I was looking around and I saw this wheel cleaner. Is it any good? And also I'll take any suggestions of good ones for lots of type of wheels.

Wheel acid Diluted 1/10. It prevents it from staining the wheels, but has more "cutting/cleaning" power than most "wheel cleaners" out there. I use it on hammered wheels but even wheels that aren't hammered. For routinely maintained vehicles, though, the chemical doesn't quite matter as mentioned :)

The fear around acid is understood, but I've used it from 1/10 to full on, with no issues at all. If it's hot outside, I'll wet the wheels till they're cool, spray acid, let dwell for no more than 10 seconds, then with my brushes/woolies (soaking in PH neutral soap) - I knock off everything else in the process AND it neutralizes the acid after it's done the heavy lifting. It's not the MOST efficient process, but it's my efficient process. It's safe and prevents me from ever having to worry about staining a customers wheel or a dealership vehicle's wheel.

If I can't use Wheel Acid I just use an APC that my local place sells with no dilution. Agitate slightly, let it dwell, and scrub off. I'd rather buy the Gallon of APC with no dilution, that has active ingredients targeted for inorganic soils (i.e - brake dust), and costs me $15/gal. Dark fury is another good alternative that's slightly pricier, but has high reviews. I've never tried it myself, but I hear a ton of great things for the price and availability at most O'Reilly's.

I'm gonna be honest, though. I quit using most wheel cleaners and went to strong dish soap with acid. Chemically, there's no risk. They don't react violently or generate any type of bad gasses like maybe an ammonia and bleach combo would.

When I go through the SDS sheets of most "Wheel Cleaners" sold by detailing companies, I'm finding that most of the chemicals that they use have about the same cleaning power as your everyday strong degreasing dish soap.

Sorry for the wall of text, but I've been doing somewhat of a dive on chemicals inside the chemicals I buy to save myself money and to work smarter not harder. I'm just baffled with how many wheel cleaners out there are just flat out glorified dish soaps/animal shampoo/hair shampoo products. Just wanted to try and pass some information that could help you.

Honorable Mentions

Purple Power, Super Clean, Meguiars Wheel Brightener

/r/AutoDetailing Thread Parent