Over the years Ive tried a lot of products and usually they end up on my shelf mostly full. So I often have multiple products for the same purpose. Because of that I am going to try and group my reviews.
To provide some context, the wolfgang kit is my preferred leather care product (as of now) I was working the leather on a new to me Audi s4. I couldn't find my wolfgang conditioner, so i decided to use the cleaner along with the Griots 3 in 1. I found the conditioner about 1/3 through.
Griots 3 in 1
1. Application is easy, spray it on an applicator pad and work into the leather. Hard to get easier than that.
2. removal is also relatively easy. Buff it off, just dont let it sit too long
3. Effectiveness. It did seem to make the leather feel better to the touch.
4. White residue. This was a common complaint in the reviews on Griot's site. A faint white residue appeared on the black leather in my s4. It did not happen on an a6 i initially used this on months ago.
5. Smell, this along with item 4 is my biggest complaint. It smells terrible. The smell lingers, gets on your hands and any rag or applicator begs to be washed right away. Because of the smell, i ended up re-doing all of the leather Griots touched with the wolfgang products.
overall if you can tolerate the smell, and you verify that it doesnt leave a residue on your leather. Its not a bad product. Just be sure to give it a sniff before you buy, and then do a sample spot and let it dry overnight.
WOlfgang leather care cleaner
1. Application is easy, simply spray on your pad and work it in. Then buff off.
2. cleaning power is ok. I wouldnt task this product with very dirty leather. It works well on lightly soiled leather, and as a maintenance product for keeping leather clean.
3. It seems to compliment the leather conditioner very well. Ive noticed that leather scrubbed with this first (as opposed to say lexal) seems to respond better to conditioning both from the wolfgang and blackfire conditioner. I think i read somewhere that it opens the pores in the leather. I will note that on my s4 before i touched the leather rubbing my hand across it the leather didnt feel soft or smooth. After cleaning a spot with wolfgang it felt like nice leather again.
4. Smell inst bad on this one. Its a pleasant scent.
Overall, its a good product. There are probably better products for aggressive cleaning, but this works well at prepping the surface for conditioning. The lack of aggressiveness also makes it a good maint product in my opinion. Using it along with some water and a horse hair brush should satisfy most cleaning needs.
Wolfgang leather care conditioner
1. application is farily easy, though Wolfgang recommends a damp applicator so be sure to have some water available.
2. removal is again fairly easy. Ive found that leather tends to drink up the conditioner pretty quickly when its the first time i use it. Wait a few minutes and buff clean.
3. Effectiveness: Its hard to describe this but it does seem to make leather softer and more supple. The seats in my s4 definitely feel better now than they did when i started. on past cars it definitely worked better than : Meguiars, lexall, Griots heavy conditioner. But not quite as well as the blackfire.
4. Smell. Again the smell is pleasant but it lingers. Be ready for your car and hands to smell like this for a few days.
5. Overall, its a good product. It works better than most of the others ive tried at restoring seats. The smell and ease of use are attractive to me as well, along with confidence that it wont damage my leather.
Blackfire conditioner:
I only had a sample of this product from AG. There was this trouble spot in a volvo s60 i had at the time. part of the flat on the rear passenger seat was really stiff and not very pliable. I had tried pretty much every leather conditioner i could get my hands on. lexall, griots, meguiars, even the wolfgang. And most of them did nothing. The wolfgang made some improvement but not enough. I tried the Blackfire conditioner, and let it sit for an hour or so. The leather certainly didnt return to new, but it was much softer and more pliable.
My general thoughts on the blackfire conditioner is that it would serve well for severely neglected seats. It works well with the Wolfgang cleaner too. Given my past experience with Blackfire products, i would expect this to be more agressive than something you would want to use for maintenance purposes. The smell, while not as bad as griots, was also not as good as Wolfgang. With that said, if you have a car that has neglected leather, id go for the blackfire to rescue it, then keep it in good shape with wolfgang.
To provide some context, the wolfgang kit is my preferred leather care product (as of now) I was working the leather on a new to me Audi s4. I couldn't find my wolfgang conditioner, so i decided to use the cleaner along with the Griots 3 in 1. I found the conditioner about 1/3 through.
Griots 3 in 1
1. Application is easy, spray it on an applicator pad and work into the leather. Hard to get easier than that.
2. removal is also relatively easy. Buff it off, just dont let it sit too long
3. Effectiveness. It did seem to make the leather feel better to the touch.
4. White residue. This was a common complaint in the reviews on Griot's site. A faint white residue appeared on the black leather in my s4. It did not happen on an a6 i initially used this on months ago.
5. Smell, this along with item 4 is my biggest complaint. It smells terrible. The smell lingers, gets on your hands and any rag or applicator begs to be washed right away. Because of the smell, i ended up re-doing all of the leather Griots touched with the wolfgang products.
overall if you can tolerate the smell, and you verify that it doesnt leave a residue on your leather. Its not a bad product. Just be sure to give it a sniff before you buy, and then do a sample spot and let it dry overnight.
WOlfgang leather care cleaner
1. Application is easy, simply spray on your pad and work it in. Then buff off.
2. cleaning power is ok. I wouldnt task this product with very dirty leather. It works well on lightly soiled leather, and as a maintenance product for keeping leather clean.
3. It seems to compliment the leather conditioner very well. Ive noticed that leather scrubbed with this first (as opposed to say lexal) seems to respond better to conditioning both from the wolfgang and blackfire conditioner. I think i read somewhere that it opens the pores in the leather. I will note that on my s4 before i touched the leather rubbing my hand across it the leather didnt feel soft or smooth. After cleaning a spot with wolfgang it felt like nice leather again.
4. Smell inst bad on this one. Its a pleasant scent.
Overall, its a good product. There are probably better products for aggressive cleaning, but this works well at prepping the surface for conditioning. The lack of aggressiveness also makes it a good maint product in my opinion. Using it along with some water and a horse hair brush should satisfy most cleaning needs.
Wolfgang leather care conditioner
1. application is farily easy, though Wolfgang recommends a damp applicator so be sure to have some water available.
2. removal is again fairly easy. Ive found that leather tends to drink up the conditioner pretty quickly when its the first time i use it. Wait a few minutes and buff clean.
3. Effectiveness: Its hard to describe this but it does seem to make leather softer and more supple. The seats in my s4 definitely feel better now than they did when i started. on past cars it definitely worked better than : Meguiars, lexall, Griots heavy conditioner. But not quite as well as the blackfire.
4. Smell. Again the smell is pleasant but it lingers. Be ready for your car and hands to smell like this for a few days.
5. Overall, its a good product. It works better than most of the others ive tried at restoring seats. The smell and ease of use are attractive to me as well, along with confidence that it wont damage my leather.
Blackfire conditioner:
I only had a sample of this product from AG. There was this trouble spot in a volvo s60 i had at the time. part of the flat on the rear passenger seat was really stiff and not very pliable. I had tried pretty much every leather conditioner i could get my hands on. lexall, griots, meguiars, even the wolfgang. And most of them did nothing. The wolfgang made some improvement but not enough. I tried the Blackfire conditioner, and let it sit for an hour or so. The leather certainly didnt return to new, but it was much softer and more pliable.
My general thoughts on the blackfire conditioner is that it would serve well for severely neglected seats. It works well with the Wolfgang cleaner too. Given my past experience with Blackfire products, i would expect this to be more agressive than something you would want to use for maintenance purposes. The smell, while not as bad as griots, was also not as good as Wolfgang. With that said, if you have a car that has neglected leather, id go for the blackfire to rescue it, then keep it in good shape with wolfgang.