Friday, January 4, 2019

The New Turle Wax Wheel Cleaner Review

After I did a comparison on various wheel cleaners a while back (see here), the Turtle Wax F21 wheel cleaner has been my go-to wheel cleaner for a long time. However it is almost impossible to find nowadays. I recently found a supposedly newer version of my favourite wheel cleaner.

turtlewax wheel & tire cleaner


It is just named as Turtle Wax Wheel & Tire Cleaner. There is a label on it that states "New! Power Foam". I was very excited to test this out to see if it lives up to the previous F21 performance.




This is the back label of the bottle. The new bottle has a shade of florescent green rather than a lighter green compared to F21. Super bright!

As usual, before I start I would normally check the pH of the cleaner as I did with all other cleaners.




Disappointingly, the pH shot up all the way the way to pH14. That is extremely basic (high alkalinity). F21 only has a pH9.




I guess they wanted to up the cleaning power but if I remember correctly the cleaning power of F21 was rather good. I would caution the use of this new wheel cleaner. Anything on the extreme sides on the pH scale is not very good. I would recommend testing on small inconspicuous area before going all the way.




This is how it looks after spraying on. I must say that it is very foamy and cleaning ability seems very good. I could see the brake dust lifting off from the wheel even before brushing.

I gave the wheel a good brush and sprayed it with clean water. Based on my observation, I had to run the water longer to get rid of all traces of "soapy water" as compared to F21. I guess that is one of the side effects of having extreme alkalinity. The wheel did look very clean afterwards. No picture here though.

So, let's sum this up. The performance of this new wheel cleaner is very good, maybe even better than F21. In terms of performance, it is indeed an improvement over F21. However, in my opinion the high alkalinity makes it more harmful - to health, environment, and maybe your car. Would I recommend this? Maybe no unless you are pretty sure you will take all precautionary measures.

That's it for this post.
Happy detailing.

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