Meg's D181 Leather Cleaner (no conditioner)....any experiences?

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JCDetails

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Hey all,

Right now my leather cleaner of choice is Gyeon Leather cleaner. While I love that it works well, it's not terribly economical for lower cost production jobs.

I'm not interested in a cleaner/conditioner product. IMO most leather needs no conditioning with the poly coating they all get now and conditioners only add to the shine effect I'm usually trying to get rid of.


Neither product is terribly expensive and I could probably get a few cars out of a 500ml bottle of either. However, I can get D181 for a hell of a lot less money than I pay for Gyeon leather cleaner. Gallon for gallon, the Gyeon is roughly 5x more expensive not the least of which I'm sure is due to having to buy it by the 500ml bottle. A gallon of D181 is probably enough to last me an entire detailing season.


So with all that considered, who uses or has used d181 and do you think it compares to Gyeon leather in terms of results?
 
We use it daily. For me it has been the best cleaner compared to multiple apc's and a few other leather cleaners. I am hoping to someday find an APC that cleans as well to reduce cost. The search continues. P.S. I have not tried the Gyeon, sorry.
 
It works great. It is a tad bit stronger than Gyeon Leather Cleaner.
 
Natron said:
We use it daily. For me it has been the best cleaner compared to multiple apc's and a few other leather cleaners. I am hoping to someday find an APC that cleans as well to reduce cost. The search continues. P.S. I have not tried the Gyeon, sorry.
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What’s your opinion of Megs D101@10:1 compared to it. I have both and I find them kind of similar.
 
Thanks guys.

One thing I love about the gyeon is the frothing/foaming action with a horsehair brush, detail brush or TRC leather scrubbed. Does d181 do the same?


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I agree with The Guz--it works great. I used it almost exclusively for 2+ years when I was doing production detailing and it never let me down. On really filthy seats I attached a brush to my drill and used it to clean the leather and it did wonders. I still use it on some maintenance customer vehicles but generally I will use Leatherique since I am doing more custom jobs now. I have never used Gyeon though.
 
In multiple side by side comparisons, the 181 cleaned leather substantially better. Enough of a difference that I have been willing to pay the big difference for over 2 years now. On lightly soiled leather, the 101 will do fine, but on the heavily soiled seats, the 181 saves time. We use about a gallon a week. On a side note, at MTE I found out Megs is bringing an improved APC plus back. We will do more side by side comparisons with it when it does. To answer JCDetails, it froths up a bit, but I haven't used Gyeon to compare.
Eldorado2k said:
What’s your opinion of Megs D101@10:1 compared to it. I have both and I find them kind of similar.
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I received the 181 yesterday and tested it on my office chair but without a brush. Has a slightly citrusy but soapy smell to it. It was able to easily pull a good amount of dirt and leave a nice matte finish with just a white terry interior towel.

Tomorrow, it’ll get to stretch its legs on a Mercedes glk and a caddy Escalade that I’m working on. I may also do a side by side with the gyeon soon trying to get blue jean transfer off my wife’s cappuccino (basically white) Lincoln interior.


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JCDetails said:
I received the 181 yesterday and tested it on my office chair but without a brush. Has a slightly citrusy but soapy smell to it. It was able to easily pull a good amount of dirt and leave a nice matte finish with just a white terry interior towel.

Tomorrow, it’ll get to stretch its legs on a Mercedes glk and a caddy Escalade that I’m working on. I may also do a side by side with the gyeon soon trying to get blue jean transfer off my wife’s cappuccino (basically white) Lincoln interior.


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I’m interested in the updates.
 
Quick update on the 181. I used it exclusively on the two vehicles yesterday, some unfortunate and unexpected setbacks meant I didn’t have time to do a comparison between it and the gyeon, or take many pics. I’ll get that done on my wife’s car soon.

D181 when used in combination with the leather scrubber I bought elsewhere seems, to me, to work every bit as well if not better in some situations than the Gyeon.

I personally prefer a leather cleaner with no conditioners and one that will foam up when worked. I do believe the foam helps lift dirt from the leather and it looks cool if your client happens to take a look while you’re working, similar to a foam cannon wash.

181 has a similar citrusy smell to the gyeon but has a soapy element to it that gyeon does not. I don’t know whether that reflects a difference in ingredients and what effect that has.

