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Detailingworld™ Review - CarPro Iron X Snow Soap

14K views 0 replies 1 participant last post by  Brian1612 
#1 ·
Introduction

First many thanks to Craig, the man behind CarPro UK who sent me out a large box of various goodies for review. 2nd in line for review is CarPro's Iron X Snow Soap which follows on from CarPro's bug and insect removal product called Bug-Off.

For any more information on Iron X Snow Soap or the rest of the CarPro range, you can follow the following link to the CarPro UK website listed below:

https://carpro.uk.com/

The Product



CarPro Iron X Snow Soap from my understanding is designed as a mild decontamination shampoo/snow foam for use in maintenance washes as opposed to an out and out fallout remover from what I have read. I believe it is designed to keep iron contaminants at bay after a full decontamination wash, preventing the build up of fallout again over time, especially useful on coated cars that offer extreme durability and won't be overly effected by the Iron X Soap.

CarPro also provide a very extensive product description on the website which you can read below:

"CarPro's Soap Gel has under gone some major changes! It is now known as CarPro Snow Soap and can be used in with multiple wash methods including as a snow foam or as it was previously used adding directly to your mitt.

After a vehicle has been properly de-contaminated IXSS will keep it free of iron particles far more than any other car wash. If the vehicle has been previously coated with CQuartz or CQuartz Finest IX Snow Soap is a perfect match for maintenance. Clean your car and remove iron particles at the same time! It still has the same concentration of Iron x within the product. But it has now been adapted to be used as a dedicated Snow Foam also, while maintaining its fallout removal, and indication of ferrous particles on the paint surface.

Features:

- pH Neutral
- High Lubricity
- Uses only the highest quality cleaning agents & emulsifiers to wash your
vehicles surfaces.
- Snow Soap cuts through grime & traffic film with ease.
- Excellent wheel cleaner - Agitate the gel directly on the surface of the
wheel.
- Cleanses the bodywork softly with rich foam
- Smooths the surface
- Use on paint, glass, wheels, headlights, plastic trim, clear bras
- Excellent on wheels (Apply gel directly to wheel and agitate the surface)
- Snow Soap has now become the first step in total paint decontamination."

The Method

Firstly lets start with the instructions provided by CarPro. These are extensive and cover several different application methods:

'Directions as Snow Foam: (As with any car shampoo never wash your car while warm or in direct sunlight)

1. Rinse your car well using power wash to remove dust & contaminants.

2. Add Soap Gel to warm water and shake well to mix within the snow foam lance.

3. Set your lance to give the desired effect and foam concentration you require.

4. Snow foam your car as normal and allow to dwell.

5. Dependant on the concentrations of the foam on the cars surface. You may notice a colour change effect taking place, whiles the foam is in contact with heavy fallout.

6. Rinse well, prior to moving on to your hand wash process.

Directions as Hand Wash:

1.-Thoroughly rinse the surface to remove all large and/or loose particles.

2.-Apply Soap directly to mitt or sponge and wash a section before rinsing the mitt/sponge and repeating with the next section. (While Snow Soap is used as a hand wash. It should not be added to your wash bucket)

3.-You will notice the soap gel changing color where it encounters iron. This indicates fallout removal and highlights the areas of concern where you may wish to follow up with either Iron X paste or liquid, later on in the decontamination process. While small iron particals will be removed by IXSS larger particles or vehicles that have not been thoroughyl decontaminated previously will require the higher concentrated Iron X Liquid or Paste later in the process.

4.-Thoroughly rinse all surfaces

Special Notes:

IronX SoapGel will affect oil base waxes by approximately 50%. Do not use as a mainenance wash unless you are decontaminating your vehicle or it has been protected with a durable sealant or semi-permanent coating (such as Cquartz).

Avoid using on fabric convertible tops.'

I considered all the possible application methods stated by CarPro when testing this product out but with only 500ml of product available, I ruled out the 1:8 dilution in a bucket as a viable test. The reason for this came down to just how uneconomical the method is when used as a shampoo in the bucket which requires a maximum of 1:8 dilution (CarPro advise you can go more concentrated for better reaction).

That would mean as an example, roughly 550ml of product topped up to the 10L mark with water for a 1:8 dilution, again making it extremely uneconomical. You could drop the amount of water used to 5L as an absolute minimum I reckon but it's still going to require around 250ml of Iron X Soap so only 2 washes from a 500ml bottle. For me this isn't financially viable for personal or commercial use and that is why it has been excluded from the test. This review will cover the use of Iron X Snow Soap as a foam neat through a foam lance, applied neat to the wash mitt and also via a spray bottle at 1:8 dilution.

While giving my little Abarth it's bi-weekly maintenance wash I mixed up a spray bottle with 55ml of Iron X Soap with 445ml of water (1:8) for use as a wheel cleaner/shampoo.



Once the wheels had been pressure washed down to remove all the loose dirt, I liberally applied the Iron X Soap to the alloy and allowed this to dwell around 2 minutes.



There was some reaction to be seen but having spoke to Chris at CarPro I think a more concentrated mix at 1:4 would have yielded more effective reaction. Regardless the cleaning power was better than any normal shampoo I have used on alloy wheels. With agitation it foamed up very well and it had no problems removing any build up of brake dust in the tighter spots.



These wheels are currently protected with a coat of wheel sealant which was applied roughly 2 months ago. Prior to washing, the alloy was still showing signs of protection and once rinsed it was clear to see the sealant was still present and doing it's job. The Iron X Snow Soap didn't appear to have much, if any negative effect on the sealant making it suitable on protected alloys/paintwork.



I then had the perfect donor vehicle dropped off, a white Citroen Berlingo van belonging to my brother in law. This was left with me for some enhancement work which made it ideal for further testing of the Iron X Snow Soap as it will show the fallout bleeding clearly. The van was given a thorough pre-wash, 2BM wash and a de-tar leaving it ready for some chemical fallout removal.

Firstly I decided to try the neat application via wash mitt.



5 pumps of the Iron X Snow Soap was applied directly to the mitt and the rear of the van was washed down. The soap/shampoo was extremely slick on the mitt and generated plenty of suds during the wipe down. I wasn't too keen on the idea of something smelly being on my wash mitt but in all honesty it wasn't really an issue and it was barely noticeable in use.



However very little reaction occurred, there was a slight purple tinge to the suds but overall reaction for being applied neat was disappointing.



To rule out the possibility that there wasn't any contamination on the panel in the first place, the rear doors were treated to an application of dedicated fallout remover. As you can see in the below photo's the panel absolutely lit up with embedded particles.





The results of this confirmed for me that the snow soap wasn't nearly as effective as a dedicated fallout removal product. That said I doubt the van has ever been decontaminated so to expect the Iron X Snow Soap to deal with this easily wouldn't be very fair. What is clear is that the product does react and remove a little of the embedded contamination, confirming that as a maintenance step for controlling fallout build up on a recently decontaminated car it should help. Next up was testing the Iron X Soap via the snow foam lance. Roughly 100ml of neat product was added to the foam bottle.



With the van dry the full drivers side was coated in an extremely thick layer of snow foam.



It clung extremely well but there wasn't much in the way of reaction even after a few minutes.



The foam was then agitated with the wash mitt which did create some purple tinge to the suds.



Again though I didn't see much reaction and when followed up with a dedicated fallout remover the panel lit up with purple bleed trails.



Overall I could see some use and reason for applying Iron X Soap directly onto the mitt and especially via spray bottle at 1:4-1:8 dilution. However with regards to the snow foam application, I don't see it as worth while and with the lack of results almost feels like a total waste of product used in this fashion.

Price

CarPro offer several options when it comes to purchasing Iron X Snow Soap with sizes and prices listed below:

500ml: £11.99
1L: £19.99
4L: £64.99
20L: £230

As you can see they offer a size to suit everyone's needs. Price wise it certainly isn't cheap but being dilutable does go in it's favor value wise. A link to the 500ml bottle seen here is provided below:

https://carpro.uk.com/collections/tar-tree-sap-fallout-removers/products/iron-x-snow-soap-500ml

Would I use it again?

I would but not for the majority of the methods CarPro suggest. As I don't use any coatings I don't think I would get any real benefit out of using this as a maintenance decon shampoo. For my alloys though I see this is a fantastic shampoo/wheel cleaner that offers mild fallout removal abilities while still being safe on my wheel sealant as far as I am aware during testing.

CarPro Iron X Soap isn't the cheapest product but with dilutions ratios ranging from 1:4 to 1:8 and the performance on offer for said dilutions I think it makes sense as a maintenance wheel cleaner.

Conclusion

This is a tough one to summarise. I can't knock CarPro Iron X Snow Soap for it's mild decontamination abilities as it is clearly advertised in this way by the company. Does it replace a full blown iron fallout remover? Certainly not. But then CarPro haven't marketed it as such. In an ideal world I would have a white ceramic coated car and use Iron X Soap on only one half of it for several months. I could then test how safe it is on the ceramic coat along with how well it keeps fallout at bay, by hitting the fall car with fallout remover and comparing how much bleeding occurs on either side of the car. That would be the perfect scenario which I don't have sadly.

What I can give is an educated guess/opinion on how this product would perform in the scenario above. Will it aid in keeping iron contaminates at bay for longer? Yes I think it would certainly do so used either neat on the wash mitt during a 2BM wash or by applying to the car panels via spray bottle at a 1:4 - 1:8 dilution.

Can I recommend this to you? In specific circumstances yes I can without a doubt. It isn't a situation everyone will be in but for those looking to maintain their ceramic coating/yearly coat of sealant I think this product makes sense. My only real gripe with this product is the instructions for snow foam and bucket use. Simply put it is a total waste of product used in either way and if you want it to remove fallout don't bother with either.

I think CarPro ultimately would really benefit from updating both the name and instructions of the Iron X Snow Soap. I personally see this only as a 'decontamination maintenance shampoo' and would drop the snow foam side of the product completely. I also think the bucket method wash at 1:8 isn't plausible and would drop this instruction altogether as well. Finally I would think offering the Iron X 'Shampoo' with a nice, economical pouring nozzle to allow neat application to the mitt effortlessly would be a really nice addition to the product but also make clearer to users how this product can and should be used.

DW reviewer has followed the Manufacturer's Instructions and accepts no responsibility to any circumstances arising from any member using these products or following this test.
 
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