# dooka WHEELS Maintenance Wheel Shampoo Review



## Hereisphilly (Nov 17, 2014)

dooka WHEELS Maintenance Wheel Shampoo

There's quite a lot of hype surrounding the new dooka products, so I figured I best get some reviews out!
I got the promo email the night before Waxstock and figured I had to pick some up at the show

Wheels are a bit of a funny thing for me, and I'm sure many others.
My wheels are coated with C5 and then I've got 2 coats of Obsession Taranis wheel wax on top

When cleaning my wheels (usually weekly) I don't want to use a full strength wheel cleaner as this will more than likely strip my wax and is a bit unnecessary in my eyes.

Just using water won't cut it, and bodywork shampoo is okay, but sometimes I find it lacking in the cleaning power, especially in the usual problem areas of spoke corners.

I have been using a wheel soap from another brand, and while slick and sudsy, I don't feel it adds much over and above normal shampoo.

So here goes!

It's available on dooka's website website in 500ml and 5l bottles. As of writing, the 500ml can be had for £11, the 5l will be priced at £39 (when it comes in stock)

It is a thin-ish dark pink liquid with a slight chemical smell, no fruity scents here!










*dooka says:*
dooka WHEELS is a Ph-Neutral maintenance wheel shampoo, designed for maintained, sealed, sensitive wheel surfaces such as polished and chrome. We often hear or get asked, what is the best thing to clean my sealed wheels or my sensitive wheels. Most people as do we, recommend just normal shampoo that you use on your paint. So here at dooka, we thought it best to design a wheel shampoo just for these occasions. This isn't just a shampoo with some wheel cleaner thrown in or just some wheel cleaner with foaming agents added, again, we have developed this product from the ground up to be a dedicated maintenance wheel shampoo/cleaner.

You may be surprised at what dooka WHEELS will actually clean. Our testing has certainly surprised us, especially for a product designed for maintenance purposes. You can use as a dedicated wheel cleaner, up your dilution in a trigger spray bottle and use as a normal wheel cleaner if your wheels are dirtier than normal.

Application

The ST was pretty grubby around the wheels, after having a 2 hour blast to waxstock & back, plus normal weekly driving.
These are meant to be silver!


















I always wash with about 15l of water in my wheel bucket, as I find this is perfect for using wheel woolies with a grit guard.

On the website it says to use the product at a ratio of 200:1 :doublesho: for best results in a bucket as a shampoo. As I use 15l of water, that would mean adding 75ml of product, which wouldn't even get me 7 uses out of a bottle!

I figured I would try a bit less than this to start, as my wheels clean up pretty good before washing with a blast of the PW, so decided to go with 40ml instead

Measured out, and then the bucket was filled up with cold water


















Alot of suds were created with just the water going in, and then a quick blast with a jet created alot of suds. So far so good with the amount of product used










My normal routine with wheels is cover them in prewash whilst doing the car, then hit with the PW.

Looking better already!










I then have some snowfoam in a big blaster foaming trigger bottle which i use to cover the wheel and add lubrication










Various sized wheel woolies were used to clean the barrels, behind the calipers, angled woolies for behind the spokes, hog hair brushes for around the valve and nuts, and then a noodle mitt for the faces. All of the above scooping up lots liquid from the bucket










The feeling with the large woolie and mitt was very slick and the brake dust seemed to come off very well, no issues at all

All rinsed off and I was left with a spotless wheel!










The biggest difference for me though was the colour of the water, I don't think I've seen the water so dirty, so it's definitely cleaning, that's for sure!










Wheels were still beading at the end too, so no apparent loss in LSP either










Conclusion
*Would I use this again?*
Yes! For me this hits the sweet spot for a regular wheel cleaner that doesn't trash my wheels protection.

Although I haven't tried it out, its also works well as a normal wheel cleaner at lower dilution rations, so the functionality is there if you need it

*Value for money*
This is where the product falls down for me slightly. At the recommended ratios, with the amount of water I use, it works out at £1.65 a wash, which is a sting in the wallet

Knocking it down to 40ml works out at 88p a wash, but for me I think I could get away with a bit less, thus making it cheaper still.

When compared to the high dilution ration shampoos that are out there, the product looks expensive, but it does clean better, so that's a trade off you have to make

I think alot of the price issues can be solved by buying it in 5l, which is more than half the price per litre.

All in all though, a great product by dooka, thumbs up!

Thanks for reading!


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## Ads_ClioV6 (Apr 27, 2014)

Great review,the price per wash puts me off though,from usually using a normal shampoo like zaino or dodo btbm i use on sealed wheels.Hopefully a bigger size is available soon as it looks a cracking wheel shampoo.


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## Hufty (Apr 27, 2015)

Nice review, interesting product although looks pricey.


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## DrEskimo (Jan 7, 2016)

Great review cheers!

So to clarify, this was just used as a shampoo in a bucket? I notice that it recommends 20:1 dilutions for spray bottles, which is comparable price wise to Bilberry at 10:1.

Might be worth it from that point of view as you can spray and add just a small amount to the bucket.


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## Hereisphilly (Nov 17, 2014)

DrEskimo said:


> Great review cheers!
> 
> So to clarify, this was just used as a shampoo in a bucket? I notice that it recommends 20:1 dilutions for spray bottles, which is comparable price wise to Bilberry at 10:1.
> 
> Might be worth it from that point of view as you can spray and add just a small amount to the bucket.


Yes, just used it as an additive to the bucket, I wanted to try and find something to replace you know who's wheel soap

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## Brian1612 (Apr 5, 2015)

Good review mate! Seems a decent product but as others have said, that dilution is killer.


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## Puntoboy (Jun 30, 2007)

Good review. I've used it both in a spray and via the bucket method and very impressed with both. It cleans a lot better than Bilberry. 


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## Kimo (Jun 7, 2013)

Used at 10:1 the price is the same as Chem guys Diablo and the like, so not pricy at all really for a great product


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## Hereisphilly (Nov 17, 2014)

Kimo said:


> Used at 10:1 the price is the same as Chem guys Diablo and the like, so not pricy at all really for a great product


That may be true, except I'm not using it at 10:1, I'm using it as a shampoo equivalent and when used like that it's quite expensive

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## Mulder (Jan 18, 2008)

I use Auto Finesse's Revolution Wheel Soap (500ml) on a weekly basis, I use no more than 30ml / 1fl.oz, sometimes half that, depending on the state of the wheels; in at least 15L of water. So, that works out at around 60p a bucket (worse case) and I can sometimes get 2 sets of wheels done.

Wouldn't be without it but nice to have a possible alternative


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## euge07 (Jan 15, 2011)

Isn't this a bit of a gimmick over using normal shampoo that you use to wash the car body? 
since your already using a pre wash, then snowfoam then this, seems like overkill IMO, ordinary shampoo would do the job perfectly


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## Hereisphilly (Nov 17, 2014)

euge07 said:


> Isn't this a bit of a gimmick over using normal shampoo that you use to wash the car body?
> since your already using a pre wash, then snowfoam then this, seems like overkill IMO, ordinary shampoo would do the job perfectly


This has more bite for sure than normal shampoo

With woolies I find I need a bit of chemical assistance to clear some stubborn brake dust particles, as the woolies are so gentle on the paint

Prewash I use just because I might as well and it assists the pw slightly, snow foam adds lubrication, nothing more for me

So yeah I think this isn't a gimmick, it definitely helps, the sticking point is the price thats all

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## Mikej857 (Jan 17, 2012)

Nice review, I'd be interested to see how it performs used a spray on product also to see if there's a difference in the cleaning ability opposed to adding it to the wash bucket.


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## Puntoboy (Jun 30, 2007)

Mikej857 said:


> Nice review, I'd be interested to see how it performs used a spray on product also to see if there's a difference in the cleaning ability opposed to adding it to the wash bucket.


I've done this.


























Wheels are not protected on any way. Sprayed on, left for a few minutes and pressure washer rinsed. I did not touch the wheel.

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## Kam09 (Apr 11, 2014)

^^ this is exactly what I need! Now Need to decide weather I should jump on the hype wave.. :doublesho


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## Scrim-1- (Oct 8, 2008)

Looks a great product however the dilutions put me right off.

I'll stick to what I've got for now.


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## great gonzo (Nov 4, 2010)

15 litres for washing 4 sealed wheels is excessive, I'm sure 10 litres is more than enough which would work out at 50ml. That's not that bad and as shown by the review could probably reduce the product amount too. 

Gonz.


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## Hereisphilly (Nov 17, 2014)

great gonzo said:


> 15 litres for washing 4 sealed wheels is excessive, I'm sure 10 litres is more than enough which would work out at 50ml. That's not that bad and as shown by the review could probably reduce the product amount too.
> 
> Gonz.


Oh, I don't use all of it, but 15l is the right amount for me as the grit guard takes up about 5l worth of space, and I still need enough liquid above the top of that to dip the woolies in when doing the last wheel

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