CG Diablo wheel gel or P21S wheel gel?

If you like P21S you'll love AG Custom Wheel Cleaner as it is capable of pulling more dirt out of your tires than ARO as well. One product for two jobs and at $44.95 CDN for 5litres its a great value as well. I'll try to call today.

 

how much for a jug pektel?

 

Hey guys, just wanted to say, I'm using it at 3:1 now. Just did two wheels and it's actually behaving like a gel now, but P21S Gel is still much more clingy. I feel stupid now that I refilled my two bottles last night at 4:1. I don't think I would use it any less than 3:1 for future cleanings and I plan on using it on Dad's car at 2:1 over the week-end (hopefully tomorrow). Btw, I'm getting zero foam even at 3:1 for those of you that like the foam. This is out of a Zep Professional Sprayer w/Bottle, the ones at Home Depot that are $5 and have a blue/yellow spray head, but the nice juicy spray head not the dinky ones from Office Depot.

 

really? i used it at 3:1 and it was clinging better than P21S gel i thought.

 

Very possible but I just finished the last two wheels. When I came back to the two wheels after my cigarette, the cleaner had almost completely dried on the rims (but not the tires). I finished cleaning the last two wheels letting the soap and water re-hydrate the rims, rinsed off, and pulled into the garage. Dried the tire sidewalls and the rims and I realized that the Diablo 3:1 didn't even put a dent in stripping the tire shine I applied last night.

I shall finish up with an ONR wash and redo the rims and tires tomorrow with P21S Gel. My father's vehicle will need to be pushed up to 1:1. Maybe I got a bad batch of Diablo? This product is proving out to be a major failure. I'd rather use Sticky Gel 4:1 vs Diablo 3:1.

 

Good news. Cleaning my dad's S550 at 1:1 right now. Just did two wheels and they came out 100%. Even the nasty, filthy inner wheel barrels. And it worked extremely fast...just spray on, let sit for 30 seconds and then start scrubbing with various brushes, rinse and they are clean. All that's left is a few specs of tar which Tarminator will need to handle for me.

Extremely worthless at 3:1 and higher. EXTREMELY impressive at 1:1...I hope that 2:1 provides decent performance as well.

 

So am I, and have been for a quite a while too.

 

If you can source one I wouldn't mind buying a 5 liter jug. If not I will just wait for Carlos.

 

Just be careful guys as in the US Red P21S Gel may not be allowed due to VOC regulations, also some UK companies may not ship to US due to the regulations. Fortunate for me Canada's VOC laws are much more relaxed :thumb:

So before you guys commit and pay make sure you do your home work or ask the right questions, just a heads up :graduation:

 

Emile when you say @ 1:1 it works that kind of makes it no better than sticky gel.

1:1= about 30 a gallon
Sticky gel is the same price and thats @ full concentration.

Maybe the hype was a little much on this product. If anyone wants to sell or trade a a 16 or 8 oz sample let me know.

Im eyeing the sticky gel but diablo sounds interesting

 

Yeah, 1:1 seems too strong to be worth it. There must have been something wrong with what I did because even 3:1 should have been more than acceptable. I used up both bottles of Diablo at 1:1 and I was so impressed that I re-mixed those two 32oz bottles at 2:1 and I will have to test that out.

I also mixed up two additional bottles at 4:1, but only filling 20oz in each one (4oz Diablo and 16oz water). It's hard to mix up Diablo accurately because it's so darn foamy, even in my glass measuring cups. For the 4:1 bottles I just filled 16oz water and filled up two measuring cups, each with as close to 4oz as I could get, making sure that both measuring cups had the same amount of Diablo. Also, when adding the 4oz of Diablo to each bottle, I made sure that both bottles reached the fill line of 20oz.

Finally, I think the issues of 3:1 and 6:1 not being satisfactory may have been due to the fact that I shook the bottles thoroughly right before using them and all the foam surfaced to the top of the bottle at the time. It's very possible that the foam at the top of the bottles was where all the "juice" was and that's why I found 3:1 and 6:1 both to be too watery and not performing to my expectations. Next week-end I will make sure to just give the bottles a gentle shake and make sure the foam settles out before spraying it onto the wheels.

But like I said, 1:1 was extremely impressive. It knocked the brake dust off my dad's S550's wheel barrels like it was a joke. Will do some more testings at the weaker dilution ratios with little shakig and will update this thread to let you guys know what's up. I also have before & after pictures of my father's wheels that I would like to upload.

