pro detailers product of choice???

hi everyone, im sure we all have our favorites when it comes to what we trust using on our details, my question today is what is your favorite interior all purpose cleaner to clean everything? what brand or should i say what company? i myself like to use simple green not only for the way it works but it has a pleasant scent and the customers know you cleaned.

AutoProClean :
Good product indeed. Some of these All Purpose Cleaners require a lot of rinsing, though .

I like Griot's Interior Cleaner a lot too .

Doug

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San Antonio Mobile Auto Detail
Martin Hernandez
210.213.3782
[www.saMobileCarWash.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/22/2009 05:02PM by MartinHernandez.

Lots of reasons a professional detailer would chose a supplier.

Who tells you what you want to hear?

Who can provide you answers, that work, to a concern you may be having to deal with.

Are they convient to your location.

Do they show up, each week, on time to provide products.

Do they have in stock the products you require.

Are the products doing the job you were told they would do.

Do they aid you when some enviormental issues come up.

Can they provide you with technical bulletins, in writting, that various vehicle manufacturers provide, or do they just pull out the same old, out dated (yeah, here is something from XXX, know it is dated 1989, but what the heck, it works) sort of thing.

Just some thoughts regarding your question.

Ketch

Something else to think about its 90% application and 10% product in other words a good detailer can get acceptable results from poor products but a poor detailer can only get poor results from the best products.

thanks for your responses, i guess just today i confirmed my liking in simple green, it cleans very well and it leaves a great scent, you know your car has been cleaned when you smell simple green. i gave maguiers interior cleaner a chance, and honestly even the way it sprayed on my towel, i hated it. thanks for the replys

You may find that you can get better results by using a variety of products on the interior, perhaps...
AM's carpet cleaner
Windex Multitask Orange for dirty vinyl and smokey windows
Invisible Glass for windows
Griot's Interior Cleaner for spots and stains, leather etc.
Zaino Leathersoft for mild cleaning of leather and vinyl
Mean Green and Awesome All Purpose if you run out of Simple Green .

Note-
You may get the best price on Simple Green by buying a gallon at Sam's Club or Costco .

Doug

You may find that you can get better results by using a variety of products on the interior, perhaps...
AM's carpet cleaner
Windex Multitask Orange for dirty vinyl and smokey windows
Invisible Glass for windows
Griot's Interior Cleaner for spots and stains, leather etc.
Zaino Leathersoft for mild cleaning of leather and vinyl
Mean Green and Awesome All Purpose if you run out of Simple Green .

Note-
You may get the best price on Simple Green by buying a gallon at Sam's Club or Costco .

Doug

From what our members tell us you should not try to use one product to clean many different types of materials. In an interior you have:

Carpet
Fabric Upholstery
Vinyl
Leather
Plastic
Glass

For carpets and fabric upholstery you would use a foaming carpet shampoo for scrubbing and a non-foaming extractor shampoo for extracting. Carpet shampoos are formulated with brighteners and softeners to leave the materials bright and soft.

Vinyl and Leather Cleaners are a bit stronger than carpet shampoo but do not contain harsh caustics, etc.

Plastics can often be cleaned with a vinyl cleaner

Glass - you need to use a glass cleaner formulated for glass.

The key is how chemicals are formulated. They are made for each material you would be working on.,

Joy dishwashing detergent would clean your hair but you would not or should not wash your hair with it.

A laundry detergent would clean your body, but again, you would not use such a product to take a bath.

Same thing with using one product for a variety of different materials, you can cause harm to those materials and at the same time not get a good result.

Join with us in the INTERNATIONAL DETAILING ASSOCIATION www.the-ida.com

Marnie-
I have to disagree with you on the use of a foaming carpet shampoo. When you extract it, the foam will try to migrate to the motor and the machine will shut down . There are anti-foam products you can add to your extractor to counteract this .
I favor brushing in a carpet cleaner that is approved for extractors, such as AutoMagic's red carpet shampoo . You can then extract with pure hot water ( using no shampoo in the extractor ), leaving minimal soapy residue behind .

