Ceramic Coatings and Protection
Does Ceramic Coating Prevent Scratches?
Not in the way the word hardness suggests. The strongest claim here is about light marring during washing, and no maker claims a coating stops a chip, a key or a dirty sponge.
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 Advanced Adam's Polishes | The largest published claim in this ledger | 5.4/10 | Check price on Amazon |
| 2 | 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 |
| 3 | CarPro CQUARTZ UK 3.0 CarPro | The only coating here that publishes its SiO2 percentage | 6.1/10 | 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.
What the makers actually claim
| Coating | Hardness claim | Scratch claim | Durability claim | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adam's Graphene Ceramic Coating Advanced | 10H | Higher scratch resistance during the washing process | 9+ years | $144.99 |
| Adam's Graphene Ceramic Coating | 10H | Higher scratch resistance during washing than Adam's original coating | 7+ years | $119.99 |
| CarPro CQUARTZ UK 3.0 | Not published | Not published | 2-5 years | $59.99 |
That is the honest state of it. The strongest scratch claim here is Adam’s, and it is carefully worded: higher scratch resistance during the washing process, which on the standard graphene coating is framed as an improvement over Adam’s own original coating. It is a claim about light wash marring, not about keys or chips.
What 10H does and does not mean
The hardness numbers on coating bottles refer to pencil hardness scales applied to a cured film in a laboratory, as the coating roundup explains. They say nothing about impact. A stone at highway speed, a key or a shopping cart puts more energy into the paint than a thin cured film can absorb.
Where a coating does help
The real benefit is indirect. A coated panel is slicker and sheds dirt more readily, so washing takes less pressure and fewer passes, and most swirl marks are wash marks. Adam’s publish a sliding angle of 10 to 15 degrees for their graphene coatings, which measures how readily water, and the dirt in it, runs off.
That makes a coating a way to reduce marring over time rather than a shield against it. How to wash a ceramic coated car covers the washing half of that bargain.
A coating locks in what is already there
A coating goes on top of the paint and preserves whatever is under it, swirls included, and coating swirled paint produces glossier swirls. If the paint is already marked, correct it first: the scratch remover roundup covers single scratches, and what paint correction is covers the rest.
What actually stops chips
Paint protection film is the category sold for stone chips, because it is a physical layer rather than a cured chemical film. No coating maker on this page claims chip protection.
What to do
- You want less wash marring over time: a coating helps, alongside a proper wash.
- You want chips stopped: look at paint protection film, not a coating.
- Your paint is already swirled: correct it first, then coat.
- You want the strongest published scratch claim: Adam's Graphene Advanced, 10H and higher scratch resistance during washing, $144.99.
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 largest published claim in this ledger
Adam's Graphene Ceramic Coating Advanced
Adam's Polishes
60ml at $144.99, and the only coating on this site that publishes contact and sliding angles. Adam's states 10H hardness, 9+ years of protection, 50% more resin than the standard version, contact angles averaging 110 to 118 degrees and water leaving at 10 to 15 degrees.
- Size
- 60ml
- Claimed durability
- 9+ years
- Claimed hardness
- 10H
- Contact angle
- Averaging more than 110-118 degrees
- Sliding angle
- Water evacuates at less than 10-15 degrees
- Resin content
- 50% higher than the standard Graphene Ceramic Coating
- Published coverage
- Not published
- Graphene content
- Not published
- Warranty
- Not published
What it does well
- Contact angle published at 110-118 degrees — a real measured number almost nobody in this category prints
- Sliding angle published at 10-15 degrees
- 50% increased coating resin over the standard version, stated as a figure
- UV tracer technology means you can see what you have already coated
Who it is not for
- 9+ years on a DIY coating cannot be verified inside any useful timeframe
- No coverage figure, so cost per car is not calculable from a $144.99 bottle
- No graphene or SiO2 percentage published
How this score was calculated
- Protection claim10.0/10, weight 20%
- Adam's Polishes claims 108 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 ounce2.7/10, weight 16%
- $144.99 for 2.03 oz works out at $71.42 an ounce, scored against a band of $20.00 (good) to $90.00 (expensive) for a ceramic coating.
- Price against the ceiling0.3/10, weight 14%
- A listed $144.99 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 transparency6.7/10, weight 18%
- 6 of the 9 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 $144.99 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 Advanced product page, compiled September 8, 2026.
2The 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.
3The only coating here that publishes its SiO2 percentage
CarPro CQUARTZ UK 3.0
CarPro
CarPro publishes 70% SiO2 at 99.9% purity, a 2 to 5 year durability range, a 10ml-per-coat consumption figure and a 40F to 90F application window. That is four hard numbers on one page, and it is four more than most of this category manages. Buy it because it is checkable, not because 70% is magic.
- Sizes
- 10ml / 30ml / 50ml / 100ml
- SiO2 content
- 70% SiO2, 99.9% purity
- Claimed durability
- 2 to 5 years
- Published consumption
- 10ml per coat
- Application temperature
- 40F to 90F
- In the box
- 30ml bottle, 4 suede applicators, block, leveling towel
- Cure time
- Not published
- Warranty
- Not published
What it does well
- 70% SiO2 at 99.9% purity, published by CarPro on the product page
- Application window published as 40F to 90F, which is the figure that decides whether your garage works in November
- 10ml per coat published, so a 30ml bottle is roughly three coats and the arithmetic is yours to do
- Kit includes suede applicators, a block and a leveling towel rather than just the bottle
Who it is not for
- The durability claim is a three-year-wide range, which is a wide range to plan around
- No cure-time figure published beyond the 2-5 minute buffing window
- Leveling is unforgiving compared with a spray coating; this is not the coating to learn on
How this score was calculated
- Protection claim4.0/10, weight 20%
- CarPro claims 24 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.
- Published SiO2 content8.3/10, weight 22%
- 70%, scored on a band running from 20 to 80. Published by CarPro.
- Cost per ounce4.4/10, weight 16%
- $59.99 for 1.01 oz works out at $59.40 an ounce, scored against a band of $20.00 (good) to $90.00 (expensive) for a ceramic coating.
- Price against the ceiling6.0/10, weight 14%
- A listed $59.99 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
- CarPro 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 transparency7.5/10, weight 18%
- 6 of the 8 specifications we went looking for are published by CarPro. Every blank row below is something the maker will not put in writing, and it costs the product points here.
List price $59.99 per CarPro's US store, 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 CarPro's CQUARTZ UK 3.0 listing, 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
+Can a ceramic coating be scratched?
+Will a ceramic coating hide scratches?
+Does ceramic coating protect against rock chips?
+Is graphene more scratch resistant than ceramic?
Where these figures came from
- Adam's Graphene Ceramic Coating Advanced product page — retrieved 2026-09-10
- Adam's Graphene Ceramic Coating product page — retrieved 2026-09-10
- CarPro's CQUARTZ UK 3.0 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.