[Closed] cleanbyair.com

How much are they?.

£300 iirc?

For the home one or more industrial type?

If it's effective and lasts, is worth the cash. I spend 2/3 hrs week cleaning (from 15hrs combined off road riding) our fleet. That's a lot of riding though. Also I like the idea of drying, makes sense - I always dry my bikes.

£300 was the cheapest one - think it was in the 'new product' bit of whatmtb this month.

Ordered. Takes 10-12 days. Will report back.

The bike in video is hardly "dirty" how will it cope with proper full on mud.

cant see it as its blocked at work

ah seen it on youtube.

looks expensive and must be bad for bearings etc?

Okay on bearings as it's like pressure.

Shocking website mind.

12th post before someone helpfully provides a clickable link 🙂
[url= http://cleanbyair.com/ ]http://cleanbyair.com/[/url]

And embedded video:

I think the idea is you use it a fair bit and don't build up caked stuff.

I will certainly come back here when I've tested it. Makes sense on the drying though - getting rid of water in various nooks and crannies.

That doesn't make any sense to me unless you're stopping to wash mid-ride. Caked just means you're out in shitty conditions, possibly drying up as you go on, rather than not washing between rides

Im not sure I "Get it" I use my Mobi wash before putting bike in car to get the worse of the crap off then when home wipe bike down with a damp micro fibre cloth and gt85 if needs be. Then I use my compressor with air blow attachment to carefully blow whats left of standing crap and water away from bearings. Being as careful as possible not to blow crap into them. Seems to work for me and damn site cheaper than £300. But each to everyones own I guess

I do not get that. On so many levels...

its got to have some power behind it. I regularly have to get mud off with a screwdriver its that thick after a normal ride. I cant see it being good at all.

on the flip side I like the drying thing.

I'm not that bothered about my bike being Dry? Half way round CYB the last thing on my mind is how wet my bike is, I'm more bothered about getting the grit and sand off it but i tend to think "Rightly or Wrongly" That the sealed bearings will do their stuff, I know inevitably that there will be some ingress and they will fail but their gonna fail at some point, So i'll stick to changing them when they fail and not be spending the £300+ on what to me looks like a Dry Cleaning Gizmo that some ones marketed at nearly clean bikes.

I can see other uses though, Like cleaning a nearly clean pair of cycling shoes and blowing cobwebs off a clean pair of leggings.

I'll stick to the Jet Wash, But i've got a KARCHER Hot Steam thing that i bought for cleaning the tiles in the shower area, I'm gonna try that on my chain??????/

It's not designed for the half way around cyb crowd. For a start where you going to plug it in?

It's designed for people like me that ride/commute to/from home most days in winter and have to clean after most rides to keep their bikes running smoothly. It's not a portable replacement. Everyone knows it's better to clean a wet bike and the drying element is genius as a bike put away wet detoriates much faster than a dry one. Thing is it takes time to dry a bike by hand.

As for the mobi - what a bag of pants that was, mine lasted for 3 months before it leaked and didn't hold charge.

The cleanbyair is not cheap but it's built in the UK and is probably closer to industrial cleaning than a consumer item. Jet washes are okay certainly but you don't need to jet wash every time.

Tools for different jobs.

Yes i agree that it's not cheap, but i've managed for so long without one,

My point about CYB was that if its cacked up half way round its gonna be at the end, if it decides to dry up half way round its baked on, i hadn't realised it was only intended for winter commuters, i had imagined myself stood on the back Patio with a shitted up bike blowing air on it thinking if i'd have foreseen this on Dragons Den i could have been fore armed.....

Anyway,, looks great for it's intended use,

EDIT< you could plug it in at the cafe, thats about half way? 😀

Looks a good bit of kit. Like everything you don't need it but might be nice to have anyway. I'd imagine it would be great for bike shops. A customers bike comes in stinking, 5mins its clean and dry ready to work on, nothing worse than trying to fix a soaking wet bike in the workshop.

a bike put away wet detoriates much faster than a dry one.

