With all the hype about grout sponges on Autopia, I had to at least give them a go. I'd love to hear anybody others feedback on them as well.

I bought the new and preferred Lowes sponge. First time I used it was with ONR, and I wouldn't recommend that again as its very messy which isn't the intention for me with ONR. My garage floor was soaking wet when I was done.

Today I pulled out the hose, which is a rarity for me these days. First thing I noticed was how small the sponge was in my hand. Then I realized how many suds it was creating though, way more than my normal mitts. Washing was fine, definitely felt different than my mitts, but not worse. Part of me felt like it wasn't washing as well, but I don't think that was a reality. I could just feel the water squeezing out of the sponge with every pass. Made me realize that I'm probably pressing way to hard with my washing technique...so hopefully I learned something from that!

Best part about this sponge was the rinse. In my rinse bucket I was able to get the sponge looking absolutely brand new for each wash. It was crazy. Normally on my mitts there is always some dirt that doesn't rinse no matter how hard I try. But the sponge was perfectly clean after relatively easy rinsing and squeezing. I really liked that.

Overall I liked it...mostly because of how clean I got the sponge. That made me feel very comfortable with continued use during my wash. I already had the grout sponge on order from Detailed Image, so it will be interesting to see how this stacks up to the famed one from Lowes.

 

Good read TheIvoryG. It is a different experience than using other types of mitts. I'm excited to read about your comparison between the Lowes grout sponge and our new Lake Country Grout Sponge.

Cheers,

George

 

The reason they were so good was because they are cheap (1.99), Cleans easliy after each time you take it out of the rinse bucket and holds alot of suds.

But the grout sponge spoiledman recommended was the home depot Superiorbilt grout sponge and it was only sold in california.

 

I was going to try that one...but then I read more that this one from Lowes was supposed to be even better. Its the "Proline" grout sponge, the pores are noticeable larger on this one than the rest of them.

I might have to give the HD one a try too...but am very interested to compare them to the Lake Country as well which has some differences. I think its all sliced up instead of just being a straight sponge?

 

I am still scared of sponges, and haven't seen the need for something other than sheepskin mitts. Looking forward to your long term assessment

 

the HD ones are hard to find for me, so i stocked up on the Proline GS's. ive used them before with ONR and it worked out well. for those who are worried about marring and scratches, spoiledman does have some before and after pics showing no damage.

 

i use grout sponges at work and they hold a TON of water, I have never thought to use them when detailing my car though, I am going to have to give this a try

 

I'm with you redlude. What sold me on these was the huge pores and how soft they are. Definitely eased some of the fears. I've seen other grout sponges that I just couldn't touch my car with. I don't think they are the end all solution, but I can see why there is some hype on them at least.

 

I still use a micorfiber mitt..works good with me. Maybe im behind the times already..haha.

 

Finally got a chance to test the Lake County Grout Sponge that I bought from Detailed Image.

Let me start by saying I'm a huge fan of ONR...and I have officially decided that grout sponges are just not best suited for ONR. Because they rinse so clean and efficiently, it just releases too much water which ultimately ends up on your garage floor. Personally...that's just not why I use ONR.

That being said, I did try this sponge with an ONR wash and a hose and bucket wash. When I first tried the Proline sponge from Lowe's, I was truly impressed. So this review is going to be in comparison to the Proline sponge as well as my traditional MF mitt.

Compared to the Proline(PL from this point on) sponge, first thing you notice about the Lake County(LC from this point on) sponge is that its much bigger and thicker. I really liked that about it. The proline sponge feels really small in your hand. The holes in the sponge on the LC are not as big as the PL. You can notice this difference when you rinse. The PL sponge truly rinses almost fully clean, to the point that it looks brand new every time. The LC sponge is just thicker and hold more...which means more suds but I think also means more dirt. This is the only thing that I think the PL sponge beats out the LC. The LC sponge has slits cut into it, which I originally didn't know what the purpose was, but I wound up really liking them. It makes the sponge quite a bit more versatile in cracks and creases. Downfall to the LC sponge is cost...its more than twice the cost. However...at $5 its still cheaper than any MF or sheepskin mitts.

Compared to my MF mitt, the LC sponge holds just as much if not more suds. Its so thick that it can hold a ton of water which in turn holds a ton of suds. The biggest advantage is how much cleaner it rinses than MF. After a good rinse, no matter how dirty it was, the sponge came out extremely clean giving me more confidence to put it back on my paint. Using the two bucket method, I truly felt that less dirt was on the spong giving me less chance of swirling.

So long story short...the LC sponge is excellent. Using ONR, I still will typically lean toward my MF mitt strictly because it doesn't release as much water. However, the LC sponge very well could overtake that as I get more comfortable with it. I will never use the PL sponge with ONR again. With a bucket and hose wash, I will absolutely go with the LC sponge over the MF mitt. Washes just as good, but ultimately rinses cleaner which I love.

So there you go!

 

Excellent info Ivory...thank you. I've also been following all the hype about sponges and you've convinced me to try one.

 

A sponge that is probably the safest sponge you can get is the Natural Sea Sponge. It's ten times more than the PL one and four times more than the LC, but is very good. I haven't heard a bad thing about it. It has big pores and is very durable. A lot of people like them and prefer them over Grout Sponges, Washmitts, etc.. etc... I haven't tried it personally. But I think I may just stick with sheepskin/lambswool washmitts. They're the most common wash medium for a reason!

 

only bad thing ive heard about natural sea sponges are the chance you run of sand and salts being hidden in the pores and risking some major scratches. otherwise, ive only heard good things

 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the LC Grout Sponge TheIvoryG

Good read and great comparison between other wash mediums.

Cheers,

George