What is a ceramic coating?

Ceramic coatings are a true wonder of modern chemistry, and there are now literally thousands of ceramic protection products and brands on the market. Most fall into the category of a semi-permanent protective coating that can be applied to paint, wheels, lights, glass and other exterior surfaces. Important to note that each of these surfaces will have a very specific type of coating for that surface - a glass coating for example, uses a different type of technology and chemistry to a paint coating.

They're made from a blend of highly engineered ingredients that work together to form an extremely thin, yet durable protective layer over the surface. When applied and looked after correctly, a quality ceramic coating can continue protecting for many years. Neglect it, however, and its performance and lifespan can be significantly reduced.

 

What does a ceramic coating do?

Ceramic coatings provide a sacrificial layer of protection against environmental contamination, chemicals and the general punishment your paint is exposed to every day. Their super hydrophobic properties also help repel water and grime, making the car much easier to wash and keep clean.

What they don't provide is significant physical protection. Despite claims around hardness and scratch resistance, a ceramic coating won't stop stone chips, deeper scratches or damage caused by poor washing techniques. For that type of protection, you need something physically substantial like Paint Protection Film (PPF).

 

Is a ceramic coating worth it?

For many cars and owners, absolutely.

A ceramic coating gives you a great, super hydrophobic surface that will make your every day driver easier to wash and maintain, and help it keep a nice shine. It's not a magic force field though, and will require regular maintenance to keep it looking and performing its best. It will also degrade over time and may require top ups, or perhaps even re-application after a longer period of time.

Ceramic coatings are best applied by reputable detailers. The application of the coating itself is quite simple, but the crucial preparation process before application is something very laborious and time consuming. It's something that many regular enthusiasts don't always have the time, knowledge, equipment and patience to do. So, getting an experienced detailer to do it for you makes a lot of sense.

 

What about 'ceramic' sprays? 

There are a lot of consumer products now using the name "ceramic", including us, especially in water based SiO2 sprays. While they can offer similar initial effects of a coating, they don't have the long term protection a true professionally applied ceramic coating will exhibit. From our talks and numerous dealings with scientists, chemists and manufacturers, a true coating is scientifically associated with a specific set of highly engineered (and expensive) ingredients that are currently only used in professional coating formulas. And this is what we will be talking about looking after and maintaining in this guide.

Soooo, didn't we say all that Yankee spray bottle ceramic is marketing BS?? Well it is... which is why we've always been highly uncomfortable with the marketing spin used in the car care industry, and for the past few years, we've pushed hard against labelling any of our products as "ceramic", even though our formulas worked better and lasted longer than anything we shared the auto store shelves with, ceramic or not.

Why have we been this way? Well, we're very aware of how this "ceramic" term can be confused with the true professional ceramic coatings which utilise another type of sophisticated and expensive chemistry, that is not something that can be blended into an easy spray on/wipe off, or in this case, spray on and hose off water-based type of product. Although the super hydrophobic water beading and sheeting characteristics of (especially ours) are similar, it's much more of a ceramic-like effect than true ceramic tech.

So, fast forward to now, and with the relentless amount of ceramic labelled products coming out, our super hydrophobic range not being labelled this way has created a huge point of confusion for many punters. We know this as we've had over a year of multiple weekly calls and social media messages from people who are genuinely looking for something with the ceramic name in our Aussie products.

So, after much deep thought and many, many team meetings, we've finally decided to end the phone calls and give people what they are looking for, labelling our protective range in line with this newer definition of the word, "ceramic".