Best Soap For Ceramic Coated Cars In 2024 [Easy to Find!]

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The best soap for your ceramic coated vehicle is going to be the one recommended by the maker of your ceramic coating. No one knows how to maintain your coating better than the people who created it.

If you’d rather use a more common soap, make sure it’s ph-neutral and doesn’t contain any wax.

For example, if your car is coated with one of Gyeon’s coatings, Gyeon Bathe is going to be the best choice of soap. Does that mean that you must stick to the same product line to maintain your coating? Not necessarily. As a matter of fact, I don’t on any of my personal vehicles.

Top pick

Lithium Double Tap

The highest quality soap I’ve tested. It leaves no residue behind and can even be used in direct sun!

Most popular

Adam’s Car Shampoo

Many detailing enthusiasts tried and true soap. This one’s very popular in the Obsessed Garage FB group.

Best rinseless

Optimum No Rinse

My favorite rinseless wash can also safely be used on ceramic coated vehicles. This is a time saver!

How I tested these soaps:

Each of the soaps recommended in this article have been extensively tested by myself. While using them, I paid attention to a few factors:

  • Slickness
  • Residue or film left behind
  • Water behavior of the ceramic coating after washing with each soap

Each shampoo mentioned here had to receive a passing grade on each of these criteria before I was willing to recommend them to you.

What soap can you use on ceramic coatings safely?

Remember, the most important things are that your soap is ph-neutral and won’t leave any wax behind. That opens up a pretty wide array of available options. Here are a few popular ones:

Lithium Double Tap

Lithium Double Tap Car Wash

Lithium Double Tap Car Wash is my personal favorite if I’m going to use a normal soap with a 2 bucket wash. I’ve been testing it on both coated and uncoated vehicles and it’s been easy to manage even in less than ideal conditions (yes, I wash cars in the direct sun with it!).

Lithium developed it so that it doesn’t leave any residue behind and it hydrates your paint rather than dries it out. It’s gentle enough to avoid stripping any wax from your car so it’s certainly safe to use on your ceramic coating.

Adam’s Car Shampoo

Adam’s Car Shampoo is a very common car soap in the detailing world. It works great in foam cannons but it’s also a bit on the expensive side.

This one has been made even more popular by Matt from Obsessed Garage who has shown time and time again that it’s perfectly safe to use for maintaining a ceramic coated car. This video is a prime example:

Optimum No Rinse

Optimum No Rinse is my personal favorite for washing coated vehicles. I often have no choice but to wash a car in the sun and using ONR makes it much more manageable. Make sure to stick with the blue version as the green one has wax in it.

I still use a hose or pressure washer to pre-rinse the vehicle because I feel like it’s an important factor in avoiding scratches – especially on a car you’ve paid to have ceramic coated!

Meguiar’s Gold Class Car Wash

Meguiar’s Gold Class is often recommended by many professional detailers after they’ve applied a ceramic coating for you. In the event that you can’t find the other soaps listed in this article, you can always grab this one from your local big box store.

I’ve used Gold Class Shampoo on all of my vehicles with great results. You might feel better about pampering your car with one of the above fancy soaps but this one is perfectly safe to use on coatings.

My only complaint is that it smells like men’s cologne which I suppose is a love it or hate it kind of thing.

How often should you wash a ceramic coated car?

The short answer is rather often. Giving your daily driven car a maintenance wash once a week is a good goal to set if possible. Now, if your car is a garage kept weekend warrior, it more than likely won’t get dirty enough to need to be washed that often.

The important thing is to keep your coated car as clean as you can. Ceramic coatings don’t like being dirty. Contamination will cause their water beading/sheeting properties to diminish temporarily.

This will usually return after a few thorough washes so it isn’t necessarily the end of the world.

The dirt and grime can also build up over time requiring a heavy duty cleaner to remove it. Once you step up to a stronger soap or degreaser, you run the risk of harming the coating or even stripping the top coat (I’ve done this). That can be costly if you’ve paid to have your coating applied.

Ceramic coating friendly soaps

Using a drying aid or detail spray that’s meant to work on coatings is a great way to prolong its life. You don’t have to do this every time if you don’t want to, but every couple of washes is a nice habit to get into.

