How to choose the right interior cleaner for your car?

There are many products to treat and restore interiors, but many people don't know which one to use depending on the material.
Some products are for fabrics, others for leather, or even others specifically for alcantara. You can also find some for rubber mats, for example, for hard and foam plastics.

In this article, we will try to cover several interesting references to treat the different work areas of the interior.


Which product should you choose to clean and treat the fabrics and carpets in my interior?

You can encounter several types of issues on carpets, seats or fabric mats. General dirt, pet hair, water rings caused by liquid spills or rain, grease marks, stuck chewing gum, etc.

For every problem there is a solution, so a dedicated product or nearly so.

For the various textile materials found on seats, carpets, headliners, and floor mats, you should use what is called an APC (All Purpose Cleaner). This product will be perfect for cleaning everyday dirt, mud, grease, and ingrained dust.

A leading product is Green Star from KOCH CHEMIE. Excellent quantity/performance/price ratio. One of the best APCs currently on the market. The power of the product is such that you can even extend its use to very dirty tasks such as engine degreasing, cleaning wheel arches, etc. Use at a 1:20 dilution for the interior, which is more than sufficient.

Most APCs come in concentrated form to be diluted, for economic reasons on one hand, but also because it allows you to vary the strength of the product depending on the work to be done.
That said, there are ready-to-use APCs that will work well on conventional dirt but will quickly show their limits on heavier grime. Let's mention as examples: Classic All Purpose Cleaner RTU by VALET PRO or the excellent Multi-Surface Interior Cleaner by MEGUIAR'S.




Sometimes you also find another type of issue on fabric interiors: water rings. Caused by moisture absorption, these marks cannot or can barely be removed with a simple APC. A specific product is needed for this, generally based on glycolic acid. The best current reference on the market is Glico from LABOCOSMETICA. This type of stain remover has the ability to quickly highlight water rings and will remove them effortlessly. It goes further than an APC at this stage.



Once your fabrics are cleaned and dry especially, you should waterproof them with a spray protection. This will prevent various liquids and even rainwater from penetrating the fibers and creating marks again. The ceramic waterproofing protection also protects fabrics against wear from friction. An excellent reference is Fabric 2.0 by CARPRO, easy to apply.




How to clean and treat my leather interior?

Leather is the only natural material you will find in your cabin. It must not be treated with overly aggressive products, at the risk of causing a Ph imbalance in the hide and a leather that may harden or even crack over time.

It is absolutely necessary to treat leather with neutral ph products. Products based on glycerin soap such as the Leather Cleaner Mild by COLOURLOCK will be perfect. A gentle ready-to-use cleaner that is respectful of all types of automotive leather.
Another alternative is to also use dilutable neutral ph cleaners, more economical, such as the Pol Star (Po) by KOCH CHEMIE.


For leather treatment afterwards, you will have a choice depending on its age. Up to about 3 years, there is no need to use solutions to nourish the leather such as vitamin-enriched nourishing lotions. You can simply protect the leather with sealants to limit wear from friction and discoloration. After 3 years, leather needs to be nourished to regain suppleness and vitamins lost over time. A nourishing cream will be needed.

Let's mention for example Derma Sealant by LABOCOSMETICA for the protection part and Leather Care by COLOURLOCK for the leather nourishment part, both excellent.



How to treat alcantara?

Contrary to popular belief, alcantara is not turned leather like nubuck — there is nothing natural about this material. It is a purely synthetic microfiber material, very silky to the touch.
That said, even though it is synthetic, you should not use just anything on it, at the risk of losing that very silky feel, making it stiff and rough.

Therefore, to clean alcantara, specific products will be used, with a neutral ph, either ready to use or concentrated for dilution. To be used with a simple microfiber or with a soft brush like those used for leather.

Alcantara-705 from FICTECH will be perfect for maintenance cleaning. A ready-to-use product that leaves a fresh scent in the cabin, it will restore suppleness and clean alcantara clogged with grease and various dirt.

As a concentrated product for dilution (more economical), we cannot recommend highly enough the excellent Pol Star (Po) by KOCH CHEMIE. Just as effective on leather as on alcantara, its neutral ph formula will be risk-free on these two delicate materials.



Summary table:

Conclusion:

Interior cleaning, as basic as it may seem, is a work area that requires many different references due to the various materials to treat. Whether it involves leather or fabric, for example, two distinct products should be used so as not to damage the material over time with an unsuitable product.

As always, there are ready-to-use references for those who want ease of use and have few cars to treat, or concentrated references for dilution to vary the cleaning strength if you have more vehicles to treat regularly and are looking for better quantity/price ratios.

There is no brand dedicated exclusively to interiors as such. VALET PRO, KOCH CHEMIE, ALCHIMY7 are brands perhaps a little more oriented toward valeting than others and will offer more references for interior cleaning than other brands that specialize more in ceramic coatings.

There is little technical complexity in cleaning an interior thoroughly, but you must know perfectly the products you use, at the risk of causing damage to the materials.