Great products and informative “how to” videos!
Hotlap Properties
Kick off your wash routine with thick, dirt-lifting suds that leave your paint gleaming. Hotlap powers through tough road grime to get you back on the street faster.
Dilution Guide
Foam Cannon:
As little as 10:1 (Water:HotLap) for paint and wheels. Up to 5:1 with a high end foam cannon like ours. Follow with Step 2.
Heavy Duty:
Dilute 5:1 for tackling tough grime, brake dust, wheels, and tires.
Interior/All-Purpose:
30:1 for carpets, mats, and general cleaning(1 TBSP in 16oz water).
Bucket Wash:
Dilute at 100:1,just 2–3 capfuls in 1–2 gallons of water.
Glass:
A squirt in 16oz of FILTERED water, then wipe with a new towel for clarity.
Frequently Answered Questions
There is an incredible lack of scientific information on the internet about chemistry and detailing products. Regardless of what uneducated blogs about pH and car washing tell you, the science is more complicated. The way in which a lower or higher pH is achieved in water, matters. Certain chemicals you will find in high pH pre-rinses and cleaners for detailing are actually caustic, meaning they harm materials like plastic and bare metal. There are many popular wheel and tire formulas out there that we would never use on our vehicles. Those chemicals are not included in HotLap. This is a carefully curated and advanced formula that will not hurt your vehicle, especially when used properly. Follow our dilution guide and read the FAQ!
You may notice the incredible versatility of HotLap, this is because it started life as an alkaline APC. Then it was heavily modified to be able to tackle wheels and tires, without being caustic or harmful to other components or bare metals. As well as having elements that can remove stains without pulling colors from fabric. This is truly peak detailing chemistry here. There's really no need to tweak this and dilute it just to sell you a repackaged product with a different use case, like a lot of other brands do. You can dilute it and do that yourself at home.
No! HotLap is a non-caustic high pH cleaner that is buffered to prevent reactions with any paint, coatings, films, or components on your car. With that said, you should never let any soap dry on your paint for too long, especially in the hot sun. So either wash in a cool shady or overcast location, or if you don't have that luxury on wash day, just move quickly. If you are seeing the soap dry, just re-spray it with soap and rinse immediately to avoid having to buff out dried soap stains. If you see soap residue, this is NOT PERMANENT. Just spray and wipe with more soap to remove, or in the case of wax damage, level out with Step 2.
The only use case we don't recommend for this cleaner is on traditional wax jobs and leather/alcantara. This cleaner is safe on all other surfaces, even your interior. It just needs to be diluted. As for with traditional wax jobs, it will break down wax. This will cause a 'streaking' effect sometimes, and the leftover wax needs to be re-leveled or removed with more soap and contact. Even Step 2 can help with this as it will help add back and level leftover wax.
Our goal was to get as close to having a touchless wash soap as possible while being safe on all surfaces, and this is as close as it gets. Our pressure washing soap is made to remove as much dirt and grime as possible in one formula. A perfect touchless soap is still a myth for now, and to get as close as possible you need caustic chemicals we would never use on our vehicles. Plus you can't remove every type of film with one stable chemical mixture (watch our videos). This is why we made Step 2, to finish the job with the lower pH cleaning power that dissolves minerals (and is still safe in every situation).
We highly recommend pressure washing. Watch our tutorials to see our process. But this soap will work as good as any for bucket washing, we just don't prefer that method. Please wear gloves when touching wash chemicals with your hands. You can also try a spray cannon for a regular hose. They don't foam well, and they use up soap much faster, but they still get the job done with HotLap.
The ideal pressure washer is one that has higher GPM (gallons per minute) flow. This means it pushes more water. And generally, you want to stay below 1500 or so PSI (which most budget pressure washers won't even reach even if they say they do). Full transparency, we've had similar results with testing lower GPM units and varying pressure. The difference is marginal. Most theories around detailing are just theories and rarely affect the actual outcomes, which is a clean car.
Your Detailing Needs
Customer Reviews
Overall rating: 4.6 / 5 from 201 reviews.
This product keeps my shine sooo nice and protects a bunch. Thank you Drive Lab
Store owner replied: Thanks for the enormous amount of support Angie! You have a beautiful fleet! We sent you a special email, let us know if you received it.
Incredible product. No more mitts, no more buckets.
I really like the 3 products. So far it has been a very easy process. Here in FL it does take a little scrubbing on some car wash days because of the bugs we have on a constant basis. Overall, I'm pretty impressed with these products. Do you guys give a military discount when I need to reorder?
I was looking for something to maintain the new paint job on my S2000 without getting lost in all the products other big companies offer. I finally washed my car with drivelab for the first time today and i am beyond impressed. It took me 35 minutes on my first ever go (using the wheel kit as well), and my paint is silky smooth. It also corrected some swirling from the buffer the painter used. It was so easy to use and the results are undeniable. Couldn’t be happier.
Unbelievably beautiful
Completed my first wash and very happy with the result. All the products and tools are high quality and make the washing process quicker and easier. Found the new glass towels work very well also.
