hessteh@aol.com

a guy who does professional detailing (very good) He claims that a dense sponge with smallish holes is MUCH better than a mitt. Claims that a sponge will rinse dirt particles out better than a mitt, resulting in less scratching. I disagree, based on others' comments and my experience. Just spilled ground coffee in the kitchen and they remained in the sponge after wiping it up. Does this prove that mitts are better than sponges? What does everyone think, and use?

LI-S4

I think the opposite from your detailing friend..

The soft nature of the lambswool allows the mitt to pick up the dirt and not press it against the paint...the sponge, a dense one, will hold the dirt on the surface of the sponge closer to the paint.

And the lambswool rinses soooooo easily!

ATH

including the bottom panels, it's still perfectly white. I have had no problem with scratching at all.

RickM

With a sponge, especially a very dense sponge of the type you're describing, as you move it across the paint there's nowhere for the dirt to go but onto the flat surface of the sponge itself, which is being pressed against the car. So the dirt gets trapped between the sponge and the car and gets dragged against the paint for as long as the sponge remains in contact. This would seem to maximize the potential for scratching. With a mitt, some of the dirt will get dragged against the paint as you go, but most of it won't as the fibers grab ahold of it and then roll and shift with the movement of the mitt. So while there's a potential for scratching with both, I see less potential with a mitt.

I soak the car down real well before starting to wash, for a few minutes, to loosen and wash away as much dirt as I can before touching the car. Then I use a sopping wet mitt.

phred

that's soft and porous. I wouldn't trust any other sponge.

I guess it's kinda low-class, but I use a chenille washing pad (wrapped around hunk of foam) that I get at the Boys of Pep, I think it's a Turtle Wax branded product. And I keep it really sopping and dunk it often.

MESH_KING

Ridiculously plush and soft. Rinses clean away, not that there is much dirt on it. Pricey but the only thing I trust on my paint. I used to use a dense sponge when I didn't know anything about detailing and caused a lot of micro scratching. Never again.