Which Leather Cleaner & Conditioner?

R

Randomhero

New member
Right now i have Mother's Leather Cleaner and Leather Conditioner, and im almost out of them.



At Walmart, they carry Meguiar's Gold Class Leather & Vinyl Cleaner and Gold Class Leather Conditioner. Walmart also carries Lexol Leather Cleaner and Leather Conditioner.



These are all in spray bottles, which would you use?
 
What kind of car are you working? How old is the leather? What kind of shape is it in, Random?
 
The lexol cleaner is good but only for already clean or maintained leather in my opinion. They're conditioner is good though. If your doing deep cleaning i think leather masters or OPT power clean are 2 to look at.
 
Just for general usage. I have an 2004 Accord with black leather. Once a month i apply some conditioner, and every other month i give it a good clean/conditioner.
 
I hardly *EVER* treat/protect my leather interiors, but when I do I use Sonus, or LeatherMasters, or Leather Dr. IMO the Leather Dr. stuff is the best.



I'm not a fan of Lexol despite having had it around the house for decades (finally decided to not even use it up on the dog leashes) and that Meguiar's Gold Class [stuff] was a nasty mess when I cleaned it off the leather in a pal's car..yuck.



Whatever you use, IMO the leather should look/feel "clean, like brand new" and not "slimed".
 
The finished leather used for auto upholstery DOES NOT require conditioing



Lexol was originally formulated for equestrian tack, so a dogs leash or harness would be an ideal material to use this product on
 
You shouldn't be using anything with any oil at all. I clean my 7 year old leather a couple times per year with a mild mix of APC (currently HD Total), rinse well with a damp towel and let air dry. Put on a coat of Optimum Protectant Plus every 3 or 4 months which is great because you can use it on the vinly also. Every month or so wipe down with a wet towel and let it air dry to hydrate the leather. Looks as good as the day I picked it up at the dealers.
 
TOGWT said:
Lexol was originally formulated for equestrian tack, so a dogs leash or harness would be an ideal material to use this product on
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IF you don't mind "touching Lexol" when you use said item ;)



While I'm already sounding like I'm hating on the stuff (not that I really do, not in appropriate applications)... my Father used a lot of Lexol, and more than once he "over-conditioned" leather goods with it to their detriment.
 
I'd just add, if you look at your car owners manual, chances are it'll say clean with mild soap and water. I've used Woolite 20:1 for years with no issues at all. I use distilled water. Now, the peanut gallery of experts will chime up with - but we called Woolite and they don't recommend it for that (ever hear of CYA in case of lawsuits?) and you'll get the resident copy/paste guy to post all the stuff that is in Woolite that could harm your stuff, finally, you'll get the fanboys of the leather product lines. So, who's right?

If you put 10 detailers, or carpet cleaners or politicians in a room - you'd get 10 opinions.

I'm just telling you that to clean your caar seats/doors I use Woolite / Water and it works, now, I don't clean them weekly with that, only if they are dirty. For weekly wipe downs, especially during pollen season, you can just use a damp terry cloth towel.

I do like OPP and use it for the UV protection and the fact that it dries quick, non-greasy and doesn't smell bad. I'll use that every 2-3 months and my gallon jug has lasted forever it seems!

This is just my opinion based on about 8 years of detailing. I'm not looking to convert anybody or say what they use is wrong, you should try a few things and decide what you're comfortable with.
 
I used Woolite at 20:1 for the first 5 years until I started to use HD Total with NO ill effects as JuneBug mentioned. I find the Total easier to wipe off though--less sudsy (if that's a word).
 
I've got a Mercedes SL coming up with a nasty interior. This gives me the chance to use HD Total although mine isn't the newest formulation. I'm also going to use the tried and true Woolite 20:1 which I've already recommended to the owner to use for periodic cleaning once I get the big mess all cleaned up.
 
Does Leather Masters Vital actually soften Finished/Protected leather? I've got a 2008 Subaru Tribeca and have been searching for something to soften it up a bit. I've been oh fer on various McGuire's products, Wolfgangs Conditioner is Ok but didn't soften it up a ton, if at all and Eiznett Lederpledge worked good but again, not so soft.
 
gravytime- I've never used the Vital, so I have no idea whether it'll work for you.