 

Thanks for the update, 4:1 works pretty well for me but it was on some mild brake dust and to be honest plane soap and water would of taken care of it, even if i dont clean the wheels on my GTI for a month I normally can clean them fine with soap and water so I guess I am not the best test as I dont see caked on dust very often. Still love the smell,

 

Here we go, guys. Here are the Before, After, and During shots of doing my father's Mercedes S550 wheels last Saturday using Diablo Gel 1:1. Flash was off and I forgot to turn on close-up mode so the pictures/colors came out really saturated and ugly...sorry!

Here we have the left front wheel, pretty hammered. Flash was off so the camera tried to brighten things up, but it was worse than what the picture shows.


Another angle of the wheel, you can see that the wheel barrel is straight up black!


Straight to the after pic on this wheel! I bet you have a hard time believe it was the same wheel! This was after spraying generously, letting it sit for 30 seconds, agitating with various brushes (listed at the end of this post), and then rinsed with pressure washer.


Totally clean wheel barrel! That's not remaining brake dust, it's ugly saturation from the camera.


Here I am after just spraying the rear wheel. Not as bad as the front wheel, but again the wheel barrel is totally black. You can see Diablo clinging nicely and doing its thing.


Another shot of Diablo working. It works very quickly and tries to pull the dirt off the wheel before any agitation, very much like P21S Gel...except P21S Gel takes a whole lot more time. =(


Again, after brushing with various brushes and rinsing with pressure washer. Wheel barrel is totally clean just like the front!


Getting up close and personal, all we have left is some tar here and there that will have to be taken care of with Tarminator on another day.


Left rear wheel totally clean, from afar.


Thank you, and for what it's worth, the following tools were used for cleaning:
Mothers Tire Brush, Mothers Wheel Brush, Zymol Wheel Brush (lugnuts), EZ Detail Brush (wheel barrels), Meguiar's X1160-style brush (bent in an "L" for behind the spokes). Karcher electric pressure washer for rinsing. Wheels were not pre-rinsed or anything.

 

Thanks for the little mini comparison.

Now realistically how often are these wheels cleaned?

 

It all depends if Sticky Gel full strength is better than Diablo at 1:1. Personally, I wasn't all that impressed with Sticky Gel. I'm not sure if I did a great review, but other people have said the same thing.

 

Great question. Once every few weeks, by yours truly. I haven't given the wheel barrels a good cleaning in a couple thousand miles but I think I could have easily taken care of the rims with just soap and water.

Reflect, I am personally very impressed with Sticky Gel. I get good cleaning and good cling even at 4:1...it doesn't act like a true gel at that ratio, but it still clings nicely. I gotta try a comparison of Sticky Gel 1:1 and Diablo 1:1. I may just end up sticking with Sticky Gel at 4:1 for maintenance and 1:1 or 2:1 for tough jobs. The ultimate question is whether Diablo is stronger than Sticky Gel at same dilution ratios and so far Diablo has not proven this to me. But I still want more experience with Diablo Gel, I've almost gone through my first gallon, and my second gallon is still sitting there waiting to be used and I'll continue updating on what works and what doesn't. While I believe there is no way that Diablo will come out being cheaper than Sticky Gel at any dilution ratio, I feel that I can find a place for it on my shelf for really tough jobs at 1:1 or 2:1. Even at 1:1, Diablo is still half the price of P21S Gel.

 

Hey. Used Diablo again today at 4:1, they came out nice. I think I have it figured out. The key is to use the opposite of those nice professional high-volume sprayers, and to twist the sprayer all the way open so it shoots a stream of product. It appears that even though Diablo diluted nicely with water in the bottle, sprayers have a hard time sucking it out evenly. The key is to use some dinky average sprayer and twist it open all the way. Then it comes out smoothly in one stream as a nice diluted gel, and that's when I get the best cling.

The thing that annoys me is that at 4:1, I can barely tell I am spraying anything onto the rims and wheel barrels. The diluted liquid is very red in the bottle but it squirts out onto the wheels very clear...hard to see where I've sprayed and where I haven't. But this time I got some damn decent cling, even at 4:1, and the cleaning power was solid.

 

I just got my gallon today and mixed some up at 2:1 and used a Chem resistant sprayer and it would not give me the fan spray I wanted so it pissed me off a bit. But it seems like a stream is the only way to go. I may put the foaming trigger on it again and compare results.

Did you shake the bottle this time or just swirls it around a bit?

 

Shook the bottles but gave them about 30 minutes to settle out again before actually spraying. Maybe I should try the foaming sprayer as well, I'm curious how that would work. I just haven't tried a foamer yet because I like the fan spray...but since I get the best results when spraying in a stream anyways, maybe it's time to give my Tolco Foamer a try.

 

I tried the foam with a 4:1 cut and it was not a stream but was some foaming action going on. Dont know if it hurt the ability to clean as wheels were somewhat clean anyways.