Flash's Brown Royal: Initial Thoughts
Copied from another forum where I posted. Thought it might interest one or two people over here.
Just a quick thread on my initial thoughts of Brown Royal cleaner. Quick and dirty...
My father-in-law got some new-to-him wheels for a Jeep he has. There was some foreign substance on the wheels, and he wanted me to look at them for him. He had bought some Eagle One Aluminum Wheel Cleaner to try and remove it, however when we tried it it wasn`t budging. Coincidentally, I had received the package from Flash Detailing Products earlier in the day, so I put the sprayer in the 32 ounce bottle and used it straight out of the container. Other than some really caked on areas, it laughed at what the EO cleaner couldn`t remove. There were a couple spots I used some clay on, but I believe had I let the Brown Royal sit and dwell for a while, it might have broken it up a little more. We were very rushed, and this was spur of the moment, but it gave me time to draft some initial thoughts.
Likes: Product is thick, and it allows it to sit on the wheel. Can use it for both tires and wheels (did a good job on both). The color is unique - you can see where you applied it and where it`s dwelling. Not very strong of a smell. Busted caked on brake dust and grime very easily. Very affordable. Fast shipping. Friendly customer service. Good sprayer on the bottle.
Dislikes: None so far.
I know, very quick and abbreviated. No pics. Maybe next time I can try it at different dilutions and take some photos and draft some more in depth thoughts.
To add:
I had a few minutes to kill just a while ago and mixed up a sprayer approximately 3 parts water to one part Brown Royal to use as a degreaser / cleaner on the undercarriage of my truck. I wanted to see how it would do for this purpose.
Initial thoughts are I might have to use it stronger where not so much agitation is needed. Then again, I have a deer season`s worth of dirt and mud remnants (what the hose won`t wash off). While it performed pretty well and removed a lot of the grime without agitation, some of the heavier areas needed a little more work with a brush and some extra shots of BR to get them acceptably clean. Mind you, I wasn`t really doing an undercarriage cleaning more than I was using the BR out of curiosity.
Diluting it with water doesn`t really change the color of the product. It was still very dark brown even mixed with 75% water.
Re: Flash's Brown Royal: Initial Thoughts
Thanks JP. I was unfamiliar with this product until your post. As I understand it is a spray and rinse product (non acidic) which can be used on tires and wheel wells as well as wheels. Did you use Brown Royal on the tires along with the wheels? What were you impressions? Does it really clean the rubber well? ARO has been an underacheiver for me despite some glowing praises, and that is with generous agitation. Not a bad product, just fell far short of expectations.
Looking forward to further reviews and/or observations on other products. BTW, is this the same company as the FW1 aerosol waterless wax product mentioned elsewhere on the forum?
Re: Flash's Brown Royal: Initial Thoughts
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mr. Clean
Thanks JP. I was unfamiliar with this product until your post. As I understand it is a spray and rinse product (non acidic) which can be used on tires and wheel wells as well as wheels. Did you use Brown Royal on the tires along with the wheels? What were you impressions? Does it really clean the rubber well?
Yes. It cleaned the tires on my F-I-L jeep well. They are not brand new, so I doubt anything could have gotten the white lettering looking great again, but it worked as well as Bleche White, which is my usual go-to on tires.
I was unfamiliar with BR until I read some posts and a few reviews and got into the discussion over at TiD. Not that I always believe what I see on internet videos and such, but there was a You Tube video I saw of this stuff and thought if it works even close to that good, I`d be happy. :) Just happened to buy it on a whim (and the fact that it`s like $15 for a gallon).
Re: Flash's Brown Royal: Initial Thoughts
there is a vid on youtube i believe of someone using this but the quality in visualizing the end result isnt totally believable which i would need to see a few more pics or vids to decide if i want to order this or not
Re: Flash's Brown Royal: Initial Thoughts
Quote:
Originally Posted by
RyansAutoDetail
there is a vid on youtube i believe of someone using this but the quality in visualizing the end result isnt totally believable which i would need to see a few more pics or vids to decide if i want to order this or not
Do a Google search for Brown Royal reviews. There`s lots of reviews on a lot of different vehicle forums - mostly from folks who seem to not know anything about what I would consider detailing. I think I read maybe one or two lackluster reviews versus 15-20 great ones. I based my decision to purchase on that, FWIW.
Also, FWIW, I don`t really much believe in spray on, rinse off with no agitation. I just haven`t seen it work that way in real life applications, even with highly touted products. While I don`t expect that from the BR, it certainly seems like it may be the closest thing to spray on, rinse off that I`ve personally tried.
Re: Flash's Brown Royal: Initial Thoughts
Quote:
Originally Posted by
JaredPointer
Do a Google search for Brown Royal reviews. There`s lots of reviews on a lot of different vehicle forums - mostly from folks who seem to not know anything about what I would consider detailing. I think I read maybe one or two lackluster reviews versus 15-20 great ones. I based my decision to purchase on that, FWIW.
Also, FWIW, I don`t really much believe in spray on, rinse off with no agitation. I just haven`t seen it work that way in real life applications, even with highly touted products. While I don`t expect that from the BR, it certainly seems like it may be the closest thing to spray on, rinse off that I`ve personally tried.
