What is the difference between a ceramic coating and wax?
There is a huge difference in the longevity of wax and ceramic coatings, and how much maintenance each requires.
Car waxes are a blend of waxes such as bee's wax, carnauba wax, and/or synthetic waxes. Like all waxes, they are soft, and they melt, and so they have a relatively short life on your car before the sun burns them off, or they wear away. Depending on the type of wax, how much use a car gets and the environmental conditions, a car wax will last anywhere from a week to a year. This means you will have to keep reapplying it. Even if you have a wax that will last a year, after six months it will only offer half the protection it did.
Ceramic coatings, and coatings in general, are quite different from a wax. They are more like a paint, and because they bond using synthetic resins, they are very strong and durable. Nothing lasts forever, but they are about permanent as they can be. Over time, they will wear thin in places, but once applied to your car, they won't come off.
Ceramic coatings are also far shinier and hydrophobic than any wax, and they offer greater protection against chemical etching and even resistance against light scratches.
A huge benefit of ceramic coatings over waxes, is the former has self-cleaning abilities which means you have to wash your car far less often, and when you do clean it, it's easier.
Written by Danny Argent. Last updated 02/05/2023 17:09