These three questions are actually intertwined and to answer all three at the same time, let’s make a bullet list of the key attributes and benefits of an all-purpose cleaner.
A cleaner designed to penetrate the fibers of a carpet is not going to work very well on your instrument panel. Then consider the surfaces in a car range from an engine bay to delicate electronic panels to plastic and glass to soft and porous things like carpet and upholstery. They vary greatly: organic to inorganic, alkaline to acidic, and water to oil based. That explains why there are hundreds of APC’s on the market and why so many people use them.īut if you have read any of my other articles on subjects like cleaning leather, alcantara, or upholstery, you already know that no single cleaner will work on every surface and remove every stain out there.
There are less bottles of stuff to lug around and store, and you save time not having to grab another cleaner every time you move to clean the next surface. Using fewer cleaning products makes life simpler. Top 8 All-Purpose Cleaners for Car DetailingģD All Purpose Cleaner - Multi Surface.Īdam's Eco All Purpose Cleaner (Gallon). Of course, we will also present and review some products worth considering. So, it might be interesting to explore what constitutes a great All-Purpose Cleaner, and importantly, what you can expect from these cleaners. But it is the term we now use to describe the general cleaners used in automotive detailing shops every day. I don’t know if APC was a marketing ploy that became ingrained in the detailing world, or just something that happened over time. (It is also interesting to note that unrealistic expectations for APC cleaners are responsible for the majority of complaints and bad reviews from disappointed customers.) If you consider there is no single cleaner designed for use on every automotive surface that can remove any type of spot and stain, why do we use “All Purpose Cleaner” to describe this family of products? We use the term All Purpose Cleaner (“APC”) every day.
In the car detailing world, we use a term all the time that is part of this English language strangeness. A comedian once asked, “Why do we park in a driveway, and drive on a parkway?” It made us laugh, but it also it demonstrated how bizarre and complex the English language can be.