Mild green fairy liquid

[SometimesSansEngine]

(Disclaimer, I am not a chemist. But my brother is, although it'll probably be months before he gets back to me)

So sitting amongst a load of car nuts, I know one thing that will make them boil with rage is if you mention washing a motor vehicle with fairy liquid.

Same for most bicycle lovers.

It contains salt and your cherished item will dissolve/rust/explode

So with that in mind... thoughts on this?

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It is true that every motorbike cleaning product that I have looked at the safety datasheet for contains sodium salts, and Muc Off & Motul cleaners contain the exact same "Alcohols, C12-14 Ethoxylated, Sulfates, Sodium Salts" as Fairy Liquid. Same concentration of it too, although Fairy Liquid has some quantities of other stuff.

At most looking at the ingredients list you might want to dilute washing up liquid just a touch more.

Some data sheets:

Fairy Liquid

Muc Off Bike Cleaner

Motul M2 Moto cleaner

Simoniz Wash and wax

Halfords Car wash

Considering you'll put it on and wash it off nearly straight away, I can't see how it logically would damage your bike more than general road grime that you may leave on for several days before cleaning off.

For a scientific viewpoint I've got in touch with my brother, who happens to be an industrial chemist, to get his opinion. But he's notoriously slow to reply and I know I'll get bored waiting so thought I'd post here to see if there's any experts on here.

So the question is, and not looking for just what people have heard because all I could find online was every warning about Fairy Liquid being "don't use it as it contains salt", should I be saving some money?

After all, I'm the guy that will buy the cheapest shampoo/sun lotion etc going because I argue "it's all the same stuff".

Now that I've lit a potential firework in the forum, I'll take a step back

Edited February 8, 2019 by SometimesSansEngine

[Bianco2564]

Fairy liquid £2.31 per litre

https://groceries.asda.com/product/washing-up-liquid/fairy-original-washing-up-liquid/910001262760

Halfords own brand car shampoo £2 per litre

https://www.halfords.com/motoring/car-cleaning/shampoo-polish-wax/halfords-car-wash-5-litre

If saving money is the name of the game, its a no brainer

I've always followed the urban myth that your car wipers and screen rubber will rot before your eyes if you use fairy liquid.

What I do know is my OH would slap my hands for daring to enter the kitchen cupboards for stuff to clean the cars or bikes.

I use G-Techniq products we got through work and when that runs out turtle wax or whatever's on offer at Halfords

[Via]

When rebuilding ER5 I used oven cleaner instead of an automotive degreaser, much cheaper (especially as I had spare bottles of the stuff floating about) and did just as good a job.

And before painting fairing I used dishwasher to clean them, that said probably wouldn't recommend it as dishwasher was gritty for ages after (probably why those with a wife get told not to do things like that) but the fairing came up a treat

[SometimesSansEngine]

Fairy liquid £2.31 per litre

https://groceries.asda.com/product/washing-up-liquid/fairy-original-washing-up-liquid/910001262760

Halfords own brand car shampoo £2 per litre

https://www.halfords.com/motoring/car-cleaning/shampoo-polish-wax/halfords-car-wash-5-litre

If saving money is the name of the game, its a no brainer

I've always followed the urban myth that your car wipers and screen rubber will rot before your eyes if you use fairy liquid.

What I do know is my OH would slap my hands for daring to enter the kitchen cupboards for stuff to clean the cars or bikes.

I use G-Techniq products we got through work and when that runs out turtle wax or whatever's on offer at Halfords

 

Ta, added the data sheet for that to the OP.

Has the same "Alcohols, C12-14 Ethoxylated, Sulfates, Sodium Salts" in it too. Use it on the car, no idea why I bought special stuff for the bike really.

Muc-off bike cleaner is anywhere between £3 and £10 per litre it seems, for comparison. I bought it on offer so it was around the £3 per l mark.

Edited February 8, 2019 by SometimesSansEngine

[SometimesSansEngine]

When rebuilding ER5 I used oven cleaner instead of an automotive degreaser, much cheaper (especially as I had spare bottles of the stuff floating about) and did just as good a job.

 

I think that's why I'm interested in this. Chemicals are chemicals, a degreaser aims to break apart the bonds between greasy crap, surfactants aim to lift dirt. We then know to wash them off.

How much of it is colours, smells and marketing?

 

And before painting fairing I used dishwasher to clean them, that said probably wouldn't recommend it as dishwasher was gritty for ages after (probably why those with a wife get told not to do things like that) but the fairing came up a treat

 

I know people who swear by putting their bicycle components (cassette, chainring, derailleurs etc) in the dishwasher, [mention]Magpie84[/mention] definitely wouldn't let me do that I imagine.

