Back when Avalon King was running some insane promotions a couple of years ago, I got a quantity discount and picked up enough to take care of a few of the cars in the hooptie fleet.
Only now, I realize that I still overpaid for it.
Seems that Avalon King’s Armor Shield IX (presumably a suggestion of “9H” hardness) is manufactured by Lixin Industrial in China. While that doesn’t mean the product is bad by any means, it does suggest that perhaps this is a generic product, and there may be others out in the market that use the same formula and cost a lot less.
I was right. Some digging turned up this video:
Ceramic products such as Nano Bond/Nano Age, Weiruixin 10H, HKTianmei 9H, Mr. Fix and others are all made by Lixin Industrial. In fact, even the packaging is similar for some of these products. Documentation clearly shows that Armor Shield and the logo are owned by Lixin.
The video above is part of a channel that is independently testing various ceramic coatings, and it is interesting to see the results. Naturally, the products that so far have lasted the longest are expensive, professional-grade products. The videos also link to a master spreadsheet that shows comparisons of dozens of products–very interesting to see the results. As I expected, most of the mass market auto store brands that claim to be “ceramic” really aren’t all that good. True ceramic coatings are best applied by professionals, and are only aviailable to professionals who have had the proper training to apply them. But also as expected, this comes with a much higher price tag.
How as Avalon King held up so far? After two years, its hydrophobic qualities are pretty much exhausted on my paint on the CR-V, but it is still holding up on the plastic, as it still looks newer than the other CR-V with the same trim, but untreated (where it looks washed-out and tired). But that is about the expected lifespan of this grade of ceramic coating with proper prep, which I did. (Full paint correction, clay bar, alcohol wipe-down, you name it.)
So I’m still a fan of the ceramic coating, but with some solid comparisons that weren’t around two years ago, I can make better buying decisions now. My dilemma now, it seems, is to decide whether I want to spend less for a 2-year coating, or spend the same as Avalon King’s current price and get a product that will easily outlast it.