Every passionate car owner wants a car that is perfect; free of stains and fully lustrous under lighting. Unfortunately, no car is capable of staying spotless, as the elements of nature will take away the beauty of your car’s body within minutes.
However, you can buy effective water stain removers that you can apply to your car at least twice a year that will restore your car’s appeal from the outside. What is the best water spot remover for cars? We have tested and used six popular products from brands including the Chemical Guys, Trinova and Meguiar’s.
Name | Size | Purpose | Application Type | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Bugs N All - Multi-Surface Vehicle Cleaner | 4 oz | Removes Dirt | spray bottle | |
TriNova Scratch and Swirl remover | 12 oz | Removes scratches | Squeeze bottle | |
CarGuys Super Cleaner (Editors Choice) | 18 oz | Adds shine | spray bottle | |
Chemical Guys WAC_201_16 Butter Wet Wax | 16 oz | Adds shine | Squeeze bottle | |
Boat Bling Premium Hard Water Spot Remover | 32 oz | removes water stains | spray bottle | |
Meguiar's RV Heavy Duty Oxidation Remover | 16 oz | Removes stains, scratches | Squeeze bottle |
Recommended 6 Best Water Spot Remover for Cars - 2021
1. Bugs N All - Multi-Surface Vehicle Cleaner
This first water spot remover for cars is from ProSol. This spot remover is sure to get rid of any and all debris from your car’s surface in a matter of a minute, all while preserving paint, finish and decals.
Bugs N All is all in the name; it removes all debris, including bugs. Other things it can remove from your car’s hood include mildew, smoke haze, bird poop, rust, algae, oxidation, grime, dirt and many more.
This water spot remover is great to use on any vehicle. You can use Bugs N All on cars, boats, ATVs and even non-vehicles like roofing, driveways and pre-painted surfaces.
This spot remover is especially useful on RVs, where you might happen to get more bugs than you would obviously expect.
Furthermore, this is an environmentally safe product to use. It is not toxic, is biodegradable, doesn’t smell bad, is not flammable, abrasive or corrosive and will not harm plants or animals. This is an overall non-poisonous substance.
The one takeaway from Bugs N All is that this version is a concentrate. It is not ready to use right away, and you will need to make it into a substance before you are able to use it. At most, you can only make two quartz with one four-ounce container, and that equates to just about a half of a liter. There are however larger versions of this product, and spray bottles are included for you to pour the concentrate into.
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2. TriNova Scratch and Swirl remover
This scratch and swirl remover from Trinova comes in a sleek, black bottle. This water stain remover pledges to work effectively to restore the beauty in your car’s exterior with its abrasive compounds, all in a 12-ounce bottle.
You don’t need a motorized buffer to make a car look beautiful again.
Trinova’s water stain remover contains a formula so advances that buffing by hand can be effective enough when the time comes to clean your car.
This water stain remover can also fix blemishes on cars, including paint scratches and scuff marks. This stain remover can make cars shiny and like new again thanks to its capabilities of polishing oxidation following a thorough clean and rinse. Hoods, doors, roofs, all parts of a car’s body can benefit from this scratch and swirl remover.
One caveat is that it will not be able to fix scratches that are too deep. If you see a scratch that is deep enough to put your fingernail in, you will need to have it repaired by a professional mechanic. This remover will not work on it, and they will warn you on the packaging.
Another downside to this water stain remover is that it works differently for matte cars. They will definitely benefit by Trinova’s scratch and swirl-removing capabilities, but don’t expect to get as much of a shine as a metallic-painted car would.
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3. CarGuys Super Cleaner
This water stain remover from CarGuys acts as a multipurpose cleaner. While some car owners use different products to remove different irregularities from cars, the Super Cleaner may just be all that you need to make your car look clean, sans scratches.
The formula in this multisurface cleaner uses nano-technology to effectively remove dirt, grime, bug splatter, tar, and anything else that you might think of from a microscopic level.
This product works effortlessly, so there is no need to scrub hard or with an abrasive sponge to flake off small, hard grime.
This Super Cleaner is capable of cleaning numerous different materials, including metals, wood, leather, upholstery, fabric, glass, plastic, vinyl and more. This means you can clean stains not just outside of your car, but inside as well.
This Super Cleaner claims to never leave behind an unsightly gloss, like other car cleaning products do. When using this cleaner, it leaves behind just the right amount of luster to make your car look the most beautiful.
Additionally, this water stain remover comes with a free towel for cleaning the car’s surface along with this Super Cleaner.
The one thing that this product should improve on is how it cleans leather. Some customers claim that it doesn’t effectively remove irregularities from leather, or that it ruins leather. CarGuys should specify whether this product only works on natural leather or burnished leather, or perhaps just suede, which is commonly mistaken for leather.
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4. Chemical Guys WAC_201_16 Butter Wet Wax
We can’t believe it’s not butter. This water stain remover is a carnauba-based wax that is a pleasant light yellow in color. This product looks to give cars a wet, glossy look. Not to be confused with CarGuys, this product is brought to us by Chemical Guys.
This water stain remover has an advanced formula. It works into your car’s body like butter and gives it an unprecedented gloss that makes it look like factory new.
No matter if you have a matte or metallic-based paint, this butter wet wax will perform brilliantly.
This butter wet wax can provide cars with additional layers of protection from UV rays. UV rays can cause permanent damage on cars, but with this wax, you will not need to worry about such a possible problem.