Don't think there is much in that
What bits are going to deteriorate

The wet Bits, they deteriorate

taxi, "serious question"
Do folk actually take their bikes in to be worked on filthy? "I'm Just thinking"
If that were me i'd charge them for cleaning? Could you get away with that? if so and if you did have a bike shop then that would then earn its keep,

The wet Bits, they deteriorate

😯 does that apply to all things or just bikes?

[quote=rone ]It's designed for people like me that ride/commute to/from home most days in winter and have to clean after most rides to keep their bikes running smoothly.Most folk I know who commute every day by bike might get round to washing their bike once a year - and even then only if they're particularly bored one day. They're not made of fairy dust you know.

yep all things, they will all deteriorate, Unless you dry them out with this ere blower, dryer type thing for Commuters and such like.

Have I missed something, but when does the TFR get washed off?

Seems to go Rinse > Wash (with TFR and finisher - whatever that is) > Dry.

?

Marko

Most people i know who commute NEVER clean their bikes, the odd few clean their bikes in work time then go and have a dump, again in works time,

[quote=ndthornton ]

The wet Bits, they deteriorate

Just googled TFR 😯

Its a carrier protein, quite what thats doing on the handlebars i do not know......

Still looks like you're directing high pressure water at seals with a possibly false sense of security that the machine will be able to dry any water you've driven behind the seals in the process.

fish will deteriorate, Unless dried out with a UK Made Commuter cleaner,

I,ve seen them kippers in the smoke house in Whitby, Fortunately they taste better than they look.

@ xyeti. I haven't worked in a Lbs for 35yrs, people used to bring bikes in dirty then, nothings changed they still do. Lbs near me charges £15 to clean a bike to dirty to work on. If you could clean and dry a bike in 5 mins I'd do it as a matter of course and incorporate the cost into the repairs. Just like your car at a good garage.

Traffic film remover. Always wash it off -unless they have their own version that is eco/greenwash/hogwash.

[img] [/img]

I just use one of these:

[img] [/img]

Mines a bit older though.

Marko

Blimey, that's a lot of negativity about a machine that nobody commenting seems to have used !

Interesting idea. Presumably mixing a lot of air with the water provides some kind of mechanical cleaning (scrubbing) action, uses less water and leaves the bike drier. I'll be interested to hear how it works in practice. Thanks to the OP for volunteering to test it out for us 🙂

It's basically just like using a HVLP spray gun instead of an airless spray gun. The former is well known to be a lot cheaper to run and in this case you also use less water I suspect like an aerated tap and shower do.

It's a bit like the water jet I have for hooking up to my compressor and hose or plumbing a water feed into the hose of my karcher vacuum when set to blow.

for 3 months before it leaked and didn't hold charge.

Well mines still going fine! But mine doesn't run off a battery it's 12v version. As for drying like I say I use my compressor to blow beads of water to help dry after I have rinsed. Like I say each to everyone's own, hope it works for you.

looking at that video, their idea & my idea of a dirty bike are somewhat different.

Got it - tried it. Works very well. And is powerful.

Bike was quite dirty actually.

It looks a bit homemade but works well.

I know it's not a big deal to use a hose, brush, detergent but when you realise this is all in one and no need to connect to water supply, then it becomes a whacky genius idea.

Certainly gets in nooks that you can't get with a brush.

No more soaked lawn too!

Will come back with more reports.

Downsides? Very noisy. Perhaps no more so than a jet-wash.

Whats it like on the chain? Have you tried it on this. I know its not a chain cleaner but curious as to its degreasing capability, like in the back of the chainrings that never seem to get cleaned and behind the bottom bracket, Mine's getting cleaned infrequently at the minute so just wondering? Still not tried the Karcher thing on mine that i bought for some bizarre reason and never used.

Any chance of some before and after pics rone?

I will give a proper workout Friday a should be muddy. Will get pics.

Was good on the jockey wheels.