The extra lubrication also helps to avoid creating scratches when drying which is always a good thing.

Check out this article for more tips on washing your ceramic coated car:

The best plan of attack when it comes to maintaining your ceramic coated car is to stay on top of cleaning it with a gentle ph-neutral soap. If you don’t allow it to get overly dirty in the first place, you won’t have to worry about any of these issues arising. Don’t neglect it.

Can you go through a car wash with a ceramic coating?

Your coating should offer fairly good protection against chemicals. That’s intended more for occasional spills (like at the gas station), bird droppings, and bug guts. It’s not a good idea to test your coating’s limits by taking it through a touch-free car wash.

Have you ever wondered how those car washes can clean your vehicle without scrubbing or agitating the soap at all? It’s because it’s acidic. It’s really strong stuff. While your coating might put up a good fight, it’s really not worth the risk. There’s too much at stake.

I shouldn’t have to tell you that car washes with brushes are a horrible idea. You’ve either spent a ton of time or a ton of money having your paint corrected to as close to perfection as possible before having the ceramic coating applied.

Those brushes will certainly cause a ton of bad scratches as soon as they touch your car.

Taking a ceramic coated car through a car wash

While your coating might offer some scratch resistance, that doesn’t mean it’s scratch proof. The amount of protection it might give you is nowhere near enough to save you from those evil brushes. There’s no question: Taking your car through a traditional car wash will scratch your paint.

All of this means that a hand wash is the safest way to clean your ceramic coated car. For some, that’s too much work. I’m sorry but that’s not much of an excuse.

If you care enough about your car to have it coated, you can spare 45 mins to an hour every week or two to give it a quick wash. Who knows, you might even find it relaxing.

If you’re just not open to doing the work yourself, you can always hire a detailer to do it for you.

Many of them will have maintenance programs that you can join where they take care of your car at the necessary intervals – it’s like a monthly subscription. Just make sure they’re aware that it’s coated and treat it as such.

Can you use a rinseless wash on a ceramic coated car?

Believe it or not, yes! This isn’t something that’s talked about very often but it’s something I’ve personally tested for years. My rinseless wash of choice is Optimum No Rinse and I’ve never had an issue with it changing the behavior of the coating or leaving behind any streaks.

It’s really easy to get that freshly polished finish without any water spots or streaks sticking around. I use it in the direct sun too.

Optimum No Rinse on ceramic coatings

Choosing a rinseless wash is basically the same thing as choosing a traditional soap. You don’t need to overthink it.

Just find one that doesn’t contain any wax (that will change water behavior or cause streaks). I don’t know of any rinseless washes that contain heavy duty cleaners or degreasers so that shouldn’t be a concern here.

Make sure to follow safe rinseless wash procedures, especially if your car is really dirty. There is nothing wrong with giving the car a quick pre-rinse with either a pressure washer or the garden hose.

This is even more helpful on a coated vehicle because the self-cleaning characteristics allow you to remove a lot of the dirt and grime before you ever touch it. That lessens the chances of wash induced scratches being created.

5 responses to “Best Soap For Ceramic Coated Cars In 2024 [Easy to Find!]”

  1. Jessica wiliam Avatar
    Jessica wiliam

    Thank guys. This helps me a lot. The best ceramic car wash soap can boast the coating’s protective capabilities and keep it well-preserved over time.

  2. Dan Avatar
    Dan

    Great articles man, I swear by autoglym products. Would their soaps be any good for ceramic? Just got a new Dodge and it’s in getting ceramic right now and I’m new to it. Thanks from SK

    1. Canadian Gearhead Avatar
      Canadian Gearhead

      I would ask whoever is doing your coating for their opinion for sure. As long as the soap doesn’t contain any waxes or aggressive cleaners it should be ok though.

      -Tim

      1. Lea Avatar
        Lea

        Im not opposed to the effort involved in hand washing, but how do you get the road salt off during a Minnesota winter and no heated area to do a wash?

        1. Canadian Gearhead Avatar
          Canadian Gearhead

          On a mild day, I’ll take it to a coin operated car wash to pressure wash it, then follow up with a rinseless wash in the driveway/garage.

          -Tim

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