Leather cleaners shouldn't only help restore the appearance of your vehicle's leather upholstery from seat to ceiling and sides. It should also offer prolonged protection so that you won't have to apply the product daily or weekly to protect the leather from wear and tear.
Some leather products do this by having some wax in them while others recommend that you clean the upholstery first before putting in the conditioner and/or protectant to keep them from sealing in the dirt with the leather.
This ensures that the shininess you've achieved from polishing the leather will be retained for a long period of time before it becomes dull again.
Considering Leather Cleaners 101
- Know What the Product Brings to the Table: It's easy to recommend that you should only find the best cleaners for your leather care, but it's more difficult to define what those standards are. In order to determine which cleaners are the best for your needs, you should become aware of how each product goes about cleaning. Interior cleaning is a lot like exterior cleaning as far as cleaning products go, except for the obvious different of no hose-downs to get rid of the suds afterwards.
- The Different Types of Cleaning Method: Some cleaners are gentler on your leather than others, especially leather that's not exactly brand new and is only a couple of years away from requiring reupholstery. Other cleaners rely heavily on chemical solvents to quickly clean leather or deal with years and years of dirt and neglect. Those cleaners should be used with caution, like how you shouldn't overuse bleach on your whites because they can eat away at the very fabric of these clothes if used too much, resulting in damage and discoloration.
- The Gentler But Tougher Route: There's a way to balance the effectiveness of strong solvents with the seeming ineffectiveness of gentle cleansers. Certain environment-friendly products like KevianClean Leather Cleaner or even the all-purpose KevianClean Interior Defense are able to find a yin-yang balance between strong dirt removal and gentle protection of the leather underneath. You just need to sacrifice a bit on instant gratification to ensure that leather damage risk is reduced to zero.
- Method of Application: Cleaning leather involves more than just putting the product on and forgetting about it. You need to take into consideration how you apply the cleaner as well. You need to put the right amount of product unto your wiping cloth or microfiber towel. You shouldn't rub too hard so as to burn a hole on the leather. You should apply the whole thing on the car seats, ceiling, and sides of your leather upholstery in an equal manner.