I have had a California Water Blade for a number of year. Is this a bad way to remove the large accumulation of water and then use the microfiber cloth for the remaining water?

 

Dragging the edge of a piece of silicone rubber across your car to dry it is an awful idea, IMHO.

One trick anyone can use is to do a final rinse w/o a spray nozzle on your hose. Let the water run out of the hose and sheet on the car. It will take most of the water droplets with it, to the point where you can dry your car with just a single 18"x18" microfiber towel.

http://www.detailedimage.com/Auto-De...ying/#sheeting

If your car has one of those really hydrophobic coatings on it the sheeting technique works really well. There is so little resistance to the droplets sliding off the car once they get moving that hardly any water will be on the horizontal panels and practically none on the vertical panels.

In this video you can see that once standing droplets are hit by moving water, they slide right off.

 

I would avoid water blade. I used those on my G35 back in the day and got scratches.

 

Thanks. Just went in the garbage

 

It's not really that bad... Only if you happen to drag some dirt particle with your stroke

At least keep it for the windows

 

I use it for the windows.

 

Throw it in the trash ASAP or give it to someone you don't like.

 

If you have glass shower doors then that's the only place for using the water blade.

 

I use a water blade to remove water off my car and then a microfiber rag to dry the rest off. It's never scratched my car...

 

IMHO, it's a moot point whether or not a water blade scratches the paint on your car. If you feel the need to wipe water off your car before a final dry with a microfiber towel, it means you're not rinsing your car correctly.

 

How does that not mean you're not rinsing your car correctly? A water blade simply removes mass amounts of water of your car. It makes drying my car a lot faster than just a MF towel.

 

If you rinse your car correctly, you don't have "mass amounts of water of your car".

 

Last time I checked, my car was wet after I rinsed it...

 

Watch the linked video on detailedimage.com, there's a rinsing technique familiar to all detailers that leaves your car barely wet after rinsing. A single 16" square MF is more than enough to dry your car w/o wringing it out even once if you use the technique in the video.

 

As already stated... if you have adequate protection on your vehicle, the sheeting/flooding method will be enough to remove at least 70% of the residual water from your vehicle's surface. This greatly increases drying time since there is minimal water remaining. Following up with a slightly damp waffle weave towel, and then with a plush MF towel and a quick detailer or spray wax is the optimal way to dry....... unless you just use a blower, but I find that still needs to be followed up with a quick detail spray to remove the very tiny droplets left over.