The Escalade was first, black interior and belongs to my uncle who takes really good care of it. He initially didn’t even think he wanted the interior done but I did it at no extra charge since it’s my uncle and I wanted to play with the 181 anyway. I sprayed it with an HDX spray bottle and worked it with the TRC leather scrubber. It was then removed with Amazon basics white cotton terry facecloths.

My uncle’s reaction after seeing the color of the towel after just the drivers seat bottom was an emphatic “holy s**t”.

181 left the leather in both vehicles soft and matte, the way I like it vs conditioners that leave it shiny. It didn’t seem to be able to pull out ingrained dye transfer on the 2012 GLK, but absolutely obliterated a blue ballpoint pen mark in the passenger seat.

Given the difference in cost per gallon (gyeon being 5x more costly), not sure if I’ll be purchasing any more gyeon. I’m totally satisfied with d181.


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@JCDetails. Very cool to hear your thoughts on it. Reassures me a bit that I’m not missing out on anything. I’m on my 2nd gallon of it.
 
damonb10 said:
What is the retail version of D181? I'd like to try it out, but not commit to a whole gallon. Is it the same as the Gold Class Leather Cleaner (not conditioner). Meguiars Gold Class Leather & Vinyl Cleaner, leather seat cleaner, car leather cleaner
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I haven’t tried the gold class but I would imagine it’s similar.

I feel confident however that if it is similar, golf class would be significantly weaker than d181.

I had my first negative experience with d181 (and gyeon leather for that matter) on some sun faded 1987 Mercedes seats a couple weeks back. Both these products pulled dye transfer out of the seat without even agitating, just from a spritz on the surface (was testing on the bottom of the back side of the seat in the footwell to ensure safety).

Wound up stepping down to griots leather 3 in 1 spray on that one which worked quite nicely.

Those of you who follow AG on social media may actually have seen a couple shots of that Benz, as it was featured for DOTW soon after I had done it


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I still use OPC on leather. Followed by OPP. Or a wipe down with a damp towel and Ultima Interior Protectant for that super nice feel of fine Kashmir. Cheap and super effective either way.
 
Here’s a real world example of what Megs D181 Leather Cleaner can do. I’ve got this Chevy Camaro seat that came from the junkyard...

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Super dirty.

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This is all I’ll use to clean it.

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1st I do a good pre vacuum w/soft horse hair brush attachment.. Then I do a simple wipedown with a clean cotton terry towel [spraying the towel liberally then wiping the seat]

This is what I picked up from just the seat bottom.

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After wiping down the front of the upper seat.

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And this is after wiping down the entire seat.

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Next up, scrubbing with the horsehair brush. [spray into the brush, then scrub]

As you can see, it doesn’t create alot of suds/foam.

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But it does a good job of cleaning.

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After going over the entire seat with the brush, I declare the seat as clean as possible.. I finish it up with Megs D180 Leather Cleaner & Conditioner just in case and to give it some moisture.

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Done.

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Eldo, to generate some more foaming I'll spray it into my brush and then a light mist on the surface of the seat as well. Those perforated seats I try to be careful of to avoid soaking the foam. But if the leather isn't perforated, and it passes the dye transfer test, I tend to soak the real dirty seats down and then brush as the foam does seem to help.
 
JCDetails said:
I haven’t tried the gold class but I would imagine it’s similar.

I feel confident however that if it is similar, golf class would be significantly weaker than d181.

I had my first negative experience with d181 (and gyeon leather for that matter) on some sun faded 1987 Mercedes seats a couple weeks back. Both these products pulled dye transfer out of the seat without even agitating, just from a spritz on the surface (was testing on the bottom of the back side of the seat in the footwell to ensure safety).

Wound up stepping down to griots leather 3 in 1 spray on that one which worked quite nicely.

Those of you who follow AG on social media may actually have seen a couple shots of that Benz, as it was featured for DOTW soon after I had done it


Sent from my iPhone using Autogeekonline mobile app
Click to expand...

You know, sometimes people have their seats dyed and not coated, so if you are not working on the original finish, this kind of thing can happen. Only happened to me once, I sprayed D103 10:1 and color lifted... Not much you can do when you have loose dye on top of a coated surface.
 
I think some leather now also has tinted coating. In general, if I start seeing transfer I'll drop down to the Griot's 3 in 1 spray as it cleans OK, but not aggressive enough to pull dye out.
 
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