairs done that the owner was never made aware of. (Dealers can fix up to a certain % of the value of the vehicle without letting the buyer know).
You may not notice or care about swirls in the paint but your detailer does. However, your vehicles clear coat is only about the thickness of a sticky note. So while we may want to polish and correct your paint to perfection, it may not be the correct thing to do.
Your detailer also works for you. If you do not want to pay for a heavy 3 step paint correction service, then you DON’T have to!
Ceramic coatings need clean paint, not perfect paint.
#2. Second: SiO2
What is SiO2? Silicon dioxide is the active ingredient that makes a ceramic coating what it is. This is why some people call it quartz or glass coating because silica is the main ingredient in these.
Nowadays it seems everything is a “ceramic”. Companies are capitalizing on the term and using deceptive practices. As long as these products contain 10% SiO2, then they can claim it to be a “ceramic” product.
There are decent consumer grade ceramic coatings such as CarPro Cquartz and a few others. The difference between a consumer grade product and a professional ceramic coating is the % percent of SiO2 within. *The difference can be 30% vs 100%!
A professional coating can be a nightmare in the hands of a novice. An inexperienced person may leave “high spots”. These are areas where the coating either wasn’t properly removed or leveled. Once cured some coatings may even need to be aggressively compounded or even sanded to remove.
#3. Third: The best coating is..
The best ceramic coating is whatever coating an experienced installer is using!
An experienced installer has installed hundreds of coatings and knows what works best. Let’s face it, we want return customers, referrals, and good reviews, so it only makes sense to use the best coating possible.
At Detailing Cape Cod we use XPEL because they are extremely high solid coatings that we feel confident standing behind. The ceramic coating company will NOT stand behind the coating. The INSTALLER stands behind the coating.
So it’s best to make sure your detailer is certified to use a professional coating and they’ll be in business for the life of the coating.
Here is our list of the best ceramic coatings on the market.
I hope this helps answer some of your questions about ceramic coatings and helps you make an educated decision.
We’re lucky on Cape Cod to have some great installers in our area. Of course we hope you’ll give us the opportunity to earn your business, but I can also highly recommend: Nato Solo Detailing & BLK Pro Detailing.
Get your customized ceramic coating quote here: GET MY QUOTE
