meansoybean

vegan.eating recently received a sample kit from sans-zo, a Quebec company that sells a nifty waterless car exterior clean spray. It basically allows you to clean the body of your car without the use of any additional water. This is pretty significant considering about 150 liters of potable water goes into a single car wash, according to sans-zo. It’s also biodegradable. The kit came with a bottle of car cleaning spray and two microfibre cloths. It was good timing, since my car was due for a cleaning, so I decided to try it out.

I started with the trunk. I sprayed then wiped with the first cloth, and finished by polishing with the second cloth. It was pretty simple. I continued methodically around the car, leaving the roof for last. The back and the sides were easy, but the front of the car had dried leaf stains and dead bugs stuck on the paint. I had to give an extra spray to those areas and apply a bit of elbow grease to get them clean. I also cleaned the tail/head lights and rims to sparkling perfection.

The verdict? The body looked pretty good for a waterless wash, I have to say. I think sans-zo is a great product for apartment dwelling car owners who don’t have the luxury of a driveway and water hose. It would work well in places where there are restrictions on water consumption too. It’s a good alternative to going to the gas station for a wash, which can get expensive, and those robo washers don’t always do a thorough job. It does take a bit of physical effort to use sans-zo, yes, but if you actually like taking care of your car like I do you’ll be happy to give your ride some personal attention. I think the whole process took me about 30 to 40 minutes, because it was my first time. But it’s certainly comparable to a home hand-wash for sure. Ironically, my car is very hard to photograph for dirt — that’s why there’s no before and after. But trust me, it looked really nice and shiny when I was done. See the video on how it’s done on their site.

That said, even though I could have used the sans-zo spray on the windows and the dashboard (it’s safe for body, plastic, glass chrome and rims) I didn’t want to waste it. I mean, it’s not like I have another cleaner in the house that I can safely use on my car’s paint, right? I ended up using some Natureclean glass and window cleaner on the glass, inside and out. For the dash and the inside of the doors I used Attitude all-purpose spray. I’d say this combo worked for me. So 8 microfibre cloths later, I’m pretty happy with the end result.

But it’s just my luck… it rained shortly afterwards. Stupid weather.