This product can also protect against water stains, dirt, grime and bird poop. How this works is that when an irregularity comes into contact with your car’s body, it will easily slide right off like a slick and slippery surface. This product also works great on your windshields and mirrors.
There is a difference, however, between preventing stains on your car and getting rid of them. Let us be clear that this is not a water stain remover that you can use to remove stains from your car. They can only prevent them. If you attempt to remove stains using this wet wax, you would only make these stains look shiny and glossy along with your car. Only use this wax on completely clean cars.
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5. Boat Bling Premium Hard Water Spot Remover
This next water stain remover comes to us from Boat Bling. While this Hout Sauce is mainly used for boats, this can also work great for cars, RVs, ATVs, motorcycles and other vehicles. This is the number one choice of remover for boat owners.
This remover is effective in removing hard water stains. Even if you have recently applied a wax onto your vehicle, you will not have to worry about losing this luster after applying this product to it.
Furthermore, waxes actually last longer after applying How Sauce after a wax. Think of this as a “wax enhancer”.
This product will give your vehicle a nice, beautiful shine. It is also biodegradable and environmentally friendly.
Boat Bling has made four other products for removing water stains: Quickie Sauce, Condition Sauce, Vinyl Sauce and Toon Sauce. For cars, though, Hot Sauce is the one that works the best on automobiles. You essentially would need to buy them all in order to clean all parts of a given vehicle (pontoons, seats, etc.).
This is a great product for removing water stains, but not much else. If you are looking for a product that can do more than remove water stains and make vehicles look shiny, it would be best to look elsewhere.
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6. Meguiar's M4916 Marine/RV Heavy Duty Oxidation Remover
Meguiar’s is arguably the most known name in car care of all the brands in this review, and for good reasons. The M4916 is a heavy duty cleaner that is easily affordable and comes in a decent size.
The M4916 can remove oxidation safely and effectively from cars, in addition to scratches from gel-coated surfaces, water spots, stains and more.
This water spot remover contains enhanced feeder oils that can restore color to the surface of automobiles. They can also remove degradation and other irregularities from older cars.
The M4916 works effectively on gel-coated surfaces, premium paint and fiberglass; all of which consist of your car’s exterior. You can safely use this product all around your car for an overall sense of cleanliness from any and all irregularities.
This product does not leave behind a sticky substance or streak on your car. This product instead breaks down and disappears quickly and safely, so that your car looks brand new.
You can safely use this product by hand, by tool, or by machine to improve the look of cars. It will not peel off or tarnish any decals, wraps, bumper stickers, or any other decorative items that you purposefully place onto a car’s body.
To put it simply, this is a very effective water spot remover that can restore the look of your car without any risks or setbacks. This product also works well on trailers, RVs and motorhomes.
With that said, it will not remove deep scratches from your car. In the event of a deep scratch, hire a professional in order to fix one or more deep scratches.
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Some Important FAQ About Water Stain Remover
What does a water stain remover do?
Primarily, a water stain remover works to lift water stains from the surfaces of cars or other objects. Water stains are mineral deposits on a given surface that are air-dried. When water evaporates into the air, they leave light marks behind. Water from rain or a car wash turn into stains on your car if they are not dried by hand (such as with a rag or towel). To prevent water stains from appearing on your car, be sure to wipe your car dry after every wash or clean, or after driving it or parking it in the rain.
How do I use a water stain remover to remove stains from my car?
There are one of two ways to remove stains with a water stain remover. You are limited to either one of these choices based on the overall design of the product.
Squeeze bottle
Squeeze bottles make it so that you squeeze the bottle in order for you to extract the product. You are to squeeze the product onto a rag, a buffing brush or a sponge, so that you can apply this product to a car and spread it out effectively.
Spray bottle
With a spray bottle, this bottle comes with a nozzle with a trigger attached, rather than a lid or cap that other bottles would typically come with. Rather than squeeze or pour the product from the bottle, you simply have to pull the trigger or handle, and the product will spray or squirt out of the nozzle in a gentle mist. You can spray this product directly onto your car, but still need a rag, cloth or sponge in order to spread the product around.
Each type of bottle comes with one advantage and one disadvantage over the other. The best one for you truly depends on which is more comfortable for you to use for your car.
Can water stain removers remove more than just water stains?
There are some products that can remove more than water stains, such as bug splatter, dirt, scratches and more, but this all depends on the ingredients that are used in the product in question. Some products can remove a multitude of different stains, while others specialize in removing only one kind of stain that works incredibly well.
Whether you want a product that can remove one type of stain very well or many different stains fairly good is ultimately up to you. You might happen to find a certain water stain remover that is just perfect for your car as well as what you need or prefer in order to clean it the right way.
Final Verdict
After careful review of all these water stain removers for cars, the one we declare to be the best is the CarGuys Super Cleaner.
At a decent size, this water stain remover is amazing in removing water stains and making a car’s exterior look like new. Additionally, this product can clean various other car parts, including windows, hubcaps, bumpers and even car seats and plastic from inside your car. It not only works well to clean your car’s body but various other car parts as well.
While other products in this review claim to remove various different irregularities from cars, and/or can be used to clean other areas of the car, this product from CarGuys can do the most for you. While not being the most effective of products in this review, it is possibly the most useful.