Thanks rone, really interested to see the results.

Not been able to photo properly got back in the dark so bear with me.

I really want to like it, but it seems to cost a fortune and looks like something you'd make on Blue Peter.

Was it effective on your actually muddy bike, rather than their 'slightly dirty but still wet' one?

I've done it twice now.

I rode for 35 miles yesterday in an average covering of mud. It dried on as I left my bike at work. It had no problems getting this off. Maybe days of mud wouldn't be great - but that's hard with a regular hose.

The blasting power is quite good. If you're not careful you get through the water tank quick and the detergent.

It's a different kind of cleaning, rather than being sopping wet and physically touching things you're blowing things off.

I've got a slight issue: mine machine was cosmetically damaged upon delivery so it's being picked up Monday and having the main cover replaced.

I would say it's not quite as good as spending 30-60 mins using lots of brushes and cleaning detergent but you can do it in 5-10 mins and have a dry 95% clean bike. You get the odd bit of surface muck you've forgot. But it gets rid of the really awkward stuff you can't get a brush in.

I'm really liking it. I've not used any sort of brush with it yet at all.

It is a bit home made in a good way and it's not cheap but I think they're made to order, so probably a few man hours and scales economics mean it's not going to be far east cheap. But good back up. I like being able to talk to guy who built it.

Will report more when I get my cover
replaced.

Thanks rone, look forward to the updates.
Might be tempted by one of these instead of a pressure washer.

seems to cost a fortune and looks like something you'd make on Blue Peter

Perfect for the STW crowd then..... they should sell like hot-cakes on here

We're hoping to get one in to test here too soon - after another cycling editor was RAVING about it to me recently. He's gone out and bought one for himself.

I forgot to add - I only ride a mountain bike and I only commute off-road to work. So I need to clean my bike a lot. This winter has been hard work.

A good cleaning system keeps things tip-top.

The device has gone off to have the front case replaced (broke in transit). Hopefully have it back later in the week and will see if I can knock up a film/photo.

I be interested to hear how it compares to a pressure washer. I'm always disappointed with the result of pressure washing - it gets the big stuff off, but it usually find that it needs a sponge or brush to get it actually clean.

I wonder if this would work well in combination with the Scottoiler Ultimate Bike Solution stuff?

[img] http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/QzAdM30W7SOYdUa6aiR8BpEZslXY3MFyQ4pxv_pF5SeIS2XheEYW-6wDGl_bghpUtMuu12U1dJlBciHwdpKQHnlComhdrhQcfrvcr7CNv1jWi9hGj8fFwJna2djVbv-Jmpx8iBRA6Cpqkv7UfgJXP78XWprG-7J_thsBcNgpJ2yMfa8qn5NhE4oC_BETK2Qb3DMJkf3fyHzHvX77x0qbY8QjriI8P9hXwwZhF5vbCPe949QmnVC-Qevb7KuSdyeLzNc_otTxlubblcs8awDtnQyTKKojDJn6RJqGTLNty5pVjh4rFfU7EPMkLNm89xQq9dbgO4Lk9VSqCs_us5zTZ8QFKXhlnlkrMltpq57BK_LLdYgW8f8jK5pKxk5T_2t1FcUS7v9TGoPVqJSBcU8m45t8NfxMPKbF429cF8ryxW8CemyxjztOqTah7R_yaIIkIodvy43N-4H_XyF-hqqdS_CcPOYW9ELgOp39EXjKVscSEIxUZzmEwk0cJ-odbZY2o0KayPjSzk0e1WOoSpSud_KID5gZMn7_qN-Hp7BZR3HWsLD5nomDN0n5yWaFeaDmCKt1wg=w1912-h1075-no [/img]

I would never put anything that uses pressurised water or air near a bike.

A bucket or a dribbling garden hose on the rare occasions that my bike gets washed instead of wiped. Strangely my bearings seem to last forever...

