Leather Car Seat Cleaner
Are you even asking the right questions

If you have leather in your car, eventually you're gonna need some leather car seat cleaner. Car leather is nice and you likely paid extra for it, but it's certainly gonna get dirty and it's not gonna clean itself! 

As a car owner you want to not only maintain the value of your car, but keep it looking its best while you own it. Otherwise you wouldn't be here trying to figure out what the best leather car seat cleaner is, and exactly how does a person like yourself go about cleaning and protecting the leather in your car.

Leather Car Seat Cleaner:
What You Will Learn Here

• What the industry doesn't want you to know
• Asking and answering questions you don't know to ask
  
• Alternatives to car leather care to simplify your world
• Exact products and tools I use professionally

Leather Car Upholstery:
What the industry doesn't tell you

As much as I love the world of cars and detailing, what I don't like is the endless hype and misrepresentation that companies of every kind use to sell you more "stuff". And just when you think you have enough stuff, the industry comes out with more stuff to separate you from your money.

Cleaning and conditioning your car leather is one of those topics the car care industry loves to hype up using sexy terms and tantalizing packaging. Which in many ways works perfectly well with car leather since we have all been taught how special and delicate car leather is.

From special cleaners to special conditioners to maintain this natural material called leather! But the reality is that modern technology has improved the manufacturing and tanning of leather to the point that the leather in your car is not the same leather in cars of the past.

"Modern day car leather is finished with a clear protective coating. No longer are you dealing with a natural material, but a natural material that has been coated with a synthetic coating"

What Is Coated Car Leather

While you might be in shock to learn that the leather you paid extra for is literally encased in a clear protective coating, this represents the good news.

Because of this clear protective coating, cleaning and conditioning your car leather is easier than ever. This clear coating also helps protect against normal wear and tear of your car leather.

The critical thing to note is that when you use any leather car seat cleaner and conditioner, you are not actually touching a natural material any longer. You are cleaning car leather with a synthetic coating on it.

Does Coated Car Leather Need To Be Cleaned

Yes. Just like everything else in this world, your coated car leather will get dirty and will need cleaning. The good news is that this clear protective coating makes cleaning car leather easier than it used to be.

If you have a brand new car and you have the diligence to apply consistent and regular maintenance, your car leather is one of the easiest materials to maintain with very little effort.

Does Coated Car Leather Need To Be Conditioned

Yes and no. This largely depends on who you ask. If you are a manufacturer of car leather conditioners, then the answer would be yes. If you are a professional detailer like me, the answer might be no.

Car leather conditioners in most cases are sold through a healthy amount of misrepresentation. Most car leather conditioners still label their leather conditioners like you are working on old-school car leather that has not been coated and the leather conditioners are actually making it into your car leather.

But the reality is that these car leather conditioners are simply being applied to a coating that is basically water tight. So these conditioners are "conditioning" a synthetic coating not a natural material.

What Is The Best Leather Car Seat Cleaner

Now that we have learned that the leather in your car is coated with a synthetic coating, the more appropriate question then becomes what is the best cleaner to clean a clear synthetic coating.

Which delivers my answer of this:

"In so many ways you don't have to over-think a leather car seat cleaner. There are many types of basic cleaners that work effectively and efficiently"

This literally means you don't have to shop a dedicated leather car seat cleaner. Yes these dedicated cleaner can work, but no longer are they a requirement.

And once again, in case you are still in freak out mode, this represents the good news. Because now your life with your car leather is easier than ever.

Cleaning Leather Car Seats:
Keeping it simple

Many of you reading this page will be on the "least amount of effort" plan when it comes to taking care of your car leather. For this reason you can set yourself up with a car leather care kit like the one below.

While these products remain labeled for exclusive use on car leather, and still use the hyped up marketing for leather based on outdated thinking, these products are still effective at cleaning and conditioning your car leather even though your car leather is coated.

Chemical Guy's Car leather Cleaning and Conditioning

Chemical Guys Leather Cleaner & Conditioner on Amazon

• Massively popular brand for car enthusiasts
  
• Dedicated leather car seat cleaner and dedicated conditioner
• Simple solution for anyone wanting an simple answer
  

Darren's Tips: This product kit is ideal for anyone who wants to keep things very simple. Perfect for the new car owner that wants to maintain their car leather from the start. This cleaner works perfectly well for light dusting and mild levels of dirt. This leather car seat cleaner when used with any of the scrub brushes or pads on this page will produce excellent results so long as you haven't allowed the dirt to become anything other than mild.