[Via]

How much of it is colours, smells and marketing?

 

Exactly, I've found with most cleaners as long as it's wet and some form of detergent in it that it cleans.

I've got a large mirrored cabinet in bathroom and always a nightmare to clean as ends up with streaks all over it, got some TV / monitor cleaner which is really good and cleans without any streaks at all so tried that on the mirrors, worked perfectly

Understand that some cleaners may be too abrasive or cause some kind of issue but think vast majority of it is marketing.

 

I know people who swear by putting their bicycle components (cassette, chainring, derailleurs etc) in the dishwasher, @Magpie84 definitely wouldn't let me do that I imagine.

 

Tbh if i still had a garage with power and water I'd be tempted to get a 2nd hand one as a parts cleaner. High pressure hot water alone does wonders.

[Bender]

Dishwashers are great, when I rebuilt my v6 everything that fitted in went in it, heads the lot, have to oil them instantly though on removal as they start to rust very quickly.

[Gerontious]

I use cheap.. wilko wash and wax. £1.75 for a Litre. a capful is plenty in a bucket of warm water after the bike has been given a rinse down. Used it a lot over the past few weeks washing the road grime off the Africa Twin.

I wouldnt worry so much about using washing up liquid in an emergency. everywhere except the tank. I gave that the wax treatment and my belief is that its too 'strong' a detergent and will strip the wax off.

As for the salt content. well.. it cant be much in a few drops of washing up liquid. but, I see little point in using that when a litre of wilkos own lasts for 6 months or more.

[fastbob]

The Punch line goes " Hans that do dishes can be soft as Gervais with Wild Green Furry Lipped Squid " but unfortunately I have long forgotten the rather tedious joke that precedes it .

[fastbob]

I use cheap.. wilko wash and wax. £1.75 for a Litre. a capful is plenty in a bucket of warm water after the bike has been given a rinse down. Used it a lot over the past few weeks washing the road grime off the Africa Twin.

I wouldnt worry so much about using washing up liquid in an emergency. everywhere except the tank. I gave that the wax treatment and my belief is that its too 'strong' a detergent and will strip the wax off.

As for the salt content. well.. it cant be much in a few drops of washing up liquid. but, I see little point in using that when a litre of wilkos own lasts for 6 months or more.

Very good point, a few squirts in a bucket of water isn't going to amount to a lot of salt .

[SometimesSansEngine]

Industrial chemist brother has spoken:

"Without seeing the full formulation (which they won't give away) then it's difficult to say 100%, but they do share the same or similar active ingredients of a similar quantity"

[SometimesSansEngine]

As for the salt content. well.. it cant be much in a few drops of washing up liquid. but, I see little point in using that when a litre of wilkos own lasts for 6 months or more.

 

That was my thoughts to be honest, and as I said in the original post, I imagine worse gets caked on your bike and stays there for a bit unless you wash off as soon as you finish every single ride.

[Magpie84]

I've got a large mirrored cabinet in bathroom and always a nightmare to clean as ends up with streaks all over it, got some TV / monitor cleaner which is really good and cleans without any streaks at all so tried that on the mirrors, worked perfectly

Understand that some cleaners may be too abrasive or cause some kind of issue but think vast majority of it is marketing.

 

I'm rubbish at the whole cleaning thing but I do know that white vinegar and a micro fibre cloth will clean mirrors, glass and chrome up a treat with no streaky bits.

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

I’ve tried a valeter. They work really well

[gogs01]

I’ve tried a valeter. They work really well

 

Did the valeter use Fairy Liquid - perhaps ?

[Throttled]

The whole point of cleaner is to break down the dirt and then both dirt and cleaner are washed off. There should be no cleaner or dirt left. So it does not really matter if you use fairy, so long you rinse it off at the end.

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

I’ve tried a valeter. They work really well

 

Did the valeter use Fairy Liquid - perhaps ?

 

May have, I was busy doing tea drinking quality assurance tests....

[SometimesSansEngine]

I've heard rumours some do use pretty basic cleaners because it's all about how you use it. But of course, many are likely to swear by some uber-brand like it's a religion. I know some of the people at work do too with the brands they use, and they'll use several different cleaners for specific parts of the cleaning job. Their faces when I mentioned fairy liquid yesterday was hilarious!

