NANOLEX Wheel Cleaner Concentrate (vs) Iron Remover

• Products: Professional Wheel Cleaner Concentrate, Wheel Cleaner and Iron Remover
• Manufacturer: NANOLEX
• Sizes: 750ml.

NANOLEX, the famous German brand, renowned for the quality of its products and its technical ceramic coatings, also offers a wide range of preparation (valeting) products.

Many people have difficulty telling the difference between certain products. Similar names, multiple references within a range — all factors that warrant a detailed article to understand the advantages and limitations of certain products, in order to know exactly when to use one reference or another.

We will therefore test Professional Wheel Cleaner Concentrate and also Wheel Cleaner & Iron Remover.

The wheels of this test vehicle have never received any maintenance over 20,000 km, have no protection, and have a glossy lacquered finish.


Presentation of Wheel Cleaner & Iron Remover:

First product in this test: Wheel Cleaner & Iron Remover. It is both a wheel cleaner and an iron decontaminant for all surfaces. Although it bears the name "Wheel Cleaner", you can therefore use this product as an iron decontaminant on your bodywork, your windows, your wheel arches, etc.



It is a ready-to-use product, unlike the other reference in this test that we will see later (Professional Wheel Cleaner Concentrate).

The great advantage of Wheel Cleaner & Iron Remover lies in the fact that its texture is truly gel-like. As a result, the product really clings to the surface. It is also quite difficult to properly adjust the spray so as not to get just a thin stream but still achieve a fine mist.

Wheel Cleaner & Iron Remover reacts very quickly. Its texture also helps it grip contaminants particularly well. The smell is not as unpleasant as other well-known references (Iron X in particular).

Don't forget to agitate the product afterwards with brushes (wheel brushes, detail brushes, etc.) to further enhance its action.

You can immediately tell that the product is tremendously effective. The wheels come out very clean quickly (cleaning action) and above all almost perfectly decontaminated. On the test wheel, the left side was agitated with brushes and detail brushes, the right side was not. You will see that after rinsing, the result on the non-agitated side is already very satisfactory.








Another important point: the product does not dry too quickly on the surface and leaves no residue. You can therefore let it dwell for a few minutes without any problem before agitating it.
On the other hand, make sure to always use it on COLD wheels.





The photo above clearly shows the effectiveness of Wheel Cleaner & Iron Remover. The non-agitated right side comes out less clean, particularly at the base of the spokes, but overall the result is very good for a single pass and for wheels that have had no maintenance for 20,000 km.



In the end, Wheel Cleaner & Iron Remover proves to be an excellent reference, ranking among the best wheel cleaners/iron decontaminants on the market. It even has the luxury of being sold at a lower price per litre than directly competing products (€17.95 for 750ml compared to €15.50 for 500ml of Iron X).
When you think about it, we can find no flaw with this product. Definitely one to try as soon as possible!


Presentation: Professional Wheel Cleaner Concentrate



Professional Wheel Cleaner Concentrate is a highly concentrated wheel cleaner, based on a very alkaline formula (strong detergent power), to be diluted as needed for wheel cleaning — and more. We will see later that this product can be used for other purposes as well.
It contains no iron decontaminant.

The dilution ratio for this product ranges from 1:2 for very heavily soiled wheels to 1:10 for regular maintenance cleaning.

Although the wheels of the test car were very dirty and a maximum dilution should perhaps have been considered, we wanted to find a middle ground and test the product at an intermediate dilution (1:5) to assess its capabilities.

We therefore dilute 100ml of product in a 600ml dilution bottle.



Always the same advice, to be followed without exception: work the product on COLD wheels only. Otherwise, pre-rinse the wheel before spraying the product.

A potash-like smell can be detected in the diluted solution — a detergent base, also found in other well-known wheel cleaners (P7 Alchimy7, Wheel Fictech, etc.).



The product is very liquid, which is logical since it is heavily diluted with water. It would therefore be advisable to use a foam nozzle in order to allow the product to cling to the surface for longer.



Same advice as with Iron Remover: agitating the product gives a much better result. Above all, do not let the product dwell too long on the surface, as the alkaline base of Professional Wheel Cleaner Concentrate will inevitably leave whitish streaks.



Although the level of dirt on the wheels is very significant, the product handles it very well at this intermediate 1:5 dilution. The cleaning power is quite impressive.

However, after rinsing, it will of course be noted that the iron particles embedded in the lacquer have not been removed. Obviously, Professional Wheel Cleaner Concentrate is not an iron decontaminant and therefore cannot address this type of problem. The idea is instead to spray Iron Remover afterwards to tackle stubborn iron particles.





There is no real benefit to proceeding this way. It makes more sense to spray Iron Remover directly on wheels that are this dirty and especially that have never received any maintenance. But this nonetheless allows us to appreciate the cleaning capabilities of Professional Wheel Cleaner Concentrate and to consider this product as a maintenance product for a vehicle that is driven a lot.

After applying Iron Remover, the result is much better.



Also note a derived use for Professional Wheel Cleaner Concentrate: as an all-purpose cleaner. You can use it to clean your wheel arches, your engine bay, and your tyres as well. It will make an excellent degreaser thanks to its highly cleaning alkaline base.

General conclusion:

NANOLEX presents two very good products here. The brand thus lives up to its reputation for excellence.
After these fairly conclusive tests on very dirty wheels, we can highlight the strengths and limitations of the two references tested.
Iron Remover will be particularly effective at dissolving iron particles. Truly an excellent reference for several reasons: overall effectiveness, gel texture that grips the surface well, long dwell time before drying, less pronounced odour compared to the pioneers of the segment. The purchase price of this product is also very competitive: €17.95 for 750ml compared, for example, to €15.50 for Iron X.
We see no negative point to hold against Iron Remover, except that it is a ready-to-use product and product consumption can be significant on very heavily soiled wheels. But this is the case for all iron decontaminants.

For its part, Professional Wheel Cleaner Concentrate performs really well. Its highly concentrated formula allows the user to dial in exactly the right dilution depending on the surface to be treated (dilution between 1:2 and 1:10). The advantage of Professional Wheel Cleaner Concentrate is that its alkaline base formulation allows for a high cleaning capacity even at strong dilutions. Synthetic ceramic coatings will withstand repeated washes, but natural-base ones will not.
This wheel cleaner will be perfect for maintenance cleaning of protected wheels at a 1:10 dilution, for example, as dust particles will not or barely penetrate the lacquer. Therefore, there is no need to use an iron decontaminant like Iron Remover.
On the other hand, Professional Wheel Cleaner Concentrate will not be the ideal product to use before a major restoration, precisely because of its lack of decontaminating action. Iron Remover should be preferred in that case.
Now let's talk about price: €15.95 for 750ml. That is on the higher end of the average observed. Slightly more expensive than the very effective P7 by Alchimy7 (€18.95 for 1L, i.e. €14.20 per 750ml) and especially more expensive than Wheel by Fictech (€15.95 for 1L, i.e. €11.95 per 750ml).
It should be noted, however, that the cost per litre remains very attractive at a 1:10 maintenance dilution (€1.45/L).


Advantages

+ Overall effectiveness (Iron Remover).
+ Economical dilution (Professional Wheel Cleaner Concentrate)
+ Gel texture (Iron Remover)
+ Cost per litre (Professional Wheel Cleaner Concentrate)
+ Versatility of use (Professional Wheel Cleaner Concentrate)

Disadvantages

- Ready-to-use format expensive per use (Iron Remover).