- Joined
- Mar 7, 2013
- Messages
- 330
- Reaction score
- 280
- Location
- Stamford
- Your Mercedes
- CLK 200 Kompressor
This is a review that was posted on Instagram and which the author has kindly allowed us to reproduce.
It is of particular relevance to valeters and detailers cleaning customer cars in this epidemic who wish to be safe themselves and provide a safe service to customers.
Race Glaze Anti-Bacterial & Viricidal Cleaner Review
Mike Pariera of Minutia Detailing, Croydon (Greater London) - May 2020 https://www.minutiadetailing.com/
Everyone may be wondering what this image means! It was a way I could successfully carry out some testing to determine if a surface contained ATP and therefore how clean the surface was. In today's detailing industry, one can simply register a company (some don’t even do that!) and set up a detailing company quite easily, with no major knowledge or experience.
When I set up Minutia Detailing it was after years of learning about paint in depth and working on my own cars. This gave me the experience and confidence to work on other cars. Like everything though, there is always more and more to learn too better yourself. I have had this device for a while now and it’s certainly great but also a pain for OCD, I ended up testing tap water vs. filtered water and all sorts! The reason for this post is, due to the current Covid 19 virus, I can see so many posts about cleaning interiors and steam cleaning etc that I wanted to actually test what methods work best. To understand how my device works:
ATP is the energy-containing molecule that is found in every living cell. Therefore, it is a useful indicator that contamination may exist on a surface or other part of the food supply chain, from irrigation water to farm to processor, transporter, handler, or retail market. But since all cells contain ATP, a positive reading in relative light units (RLU) will indicate any cell, and not just bacterial cells. Furthermore, not all bacterial cells cause disease. And viruses, which are not technically living cells, usually do not contain any ATP at all.
Nevertheless, ATP monitoring is valuable because it points to areas where bacteria (and, to a more limited degree, viruses) may lurk. After all, bacteria are cells, and areas that record very low RLUs have fewer cells and are far less likely to harbour pathogenic microorganisms
The device I am using comes pre-set with Pass and Fail limits of 10 and 30 respectively. Any score of 10 RLU or less is a Pass. Scores from 11 to 30 RLU are a Caution. Any score greater than 30 RLU is a Fail. Bear in mind this is a fail in the food preparation industry.
With an ATP monitoring system, (or sometimes referred to as - an ATP sanitation monitoring system), ATP is brought into contact with Hygiena's unique liquid-stable reagent in the test device. Light is then emitted in direct proportion to the amount of ATP present in the sample, providing information on the level of contamination in seconds.
Bear in mind before any tests on vehicles I have used this device copiously. An example of one test is when I started with a large sheet of plastic and using tape to sectioned it off. I could then do a before and after using the swabs on each section with different cleaners. Each section would certainly have a different level of contamination but at least a before and after on each section would give me an idea of how effective each cleaner was. I used plain water as a point of comparison too. With any chemistry test so many variables are considered. I kept the batch of swabs the same and the same temperature and timing once the sample was gathered.
The results I found are most cleaners don’t do much at all unless left for 4 minutes or longer, even with Dettol, a simple spray and wipe leaves behind a lot! Steam cleaning proves not effective unless it’s the first and hottest bit of steam that comes out of the nozzle,that would be impossible to hit every surface with that and most of the steam cools down a lot once the blast of steam disperses.
A car that was not cleaned by means of vacuuming and wiping was tested with an ozone machine and it proved only effective if left on for at least 30 minutes, it still was not perfect.
The investigations I conducted are almost too much to write but my conclusion is the best cleaner which has been around for years is Raceglaze Antibacterial spray. The photos show a test on the steering wheel, on a marked off section, the reading of 701 was taken. I then sprayed on the Race Glaze, counted to 5 and wiped it. It went straight down to 10, which is acceptable in hygiene testing in food places. Left on for 4 minutes, it then went down to 0.
My conclusion is, it takes a lot of cleaning to actually make all surfaces free of contamination. Bleach gets a 0 reading easily but we can’t use that on delicate interiors. A combination of using an ozone machine (the cheaper ones do nothing at all!) and using the Race Glaze cleaner with almost certainly keep things clean.
Hope this helps you guys.
