So I finally got a chance to try this Mitt today and decided to write a little review based on my experience with it and comparing it to the the claims found in the Lake Country (LC) and Autogeek (AG) web sites. I used Ultima Paint Guard Wash and a two bucket system with grit guard. First I rinsed down the car with a high pressure nozzle at full blast. I did half of the car with this mitt and the other half with my GS by Proline from Lowes. Please note that this is only my experience with this product. 1)"Grid design channels dirt particles into grooves and away from mitt" (LC) "the channels create an avenue for dirt to move away from the paint"(AG) "As the tabs massage the paint, loosening dirt, they push the dirt into these channels." (AG) In theory this makes total sense, but in practice it could not be further from the truth. I inspected the mitt closely after washing half a panel (both before and after rinsing the mitt) and found that most of the grime was found on the foam tabs and very little inside the grooves. In fact, the tabs do not even open enough for the dirt to get into the grooves. Furthermore, the tabs do not "push the dirt into these channels"; this could not possibly happen given that the tabs are flat and hardly move. 2)"Grid design permits “self-cleaning” with simple squeezing action" (LC) "The foam sheds dirt, rather than trapping it, so the paint rinses clean" (AG) "From there (the channels/grooves), the dirt runs off the paint in the soapy water." (AG) Again, I inspected the mitt after rinsing it, squeezing it, and rubbing it against the grit guard and found that there was still a lot of grime trapped on the foam tabs, but very little inside the channels (since not much was going in there in the first place). I found this to be the most difficult to rinse medium, it just would not let go of the grime that easily. 3)"High performance foam retains suds longer" (LC) "The entire mitt becomes drenched in wash water each time you reload the mitt." (AG) True, it does retain a lot of solution (but grime as well) and squeezing it releases tons of solution; however, the solution released contains very little suds. In addition, most of the solution is absorbed into the foam, leaving the surface poorly lubricated. One huge downside to this tremendous absorption is that you end up wasting a lot of solution. 4) "Protects your vehicle's paint by holding lots of soapy water for excellent lubrication." (AG) As I mentioned above, it does hold a lot of the solution, but it does not spread the suds well. In fact, as you move the mitt across the paint, you encounter tremendous resistance and friction because of insufficient suds and water since most of it is absorbed into the foam, leaving little on the surface which means insufficient lubrication. This was a problem even with Ultima Paint Guard Wash, which suds like nothing else. 5)"Minimizes marring of painted surface" (LC) "The paint rinses clean without leaving swirls." (AG) "It has no cut and is completely nonabrasive" (AG) I agree that this mitt has not cut and it is nonabrasive in and of itself since it is the same material as the red LC pad. However, after blow drying the car, I inspected it closely with the halogens and the Infratech CM5300 and found new swirls on the half I did with the LC mitt, especially on the hood. These were not severe, but definitely unacceptable by our standards. These swirls were not caused by material of the mitt itself, but by spreading dirt and grime and rubbing it into the paint and by the poor lubricity of this mitt. Overall, I give this mitt two big thumbs down. I am definitely sticking to my GS by Proline from Lowes and wool mitt.
I've got both mitts. I really didnt like them that much. The yellow one sure felt rough (to me). Nice review!
interesting.. I'd be interested to hear a comparison between this and a shmitt. thanks for the review!
Since it's late, let me just say I used the LC Ulti-Mit all last year. Since obtaining a White/Yellow Shmitt and Shmitt GS, the Ulti-Mit is permanently out of the rotation.
Here's a little tip ... ring out the mitt after you take it out of the bucket on the top of the area you will be working on. I think Aaron from the Edge has a video of this .... This will allow suds to travel down the panel and create the lubrication needed and prevent the friction which you feel. It'll be very similar to a foam bath without a foam gun, and you won't be 'wasting' the suds in the mitt.
Great review. I've only used the wheel Ulti-Mitt and found it to be absolutely horrible after the first use. Thing was so big and felt like it weighed about 732 lbs. Then it started to come apart after a few uses so I walked right over to my trash can and threw it away. Now when I tell people "I've wasted money on stupider stuff" I'm usually referring to that mitt.
I first bought the 'white with yellow back' ShMITT and didn't like that the pockets weren't very deep. My car had more swirls after washing then when I used just a sheepskin mit. I figured it was because the pockets weren't deep enough to keep the dirt away from the paint. If I wash really really lightly then the soap all stayed in the ShMITT. With the Ulti-Mit I personally found a meager amount of scratches after washing compared to the Shmitt..(just my subjective opinion of looking at my car after drying it.. and before claying i should mention) When I wash my car I first foam it and then use a sheepskin mit and go line by line and remove the large particles.. flushing the mit with the hose after every pass. I used to use just a sheepskin mit but found way too much stuff in my clay afterwards. After this I go over it with the Ulti-Mit and the two bucket method. I have never been able to find any individual dirt particles in either mit.. just a general dirty browness to the mits. I use the yellow Ulti-Mit in my fenders and on my tires and wheels and I can defininantly see dirt caught in the cracks of the mit when doing that... its not perfect however as I can see particles on top of the mit. I have never used the more abrasive Shmitt so i can't compare.. I should also mention that when I wash this area I first use a brush rinse and then use the yellow ulti-mit. I do this because I want to remove the bulk with the brush and because brushes don't remove everything (just my subjective opinion of looking at my car once its dry). But with the way I wash I have found far few scratches with the Ulti-Mitt compared to the Shmitt... and I haven't found anything that cleans as well... before this I tried sheepskin, chenile, and microfiber. Oh well.. i realize that this post it not to compare the mits I mentioned but instead to compare it to the claimes made by LC and AutoGeek.. and I agree that most of their claims are exagerated... But I still really like my mit.. so just thought I would add my 2 cents.:bla2::bla2: I also have owned my red ulti-mit for atleast a year in a half and it still looks like new... I personally thought it would not last just by looking at it and I have had problems with the velcrow coming off my LC pads in the past. On the other hand I have gone through about 6 sheepskin mits since i bought it. I used my shmitt for wheel duty until it got to gunked up to clean(this was my fault as I got grease in it) and trashed it.. but it never fell apart either.
Interesting findings. I've always enjoyed how some tools/ products seems to be the perfect fit for some people while they simply don't cut it for others. I haven't picked up either of my Shmitts or any of my lw mitts since getting my Ulti-mit right when they came out. I've found less gritt on the surface of the mitt after washing a larger area. I've found that it suds much more than the Shmitt and holds a ton more *very* sudsy solution. Perhaps I'll get my shmitt out this afternoon and do a side by side test.
If you do, could snap a picture of the Ulti-mitt washing a window, from the inside of the vehicle, to see what the mitt looks like against the surface? If not, no big deal, I'll try to do it in the near future. Thanks
Well I snapped a few pictures, which clearly show the grooves opened up to allowing the dirt a place to go. My only complaint about the Ulti-mitt is that the black backing holds too much suds making it difficult to rinse out. But as I've said before, the new double sided mitt should prevent that. While at it, I brought out the shmitt to show why I don't like using it -- there is minimal contact area which makes it difficult to completely clean a panel. The second picture of the shmitt is after apply a lot of pressure, which gets a panel completely clean yet dirt has no place to go and has a great chance of marring. Plus, the shmitt simply does not last long. Granted mine isn't a good example, I have abused it (darn Harley engines), but before that it would tear effortlessly on a badge or nib on a headlight. The glue has held up but now has been relegated to bike duty. All of this is simply my opinion and should be treated as such. The pictures should tell the story though so here they are:
