Hydro Car Care
A new standard of car care
A new standard of car care
28th April 2025
Over the easter weekend as we had a rare bit of sunshine I decided it was time to give the car a good clean. I ideally like to keep to a schedule of cleaning the car every two weeks to keep dirt and grime to a minimum and help protect the paintwork from any other contaminants.
In the past I have used a bucket of water and sponge to wash a car, however, having learned that sponges by design have little holes in them, which can hold onto dirt and grit and can create tiny scratches in your paintwork as well as leaving swirl marks, reducing the cars shine and overall appearance. I decided I needed to up my car cleaning game and try some proper car cleaning products.
The current products that I use are from a company called Hydro. They have a wide range of products catering for everything on your car from paintwork and alloys to glass cleaner.
The first products I use from Hydro whilst cleaning my car are the Spray Bottle and pre wash solution. I currently have the V1 spray bottle, however there is a V2 bottle that has recently came out. As I don’t have access to a pressure washer, the spray bottle is a great alternative for applying the wash solutions onto the car.
When I purchased the spray bottle it came with two adapter nozzles. A pre wash adapter and a snow foam adapter. To apply the pre wash it is as simple as screwing on the pre wash adapter nozzle, filling up the spray bottle with some water and adding some “Hydro Pre“. Once the water and pre wash solution have been mixed together it’s just a case of pumping the spray bottle and then applying over the car.
The purpose of the pre wash is to remove grime prior to the next stage of washing, whether that be applying snow foam or going straight to a shampoo wash. Once applied all over the car, let it sit for a few minutes and then wash off.
An alternative I choose to do is to leave the pre wash application in place and apply the snow foam application over the top of the pre wash and then wash it all off with a hose pipe, ready for the shampoo application.
The second product I use from Hydro is the spray bottle and the “Hydro Snow” solution. Changing the spray bottle nozzle over to the snow foam adapter is as simple as unscrewing the pre wash adapter and screwing on the snow foam adapter. As with the pre wash solution, all that is required is to fill up the spray bottle with some water and add some snow foam solution to the water and it is ready to go. A few pumps on the spray bottle to build up pressure and apply over the car.
I should note you will need to keep pumping the spray bottle to keep building up the pressure inbetween applying the products. What I like to do is leave the handle on it’s catch so that the solution can always come out and walk around the car pumping the spray bottle.
The snow foam application is intended to remove heavy, gritty particulate grime. I have found a combination of the pre wash and snow foam is great at removing bird feces. Normally it would be hard to remove, with me scrubbing that spot for a length of time, potentially scratching the paintwork in the process, but after applying the pre wash and snow foam, the bird feces washes off after a rinse with the hose pipe.
The next step in my car cleaing journey is using the Hydro Shapoo solution. This product is not applied using the spray bottle. Instead this is mixed in with a bucket of water and applied to the car with a microfibre wash mitt.
I like to use two buckets of water, one with the shampoo solution mixed in with the water, and a secondary bucket of water that contains just water. After wiping a section of the car with my wash mitt, I first rinse the mitt in the clean water bucket to remove dirt. Only then do I reload the mitt with the shampoo solution from the first bucket. This prevents dirty water from contaminating my soap solution, ensuring a cleaner wash.
The Hydro Shampoo has a dilution ratio of 250:1, which means for a 10 litre bucket only 40ml of the shampoo solution needs to be added to the bucket of water.
Finally after applying prewash, snow foam and cleaning the car with Hydro Shampoo, I rinse the car with a hose pipe removing any remaining solution. Once all solutions has been rinsed off I use a microfibre drying towel over the car to dry the car. By using a drying towel to dry the car it prevents things like water spots and corrosion whilst protecting the paintwork.
Once the car is dry, the last step is going over the car with “Hydro Detail“. When I purchased the product it came with a spray adapter that easily screws into place once the cap has been removed, enabling the product to be sprayed onto the car.
Hydro Detail is recommended to be applied by doing two sprays per panel and buffing in with a microfibre cloth. Buffing one panel at a time is recommended so that you can ensure there is no residue left over on the panel, before moving into the next panel. I have found on some panels, like the bonnet two sprays doesn’t quite cover it all and apply more as needed, but it is important to make sure all solution is buffed in, otherwise you will end up with blue splotches over your paintwork.