Reviewed: BLACKFIRE All-In-One All Purpose Cleaner

[mikep288]

Reviewed:
BLACKFIRE All-In-One All Purpose Cleaner

First off, my thanks go out to Nick, and the rest of the fine folks over at Autogeek for the opportunity to evaluate this product.

Vehicle:
My daily-driven 2011 Kia Sorento SX.

Product claims:

The only APC you need for every auto surface!
BLACKFIRE All-In-One All Purpose Cleaner brings new meaning to the word "versatile." Used full-strength, it is an aggressive, grease-cutting cleaner for engine compartments and wheels. When diluted 4:1, it's a gentle cleaner for leather seats and paintwork. Dilute BLACKFIRE All-In-One All Purpose Cleaner to clean virtually anything, safely and effectively. It's the only APC you need!

Features:
· Use full strength on wheels, tires, engine components, and exterior trim.
· Dilute 4:1 with water to safely clean leather, paint, fabric, carpet, plastics, and vinyl.
· Removes dirt, oil, grease, insects, tar, brake dust, food stains, and more.
· Environmentally friendly.



Product comes in well-made 20oz. bottle with a selectable sprayer, offering either a narrow stream or a full spray pattern. Both patterns worked well and reduced the need to fumble around trying to get just the right spray pattern to suit the job at hand.

Directions:
For tough cleaning jobs, spray full strength onto surface. Agitate with a brush or towel if needed. Rinse off. For interior surfaces, dilute 4:1 in a spray bottle. Spray on and wipe off. Test for colorfastness of carpet, upholstery, and leather in a small, inconspicuous area. Spray on and allow to dwell for 30 seconds. Agitate with a brush and pat dry with a towel.

Vehicle Condition:
Entire vehicle had been washed the week before, but had since been subject to filthy roads as a result of almost daily road saltings and rain showers every couple of days.

Prep:
In readying for this review, I prepared a wash bucket (Meg’s Gold class soap, approx. 1oz/3gal.) readied my favorite tire brushes and got to it.



Tire before cleaning:



Product sprayed liberally around the tire, and now the wait begins…










After waiting at least the recommended 30 seconds, I broke out my tire brush (presoaked in my wash solution) and scrubbed thoroughly to see what else I could get to come off of these tires. Here’s the result:
(Note the brownish color after agitation)





The tires were thoroughly rinsed and their condition was assessed:



At this point, I was already very impressed with what came off of this tire, but I wanted to see if there was room for improvement. After quickly being blown dry, I repeated the process.




Notice the color of the foam upon the second application, white. It looks to me at least like we’re dealing with a very clean tire here.







After repeating the process on all four corners, I quickly went around and cleaned my wheels, leaving nothing left to do but add some tire dressing.

Clean, pre-dressing, before wheel cleaning:



Note: After doing the one tire twice, all remaining tires were done in one pass, just to save both time and product.


Finishing touch:
Dressed w/ two coats of BLACKFIRE Total Eclipse Tire Shine:






Summary:


Pros:
· Great packaging, nice heavy duty bottle, quality, adjustable sprayer.
· Pleasant smell, not overwhelming in the least.
· Environmentally friendly.
· Can be diluted 4:1 for different tasks and to make more economical.

Cons:
· Unsure as to whether the product can be diluted and remain effective at ratios beyond 4:1
· Initial cost when compared to competing APC’s

Conclusion:
I felt this product lived up to its claims and then some. It didn’t seem as harsh on the senses as other APC’s I’ve tried, had a pleasant, almost citrusy smell to it and exhibited very good cleaning power. In addition to the task in this write-up, (tire cleaning) I also used it around the house a number of times including cleaning up some greasy areas around the stove and microwave, things like fingerprints on the walls and anything else I saw that seemed like it could use some attention. As a leather cleaner, I tried it on both my aging black leather winter coat and the light gray seats in the Mrs’. minivan and as per the directions, a 4:1 dilution offered a very effective but safe cleaner that helped to revive both in short order and with no visible discoloration.

As mentioned in the “Cons” section, some may balk at the initial price of this product when compared to its competition, but I think a lot of this depends on its intended use. For cleaning grimy tires and engine bays, yes, there are more economical choices. For things like interiors, especially leather, I am very content in using something that costs a bit more but delivers the results I am looking for, safely.

To sum it all up, this APC is well worth a try and may just become your go-to cleaner.


Thanks for reading!

[pcw25]

Great review! I've been wanting to buy this to see how it performed. Thanks!

[Bunky]

Thanks for the nice review and write up.

[Nick McKees37]

Excellent write-up Mike, thanks for sharing.

[Wheelzntoys]

Like this product, tried it on our living room leather sofa and worked well along with house carpet spot cleaning 4:1 ratio.

[mikep288]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the comments!

[Klasse Act]

WOW! that stuff really cuts through the mess and leaves a clean finish!

[shoeless89]

GGreat review! What kind of blower was that?

Sent from my DROID Pro using Tapatalk

[mikep288]

GGreat review! What kind of blower was that?

Sent from my DROID Pro using Tapatalk

Thanks!

That is the removable blower from a couple year old Craftsman 6.0hp / 16 gallon wet - dry vac.

After joining here and seeing everyone recommending drying the car with leaf blowers and metro-vacs and the like, I said "what the heck", removed the blower section from my vac, hooked up one of the vac pipes and the pointed, funnel-like nozzle and went to town. After realizing that this way was a little unwieldy, hard to use on roofs and a pain in neck in general, I picked up a new hose to dedicate to this task (didn't want things I vacuumed up being spit out onto freshly washed paint) connected the funnel nozzle and now car drying is as easy as pointing the wand and watching the water fly, while leaving the main unit either in my other hand or on the ground

Original configuration:



Vac with blower unit removed:



Again, thanks for reading,

Mike

[tw33k2514]

Great review! Thanks for taking the time to write it up.