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When you can't get to the car wash and don't want to drag out the hose and bucket, there's still hope. We tested waterless car wash sprays to find out which ones make cleaning your car easier.

This story was updated on June 28, 2022, with new products and information.

Not everyone has the time or desire to wash their car regularly, and frequent trips to the automatic car wash can get expensive. Not only that, but repetitive runs through a car wash can remove wax and create swirl marks in the paint. If your car is covered in only a small amount of dirt or dust, a waterless car wash may be the handiest way to give it a quick cleanup.

Waterless car wash products are premixed spray solutions specially designed to clean your car without the hassle of a hose and bucket. They typically come in a portable spray bottle, perfect for keeping in the garage or trunk for quick touch-ups and fast car cleaning. Simply spray the dirty areas of the car with the waterless car wash solution and wipe clean (preferably with a clean microfiber towel). Better still, do the entire car at the same time for a complete job.

While a conventional car wash is still the best way to clean the dirtiest rides, a waterless car wash is simpler, cheaper, faster, less wasteful, and more convenient. If you're looking for the best waterless wash, keep reading—we tested a handful of our favorites below.

The Best Car Wax for Your Ride

Think of it like an automotive furniture polish, specially formulated to capture and lift dirt and dust away from a surface. Naturally, a waterless car wash product isn't the ideal solution to car cleaning. But if you're in a hurry and need a quick cleanup, or you're away from a hose and bucket or a proper car wash, it's a fantastic way to quickly spruce up your ride.

Clearly, wiping anything on your vehicle runs the risk of scratches. But the best waterless car washes are made to be gentle and leave a smooth finish. Put it this way: It's far riskier to wipe away plain old water from a simple garden hose. Still, we can't recommend using a waterless car wash product if you think you'll magically restore a faded rustbucket with it. Waterless car wash works best on newer cars that are consistently washed, waxed, and maintained.

Many of the waterless car wash products on the market, and several we tested, contain a wax formulation for a quick, high-gloss shine. A reminder here that wax is not equivalent to polish, so don't expect deep scratches, heavy scuffs, or longtime scars to simply disappear when you use this stuff.

The Best Car Wash Soap

Whenever you're wiping something, anything, on your car's paint, you want to avoid scratches and swirls. This is doubly true for a waterless wash.

Just like when washing with a hose and bucket, you want to avoid using waterless wash products in direct sunlight on a hot surface. Using a spray bottle, apply the waterless car wash spray evenly. Fold your microfiber towel (always use microfiber towels) and wipe slowly and gently, turning the towel as you go so you're always applying a fresh, dry, clean portion of the towel to your car's finish and not grinding the grime you just wiped off back onto the surface of the paint.

For the best waterless car wash you can get, avoid swirling and sweeping motions with your arm; it's harder to keep a dry, clean section of your towel on the surface when you go back and forth or in circles. When you apply waterless car wash product smoothly and gently, your entire car (or, at least, part of it) will look like it just came from the auto detail shop.

The Best Car Upholstery Cleaners, Tested

We tested all of these waterless car wash products in the Car and Driver garage on a variety of dirty cars and also cycled them into our regular photography routine, because we often need quick, on-the-spot cleanups. While we did rank these cleaning products—just as we rank the vehicles in our comparison tests—we found that all provided satisfactory results. There are subtle differences, but we would recommend any of the waterless wash products below.

Some waterless car washes come in concentrate form; these require dilution with water in a separate spray bottle, but they are cheaper per ounce than the premixed cleaners. No matter which route you go, you'll be amazed at how easy it is to remove dirt particles, bird droppings, and road grime from your car without a traditional car wash.

This is our favorite waterless car wash product. It not only cleans efficiently but also leaves a smooth, shiny, just-waxed look, and it's reasonably priced. Our photographer noted that this bottle also had the strongest and widest spray nozzle. The smell was pleasant but not overwhelming.

Meguiar's has an entire suite of wash products that are affordable and work well, and its Ultimate Waterless Wash & Wax is what we use most often around Car and Driver. It's found in most auto-parts stores and supermarkets, and it leaves a clean look with little effort. It also has less odor than many of the other products—a pro or a con, depending on personal preference.

Adam's waterless car wash solution is also waxless. We had no complaints, but it also didn't stand out in any way. It did work well on plastic and chrome bits and left a noticeably better finish than Mothers Waterless Wash & Wax (below). A new formulation is more watery but still achieves the same results.

This two-step waxless solution provides a quick clean and has a strong, sweet smell—some editors liken it to Skittles candy. However, the spray didn't evaporate as quickly as the other waxless products. The 16-ounce bottle was not for sale on Amazon at time of publishing, but this one-gallon container is filled with the same stuff and works with refillable sprayers.

Mothers-brand waterless wash and wax was the least inspiring of the products we sampled. It left some streaks that needed to be rewiped, and it left a finish that wasn't as smooth as even some of the waxless products. It also smelled more like a conventional cleaning product than the other washes. Still, it resulted in a clean car, and that's the most important part. It helps that per ounce, it's the cheapest ready-to-use product here.

Aero Cosmetics provides a high-quality spray bottle and four microfiber towels with its concentrate. This is a great deal if you own/store multiple vehicles because it works great on boats, RVs, and motorcycles. It's also handy if you clean or show your car a lot, or live in a particularly dusty climate.

They do, especially for quick cleanups. But there are many factors to consider, such as if your car is particularly dirty; if the product you choose is safe for glass, plastic, and chrome; and, considering the time and energy commitment, if it isn't just faster and easier to simply drive through a car wash. Like a regular home car wash, they work best if you avoid direct sunlight when applying.

That depends on your needs. If you keep several vehicles stored in one facility, waterless car wash products can make quick cleanups a breeze. Or if you want to simply show off your ride and need a quick touch-up, they're ideal. Don't expect miracles, though.

It definitely can. Use a microfiber towel and avoid large sweeping motions with your arm. Use small circles and try to keep one section of your towel dry and clean for wiping off, so you're not simply rubbing grime into your finish with a dirty rag.

You can, but you probably shouldn't. As stated above, the stuff works best when applied in gentle circular motion over small areas with a clean microfiber towel. A particularly dirty car will leave more grime on your towel, increasing the chance of rubbing it back onto your paint and scratching your finish.

With a combined 206 years of automotive publishing experience, Hearst Autos—Car and Driver, Road & Track, and Autoweek—knows cars better than just about anyone, and the Gear Team delivers honest evaluations, hands-on tests, and product reviews driven by decades of knowledge and experience. We get our hands on almost every product, tool, and piece of gear we feature; we evaluate gear on its own merits, and tell you the truth.

If we can’t get our hands on the gear, we rely on the combined wisdom of our writers and editors, as well as auto experts we trust. We’ll never say anything is “the best” if we wouldn’t recommend it to our friends or buy it ourselves, and we won’t tell you we’ve tested something if we haven’t. Learn more about our product testing here.