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Bloomberg
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CTV News
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Auto Express
22-05-2025
- Automotive
- Auto Express
Best power car polishers 2025
Although polishing your car by hand can be rewarding, sometimes the assistance of a powered polisher can really bring back the showroom shine. When choosing a rotary polisher, the first thing you should consider is how you plan to use it. They are designed to work with a mild-to-medium cutting compound to remove the top layer of rough paint or lacquer and make your car as shiny as possible. Do that too often and you'll end up damaging the paint, so you shouldn't consider a polisher as an alternative to a hand-applied layer of wax or resin coating. Advertisement - Article continues below For this test, we brought together eight battery-powered polishers priced from less than £39 to almost £400, with differing pad sizes, to determine which was the best all-rounder. We tested our polishers on two cars, using firm polishing, medium polishing and soft-finishing pads. The first car was 27 years old and had faded solid red paint. The second was 15 years old and black; this colour tends to show swirls and surface scratches. The machines were judged on their smoothness, speed adjustments, weight and noise level. We also factored in how balanced they felt in our hands, and how long the batteries lasted. Skip advert Advertisement - Article continues below View I-PACE View A4 View Qashqai All of the polishers made a difference to the tired paint finishes of our old test cars. And while unsurprisingly it was the top-end models that gave the best results, some of the cheaper models were close enough to make them a shining example. Price: around £400 (kit)/ around £190 (body only) around £400 (kit)/ around £190 (body only) Battery size/life on test: 5Ah/still running after 1hr 5Ah/still running after 1hr Speed settings: 8 8 Rating: 5 stars 5 stars Contact: Milwaukee has a reputation for offering workshop-quality equipment to the public and for long-lasting, durable tools. That's certainly evident here, with the FAP180 polisher part of the firm's M18 System of products, and using interchangeable, hefty 5Ah lithium batteries. Advertisement - Article continues below If you already have a Milwaukee M18 wrench or drill, you'll find the polisher uses the same battery pack, which means you can opt for the body-only version to save some cash. If you do go for the kit, you get two batteries, a charging dock and both foam and wool polishing pads, in a case. It's a joy to use, with a quiet motor and eight adjustable speed settings, while there are two different types of auxiliary handle to suit horizontal and vertical jobs. It's a superb piece of kit – and while it isn't cheap, if you can afford it, it's worth it. Skip advert Advertisement - Article continues below Buy now from Amazon... Price: around £195 (kit)/ around £150 (body only) around £195 (kit)/ around £150 (body only) Battery size/life on test: 4Ah/58 minutes 4Ah/58 minutes Speed settings: 6 6 Rating: 4.5 stars 4.5 stars Contact: Although it wasn't the absolute best on test, the Draper D20 is a great all-rounder. It sounds a little coarse compared with the more expensive models here from Sealey, Milwaukee and FLEX, but in terms of overall competence it performed well on both of our test cars, its random orbit rotation allowing more overlap for general polishing, as opposed to paint restoration. If you buy the full kit, then you get a rapid charger, two 4Ah batteries and two pads. The battery lasted just under an hour on test, but as there are two included and recharging takes less than an hour, you can simply swap them as you go. Hardcore detailers will prefer some of the other units on offer, but for the home enthusiast to revive the paintwork on the family motors, this is a good value option. Advertisement - Article continues below Buy now from Amazon... Price: around £135 (kit)/ around £60 (body only) around £135 (kit)/ around £60 (body only) Battery size/life on test: 2Ah/52 mins 2Ah/52 mins Speed settings: 8 8 Rating: 4.5 stars 4.5 stars Contact: A relatively new name in power tools, Durofix claims to offer good-quality products at sensible prices, and that's certainly true in the case of its mini-polisher, which was the best of the three smaller units we tested. The RS1222 also had the best battery life of the trio, lasting well over 50 minutes. Skip advert Advertisement - Article continues below It was good to use, too, with a well engineered head that can be adapted for M6 or M8 attachments and, uniquely among the small polishers, eight speed settings, plus an orbital adapter and a choice of sanding or polishing modes. It has a good weight to it, feels chunky and has a durable-feeling handle, which can be fitted to either side to suit the job. In kit form, it also gets two batteries, a charger, two pads and a carry case. Buy now from Amazon... Price: around £72 around £72 