simple green
- Thread starter frogwood
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shoeless89
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- Jul 18, 2010
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I personally don't use Simple Green as an APC. I would stick with something a little safer like Meguiar's APC+ or Optimum Power Clean. You can still use Simple Green to help clean engines and wheel wells though 
Just my opinion.
Just my opinion.
RhetoricMixes
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- Dec 13, 2011
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I personally don't use Simple Green as an APC. I would stick with something a little safer like Meguiar's APC+ or Optimum Power Clean. You can still use Simple Green to help clean engines and wheel wells though
Using it for engines is perfectly fine, just DO NOT get it on bare aluminum as it will stain badly.
mwoolfso
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- Jul 18, 2011
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I use simple green but more for household chores than cars. I find apc plus does a better job. As for simple green on uncoated aluminum it is only a problem if you are letting the product dry on the metal, and even then only for certain simple green products.
CaneCharger
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- Jul 3, 2011
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+100000
Replying to an old thread! Curious why some of us think Simple Green is so corrosive? If you look at the SDS sheets of the more traditional APC's for detailing, almost all of them mention how caustic or corrosive they are. Heck, Meguiar's D101 has the same NFPA health hazard rating at Wheel Brightener (insane to me)...but we all refer to these traditional APC's as "safer". I find it interesting. Check out Simple Green's SDS sheet next time you get the chance. No mention of corrosiveness to metals or being caustic, and has a health hazard rating of 0! It's even listed on the EPA's Safer Choice product list
It's tough to determine how real these stories are because, like Bob mentioned, when we're talking about metals, water itself is one corrosive son of a b. I just have a hard time believing products that specifically say on the label that they're corrosive, are safer than a product like Simple Green. One strong whiff of these automotive APC's and my lungs are immediately unhappy. Simple Green might have a smell that's hit or miss with people, but it's never made me cough like Megs, Super Clean, etc.
I use simple green regularly in my ultrasonic cleaner to clean steel bits aluminum carbs - fairly long soaks in hot 50/50 dilutions - with no ill effect on the aluminum. You do need to be careful, though simple green is great at degreasing, once the solution gets dirty enough if parts are left it it for any length of time and/or not washed off, they can get darkened. When cleaning very dirty parts I'll change out the solution after the 15-20 minutes and do a second run with clean solution.
Thanks for digging up this old thread! I just got a bottle of Simple Green Pro HD, which I just used to clean my wheels. I mixed up 13:1 water/cleaner solution in an IK Foamer 2, thick foam coated the wheels, then hit it with some brushes and looked pretty good. The Pro HD simple green markets itself as safe for metals. So for $15 bucks at Homey the Depot you get 14 gallons of wheel cleaner. Not a bad deal.
UncleDavy
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- Aug 22, 2017
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Simple Green is a safe, pH neutral cleaner that works very well for general dust, scuffs and dirt. In concentrate, it has a pH range of 8.5-9.2. Diluted 10:1 the pH goes down to 7.95 if we assume an original value of 9.0. I would use it on some delicate surfaces of interiors. The lemon scented version is more pleasant than the green version.
The Pro HD (purple version) of Simple Green which I’m using has a ph of 10-11.5 undiluted. It’s like Simple Green on steroids. Yet safe for metal, rubber, plastics, etc.
This thread brings up something I've not understood, perhaps one of you do... but we generally think of degreasers being alkaline - the more alkaline the stronger (to the point of corrosive), the closer to neutral the lighter duty but safer. But the trend seems to be towards citrus-based degreasers, and lemons and other citrus fruits are acidic. Is the citrus thing just a marketing gimmick or a smell/odor imparted? Or are these degreasers actually more on the acidic side? Or is citrus being used to bring a strongly alkaline formula closer to neutral?
Mike Phillips
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- Dec 5, 2022
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Ha ha.... yup from 2012
Nothing wrong with bringing old threads back to life.
The thin I LOOK for is often times it's SPAMMERS. But I don't see that in this thread.
As person that's been posting to forums since vBulletin was in beta, I believe back to 1998 - I've read a lot of bad experiences, but so many factors including the human factor. :dig:
This is what I've read more than once. Knowing how much work it is to restore stained aluminum back to pretty, shiny aluminum, I would be very careful about using anything I had any doubts about.
And of course, testing to an inconspicuous area first is always a good practice.
Great points and great questions... I do not have any answers however...
Often times what I do is choose an established, respected brand when it comes to product choice and assume, trust they hire chemists that actually know what they are doing - and then... follow the directions.
When I was the Corporate Writer for Meguiar's, I wrote a lot of label copy.
The first part of this job was to schedule an appointment with the head chemist and get the safety precautions, emergency instructions and the directions-for-use.
While we all hate to assume, here goes anyways, if we assume all other companies work like Meguiar's when creating labels for their products, (probably not the reality), then we "should" be able to trust the info on the label as it relates to how to use and what to use the product on.
:dunno: