The best cleaning product you’ve never heard of
The best cleaning product you’ve never heard ofOver the last 12 months I’ve become pretty obsessive about cleaning my car. I’ve not quite hit nerd level yet but I’ve spent quite a bit of effort looking at products, methods and many a YouTube review.
I came across this company for another product, but quickly learnt that Bilt Hamber are pretty bloody serious when it come to creating and manufacturing high quality cleaning products, and one of those products is Surfex HD.
Surfex HD, if you search it, is used by many a car cleaning enthusiast for a multitude of purposes. At it’s core, it’s an “All purpose cleaner and degreaser”. It’s available in two measures, 1L and 5L. In it’s pure form, it will strip the lubricating grease off anything. The idea behind Surfex HD is that you dilute it according to the use you need.
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What is it?
According to Built Hamber it’s –
- Powerful water-based APC (all purpose cleaner).
- Safe for virtually all automotive and domestic surfaces
- Biodgradable formulation
- Economical use from use 0.5% to neat.
Now when they say it’s biodegradable, they also mean its not a solvent but infact is water based, and with the new phase of “Hintching“, it’s safer for your family and the air you breathe.
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Where and how do I use it?
After a lot of reading, I decided to buy three empty spray bottles as well as the 5L bottle of Surfex HD. I decided on three strengths, 5%, 10% and 25%.
The 5% solution is perfect for just about any cleaning of surfaces without dried on grime. I clean the leather sofa with it, window frames, window sills, floors, kitchen table after Elian has made a mess, kitchen tiles, painted walls….. you get the idea. The 10% solution is for the same areas but for when its dried on or more heavily soiled and ive also used it in the engine bay of the car to clean all the road grime off the rubber hoses and engine plastics. Even though its such a low concentration, it really helps lift dirt up off surfaces and is even more effective if you leave it soak for a minute or two (but don’t leave it dry).
25% dilution is something else. It will dissolve the oil off a car engine in a few minutes, but more importantly will dissolve and loosen grease and oil on kitchen backsplashes and on cooker extraction hoods with pure ease. We have a wood cooker hood lid and I’ve tried all sorts of products since we moved in, and they all leave it tacky and sticky without removing the baked on grease. This week I sprayed Surfex HD 25% on and it wiped off in minutes with two applications.
As well as a spray bottle I’ve purchased a set of car detailing brushes. Again, they dont just have to be used in a car, theyre super handy around the house for getting in nooks and crannies with a cloth won’t. Surfex foams up well when agitated with a brush too so it doesn’t just run off surfaces.
When shouldn’t I use it?
As it’s a degreaser, be mindful of areas that require grease to work. It will dry out hinges, sliding door rails and anything else that needs low friction to work. Of course it’s no trouble to squirt some lubricant in the cleaned area, just remember to do it. Lastly, it’s not anti bacterial, so although it can be used and rinsed off food areas, it’s not an anti-bac product.
Why should I use it?
Three main reasons.
- It’s the best cleaning product I’ve used for grime and grease, ever.
- It’s CHEAP. If you use it at 5% for everything, you’d be paying an approximate of 22p per 1L for an eco friendly cleaning product.
- Not only is the cleaning product itself environmentally friendly, think of all the plastic you would save buying one spray bottle and one 5L bottle of Surfex HD compared to 100 single use plastic spray bottles.
The Proof
Before
After
I took one bottle of cleaning product, a microfibre towel (check these out they are awersome!) and a car detailing brush and cleaned my mother in laws sofa. She’s been trying to clean it for days using a highly recommended leather cleaning product from amazon (this one infact) and not been getting far. When I sprayed the sofa with Surfex HD and started lightly brushing into the grain foaming up the liquid a bit, her jaw dropped. The engrained dirty from our combined dog troop, ran off. I used 600ml of liquid to do nearly a whole 3 seater sofa, costing me less than 15p in product and a little bit of elbow grease.
I would normally suggest a dedicated leather cleaning product than using Surfex HD.
However, if one insists on Surfex HD, I would suggest using a leather conditioner after cleaning it, especially on a leather sofa or seat in a car. That way the leather retains moisture and does not dry out/crack.