VIRO-SOL review. The hunt for an environmentally friendly degreaser continues...

In my eternal quest to stop using white spirit to clean my chain, I stumbled across this stuff recently. It sounded promising so I read the reviews which sounded great, one guy even mentioned it was great for cleaning bike chains! I ordered some and it got delivered today. Awesom-O's chain was pretty claggy after two outings with the new home-made lube so I thought he'd be a perfect test candidate. I was suspicious that once again there was no real citrusy smell when I opened it so I put a few glugs into a clip-top container, added the chain, and gave it a really good shake. Encouragingly, the solution started getting pretty mucky.

I opened the container and gave the chain a good stir and found the product is reasonable but definitely no cigar. I washed the chain thoroughly in hot water and dried it and although the outside looks nice and clean and shiny, there is no tinkling noise as you shake the chain which is a good indicator the internals of the chain have been cleaned out properly. Having looked at some of the data on this stuff, including the fact the pH is 11 (so keep it well away from aluminium components unless it's very dilute!), suggests to me that this is basically a standard alkaline degreaser with a sprinkling of citrus to add a whiff of 'green'. Having said that I bet it's awesome for generally cleaning, rather than actual degreasing, around the house and garden!