Mike
A note on product costs from www.raceglaze.co.uk:
250ml £6.99, 500ml £10.99, 2.5L £45, 5L £80
Reproduced with kind permission of the author.
It is of particular relevance to valeters and detailers cleaning customer cars in this epidemic who wish to be safe themselves and provide a safe service to customers.
Race Glaze Anti-Bacterial & Viricidal Cleaner Review
Mike Pariera of Minutia Detailing, Croydon (Greater London) - May 2020 https://www.minutiadetailing.com/
Everyone may be wondering what this image means! It was a way I could successfully carry out some testing to determine if a surface contained ATP and therefore how clean the surface was. In today's detailing industry, one can simply register a company (some don’t even do that!) and set up a detailing company quite easily, with no major knowledge or experience.
When I set up Minutia Detailing it was after years of learning about paint in depth and working on my own cars. This gave me the experience and confidence to work on other cars. Like everything though, there is always more and more to learn too better yourself. I have had this device for a while now and it’s certainly great but also a pain for OCD, I ended up testing tap water vs. filtered water and all sorts! The reason for this post is, due to the current Covid 19 virus, I can see so many posts about cleaning interiors and steam cleaning etc that I wanted to actually test what methods work best. To understand how my device works:
ATP is the energy-containing molecule that is found in every living cell. Therefore, it is a useful indicator that contamination may exist on a surface or other part of the food supply chain, from irrigation water to farm to processor, transporter, handler, or retail market. But since all cells contain ATP, a positive reading in relative light units (RLU) will indicate any cell, and not just bacterial cells. Furthermore, not all bacterial cells cause disease. And viruses, which are not technically living cells, usually do not contain any ATP at all.
Nevertheless, ATP monitoring is valuable because it points to areas where bacteria (and, to a more limited degree, viruses) may lurk. After all, bacteria are cells, and areas that record very low RLUs have fewer cells and are far less likely to harbour pathogenic microorganisms
The device I am using comes pre-set with Pass and Fail limits of 10 and 30 respectively. Any score of 10 RLU or less is a Pass. Scores from 11 to 30 RLU are a Caution. Any score greater than 30 RLU is a Fail. Bear in mind this is a fail in the food preparation industry.
With an ATP monitoring system, (or sometimes referred to as - an ATP sanitation monitoring system), ATP is brought into contact with Hygiena's unique liquid-stable reagent in the test device. Light is then emitted in direct proportion to the amount of ATP present in the sample, providing information on the level of contamination in seconds.
Bear in mind before any tests on vehicles I have used this device copiously. An example of one test is when I started with a large sheet of plastic and using tape to sectioned it off. I could then do a before and after using the swabs on each section with different cleaners. Each section would certainly have a different level of contamination but at least a before and after on each section would give me an idea of how effective each cleaner was. I used plain water as a point of comparison too. With any chemistry test so many variables are considered. I kept the batch of swabs the same and the same temperature and timing once the sample was gathered.
The results I found are most cleaners don’t do much at all unless left for 4 minutes or longer, even with Dettol, a simple spray and wipe leaves behind a lot! Steam cleaning proves not effective unless it’s the first and hottest bit of steam that comes out of the nozzle,that would be impossible to hit every surface with that and most of the steam cools down a lot once the blast of steam disperses.
A car that was not cleaned by means of vacuuming and wiping was tested with an ozone machine and it proved only effective if left on for at least 30 minutes, it still was not perfect.
The investigations I conducted are almost too much to write but my conclusion is the best cleaner which has been around for years is Raceglaze Antibacterial spray. The photos show a test on the steering wheel, on a marked off section, the reading of 701 was taken. I then sprayed on the Race Glaze, counted to 5 and wiped it. It went straight down to 10, which is acceptable in hygiene testing in food places. Left on for 4 minutes, it then went down to 0.
My conclusion is, it takes a lot of cleaning to actually make all surfaces free of contamination. Bleach gets a 0 reading easily but we can’t use that on delicate interiors. A combination of using an ozone machine (the cheaper ones do nothing at all!) and using the Race Glaze cleaner with almost certainly keep things clean.
Hope this helps you guys.
Mike
A note on product costs from www.raceglaze.co.uk:
250ml £6.99, 500ml £10.99, 2.5L £45, 5L £80
Reproduced with kind permission of the author.
