One of the benefits of a ceramic coating is the hydrophobic ability of the coating. Basically meaning "fear of water".

But what does this actually mean and why is is important?

When water comes in contact with a hydrophobic surface it looks as if the water doesn't want to stay on it and wants to escape as soon as possible with the path of least resistance.

You probably saw that effect many times in nature on various types of leaves. It would rain and you would see water just pouring from the leaves without the leaves actually getting wet. Even when the rain stops you would still see little water droplets on top of the leaves.

Those droplets are called water beads. And we will come back to them soon.

What is water beading?

Well, as you probably have seen when you pour water on a ceramic coated car the water looks as it is trying to escape from the surface leaving it dry.

But as with before mentioned leaves - after the chaos dissipates, sometimes, more often than not, you are left with water beads on the surface of the car.

On the other hand, sometimes you would see the water behave completely differently.

What is water sheeting?

Instead of water trying to escape the ceramic coated surface in an erratic manner, as if it was escaping for dear life leaving stragglers ( water beads ) behind when water is introduced - the whole surface gets completely wet, and then the water that is on the car would form one unified body that would drag all of the water from the surface, leaving no water beads. This effect is called 'water sheeting'.

Water beading and water sheeting. Which of those two effects would you want more in a ceramic coating?

You want a ceramic coating that sheets more than it beads.

Why?

When it comes to water beads you might think 'What is the big deal? The beads are just standing there, they are not making the car wet or dirty. Why would I care?'

Well, you shouldn't care, at least not immediately. But once those water beads start to evaporate they would leave all the minerals that were in the water baked onto the surface of the ceramic coating.

Those white marks that are leftover we call water spots.

If the rain was acidic ( depending on where you live or the current weather conditions ) what you would be left with are called etch marks and they are more aggressively damaging to the ceramic coating that you worked so hard to install on your beauty.

This is where water sheeting shines!

Because of how it works it usually leaves a very low amount of water beads on the car. And if the water sheeting effect is strong enough it will leave no water beads at all, leaving the car completely dry no matter how wet it gets!