Citrus

Cost:  £15 for 1000ml

Date of Review: 30th May 2020

The Sales Pitch from : Mitchell & King

A pre-wash, is an important step of any cleaning that you’ll do with the paintwork. 

Pre-washing, involves allowing a product to sit on the top layer of grime in an effort to soften it and finally remove it, without the use of heavy-duty solvents, which can impact dry or even damage paint and wax in the long term.  

Removing the worst of the dirt makes sense, the grime and dirt can hide tiny bits of grit and other particles which can be easily removed but can do quite a bit of damage to your paint. 

One of the most common scratches you will find on a car is “marring” more commonly known as Wash Marring, and it’s exactly what we’ve just explained. Paintwork which still has dirt and grime which them transfers to your wash and mitt and worst of all your wash bucket.  

Citrus is a highly concentrated product which can be used at 1:2 for heavy soiling and up to 1:9 for lighter stuff. 

Simply spray Citrus onto dry bodywork and allow it to sit for a few moments before using your pressure washer or high-pressure hose to rinse. 

This pre-wash step hugely decreases the chance of you scratching your paint and is completely touchless. Citrus will also keep your mitt and wash water cleaner due to less dirt and grime reaching your bucket. 

A very simple step which ensures the safest wash you’ll have, keeping your paint looking great for longer.

Source:  https://www.mitchellandking.com/collections/detailing-products/products/citrus

What You Get:

The trigger mechanism is excellent and no leakage from repeated use. The trigger has an adjustable spray from fine mist to squirt or off. The bottles are sturdy.

Even with this used neat the 1ltr will last you a good while as you don’t need much to do the job.

Product Description:

A natural product which is environmentally friendly, that ironically looks like a toxic waste. I decanted some into a smaller spray bottle so that I can take it with me to car shows, I wouldn’t need much at a show, if i do then I have some more serious issues!

I just love the look of this and perhaps my favourite product by look alone.

Instructions:

This product can be used neat or diluted depending on what you want. If this is used neat it will strip the wax off. In that state it can be used as a wax remover.

If diluted this will be much gentler as the intended prewash. I also used this as a degreaser which worked well on my garage floor. Diluted this could make nine litres of product and that is only £1.66 a litre for a cleaner, but a mild one at that dilution.

The primary intention was for me to use this on my car’s tyres to clean them before application of a tyre dressing.

Application:

For larger areas you can spray all over the panel to loosen dirt or what ever is where it shouldn’t be. Allow it to dwell for thirty seconds or to soak in and loosen. Hose off and rinse properly.

For individual areas or small areas you can mist onto the area or spray onto the cloth and apply. Untreated tyre with white lettering.

Removing:

I added some to the cloth and wiped half the lettering to see what happens, noted with the arrow. Even with the first wipe it’s easy to see the difference.

I learned the hard way here. Clean the whole tyre sidewall before attempting any smaller detailing like on the white letters. The reason was Citrus dragged so much dirt out of the tyre that it made the lettering dirty again.

With the tyre cleaned and then cleaned the white lettering, you don’t need me to tell you how it came up. The tyre is still slightly damp for the cleaner. It has yet to be rinsed off.

Ignore the chrome’s lack of shine, that’s the winter storage wax still in place. Two pictures here, one on the left without a flash, the right has a flash exposure.

With everything cleaned up it’s required to rinse the area down. For that you will need a spray of water. At a car show this becomes an additional bottle to carry around. Not ideal.

Results:

The cleaning results were much better than I expected. This cleaner not only removed the old tyre dressings but also the dirt as well. The cloth looked the same colour as the tyre at the end of the first two cleans.

I can’t fault this as a cleaner. It’s not as some of the stronger all purpose cleaners or dedicated traffic film removers. However they will strip wax.

So there is a trade off to be had. For the eco warrior this is perfect as it natural. FOr an intense clean perhaps something stronger.

Rating:  9 out 10

Why not a full score? Ok, for me I thing I would liked to have seen this slightly thicker than water consistency. That would potentially stop it from running. When I applied this to the lettering via a cloth some of the liquid was inside the lettering. This ran out and left a run mark on the rubber. Simple enough to clean up yes, but an inconvenience. Perhaps rinsed down better then this wouldn’t of happened. So it was my fault really.

Ease of use – 10

Finish – 10

Conclusion:

I like this cleaner, it works, it smells citrusy too. The look is just brilliant. I think a slightly thicker product than water would be perfect. Then dilute to requirements if you want to mist or spray it. Trigger is great and didn’t leak at all. You do need that second step for a little rinse as well.

Would I recommend it? Yes.

Would I buy it again? Yes. But I won’t need to for a while as this will last for some time.