Ceramic Coatings and Protection
Adam's Graphene Ceramic Coating vs Gtechniq Crystal Serum Light
One maker publishes the largest durability claim on this site. The other's retailer publishes a kit list. Neither publishes how much coating your car needs.
By Sawyer V. · Last verified 2026-09-10
We have not tested any of this. Everything below is compiled from published manufacturer specifications, and the arithmetic is printed so you can check it. This page carries affiliate links: if you buy through one we earn a commission at no extra cost to you, and it does not change the order of the picks. Full disclosure.
| # | Pick | Best for | Score | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Adam's Graphene Ceramic Coating Adam's Polishes | The biggest claim on the page, and the fullest kit | 6.0/10 | Check price on Amazon |
| 2 | Gtechniq Crystal Serum Light Gtechniq | The enthusiast rung of a professional coating line | 1.6/10 | Check price on Amazon |
No live price is currently verified, so every button here reads Check price rather than a number we cannot stand behind. Why we do it that way.
Side by side, on published figures only
| Adam's Graphene Ceramic Coating | Gtechniq CSL kit | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $119.99 | $117.00 |
| Coating volume | 60ml | 30ml or 50ml CSL |
| Claimed durability | 7+ years | Not published |
| Claimed hardness | Greater than 10H | Not published |
| Cure time | 24 hours free from water and weather | Not published |
| In the box | 60ml coating, 4oz Graphene Boost, 4oz Surface Prep, towels, applicators, gloves | 500ml Panel Wipe, CSL, EXOv5 |
| Published coverage | Not published | Not published |
The information gap is the comparison
Gtechniq’s own website returned a bot challenge throughout our research, so the only figures we could retrieve came from an authorized retailer, and that listing is a kit contents list. It is not that Gtechniq make no claims; it is that we could not read them from a source we are willing to cite. CQUARTZ vs Gtechniq ran into exactly the same wall.
Adam’s sit at the opposite extreme. Their claim of 7+ years is the second largest in this ledger, and they publish a cure window and a hardness claim alongside it. The trouble with a seven-year claim on a coating you apply yourself is that nobody can check it inside a useful timeframe, and we say that everywhere the claim appears.
What the Gtechniq kit gets right
It includes the two things people otherwise buy separately: a 500ml Panel Wipe for the final prep step and EXOv5 as the top layer. Coating failures are mostly prep failures, and a kit that puts the prep product in the box is making a sensible argument even without a durability figure to back it.
What the Adam’s kit gets right
Adam’s also ship the prep - a 4oz Surface Prep - plus a 4oz Graphene Boost topper, towels, applicators and gloves. They publish a 24-hour cure, which is the figure that decides whether a car parked outdoors can be coated at all this week, and offer a UV tracer so you can see which panels you have already covered.
Who should buy which
- You want the maker's claims in writing before you pay: Adam's.
- You want a panel wipe and a topper included: either - both kits include a prep product and a topper.
- You want a published cure window: Adam's, 24 hours.
- You want to know how many cars the bottle does: neither publishes it.
Every pick, with the working
Each entry lists the specifications the maker publishes, the axis scores those specifications produce, and what you give up. Rows that read “Not published” are not omissions on our side: they are figures the maker will not commit to in writing, and they cost the product points on the transparency axis.
Our pickThe biggest claim on the page, and the fullest kit
Adam's Graphene Ceramic Coating
Adam's Polishes
Skip this one. A 7+ year claim on a DIY coating is the kind of number that is impossible to falsify inside the warranty period and impossible to verify outside it. If the claim is what is selling you, buy the coating that publishes a coverage figure instead.
Adam's publishes 7+ years of protection and >10H hardness on a 60ml bottle at $119.99, in a kit that includes surface prep, a booster, applicators, towels and gloves. The claim is the largest in this ledger by a factor of two, and Adam's publishes no coverage figure to go with it, so you cannot work out how many cars the bottle does.
- Size
- 60ml
- Claimed durability
- 7+ years
- Claimed hardness
- Greater than 10H
- Cure time
- 24 hours free from water and weather
- In the box
- 60ml coating, 4oz Graphene Boost, 4oz Surface Prep, 4 towels, 2 applicators, gloves
- Published coverage
- Not published
- SiO2 content
- Not published
- Warranty
- Not published
What it does well
- 7+ years claimed, the longest figure any maker in this ledger publishes
- Kit is genuinely complete: 4oz Surface Prep, 4oz Graphene Boost, applicators, suede and soft towels, gloves
- 24-hour cure window published plainly on the page
- A UV tracing feature is offered so you can see where you have already coated
Who it is not for
- No coverage or consumption figure published, so cost per car is not calculable from Adam's own numbers
- No SiO2 or graphene percentage published; >10H hardness is a claim, not a number you can check
- $119.99 is the highest list price here and the bottle is 60ml
How this score was calculated
- Protection claim10.0/10, weight 20%
- Adam's Polishes claims 84 months, scored against the 60-month ceiling this category tops out at. That is the manufacturer's claim reported here, not a durability figure anyone measured for us.