Battery size/life on test: 2Ah/40 minutes 2Ah/40 minutes Speed settings: 2 2 Rating: 4 stars 4 stars Contact: The SV10.8 unit was another favourite of the three smaller hand-held polishers on test. It feels robust and reassuringly heavy, is easy to use, and while it has only two speed settings, we found that these were well judged and that the 75mm pads were perfect for polishing headlights and smaller areas of trim. A 40-minute battery life and the unit's compact size make it more suited to localised polishing, but it impressed us with its overall ability, sturdy handle and weighty, M6 spindle-mounted head. Advertisement - Article continues below Buy now from Amazon... Price: around £500 around £500 Battery size/life on test: 5.0Ah/still running after 1hr 5.0Ah/still running after 1hr Speed settings: 6 6 Rating: 4 stars 4 stars Contact: Skip advert Advertisement - Article continues below It may be the priciest option in our test, but the Flex polisher comes with a comprehensive pack of accessories and a sturdy carrying case, plus two batteries giving you a total of around four hours of use. It's as good as a hand-held polisher gets and would be our winner here if not for the price – the German machine feels weighty, is extremely smooth in use and worked especially well on our faded red car. The sturdy carry box makes it ideal for the mobile valeter – but this is very much a professional product. Price: £284.34 £284.34 Battery size/life on test: 4.0Ah/still running after 1hr 4.0Ah/still running after 1hr Speed settings: 6 6 Rating: 3.5 stars 3.5 stars Contact: We were impressed by the Sealey's smoothness, sturdy handle and easily adjustable six-speed motor, while it also comes with a carry bag, battery and charger. However, the 180mm head is the largest here and while that's a blessing on flat panels, it can feel a bit clumsy on curves and contours. The SV20 also feels a bit too light that makes it easy to carry, but less stable in use. Advertisement - Article continues below Nevertheless, the results were pretty good and despite having a smaller battery than some rivals, it was still running after an hour. Skip advert Advertisement - Article continues below Buy now from Amazon... Price: £129.99 (kit)/£59.99 (body only) £129.99 (kit)/£59.99 (body only) Battery size/life on test: 2Ah/40 mins 2Ah/40 mins Speed settings: 2 2 Rating: 3.5 stars 3.5 stars Contact: The AC Delco ARS1212A1PFG feels chunky to hold and is visually very similar to our favourite small polisher from Durofix. The two brands are supplied by the same distributor and use identical batteries, heads and chargers. But while the AC Delco unit is cheaper than the Durofix and comes with the same accessories if you buy it as a kit, it has only two speeds and exhausted its battery faster than the Durofix. Buy now from Amazon... Price: around £39 around £39 Battery size/life on test: 3.0Ah/37 mins 3.0Ah/37 mins Speed settings: 6 6 Rating: 3.5 stars 3.5 stars Contact: Temu's generic polisher is branded DayPlus and uses a very similar colour scheme to Draper's products, but there's no mistaking it for the British-born company's offering in terms of quality. That said, the unit performed perfectly well on test, and when evaluated on price it wasn't far behind its rivals, while the kit that comes with it is generous. The 3Ah battery packed up after 37 minutes of testing, though. It may be one of the priciest options there is, but the Milwaukee polisher comes with a comprehensive pack of accessories and a sturdy carrying case, with two batteries giving you around four hours of use. It's as good as a hand-held polisher gets, so is our winner. Advertisement - Article continues below Skip advert Advertisement - Article continues below The Draper D20 is our choice for those on a lower budget, because it's almost as effective as the more expensive models, yet at a much more affordable price. Out of the smaller polishers, the Durofix did a great job of restoring clarity to our headlights, yet was still effective at shining up body panels. Our expert Richard Tipper has polished the most valuable cars in the world, so knows the pitfalls that await the uninitiated DIY-er. Attack the car with a rotary machine and an aggressive cutting paste and you could soon wear through the paint surface, leaving you with no choice but to respray. Tipper's advice is to get a feeling for the machine and your car's paint by experimenting on a section of a flat panel using a medium or fine polish liquid and pad combination. After a few minutes, wipe off the residue and see if it has had the desired effect. If you'd like more shine, apply more pressure, up the machine speed, or use a more aggressive compound or firmer pad. But Tipper's key advice is just to be careful. You can always go back and polish more if needed, but it's much more difficult to replace paint if you go too far in the first place. Want the latest car news in your inbox? Sign up to the free Auto Express email newsletter... 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