Wanted to share recent experiences and research since there was a lot of interested in a recent ceramic thread.

Research:
that thread prompted me to educate myself on ceramic and the different products. What I found was that there were tons of products. Sprays, wipes, applicators,etc. with an array of prices, results, etc.

Then I found scott hd on YouTube who cut down on the bullsh!t. He has tested hundreds of ceramics. All of the results are actually posted in an excel spreadsheet with links to results and prices, etc.

after sifting thru the information I opted to try the griots 3 in 1 ceramic wax (for top and sides) and car pro quartz (for the bottom).

I chose these 2 products for the following reasons.

griots:
-very easy to use
-cheap $20
-relatively durable
-found in local stores

car pro quartz:
-very durable
-easier than most applicator ceramics to use
-relatively cheap $90
-had to be ordered online

after using both products they have impressed me in different ways.

the griots product is super simple to use. it can be applied in 1/3 of the time of wax and It has excellent hydrophobic properties.

the car pro quartz was semi challenging to use. I’ll admit I’d likely not use it on paint or highly visible areas. Applicator ceramic is definately an acquired talent that takes training. The hydrophobic properties are amazing!!! The wear resistance so far is excellent.

In subsequent posts I will show before and afters and address some of the typical questions about brown staining.

do ceramics prevent brown staining. For us the answer is yes. We have been out with the boat 5 times (fresh and salt)…running time around 6-7 hours. Boat was in the water for 20-30 hours. and it’s very visible where the ceramic is protecting the gel. We purposely left the rear chines untreated because we wanted to see the difference in protection. As you can see it’s quite obvious where the ceramic starts and ends.

pic:

The other test we did was apply the cheap griots ceramic wax on a small portion of the rear chine to see how it would hold up on the bottom. It’s holding up surprising well with just one coat. Again. You can see the difference in color.

I will continue to update this thread with results and feedback on how the ceramic performs.

so far I am fairly impressed.

here is another picture of how the car pro quartz finished on the transom

Here is how the griots finished on the sides and top.

I am going to chime in on this too. I used a relatively cheap product off eBay and am very happy so far this year with the results. The black stains have not come back and things like the occasional bird poop stain wash off and don't get "soaked in". I'll find the product tomorrow and post. Probably don't have but 100 bucks in it. Will do another coat next year - only did 1 coat this year.....

The REAL ceramic coatings are the real deal. The word ceramic is being thrown around very irresponsibly in our industry right now. Not everything is a true ceramic coating!

I don’t know what that means…

i do know that some of the $500-600 ceramics didnt perform well in the tests.

at the end of the day it’s about results; not marketing hype, price, etc.

I almost bought the turtle wax ceramic…it performed amazingly well for $20. After doing more research it performed well in almost every channels tests.

This information is very helpful in that this is a REAL person trying out products that they researched online and then actually showing real RESULTS and telling us what conditions the results were obtained in. Thank you so much!

Amazing the difference both ceramics made on the bottom of the boat!

What it means is they are using the word ceramic for products that may have very little to no actual ceramic products in it. While you may find consumer grade products that will work for a while, (i mean if you spend 20 bucks and are happy, you're not a looking for a true ceramic) the next word they are throwing around is Graphene. most of the products that are out now that are consumer based will last a couple months, true ceramic needs to be applied on paint that has been buffed and then de-greased as real ceramic will not stick to wax residues left. most otc products are loaded with petroleum distillates as well which in the long run is bad for gelcoat. true ceramic coating takes time and isnt cheap... its what i do for a living. these are pics with Xpels new Marine coating, much thicker than ceramic for cars even. here is myself talking with Pat Goss on motorweek about it as well...