I’ve been in the automotive industry for my entire professional career and have always taken great personal pride in the proper care of all my cars, trucks, motorcycles and RV. Finally a batch of thoughtful car detailing products that have mostly exceeded expectation (IE marketing jargon and questionable results via the internet). Keep it clean! Jim S
This is the best product I’ve ever used!!!!
Great product. We live in AZ and most people use automatic car washes, but I hate the swirl marks they leave. I also don’t have a ton of time to wash both of my rides and my wife’s car, so finding a solution that performs great in the AZ heat, cuts down on time, and is super easy to use is crucial. Drivelab delivers on their promises and I don’t even have swirl marks. The other huge benefit, it’s pretty good at degreasing. I had my Jeep in the shop for a hydro steering upgrade and it’s naturally a dirty job, power steering fluid on the frame and undercarriage sucks. Most just let it off gas and deal with it. I used the foam cannon attachment, let it sit for about 5min and it’l surprisingly did a great job at reducing the power steering fluid. Overall really impressed and will continue to use and purchase Drivelab products.
I mean it’s fine still need to bucket and mitt to get dirt off after only a week without a wash, looks like I’m still on the hunt for something that can remove hard water spots from my ceramic coating
Store owner replied: Thanks for giving it a try, Brian. Just to clarify, you definitely don't need to bucket and mitt after the pre-wash. The towel process is the contact-wash step and should handle what remains, especially after a week on a coated car. That said, if you prefer a mitt, there's nothing wrong with using one. On the water spots, OneWiper can dissolve and remove the mineral deposits that cause water spots, but if the minerals have already etched or imprinted the surface underneath, no chemical cleaner can simply remove that damage. It has to be corrected or polished.
Great products
Great products
The wash kit, especially the foam cannon, has worked very well. The foam is thick when I want it to be and is easily adjusted. Hotlap is great at loosening the dirt and one wiper leaves a very good shine.
I think the product works very well and I am looking to purchase the soap as well. I like the cleaning properties of the OneWiper I don’t know of any other product like it, except CarPro Elixir. The product smells good too!
Used steps 1-3 with the foam cannon and the results were amazing! So much faster.
I thought the products were great one of the best ones I’ve used
The DriveLab wash kit is genuinely excellent. I’ve purchased car care kits from other companies in the past, and I always felt like I had to mix and match or combine multiple products just to get a good finish. DriveLab completely simplifies the process into three easy steps—no guesswork required. The products themselves are super high quality, and the final results were top-tier. Highly recommend if you want an effortless, professional-looking shine!
Better than expected.
The product was great! This Porsche hadn't been cleaning in 7 months Took me about an 1:30hr to clean it. Mostly because I was learning my new power washer set up
Good stuff.
Solid product all the way around. The quality of the foam cannon to towels are absolutely amazing. Excited to see how it does on our other vehicles. Time saved and an amazing shine after. Recommending to all of my friends and will be buying more products in the future!
I show my car and having a great quality product that allows me to decrease the amount of time it takes me to wash and dry helps me to be able to spend more time on interior detailing. The wash is great. I truly love the product.
Great products
Great products
Great products and service
I love the simplicity of the system. The foam cannon is the 4th foam cannon I've bought over the years, but I can honestly say it is the best built one I've bought and the adjustments actually work! The tire dressing is great as well. It's super easy to apply and lasts a long time. My only hang-up was my own fault. I went too heavy on the One-wiper. This ended up using way too much product on my first wash and leaving some visible smears. Again, that's a technique issue, not a product issue. I'm certain that once I get my usage dialed, I'm gonna actually love washing my car! PS - the tire pics are from 2 weeks after being treated! They still look amazing!
Never washed a car before. On my second try I was able to detail the outside of my SUV in about 50 minutes and it looks spotless. Tutorials are very straightforward and the instructions are clear. Overall a great purchase if you want to take care of your car and don’t want to do all the research!
I'm new to washing my own with this kind of care. As mentioned, it took me a couple of tries to get efficient at it, but it's working great. Love it.
I was a little unsure of the product at first but decided to go all in and give it a try. I literally cut the time in half with amazing results! Less products and less time is what I was wanting. Will definitely keep buying these products.
Works great, better than expected. The initial foam wash and spray down removed almost everything and the spray wax left a shinier finish than I though while also cleaning up any remaining spots!
It works as advertised, maybe better.
Best stuff I have used and I’m 73. It works as advertised.
Great product! Bottles hot hot lap are small so it is a bit expensive but you get what you pay for
Hot lap is awesome sauce! removed all dirt from paint & diluted it cleaned wheels & tires perfectly ! the one wipe & new shoes are 🔥 also esp one wipe that’s very good!
Great stuff! Never go back to the bucket.
Great products
Great products
Finally pulled the trigger on this and have no regrets. Great products overall and excellent how-to videos and documents - highly recommend reading the pdf for better results! It’s a quick and effective and the results look great both inside and out. Highly recommend!
Used the wash kit for the first time and it was so easy and cleaned and made my car so shiny. When I was doing the final step buffing the side of my with the One Wiper and Perfect Paint towel, I thought I saw something move in my peripheral vision. When i turned to look I realized was my own reflection in the paint! Excellent!