- Capabilitydropped
- Adam's Polishes does not publish a figure for published sio2 content on this product, so the axis is dropped and the remaining weights are re-normalized.
- Cost per ounce4.4/10, weight 16%
- $119.99 for 2.03 oz works out at $59.11 an ounce, scored against a band of $20.00 (good) to $90.00 (expensive) for a ceramic coating.
- Price against the ceiling2.0/10, weight 14%
- A listed $119.99 against the $150 one upgrade in this category realistically tops out at. A list price captured on the compile date, not a live price and not what you will pay.
- Written commitmentdropped
- Adam's Polishes publishes no warranty term on this product's own page, so the axis is dropped. On a tool that is worth noticing, and it costs the product points on transparency instead.
- Spec transparency6.3/10, weight 18%
- 5 of the 8 specifications we went looking for are published by Adam's Polishes. Every blank row below is something the maker will not put in writing, and it costs the product points here.
List price $119.99 per Adam's Polishes' own store, captured on the compile date below. Not a live price and not what you will pay — the button is where the real number is.
Specifications from Adam's Graphene Ceramic Coating product page, compiled September 8, 2026.
2The enthusiast rung of a professional coating line
Gtechniq Crystal Serum Light
Gtechniq
Crystal Serum Light is the consumer-applicable version of Gtechniq's professional serum, sold here in a kit with Panel Wipe and EXOv5 at $117 for 30ml. We could not retrieve Gtechniq's own product page to verify a durability figure, so this record carries none; what is verifiable is the kit contents and the price at an authorized retailer.
- Sizes
- 30ml / 50ml (as a kit)
- In the box
- 500ml Panel Wipe, 30ml or 50ml CSL, EXOv5
- Claimed durability
- Not published
- Claimed hardness
- Not published
- Published coverage
- Not published
- Cure time
- Not published
- SiO2 content
- Not published
- Warranty
- Not published
What it does well
- Sold as a prep-plus-coat-plus-topper system rather than a bare bottle, which is how a coating actually gets applied
- 500ml Panel Wipe included, and prep is the step people skip
- 30ml and 50ml options at a published price from an authorized retailer
Who it is not for
- Gtechniq's own site returns a bot challenge, so no manufacturer durability, hardness or coverage figure could be verified for this record
- The kit price is high for 30ml once you account for the fact that EXO is a separate product doing separate work
- Nothing about the retailer listing tells you how many cars 30ml covers
How this score was calculated
- Protection claimdropped
- Gtechniq publishes no durability figure for this product, so the axis is dropped rather than guessed at.
- Capabilitydropped
- Gtechniq does not publish a figure for published sio2 content on this product, so the axis is dropped and the remaining weights are re-normalized.
- Cost per ounce0.0/10, weight 16%
- $117.00 for 1.01 oz works out at $115.84 an ounce, scored against a band of $20.00 (good) to $90.00 (expensive) for a ceramic coating.
- Price against the ceiling2.2/10, weight 14%
- A listed $117.00 against the $150 one upgrade in this category realistically tops out at. A list price captured on the compile date, not a live price and not what you will pay.
- Written commitmentdropped
- Gtechniq publishes no warranty term on this product's own page, so the axis is dropped. On a tool that is worth noticing, and it costs the product points on transparency instead.
- Spec transparency2.5/10, weight 18%
- 2 of the 8 specifications we went looking for are published by Gtechniq. Every blank row below is something the maker will not put in writing, and it costs the product points here.
List price $117.00 per The Rag Company, 30ml kit, captured on the compile date below. Not a live price and not what you will pay — the button is where the real number is.
Specifications from The Rag Company's CSL kit listing (authorized Gtechniq retailer), compiled September 8, 2026.
No live price is currently verified, so every button here reads Check price rather than a number we cannot stand behind. Why we do it that way.
Questions people actually ask
+Is Adam's Graphene better than Gtechniq?
+Does Gtechniq publish a durability figure for Crystal Serum Light?
+What is EXOv5 in the Gtechniq kit?
+How long before I can drive in the rain?
Where these figures came from
- Adam's Graphene Ceramic Coating product page — retrieved 2026-09-08
- The Rag Company's Gtechniq Panel Wipe, CSL and EXOv5 kit listing — retrieved 2026-09-08
Every figure on this page is a published manufacturer or authorized-retailer claim, not a measurement we made. How we research explains exactly what we did and did not do.