Best all-purpose cleaners
Which of these liquids showed the others a clean pair of heels?
There are a multitude of lotions and potions on the market designed to clean specific car parts, but an all-purpose cleaner, or APC, can take the place of several concoctions. The best will be able to tackle fabrics for the upholstery, carpets and headlining inside the cabin, along with the plastics and vinyl that line other parts of a car’s interior. They should also be able to wipe away years of grime from steering wheels, switches and other parts.
Used - available now
2022 Mercedes
CLA
61,930 milesAutomaticPetrol1.3L
Cash £18,700
2023 Hyundai
Tucson
39,358 milesAutomaticPetrol1.6L
Cash £21,230
2022 Nissan
Qashqai
25,055 milesAutomaticPetrol1.5L
Cash £18,590
2016 Hyundai
i20
52,162 milesManualPetrol1.2L
Cash £7,500For this test we concentrated mainly on the interior cleaning ability of the APCs, but extra points were awarded
if they were also labelled for exterior parts of the car. Which jack of all trades mastered our cleaning tests?
How we tested them
We expect APCs to be able to clean different fabrics in addition to hard and soft-plastic surfaces. We marked a sample of boot floor carpet, leather and hard vinyl with a combination of make up, coffee and soot. They were then treated with the APCs, as per the maker’s instructions.
A second test was carried out on the interior of a MINI to see how they worked across a variety of other materials. If the products stated they could be used on external parts, we tested them on black gloss paint to look for residues.
Verdict
VP’s Cleanse-It wiped its way through all of our tests and is great value, so it takes the Best Buy trophy. The Armor All Multi-Purpose Cleaner is less of an investment and works almost as well as the winner. The third-placed Autoglym APC also proved great inside and out.
VP Cleanse-It
- Price: £11.25
- Size: 1,000ml
- Rating: 5 stars
- Contact: vp-uk.co.uk
VP’s Cleanse-It was the only product that breezed all of our interior cleaning tests, wiping out the stains on every surface after being applied and wiped with a microfibre cloth. The green fluid has a neutral smell and can be used on all soft and hard materials, including leather and carbon fibre. It’s great value, too, at £11.25 for a one-litre bottle. Our only reservation is that it left a slightly tacky residue, but this was easily removed with an extra wipe of the cloth.
Armor All Multi-Purpose Cleaner
- Price: £5
- Size: 500ml
- Rating: 4.5 stars
- Contact: amazon.co.uk
It’s already decent value at a fiver for a 500ml bottle, but the Armor All can be diluted at a ratio of 1:100 if you are cleaning glass or painted surfaces. We used it neat on our stains and it wiped away the coffee at the first try. Getting rid of the make-up from the fabric surfaces required more wipes than the winning VP, but it did work where other rivals failed. It matched the VP’s cleaning performance on hard plastics.
Autoglym All Purpose Cleaner
- Price: £14.99
- Size: 1,000ml
- Rating: 4 stars
- Contact: autoglym.com
The Autoglym’s instructions say it is designed to help shift dirt from the outside of your car, and should be used as a prewash on bugs and traffic film. For interior use, it says it’s only for “heavy soiling” – for lighter cleaning duties the company recommends its other products. This means it has some good cleaning power on stains, and it did a great job on all our test surfaces, just leaving a trace of make-up on our carpet.
Gtechniq I2 Tri-Clean
- Price: £12.98
- Size: 500ml
- Rating: 3.5 stars
- Contact: gtechniq.co.uk
The Tri-Clean is the only product in the test that mentioned its ability to kill bacteria, which could be important if you are tackling surfaces used by kids, such as a baby seat. The smell has a slight whiff of antiseptic about
it, which is reassuring.
It cleaned well, banishing the coffee, soot and lipstick easily. The make-up took more work however, and there was a slight sticky residue. It’s expensive in this company, too.
Dodo Juice Total Wipe Out
- Price: £8.33
- Size: 1,000ml
- Rating: 3.5 stars
- Contact: dodojuice.net
The best feature of the Total Wipe Out is its price. At £8.33 for a litre, it’s already good value, but the instructions suggest diluting it 50:50 to make it go even further, making it hugely economical.
Even watered down at this ratio, it was still the most effective cleaner on our leather sample, and did well on hard surfaces. But it struggled to shift stains from fabric, even when used neat.
Angelwax Myriad APC
- Price: £18.65
- Size: 1,000ml
- Rating: 3 stars
- Contact: angelwax.co.uk
Although it looks pricey, Angelwax’s Myriad APC is designed to be heavily diluted. The instructions suggest 100:1 for general interior cleaning or 7:3 for tough tasks such as nicotine stain removal. Used at these ratios, it offers great value.
Diluted accordingly, it produces a decent foam as it’s applied and has a pleasant citrus aroma. It did well on hard surfaces, but struggled to shift the make-up from the fabric.
ValetPro Classic All Purpose Cleaner
- Price: £8
- Size: 500ml
- Rating: 3 stars
- Contact: valetpro.global
ValetPro’s APC is available in various-sized containers, and the larger bottles represent much better value for money because they are designed to be diluted at a ratio of 1:10. The half-litre bottle we tried is ready-mixed though, so looks a little expensive in this test.
We’d forgive it if it was more effective; the coffee and soot were no problem, but it couldn’t cope with the greasy make up.
Autobrite Direct FAB
- Price: £10.86
- Size: 500ml
- Rating: 3 stars
- Contact: autobritedirect.co.uk
If we were giving prizes for aroma, the Autobrite would win because it left our MINI’s interior smelling of fresh laundry. It can also be diluted to 1:10, which makes the price seem more reasonable. While it handled general dirt well, with a satisfying foaming action, it struggled to make any impact on our smear of foundation. Other APCs here do better and cost less, so the FAB makes good scents rather than good sense.
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