Sine it has been established that car waxes are compatible with pinball clearcoated playfields, this is pretty much the same as a car wax discussion. However, as a practical matter, there are now many car waxes that do not ruin plastics. Since a pinball machine has lots of plastic parts, you might as well pick one of these. There are many, with one of the more recent ones being Turtle Wax Ice. It goes on easily, comes off easily and does not stain plastic.

My comments below apply only to modern clearcoated playfields and everybody would be wise to read vid1900's thread. (In case anyone is so dense that they didn't see it the first few times, here's the link again: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/cleaning-and-waxing-pinball-machines-vids-guide )

vid1900 brings up a good point about silicon content in liquid waxes. From what I gather, re-clearing a playfield that once had silicon is a bear.

That said, car wax manufacturers have said for a while now that technology has reached the point where there is no difference between paste and liquid. According to wax manufacturers, paste exists primarily for "traditionalists" rather than for any objective durability or appearance reason. Modern waxes are a chemical process and thus the delivery medium (wax or liquid) matters less than the chemicals themselves.

Ease of use and "sense of fulfillment" have become factors that are as important as shine and durability. P21S smells the way it does because they add aromas for the benefit of the user but that do not benefit the shine or protective durability. Adding aromas may sound silly, but only for those who have never smelled P21S while waxing a car. Personally, I value the use of a wax that does not stain plastic - I'm sick of those pockets of white wax residue around star posts.

Here's another article on waxes with pinballs: http://www.flippers.be/playfield_wax.html

I stand corrected. P21S still smells awesome, though. Must be a Pavlovian thing.
Pavlov2_(resized).jpg

P21S seems to be an evolving product operating under the same name. An older formulation used to stain plastics like crazy.