[gogs01]

In my days of running bikes with chain drive, I often used washing up liquid as a first pass on the swinging arm and rear wheel. They were filthy with chain oil and using anything better than Fairy would have been a waste of money. Once the dirtiest areas were looking presentable a fresh bucket of water, with whatever car shampoo Halfords had, cleaned everything - including swinging arm and wheels, then it was a gentle hose down, drip dry for an hour outside then into the garage for a rub down with an old towel.

Once all that was done , all the metal parts were treated to WD40 ( keeping clear of brake callipers and discs !). The exhaust system on my ZZR1100 had only some light surface rust after 9 years and 30,000 miles of this treatment.

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

The Punch line goes " Hans that do dishes can be soft as Gervais with Wild Green Furry Lipped Squid " but unfortunately I have long forgotten the rather tedious joke that precedes it .

 

I know that joke...the version I know is about a yuppie trying to impress a girl by ordering the most expensive dish in a seafood restaurant. Which turns out to be a squid

The snag is it's so expensive that they've had the squid for ages so they've got rather attached to it.

The head waiter tells the yuppie that this dish is tres rare, tres exclusive and therefore tres expensive. It is green squid sir, but not farmed squid, this is wild caught. This particular variety is particularly difficult to find as it is the furry lipped variety.

The guy orders it but the chef can't bring himself to kill the poor thing. Neither can the sous chef, or any of the kitchen staff.

Eventually they remember Hans who is the dishwasher. He's got no finer feeling so they reckon he'll chop the squid. But even Hans falters as the squid looks up at him tearfully. " Nein, I no kill squid"

So the waiter goes back to the yuppie and apologies that the squid is off. When the angry diner demands to know why he is told.....

Because Hans that does dishes is as soft as can be with wild green furry lipped squid

Ta da!

[fastbob]

The Punch line goes " Hans that do dishes can be soft as Gervais with Wild Green Furry Lipped Squid " but unfortunately I have long forgotten the rather tedious joke that precedes it .

 

I know that joke...the version I know is about a yuppie trying to impress a girl by ordering the most expensive dish in a seafood restaurant. Which turns out to be a squid

The snag is it's so expensive that they've had the squid for ages so they've got rather attached to it.

The head waiter tells the yuppie that this dish is tres rare, tres exclusive and therefore tres expensive. It is green squid sir, but not farmed squid, this is wild caught. This particular variety is particularly difficult to find as it is the furry lipped variety.

The guy orders it but the chef can't bring himself to kill the poor thing. Neither can the sous chef, or any of the kitchen staff.

Eventually they remember Hans who is the dishwasher. He's got no finer feeling so they reckon he'll chop the squid. But even Hans falters as the squid looks up at him tearfully. " Nein, I no kill squid"

So the waiter goes back to the yuppie and apologies that the squid is off. When the angry diner demands to know why he is told.....

Because Hans that does dishes is as soft as can be with wild green furry lipped squid

Ta da!

 

That's it ! but you forgot that the Sous Chef was called Gervais .

Edited February 9, 2019 by fastbob

[ADIO600]

In the old days before you were all born, it was fact that using washing up liquid to clean your car would faid the paint to almost Matt over time,I know I tried it.

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

The Punch line goes " Hans that do dishes can be soft as Gervais with Wild Green Furry Lipped Squid " but unfortunately I have long forgotten the rather tedious joke that precedes it .

 

I know that joke...the version I know is about a yuppie trying to impress a girl by ordering the most expensive dish in a seafood restaurant. Which turns out to be a squid

The snag is it's so expensive that they've had the squid for ages so they've got rather attached to it.

The head waiter tells the yuppie that this dish is tres rare, tres exclusive and therefore tres expensive. It is green squid sir, but not farmed squid, this is wild caught. This particular variety is particularly difficult to find as it is the furry lipped variety.

The guy orders it but the chef can't bring himself to kill the poor thing. Neither can the sous chef, or any of the kitchen staff.

Eventually they remember Hans who is the dishwasher. He's got no finer feeling so they reckon he'll chop the squid. But even Hans falters as the squid looks up at him tearfully. " Nein, I no kill squid"

So the waiter goes back to the yuppie and apologies that the squid is off. When the angry diner demands to know why he is told.....

Because Hans that does dishes is as soft as can be with wild green furry lipped squid

Ta da!

 

That's it ! but you forgot that the Head Waiter was called Gervais .

 

That wasn't in the version I was told. I heard it on a ship in Liverpool docks one new year's eve, be around 1982 I think.

[Flatty]

People are missing the main and obvious advantage of fairy liquid here. It's always there, for free, in a bottle on the back of the sink.

[raesewell]

We use Fairy Liquid, please tell me where I can get some for free, I'm all ears