New detailing products come out as often as you see a new mascara commercial. Always improving, always making your job faster easier. This is a great thing about the industry, but where do you draw the line at trying everything new to stay ahead of the curve, and sticking to what you know to get consistent results?

This, of course, is going to be personal preference but as a professional, you need to be a tad cautious before going full force with a new product based on what you hear. You need to test the product to see the best way to use it, how it fits in your arsenal, and where its strengths and weaknesses are.

When ceramic coatings were still pretty new there were companies stating “lifetime guarantee” and really hyping the product up. After many people trying it out they had to reel back those claims to a more reasonable 3 years or 5 years, etc. This is still where a lot of the skepticism of coatings stems from. On a smaller scale, I tried a clay bar that was supposed to leave behind a layer of wax at the same time, which it did and actually did a decent job of. Yet I couldn’t help feeling it came 3-5 years too late. With the rise and ease of ceramic coatings and even sealants, I don’t ever use a wax, especially in the California sun the life span of it is just cut so short.

However, you also do not want to dismiss everything that is new just because your current method is working. Do you remember what people said about the Rupes? People had a Porter Cable/GG6 and a Flex and though the Rupes would have no place and the throw would be so big you could only use it on huge flat surfaces. Imagine if you never tried that out! Now you have every company copying their design like they were the Golden State Warriors. My skepticism also had me waiting wayyy to long to try the Griots Garage Boss System which exceeded my expectations.

So where do you draw the line? Personally, I never do the first test with products on client’s vehicles, just in case, something goes wrong or not how you would like it to. I also would categorize which products would be worth testing based on what their ceiling could be. I.E. A glass cleaner can only be so good, where polishes and compounds can always cut more, finish better, dust less, etc. Lastly, I wait. I wait to see what other people are saying about it, how many people I see with it, does it become a best seller on Detailed Image, etc. These not only tell me people like it by review, but also by the numbers of people continuing to purchase it. Detailed Image is also very good at not jumping on new products either, you can trust the products they sell have gone though their own approval process.

In the end, the way you approach it is up to you, but try to keep it, as Thanos said, “Perfectly balanced, as all things should be”.