I just placed an order for BR and some detail brushes from the site. JP if you say the stuff works that`s good enough for me.:howdy Dave was sent home with a detail brush I gave him and they have the same brushes on this site "best brushes I have found" had to get more.:yay
Lets wait and see how the BR really works...:inspector::bigups:howdy
Re: Flash's Brown Royal: Initial Thoughts
I normally use a strong solution of purple power or other APC how would BR compare to them.
Much better I hope because PP is about 7 bucks per gallon.
Re: Flash's Brown Royal: Initial Thoughts
Quote:
Originally Posted by
black bart
I normally use a strong solution of purple power or other APC how would BR compare to them.
Much better I hope because PP is about 7 bucks per gallon.
I quit buying Purple Power - I could never get it to work well as a degreaser or an undercarriage spray even at full strength. At one time, I could get Castrol Super Clean in the Purple container and it worked well as an APC, but for some reason or another I haven`t tried it in some time. IIRC, it was pretty strong (i.e. breathing fumes, drying out my hands really bad, etc).
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Re: Flash's Brown Royal: Initial Thoughts
Well, here is the first chance I`ve had to post some photos of the BR used by me on a vehicle. Test subject is my mom`s 2005 Camry. I`d say that this is moderate brake dusting for her. Not the worst I`ve seen, but it`s been a few weeks since it`s been washed.
First two are the befores. Second two are the BR sprayed on the wheels. Last two are after the rinse.
I did not agitate for these photos. Also, I eyeballed a 50:50 mix of BR and water. This was not full strength. I`d say on the exterior, it probably did 95% or better in the cleaning department. On the inner wheel barrels, it broke a lot of the baked on dust and grime up, but did not remove it all. I`d say some light agitation would be needed to get the inner barrels completely clean. On the tires, I believe agitation would always be needed to get them completely clean.
As a side note, it was nice to see that the Z2 Pro I put on back in October was still performing like a champ. Lots of beading, slickness, and it released the dirt on the vertical panels very easily. :bigups
Re: Flash's Brown Royal: Initial Thoughts
Is 1:1 the recommended dilution? What did you think about the results. From the photos it looked like it cleaned pretty well, but I don`t know how stubborn the Toyota brake dust is or isn`t.
Continued interest on how after some agitation how you judge the results on the tires.
Re: Flash's Brown Royal: Initial Thoughts
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mr. Clean
Is 1:1 the recommended dilution? What did you think about the results. From the photos it looked like it cleaned pretty well, but I don`t know how stubborn the Toyota brake dust is or isn`t.
I`m not even sure there is a recommended dilution. I believe you can go 8:1 with it. I`ve tried it full strength, 3:1, and now 50:50 and didn`t notice much much difference in cleaning ability at any dilution. I think I`ll try it 8:1 or so on my wheels next wash.
The brake dust on my wheels can be pretty stubborn. I`ve not used anything yet that I could just spray on and hose off and get those kind of results (like on my mom`s wheels) on mine or my wife`s wheels.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mr. Clean
Continued interest on how after some agitation how you judge the results on the tires.
I could just tell the tire`s were not completely clean. Also, when cleaning my FIL`s white letters, I could tell that scrubbing with a tire brush helped clean the lettering. I guess that`s a personal hang up for me - I have this idea that if you don`t scrub the tires, they`re not clean. :)
Re: Flash's Brown Royal: Initial Thoughts
Quote:
Originally Posted by
JaredPointer
I`m not even sure there is a recommended dilution. I believe you can go 8:1 with it. I`ve tried it full strength, 3:1, and now 50:50 and didn`t notice much much difference in cleaning ability at any dilution. I think I`ll try it 8:1 or so on my wheels next wash.
The brake dust on my wheels can be pretty stubborn. I`ve not used anything yet that I could just spray on and hose off and get those kind of results (like on my mom`s wheels) on mine or my wife`s wheels.
I could just tell the tire`s were not completely clean. Also, when cleaning my FIL`s white letters, I could tell that scrubbing with a tire brush helped clean the lettering. I guess that`s a personal hang up for me - I have this idea that if you don`t scrub the tires, they`re not clean. :)
I have been pretty surprised at the stubborness of the brake dust on the F-150. It has been close to that of the Volvos, VWs, Audis, etc.
A hang up we have in common. I spray/dwell/scrub with 2 different brushes, multiple times on our family`s tires. And still sometimes I`m not completely pleased with the final results.
Re: Flash's Brown Royal: Initial Thoughts
Sometimes when I`ve been driving on skidder trails and logging roads and such during the winter and spring, the tires are pretty much orange. I wind up scrubbing multiple times per tire to get them clean. :(
My brother`s F-150 has bad brake dust too. Maybe I can get it over here to try the BR on..... :)
Re: Flash's Brown Royal: Initial Thoughts
I should mention that these wheels do not have any kind of wheel sealant, wax, brake dust repellent, etc on them.
I also used the BR in the wheel wells also, with pretty good results. Using no agitation, it did a very good job of removing dust and dirt that was sitting in the wells, on the strut and spring, etc.
