What’s The Difference Between Wax And Sealant?
Sealant vs wax, what’s the difference and which is best…?
Waxes, sealants, glazes, ceramic coatings… When it comes to buying car cleaning products, things can quickly get confusing.
Paint protection in particular is a such an important part of the detailing process, as once you’ve washed your car it’s this protection that’s stopping all the contaminants and impurities from the road — including dirt, tar, bug guts and bird poop — from bonding on to your vehicle and dirtying it up all over again.
It’s also one of the most important parts from an aesthetic standpoint, as that final bit of effort with a good wax or sealant can really take your car’s appearance to the next level by improving the shine of its finish and its ability to repel water.
So what’s the difference between car wax, sealant, glazes and coatings and which is best for you? Read on to find out.
WAX VS SEALANT VS GLAZE VS CERAMIC COATING
There’s such a huge number of different options when it comes to paint protection and enhancement that it can be hard to know what the difference is between them and what the pros and cons are of each.
Let’s start by first of all looking at what they all have in common: waxes, sealants, glazes and coatings are all designed to offer that final layer of protection and aesthetic enhancement. They form an invisible barrier over your vehicle and help prevent dirt and grime from bonding to your paint and dulling your finish.
Where they differ is generally in their individual properties of durability and aesthetic appeal.
Some products, like natural waxes, offer unparalleled shine and glossiness but won’t last long. Others, like high-quality ceramic coatings can offer protection that lasts for months or even years but typically won’t offer the same visual appeal as a wax.
Below, we’ve included a bit of information about each product type and how it compares to others, along with our personal recommendations for which we think works best from our own experience.
WAX
Durability: Low
Aesthetics: High
Most quality car waxes are made from Carnauba wax, a naturally occurring wax that’s harvested from palm trees. It comes in a range of different grades and purities which is usually reflected in both price and quality, with T1 being the best grade possible.
The biggest benefit of car wax is its ability to enhance your paintwork. A good quality wax will bring out the colour in your vehicle, fill minor imperfections in the paint surface and create a rich, deep reflection that’s unparalleled compared to other paint protection products.
On the flip side, wax is expensive and also doesn’t tend to be very durable. One application may last only a couple of weeks at a time, and in hot climates the wax can actually melt or even evaporate straight off your paintwork.
Recommended product: Auto Finesse Desire Carnauba Wax
SEALANT
Durability: Moderate
Aesthetics: Moderate
Sealants tend to be a middle-of-the-road option that sit between waxes and ceramic coatings and offer a great compromise between durability, visual appeal and — perhaps most importantly — ease of application.
Unlike wax, car paint sealants tend to be most synthetic man-made chemical products and most often come in liquid form. This means they can be easily applied with a sprayer bottle or an applicator pad, with some products only having to be sprayed on and then immediately rinsed off for immediate and dramatic effects.
On average, a sealant will be much more durable than a wax and can last for weeks or even months. They’re much more resistant to heat, UV damage, detergents and offer better protection against road grime. The trade-off is that they can’t quite match the shine and gloss of a good wax.
Recommended product: Carbon Collective Hybrid Coating
GLAZE
Durability: Low to Moderate
Aesthetics: High
Unlike waxes or sealants, a glaze is often considered optional and works more like a shine enhancer than a finishing product in its own right. It’s usually applied underneath a wax as a primer layer to fill in microscopic imperfections in the paintwork.
This, combined with the wax, results in that classic ‘wet-look’ showroom ready shine, and can also breathe new life into paintwork that’s been dulled by years of use, UV damage or blemishes like hazing, scratches or swirls.
As a result, glazes offer an incredibly lustrous finish when used in conjunction with a good-quality wax. However, because they’re designed to work as long as the wax sits on top, their effects generally last only as long as the wax does.
Recommended product: Poorboys Black Hole Show Glaze
CERAMIC COATING
Durability: High
Aesthetics: Low
Once considered a product only for use by professional detailers, ceramic coatings have in recent years become much more consumer-friendly and widely available for anybody to use at home.
Variously called coatings, ceramic coatings, nano coatings, glass coatings and many other names, these are all synthetic man-made products designed to offer unprecedented protection and longevity that can last literally for years — some even claim to last as long as your vehicle’s life.
Ceramic coating can be thought of as a clear coat on top of your clear coat. They bond to your car’s finish to form a hard, clear barrier that’s resistant to scratches, contamination, and offers unparalleled waterproof effects. These coatings can be used on your paintwork, your windows, wheels and even plastic trim parts.
The biggest selling point is that once they’re applied, you can quite literally clean your car just by rinsing it off with a hose however the downside, unfortunately, is that coatings offer nowhere near the level of aesthetic appeal as a wax or a sealant.
Recommended product: Carbon Collective Platinum Pack
CAN YOU USE A WAX, SEALANT AND CERAMIC COATING TOGETHER?
Want to get the protection of a ceramic sealant but the depth of gloss as a car wax? By layering one product over another, you can achieve exactly this — or at least as close to it as can be.
It’s worth bearing in mind that if you intend to use multiple products like these together, there are a couple of simple rules to adhere to.
The first is that you should always apply the most durable product as the base layer, so for example you should apply ceramic coating first and then wax on top rather than the other way round. The reason for this is fairly simple; by putting the coating on the wax, it’ll simply slide off when the wax’s lifespan comes to an end.
The second rule is that whatever you apply last will have the effect you see most outwardly. Layering wax on top of sealant will result in high shine but low protective effects, while layering sealant over wax will result in high hydrophobic effects but without much shine.
Like most of these products, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. Generally, it will all depend on whether you prefer ease of application, protection or high-gloss shine, so the best thing we’d recommend is to simply experiment for yourself and see what you like.
With so many different products and combinations possible, finding what works best for you and your vehicle is just a matter of trying them out and evaluating them for yourself.
