This post by David F. told me everything I needed to know about using woolite
Re: question about woolite
Woolite is not made for automotive surfaces.
Woolite is designed to clean fabrics
and be flushed away with water
not clean plastics, vinyl and rubber and be wiped off.
I spoke with two reps from Woolite(Reckitt Benckiser)
as well as their Supervisor and asked them specifically
about cleaning car interior parts with woolite.
Their response was that it offered the two problems.
To fully remove the soap requires a large
volume of water to flush it away, simply wiping
off would leave a large amount of residue behind
that could attract more dirt.
The second problem they alluded to was that
Woolite was never intended to clean materials
other then fabric so they have never tested it as such.
When I specifically asked about Cadillac's & Lexus
(as well as all other car manufacturers) recommendation
for using Woolite to clean leather, both representatives
where dumbfounded, stating that the Woolite has never,
and never will, recommend their product for cleaning
leather (specifically).
I followed this Woolite question up with highly regarded
leather expert Roger Koh. When shown the MSDS sheet
on Woolite, Roger was shocked that anybody would use
this product on leather surfaces, stating that..
"pH Value:
The pH value indicated is 8.
The pH neutral of average leathers is 3 - 5.
Assuming the pH neutral of leather is 4, then this product
at pH 8 is 10,000 times more alkaline than the average
pH of leather.
(pH scale is calculated at the power of 10.)
The continue use of this product will cause the leather
constituents like tanning agent, fatliquor to break bond
(hydrogen bonding with the protein fibers), thus
denaturing the leather.
The perforated and needle holes will crack as the leather
weakens through continuous alkaline exposure combine
with physical stresses and flexes.
Uneven application of alkaline cleaning products may
results in streaks or brightening effect.
Most leather finishes will also turns tackiness on
continuous use and can be detected by wet finger
testing.
These adverse effects however can be corrected by
neutralizing with a low pH of 2 with acidifier2.0™."
I also forwarded the Woolite MSDS to well known
detail & chemical expert Ron Ketchum
(Automotive International) his response was:
There is one component that is seriously high
in percentage, and could create some damage,
the sodium hydroxide . There is no reason for
leather cleaner to contain it at all.
Below is the link to the MSDS for Woolite:
http://msds.reckittprofessional.com/...t/003291_r.pdf
rops:
