Armor All Cleaning Wipes are Convenient for Car Care, but a Little Linty
Written: Sep 30 '04 (Updated Sep 30 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Convenient, cleaning solution on wipes does a good job, helps keep car in good shape
Cons: Can be pricey, has ammonia-like smell, leaves white fibers behind (although they claim lint-free)
The Bottom Line: These wipes are extremely convenient for cleaning up car interiors. My car stays better maintained/looks better because of the convenience of this product.
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| Javelina's Full Review: Armor All Cleaning Wipes |
Although I’m not a “neat freak”, I definitely like to keep things clean. Coupled with lots of road trips, I like to keep my car, as well as my fiancé’s car, clean. Since we live in an apartment, I don’t have the convenience of access to an outside source of water (hose, faucet) to do my traditional cleaning regime with soap and water, which is how I ended up buying these Armor All Cleaning Wipes.
I have bought these wipes as an individual container, which I can usually find at places like Walmart or Target, and costs me around $4 or so. I have also bought 3-packs of Armor All wipes, which consists of this product, the glass cleaner, and the protectant wipes. It usually saves some money to get all three, usually only a couple dollars more, unless you have no need for either of the other two products.
The container holds 25 wipes, although you can also find a larger size of 45 wipes. At 25 wipes going for between $4 and $5, each wipe runs about 15-20˘. The cleaning wipes come in a container with purple accents and your typical cap that pops open. You pull the wipes out through a small opening, and each wipe measures 7" x 9" (17.7 cm x 22.8 cm).
”Armor All® Cleaning Wipes are the quick and easy way to clean your auto surfaces. The wipes are specially formulated to remove tough, ground-in dirt without drying out, damaging or fading surfaces. They're the one solution to all your cleaning needs.”
My Thoughts & Experiences
As I mentioned earlier, we travel a lot. I have a Subaru Outback wagon, and I use it. I often make a 3.5 hour trip to visit my parents on weekends. We are also avid outdoor enthusiasts, from camping to hiking to snowshoeing. This means there is a lot of time spent in our cars, plus the dirt to boot! There’s always all kinds of stuff in the car, from boots to tennis gear to camping gear to pretty much anything else!
Usually I can see dirt starting to build up in the car, and this is when I get out the Armor All Cleaning Wipes, although I periodically clean the car anyway.
The dirtiest parts of the car(s) tends to be the inside door handle, the steering wheel, and the shift (even though they’re both automatic). My car’s interior is dark grey leather, so I don’t see stains and dirt very well. However, when I use the Armor All wipes, I see dirt wiping away from the surfaces. I can tell that it is removing a film that has built up on the steering wheel. So even if I can’t see any dirt, the wipes just take it right off.
I mostly use the wipes on these areas, as well as the dash and some of the side panels. Otherwise, I use leather cleaner/treatment on the leather, and I wipe down things like the plastic sections around the door with a wet rag. Things like the dashboard and the inside of the doors don’t get too dirty – it is mostly dust that I end up wiping away.
I remember one of the first times I used these wipes. I went to clean my fiance’s car, which has a much lighter upholstery, and found that the handle on the inside of the door was literally blackened, from a weekend camping. I was horrified and honestly didn’t believe the wipes would take care of the grunge, but it just wiped the grime away as though it was nothing!
The Armor All website says that this product can be used for dash, fabric and carpet. I can’t say I have used it on anything other than the dash, steering wheel, insides of the doors, and the console. The website also says this product is “Not recommended for glass or painted surfaces.” I think that the wipes can potentially remove paint or lettering, so I keep away from things like the turn signal and other marked buttons.
I have not personally experienced any “adverse” reactions to the wipes. They are supposedly designed so that they do not dry out or discolor surfaces. Even on my leather steering wheel, I haven’t noticed any problems or dryness.
A quick side story about my first ever Armor All experience… I was in college and had just gotten a new (barely used) car, with a light tan interior. Within days of owning it, a blue ballpoint pen exploded in the back pocket of my shorts and leaked all over the upholstery. I was devastated! The only thing I could find was a sample size thing of Armor All MultiPurpose cleaner. So I poured it on, dabbed it out, and to my amazement, the ink came right out. Ever since then, I have used their MultiPurpose cleaner for big stains!
Downsides?
There is one sort of major downside to this product. They claim this product is lint-free, but they aren’t! The wipes leave particles, which drives me crazy. For example, I use the wipes on the dash to remove the dust, and I end up with little bits of fiber. Then I have to wipe it with a wet or dry towel to get rid of those tiny white fibers. On my dark charcoal colored dash, you can see it. Not the end of the world, but why can’t they just make a wipe that doesn’t shed?
Another issue tends to be one I have with most wipes (not just this brand). As I pull one wipe out of the container, it will sometimes rip. I have a tendency to rip the top corner off as I am pulling it up. Along the same lines, as I pull up a wipe, it usually pulls too much of the next wipe through, which then means trying to stuff it back down so that I can close the cap. Not to say these aren’t durable, but I just manage to rip them as I tug them out of the container.
Lastly, this stuff doesn’t smell good. I’m certainly not an advocate of making cleaning products smell good (which only encourages us to inhale toxic chemicals), but these Armor All wipes have a tangy, sort of ammonia type smell to them. I don’t notice the smell lingering in the car very much, which is good.
These wipes don’t contain any protectants; but that’s not what this product is for anyway. There are Armor All protectant wipes for things like protecting your dashboard from UV damage and so on. It is not an issue for me that these wipes do not have additional properties other than cleaning.
Ingredients
“Armor All Cleaning Wipes contain propylene glycol ether, isopropanol and surfactants.”
Between the ingredients and the ammonia-like smell of these wipes, I definitely wash (or at least rinse) my hands after using these wipes. The ingredients are common industrial type chemicals that fall into the category of solvents and so on.
Overall Thoughts
These wipes really bring a new level of convenience to cleaning car interiors. I am always traveling and very busy, and I need something that is convenient for me to use in cleaning up the car. Rather than having to go get rags, cleaning supplies, water, and so on, these Armor All wipes are ready to go, and it seems as though the cleaning solution on the wipes do a really good job, with my only true irk being the fiber residue. My car interior stays much better maintained with wipes like these between the long periods between heavy duty cleaning!
3.5 stars. I really had to knock off a star for the lint. Another deduction for the dispenser/ripping towel issue, and the price.
Armor All: http://www.armorall.com/
Recommended:
Yes
Ease of Application: Good; takes little time to apply
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