One thing I do though is to strip the bike when new and apply a good coating of a quality car polish on the frame etc, and repeat each year. It seems to help it stay cleaner.

At last: Sorry about the above - linking google photos is a pain now.

So my thoughts are:

[b]PROS:
[/b]
A very handy of way of cleaning bike - you don't really need a brush to clean things. Pretty much all-in-one.

The Pressure is enough to blast muck away from areas that you can't get to - this is a real boon. Problem areas such as where the hub and disc connect, around the fork etc.

The drying is fantastic.

Flexibility is great too: You can use very diluted detergent if you want to. After all the system is blasting air rather than agitating. The downside is it's easy to blast through lots of detergent! So I dilute right down.

If the bike is really dirty - it's no real problem - it will just take longer. I still estimate it's probably twice as quick as conventional.

It blows muck away from jockey wheels etc. (You'd probably still need to de-grease every now and again.)

Hardly any water compared to hose or pressure washer.

Chances of scratching bike are minimised as you're not touching it.

You can use a lot less detergent if you're careful - (if you wanted to just use water and spray detergent on you could.)

[b]CONS:[/b] For very dirty bikes you use way more water than it can carry on board. Hence I just had bucket connected to the hose. It still only used half the bucket though!

It's noisy. It is after all 1600W of reverse hoover!!

I would love the industrial version as it's got 6.5litres on board. But it jumps up in price.

If you're an advocate of not bothering to wash your bike in the first place I'm still not sure whether this would cut it, as there's still a small amount of hassle plugging it in. Much less than a pressure washer.

You have to develop a bit of technique making sure you blow downwards so the stray muck gets blasted off or you will get the odd bit of dried on dust.

Before:

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

After:

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

I only ride off-road and through all the winter so this is just the kind of solution I'm looking for. It could be developed perhaps to hold a bit more water.

I think this is a great product - for those that are bothered about cleaning. For me time is of the essence as I've always got two bikes to do and anything that saves time and keeps the bikes running and looking good is worth the cash.

Looks good, thanks Rone.

Thanks for the update. I'm really interested in this and very tempted myself.

It works great on winter shoes and helmets etc too.

Actually states that it uses high pressures air, a small amount of water and detergent... So its not really cleaning just "by air" is it, if anything it's possibly worse than a using a jet washer...

But I like the idea of cleaning the bike up with air, I have got an oil free compressor, never thought to use it for blasting muck off, might fit a nozzle and try it now...

The air forces the muck out of position. You see this happening when you don't turn on the water. The water effectively loosens the dirt up and rinses rather than forcing itself into gaps.

Your compressor will work to an extent but is not high volume enough.

It's certainly a lot better than a jet wash both in performance, and by not being very high pressure via a narrow nozzle to cause issue.

Any updates on this? Anyone else tried one? Did the mag get one to test?

It appears I'm the only one daft enough to shell out 😉

Still using mine, and it's still the best way of cleaning. I've bought out the bucket once or twice for getting the big mud off just because you would use loads of water on the cleanbyair .

I actually think it's biggest downside is the noise. It's probably the loudest thing I own. I've played with different ways of cleaning and like to dilute up the detergent as it gets through a lot of that.

You could almost just load up two tanks of water and spray detergent on instead. It still cleans and dries great though.

It's irritating me having to get an extension out so thinking of extending it's own kettle lead to 15m next.

Used it most of the winter. The drying element is a godsend.

Very positive review over at bike radar [url= http://www.bikeradar.com/road/gear/category/tools/bike-cleaning/product/review-cleanbyair-pb2-50281/ ]here.[/url]

Bit gimmicky for me, a little while ago my friendly almost local LBS suggested using a wet wax (something like turtle wax wet and dry) for cleaning. Works really well as it builds up a nice protective layer on your bike and gives it a good shine. Also means that any mud more or less falls off. Also doesn't wreck your disks if you get a bit exuberant as the wax stays on the surface and can be wiped off. Acts as a chain lube too.

...wax...discs

No. Bad idea.