BUT..while the conventional wisdom is that coated leather cannot be softened, I've found that some products *do* accomplish that. I know..."it shouldn't be possible because the product can't get through the coating to treat the leather". But it's worked for me, to varying degrees, on numerous vehicles in conditions ranging from very used to showroom perfect. I figure it's primarily because the coating has been compromised to the extent that the product does in fact get to the leather, but I do still wonder how it works on my like-new S8 :nixweiss



But since you've already tried a few products that did a little softening but not too much, perhaps you've discovered the limit to which you can accomplish it on your Subaru.
 
gravytime said:
Does Leather Masters Vital actually soften Finished/Protected leather?
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Gravy: http://www.autopia.org/forum/car-detailing/132971-making-leather-softer.html#post1413315



I own most of the Leather Master line including Vital. I haven't really used it enough to say that it will soften. Perhaps Scott will share his thoughts as he is a proponent of this product and will have far more experience than I.



I know for certain that if my aim was to soften, I'd reach for the Leatherique kit and plan to spend a day with it. It does soften, sometimes too much so so you must do a test area before doing the entire car ;) (I'd also look to Roger Koh's product for the same action.)



I've got a boatload of leather products in my basement. Some of the OTC stuff truly sux leaving surfaces all gummy and sticky. That drives me a little (a LOT!!) crazy and I've found it a great challenge to clean the surfaces once the products have been used for an extended period :frusty:
 
Nearly all automotive finished leather surfaces are treated with special chemicals that provide resistance to abrasion, scratching and marring, increasing their durability and providing protection from weathering.



However overtime, given the typical environment of a vehicles interior, which can be extremely demanding on any material used. Temperatures range from hot dry summer days, to freezing nights. Both high and low humidity, even air conditioning that cools, but also dries. Leather's greatest enemies are; sun, heat, body oils, perspiration (that contains urea as well as organic salts and acids) and body heat, which causes acids to become more aggressive and alters the viscosity of oils, allowing them to permeate the leathers finish, and ultra violet radiation (UV), which dries the hide, fades the colour by bleaching, and can cause the leather to fail by drying out the fibres causing the urethane and / or the hide to harden and / or crack.



Fairly new upholstery can be softened with Leather Master Vital, however as time passes renovation becomes more difficult, and more often than not replacement is the only real solution.



As an alternate- clean the surface with 1z einzett Plastic-Vinyl Cleaner to thoroughly clean the surface and then apply Iz Leather Care (Lederpflege) as it’s formulated with natural waxes and conditioners which moisturize the surface to prevent hardening or cracking and will maintain the original matte finish. It may require more than one application
 
Other people seem to have much more trouble with their leather interiors than I do :think:



When I got my Tahoe its leather was just *terrible*...stained, dry, severely cracked, even peeling in some places. It looked like a real candidate for replacement.



I cleaned and treated it, getting it as nice as I could. That was years ago, and with minimal upkeep it's stayed OK. Note that the vehicle gets used hard on a daily basis.



The '93 Audi wasn't nearly as bad when I got it, but it had basically been "benignly neglected" for twenty years or so. Same story, I did a "big detail" once, and since then it's stayed the same. The leather has been cleaned maybe a half-dozen times since new, "treated" maybe three or four.



I mentioned those because a) I didn't buy them new, so they weren't "kept nice" from the git-go, b) they were both in "uh-oh" condition by Autopian standards, and c) neither one's leather should've "softened up and been fine" in response to how I treated it according to the conventional wisdom.





OTOH, I sold a nearly-new Audi to a friend of mine and she had to have the suddenly-peeling steering wheel replaced within six months!



:nixweiss
 
gravytime said:
Still love to hear which products softened yours :wink1:
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Whose, mine?



LeatherMasters Protection Cream and Sonus' leather treatment stuff. In both cases I cleaned with that company's cleaner and then applied their protection product.



The Sonus *really* worked well on an e36 M3 I had a few years ago; softened the leather from "cardboard-stiff and crackley sounding" to nice and supple, simply an amazing improvement. I think it was that car that was my initial "who says this can't work...it did for me" experience along these lines.



The stuff from LeatherDr (I did *not* do the full "fatliquor" process) might've softened up the leather in the A8 and S8 just a little, but it's hard to tell as they were fine to begin with (despite over a decade of minimal upkeep).
 
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