How To Increase the Longevity of a Ceramic Coating

Ceramic coatings are an amazing product in the automotive detailing world and offer incredible paint protection and hydrophobic abilities which can make washing your car a much easier and quicker process however that doesn’t mean they don’t need to be maintained and taken care. It’s essential that you do general maintenance on your ceramic coated vehicle to squeeze the most longevity out of your ceramic coating!

There are several steps you can take to extent the longevity of your ceramic or graphene coating but there are a few that are quite easy to do. Firstly, doing something even as simple as parking your vehicle in the garage or under shade regularly can help improve the longevity of your coating. When the coating is outside and has the heat and elements beating down it, it can start to wear away and breakdown your coating. That’s just something that will happen no matter what type of paint sealant you use whether it’s a ceramic or graphene coating or even a wax. If you can or have the ability to it’s better to park your vehicle in the garage or at least try to keep it in a shaded area. Now if you can’t do that, don’t worry because there’s other options you have, and they will still help the durability and longevity of your ceramic anyways.

Simple maintenance like washing your vehicle once every 1-2 weeks will drastically improve the longevity of your ceramic coating since you’re washing away any contaminants that may be sitting on the coating and essentially breaking it down. Try and stay away from low pH soaps, low pH soaps are considered acidic and can start to eat away at the coating which you don’t want. Something like Dawn which some people swear by is actually very bad for the clear coat of your vehicle and especially a ceramic coating. Dawn Dish Soap is low pH and is formulated to remove tough grease and food from your dishes and metal silverware….it’s not meant for use on a vehicle paint, clear coat or any kind of coating/sealant. Instead try to stick to a pH neutral car shampoo which will offer the best results for decontaminating your paint and coating safely and still leaving behind a deep shine.

Besides the soap you use the item you use and technique you use when handwashing your vehicle can have an effect on the longevity as well. Always use a soft microfiber mitt to wash your vehicle and always wash it from top to bottom in straight lines. Never hand wash in circular motions, you’re not only creating more drag but you’re promoting the possibility of micro marring and scratches which ceramic coatings help prevent but they can still happen. The reason for washing top to bottom is because the top of the vehicle is cleaner than the bottom that’s closest to the road meaning your mitt will pick up more dirt on the bottom and the last thing you want to do is possible bring that dirt up to the top, wipe and drag the dirt across your vehicle potentially scratching it and then having that dirt fall right back down to the bottom part of the panel.

One more technique you should consider trying is the tw0-bucket method. All it entails is that you have a bucket with your soapy mixture and then you have a rinse bucket with nothing but water. Once you dip your mitt in the soapy bucket and wipe your car down, you dip it in the rinse bucket to rinse off any dirt or grime that could be on the mitt instead of putting into your soapy bucket and potentially taking it back to the vehicle.

One of the last but probably the best possible way of improving the longevity of your ceramic coated vehicle is by applying another layer of ceramic or graphene overtop of it. There are tons of different ways you can go about doing this. There’s ceramic and graphene sprayable coatings which are as simple as spraying on, wiping and buffing off. There are ceramic or graphene soaps which you can wash your vehicle with and you would wash the vehicle the same way you normally do and doing this frequently is probably the easiest way of maintenance. There are also different graphene and ceramic waxes you can use which take the longest to apply but are arguably the best products to use on a ceramic coating to boost it’s longevity!

The choice is really up to you on which products you use to maintain your vehicle but if you use all the tips given above you’ll drastically improve the lifetime of any ceramic or graphene coating! Again thank you for reading. We hope this information provided you with some insight about maintaining your SI02 coating. Detail Medic is a small family run manufacturer. Please support our business and trusting us with your auto detailing needs.