It is true that glass should be cleaned with a glass cleaner, but I want to mention glass cleaners that can be used on interior vinyl as well. These include Glass Plus ( winner of a Consumer Reports test ), Windex Multitask and Windex Auto Glass Cleaner ( available in Walmart's automotive department ).

Simple Green can be diluted with water to prevent damage to vulnerable surfaces . In extreme dilutions, it can be used as glass cleaner .
That may make it safe for everything .
SG does seem to require rinsing to remove the sudsy residue, which is my concern with it .
Doug

That residue is the butyl content of the Simple Green, which is, if you do your checking, may find to be a ground water contaminate.

At the company I work for, and we supply "private label" glass cleaner to several of the world's vehicle manufacturer's, "no butyl content" for that very reason.

In short, Doug, these vehicle manufacturer's, which have very large, respected, testing labs, manned by PhD's, etc in chemistry, and the one's we supply will no longer allow any butyl cellosolve percentage in their water based cleaners, be they for vinyl, cloth, carpet, leather or glass.

Ketch

Ketch-
Hey-wait-whoa-time out !
You can't be right that the rinsing is needed to get rid of Butyl . Invisible Glass and Meguiar's Glass Cleaner contain butyl and don't require any rinsing .

I may be old and uneducated but I'm not senile . I may not know chemistry but I know something is wrong with this picture .
Doug

There are federal regulations, some apply to "consumer" products, others apply to "professional" products.

An example is that any products we produce for Ford, Chrysler, GM, etc, and will be used by the plants, dealerships, etc, are not allowed to contain any butyl content as it would be in violation of health and safety/toxology requirements set by the world wide tox labs, plus if disposed of incorrectly are in violation of the Federal Clean Water act.

Why, ever notice that when one sprays products containing a butyl component causes some discomfort in the lungs?

Ketch

Mr Delmont:

Thank you for your post, and while you disagree with my post this is a process that many detailers follow.

Keep in mind that an extractor shampoo is not formulated for frictions shampooing at 64 to 1 so it would not do an adequate job of cleaning. The reason I am told for using a friction shampoo is that you need the foam to pickup the soil residue so that it can be easily extracted.

As far as using water only in the extractor that is some detailers and carpet cleaners choice, but I have been told that using a non foaming, 64 to 1 dilution shampo helps to simply "rinse clean."

In regard to your comment about using glass cleaner to clean vinyl, of course it would work just like an engine degreaser would work to clean carpets, leather, wheels, etc. However, it is not formulated to do that and could and does contain ingredients and surfactants not designed for those materials.

The point of the post was to echo what professionals in the detail industry are telling detailers and that is, "to use products for what they were formulated for."

Your kind of advise does not lend itself to professionalism, in my humble opinion.

The best all around product for interior is meguiars #40 vinyl/rubber cleaner conditioner .

Sorry, but while it is a good product, it is no different, chemically than any other PDMS resin mixed with water and a bacteriacide.

The only "real" difference, other than the brand on the label and the "marketing" money spent, is the "percentage" of the resin in the product.

Ketch

Sorry, but while it is a good product, it is no different, chemically than any other PDMS resin mixed with water and a bacteriacide.

The only "real" difference, other than the brand on the label and the "marketing" money spent, is the "percentage" of the resin in the product.

Ketch

Meguiar's 40 is indeed an great dressing with cleaning properties but it is an entirely different product from an all purpose cleaner or multi-surface interior cleaner .
If the vinyl needs cleaning, use a cleaner on it first and then dress it with #40 if you wish .

Marnie-
I don't know how much hands-on detailing you have done but I can cite products specifically made to clean vinyl that damage the surface. I had that experience with VW All Purpose Cleaner years ago . Meguiar's Heavy Duty Vinyl Cleaner is good for some applications but too harsh for routine use . ArmorAll cleaner, at least the product I tried years ago, was harsh as well.
Glass Plus, Windex Multi-task, Griot's Interior Cleaner, Zaino LeatherSoft and Windex Automotive are labeled for vinyl and work fine.
Sounds like you are getting all your opinions from Bud ( LOL) .
Doug