Throw Down: Iron Remover Comparisons

[Todd@RUPES]

In the not-so-distant past, detailers and enthusiast used to grind away paint contamination with gritty compounds and rotary polishers. Then detailing clay because a popular way to remove overspray, iron fallout, and environmental pollution. New forms of synethic materials, foam clay block, and scrub pads have made this job even easier (and safer)!

One of the contaminates that is common to most finishes and an absolute bear to remove is "rail dust". Basically little pieces of iron settle onto the paint, oxidize (rust) and burrow into the finish. While you can use clay to remove these, the result is often scratched paint and a ruined clay bar.

Enter iron removers! These easy-to-use sprays attack the iron oxide and dissolve it, making iron fallout easy to remove. CarPro Iron-X was the first to gain notoriety, and many have followed. How would the new bread stack up against the "original."


Scoring:

These products are designed to remove iron oxidation, so that will receive the bulk of the scoring. Other factors include how they smell, how well they cling to the surface (which ironically was similar to how well they avoided drying), and how much easier they made it to remove stubborn, severely caked-on rail dust. (Most detailers will clay before or after treatment).

The best in each category will receive the maximum points allotted, with the remaining scores based on subjective evaluations relative to best performing.

Total Iron Removing Power: The bulk of this test (50 possible points) is how well these products do at dissolving the iron content from the paint. Not only was the color-changing effect recorded, but the surface was carefully evaluated as well. Each product was allowed to dwell for 7 minutes.

Cling / Resistance To Drying: This test was originally going to be two separate tests, however the results (and placement) were related, so this was combined into a test worth 20 points. To test the drying time, the products were applied to a black panel in the sunlight and allowed to bake on/evaporate. To test the clinging ability, the products were tested on a vertical panel and allowed to run off.

Ease Of Claying: The test hood used was TRASHED with iron fall out (the worst I have ever witnessed). This was done on purpose to ensure some contamination remained behind. This test was performed to see how much these iron removers "weakened" the remaining contamination.

Scent/Fragrance: Iron removers do not smell good, however some are much better than others. This test was performed using a series of human noses to find the most tolerable product. Several testers commented that one, in particular, smelled "mildly pleasant."


The Test Track:

A neglected hood was used for most of the comparison testing. This hood was covered in a horrendous amount of iron fallout. Additionally the side of the truck was used for the cling testing and a black test panel was used for the dry time testing.




The Test

I documented the power test for your viewing pleasure. First the hood was washed using Optimum No Rinse and Shine. The iron fallout was so pad that the microfiber towel would drag, as if it was being wiped across sandpaper.




The products were sprayed left-to-right, with care taken to avoid overlapping in each other`s section. First was Auto Finessse Iron Remover, then Wolf`s DeIronizer, CarPro Iron-X and finally, Dodo Juice Ferrous Dueller. As a wildcard, I included Sonax Full Effect Wheel Cleaner, as it was the first truly popular product to feature iron eating, color-changing technology (as a wheel cleaner, it was not excepted, nor did it do well).






CarPro Iron-X was the fastest to begin to color change. Purple dots appeared almost instantly, while the Wolf`s (visible to the left) hadn`t even started to change yet.




Sonax Full Effect Wheel Cleaner (the product that introduced many of use to color-changing technology) was added for fun.




2 minutes after application: Because I sprayed left-to-right (each product took approximately 15 seconds to spray), the products on the left have additional "dwell time". None-the less, Iron-X jumped out to an immediate lead.
Keep in mind that the "speed" at which these products changed color ultimately had some (but not all) bearing on how much cleaning power they had.




Auto Finesse, 4 minutes after spraying:



Wolf`s, 4 minutes after spraying:



Iron-X, 4 minutes after spraying:



Dodo Juice, 4 minutes after spraying:



Sonax, 4 minutes after spraying:



Here is a shot of the whole hood, 6 minutes after spraying.



Auto Finesse, 7 minutes after spraying:



Wolf`s, 7 minutes after spraying:



Iron-X, 7 minutes after spraying:



Dodo Juice, 7 minutes after spraying:



Sonax, 7 minutes after spraying:


Because Sonax is a wheel cleaner, and the results were minor, it was excluded form the rest of the testing.



The hood, prior to washing off.




Auto Finesse vs. Wolf`s



Wolf`s vs. Iron-X



Iron-X vs. Dodo Juice



After rinsing the hood off, there was some contamination remaining. I used Optimum Opti-Clay to see how much easier the contamination would to remove. You would think that the products that cleaned the most, would do a better job of loosening the remaining contamination, but that didn`t always prove true!












Before we jump to the results, that`s talk about how each product performed!

Products:

Auto Finesse Iron Out - Let`s get the bad out of the way... Iron Out Stinks, and it smells pretty awful, getting the worst "sniff test" reviews. Even my fairly chemical-resistant sniffer couldn`t stand the smell.

That said, Iron Out was the second fastest to react and provided a strong amount of cleaning power. It was a great product, that improved clay`s ability to clean paint. If you love Auto Finesse products (who doesn`t), then this would be your easy choice!


Wolf`s Chemicals DeIronizer - Wolf`s is more gel-like than the other products. Even though it appeared to run off the surface, a film remained behind giving it the longest dwell time and most resistance to drying. The scent wasn`t great, but it wasn`t awful either.

DeIronizer had the least color-changing effect, and in this test, the least cleaning power. It was scored "just okay" on much easier it made claying, although this was likely a result of how much contamination was left on the surface. However the decent smell and awesome clinging ability kept Wolf`s in the race. In fact, this was the slowest, but most consistent product in terms of color changing. Most products changed right away, then slowed down. Wolf`s kept a steady, ever-increasing pace through on the test, and if the dwell time had been longer, it might have increased its score.