This is not the product I use professionally, but if you have a brand new car and remain sold on the idea of a separate leather car seat cleaner and conditioner, then you can stop with this product and end your search.

Use the leather conditioner if you decide you want some visual enhancement. It will make your car leather feel different, and most of you will like this difference, but you won't know for sure until you try it.

The most important thing to maintaining car leather is keeping it clean. And conditioning you do past cleaning is more about the appearance and the feel of your car leather. A person like myself simply love the look and feel of car leather that looks perfectly clean and straight off the production line. This means no high gloss shine to the interior of my cars.

Simple Green All-purpose Cleaner

Simple Green APC on Amazon

• When you are ready to keep things truly simple
• The actual clean I use to clean car leather professionally
• I dilute my blend down 10:1 ( one part concentrate mixed with 10 equal parts water)
• The perfect leather car seat cleaner as well as an all-purpose cleaner for endless cleaning jobs

Darren's Tips: I love the Simple Green all purpose cleaner for so many reasons! With the ability to custom blend the strength of this product, and its incredibly safe formulation you will find endless uses for this cleaner.

It seems the more I use it, the more uses I find for it. If you are working with brand new car leather, I would recommend a solution of 10:1 for basic cleaning maintenance of your car leather. The dirtier your car leather is, the stronger you can make this product and use with one of the scrub brushes below.

Car Upholstery Scrub Brushes

Car Upholstery Scrub Brushes on Amazon

• The perfect scrub brush for leather car seat cleaning
• For anyone overly concerned with being as delicate as possible to clean car leather

Darren's Tips: I have found that most car owners are especially nervous about cleaning the leather in their car. This scrub brush set is ideal for anyone since it has two types of brushes:

1. Nylon for heavy duty scrubbing
2. Natural horse hair for gentler scrubbing

I recommend this set —it is also the set I use professionally to detail everything within the interior of a car.

There will be materials and areas of your car that will need aggressive scrubbing —this brush set will handle all the cleaning requirements of your vehicle.

Car Leather Scrub Pads

Non-scratch Scrub Pads on Amazon

• The exact scrub pads I also use to clean car leather
• Ideal for car leather that is particularly smooth, with little to no texture
• Works perfectly with any leather car seat cleaner you chose

Darren's Tips: This pads are perfect as another tool for all your interior cleaning needs. I love these pads as they are very friendly in the way they mold to your hand and the surface you are scrubbing.

These scrub pads can also be easily cut to the perfect size to fit your hand and represent the winning balance between gentle and stiff. I use these along with my choice in a leather car seat cleaner to scrub car leather as an additional tool to be used with one of the scrub brushes above.

These scrub pads work well on many areas of your car interior as they are super safe, conform to your hand, and can also be washed out easily for many uses!

Car Leather Cleaning Cloths

Amazon MF Cleaning Cloths on Amazon

• The winning balance in a microfiber when you don't have to overthink your choice in a microfiber cleaning cloth.
• The best type of cloth for cleaning car leather (or for cleaning anything!)
• Super soft, super absorbent, and no lint!

Darren's Tips: If you have never used microfiber cloths you are really missing out. Admittedly it took me awhile to get used to using these cloths on the interior cleaning duties as they tend to "grab" the surface of the material you are cleaning much more than when using a terry cloth cleaning towel.

Once you adapt, you realize how superior these cloths are at everything you do with them. They are much safer than terry cloth towels, much more absorbent, and lint free. They simply are superior in virtually every way over any other type of cloth.

I love these particularly when cleaning car leather since they are as safe as safe can get, and they leave no lint behind. 

Leather Car Seat Cleaner Summary

If you have made it this far you deserve a badge of honor!

Not too many people are willing to put in the effort to become more informed and default to being misinformed by much of the hyped-up marketing that is very willing to lead you by the nose based on their agenda.

I wish you much success with your car leather in cleaning and maintaining it. Now you know what I do professionally and I hope you follow some of my recommendations that will get you better results in your world.

Sincerely,

Darren Priest