ArmorAll Headlight Restoration Wipes Review

What We Say

What is it?

Taken from the Armor All Website;

Most headlight lenses are made of polycarbonate-based materials which tend to oxidise over time, leading to reduced visibility. Hazy yellow headlights can be a safety risk and potentially lead to MOT failure. Current solutions to headlight cleaning are often complicated and require tools, time and effort. But with Armor All® Headlight Restorer Wipes Kit, all you need is 2 wipes and 10 minutes to restore your headlights like new.

How we Tested it:

We were kindly sent two sets of the wipes to put through their paces and have done so on headlights of varying oxidation. We looked at ease of use, effectiveness, value and their place on the market.

We Liked:

• Removes yellowing from headlight surface.
• UV wipes offer genuine UV coat and long term re- protection.
• Clean and easy to follow instructions and nice to have complete start to end in one kit

We didn't like:

• Doesn't really 'restore'headlights. Just removes discolouring. The name is a bit misleading particularly as the small print states "Please note that this product is not intended for heavily oxidised headlights which may require more abrasive methods. The Headlight Restorer wipes are not designed to tackle damaged and scratched headlights".
• Very strong impregnated wipes, care is needed during use.
• Quite expensive and if you get it wrong they are single usage. Drop a wipe on a driveway for example and its game over.

Overall

We don't really understand the place for this product if we are honest and were really hoping it could be a potential game changer if it worked. In short, it doesn't. It works to the extent that yellowing is removed but on test headlights, once the yellowing is removed, it doesn't restore at all any of the oxidised surface or heavier clouding. Which the product does say as an NB upon it.

But without doing this, we can't see how it is a headlight restoration kit? Most professional detailers will offer headlight restoration from £30-50 and abrasive kits to complete full restorations are available for £20+, granted requiring a power tool. For us though we would much rather pay £40 or so to have a full restoration of headlights than pay £10-14 for part of a restoration.

If you have a very lightly faded headlight then yes this will do a decent job but its rare headlights are faded without oxidation below unless very early fading and for us the kit just doesn't do what initially is assumed.