CarPro Iron-X - Iron-X is oldest product here (and its only a few years old!). This product produced an almost instant color-changing and it proved to be the strongest by far. Most of the iron dissolving takes place quickly, with little change after the 3 minute mark.

The smell is okay (I prefer the original to the Lemon Scent) and cling/dry time is average as well. Iron-X also shined in its ability to assist detailing clay working, after the fact.


Dodo Juice Ferrous Dueller - Dodo Juice`s play on Ferris Buehler (the movie) is evident, yet the name is pretty explanitory. Ferrous Dueller is the best smelling product in this test, even being called "almost pleasant" by more than one mouth attached to a nose.

This product produced the second strongest cleaning power (again taking longer, but not-to-long, to achieve those results). Dodo Juice`s Iron Remover also did good in the cling/dry test, and made claying effortless, tying Iron-X in that category.

[Todd@RUPES]

The Results:



Wolf`s Chemicals DeIronizer put on a good show. It traded outright power for versatility and ease of use. If you work outside a lot, or in high temperatures, this may be the iron remover for you. The exceptional cling time and resistance to drying make this the iron remover for tough climates. With more dwell time, it could have scored even higher.

Auto Finesse Iron Out was right there too. Despite scoring similar to Wolf`s, these products work completely different. The performance was there, but the smell was something that could be off putting. If you are a fan of Auto Finesse, or don`t have much of a nose, this might be the cost-effective choice to keep your vehicle`s iron free!

CarPro Iron-X proved that age doesn`t matter. This was the strongest, fastest acting, and most well rounded. It was the fastest to dry, however and ran off quicker than the others. If you demand downright power, and value that the most, then CarPro Iron-X is still an amazing product.

Dodo Juice Ferrous Dueller came with, what the other products lacked, a pleasant fragrance. Don`t get me wrong, it still has a chemical odor and it doesn`t compare to roses, but in this test, it is the best smelling. But don`t let the scent fool you, this is a serious iron removal spray with the second best power, (tied) best ease of claying, commendable try time, and ultimately the highest score!


Conclusion - Each of these products is good, in their own right. If you are a professional who values larger (bulk sizes) and out-and-out cleaning power, Iron-X is still the king. If you work outside a lot and have time to allow it to dwell, Wolf`s is right there. If you are a fan of Auto Finesse products, then the very competent Iron Out will serve you well.

For me, I appreciate the others, but enjoy using Dodo Juice. While I am hesitant to call it a "winner" since the other products out perform it in other areas, it is the best for me and the highest scoring product in this test.

[Todd@RUPES]

Questions or Comments Welcome!

[dd1101]

Todd, as always I love your honest and unbiased test; Thanks!

[Bunky]

Great review but I am surprised you gave the AF any points for scent. I have IronX and used it a couple times on my wheels (chrome) and got no visual effect. It work on some rusted metal bars. I had some naval jelly rust remover (phosphoric acid) and smelled a lot like IronX.

My question is if you did two treatments would that remove more? I assume so since it should be a chemical reaction that uses up the active ingredient as it works. This way someone could go with DDJ and just use it more than once on heavy jobs.

[Orinda Auto Detail]

Awesome Review! I`d love to try the one that smells better.. At the shop we use gallons of IX every month. This is truly something that if you`ve never used you can live with out... But if you used it once you`ll never want to run out of again. It is almost embarrassing how bad the shop smells when we IX a car. I`ve had multiple customers comment. Funniest was the old guys that said "Your shop smells like one of my old dry farts".

[The Guz]

Very nice review. I just got some autofinesse to try out and I have to agree with you. The smell is very strong. I gave my rear bumper a test spray and it felt like the smell lingered for about a day.

[RaskyR1]

Great test Todd! It would be nice to see some price comparison in the test results too.

[radarryan]

Great review, Todd, as always! I gotta say, I am surprised (pleasantly) on how well the Dodo entry did. Going in, I would have guessed it would have been in the bottom half, not (nearly) tied for first! Just goes to show how important these tests are determining which products are the real deal, and which are not!

Thanks again for all your time doing these! I know I can speak for everyone in that we really enjoy them!

[addysdaddy]

Yet another outstanding product review. Thanks Todd.

[broker99]

nice review Todd. I know on wheels Iron X blows Full Effect away. I have not used any of the other products thou.

[XxBoostinxX]

nice review Todd. I know on wheels Iron X blows Full Effect away. I have not used any of the other products thou.

Really? I like FE on wheels better. Iron X doesn`t do as well from my experience.

[Todd@RUPES]

nice review Todd. I know on wheels Iron X blows Full Effect away. I have not used any of the other products thou.

I get what your saying, but let me offer a twist...

Iron-X will work better on the iron content part of the brake dust/road grime. I do not believe that Iron-X has any detergents and/or surfactants that would aid in cleaning the other material. Any "cleaning" you get is really provided by the agitation of water over the surface.

SONAX Full Effect features some color-changing iron eaters (likely enough to clean/loosen most iron-based brake dust), but also features wheel-cleaning detergents. For most of the wheels, it should provide an easier cleaning experience than Iron-X, although Iron-X will do a better job cleaning the "brake dust rust" off of severely neglected wheels.

[Evan.J]

Todd was there any reason why you didn`t use the new version of Iron-X on this test?

From what I have seen and found with the newer version there seem to be a better cling of the product to the surface than with the orginal.

[Pats300zx]

Todd...stellar review as always !!!!