Kingud Bottle for Life bike cleaner review

The Kingud “Bottle For Life”  is an aluminium bottle filled with 500ml of Kingud’s bike cleaner that works well at lifting off oil and dirt but seems to leave a slick residue without careful rinse. How does it stack up against best bike cleaners on the market?

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Designed with refilling and sustainability in mind, the Kingud “Bottle For Life” can be refilled endless times with the brand’s refill packs and Kingud also offers a replacement trigger in case the original one gets tired. 

The cleaner formula itself is eco-friendly, water-based and solvent-free and Kingud says it works on all surfaces – even brakes and carbon composites.

Kingud Bottle for Life Cleaner – Performance

I’ve used about two-thirds of the Kingud cleaner in the supplied “Bottle for Life”. The bottle is made from aluminium utilising a clean design with the brand logo on one side and a black trigger. 

I found the foaming trigger, which has two positions; on and off – to be ergonomic even for small hands. Similarly, the bottle size is not too heavy to hold up even after long rides. 

However, the spray (or foam) coming out of the trigger head was not really to my liking. It is quite targeted and doesn’t cover the whole bike but rather create foam spots. This means you’ll need to brush the cleaner over the entirety of bike to ensure a proper clean. That said, it works a treat on stubborn dirt and removes all stains and blemishes.

I found the spray pattern forced me too use more of the product per wash. I have done about five full-bike washes out of the two-thirds and don’t have much left, maybe two washes at best. 

Although this cleaner was very good at getting my bike clean, I felt rinsing it off was hard work. I use a portable 7-litre garden squisher to clean my bike and usually have no rinsing issues but with the Kingud cleaner, I had to wash the cleaner off, too – which is a bit annoying.

The smell of this cleaner is pretty strong to be honest but doesn’t affect its performance.

Kingud Bottle for Life Cleaner – value and verdict

This is an eco-friendly cleaner that does what it says on the tin: clean your bike. It can be safely used for all surfaces, even brakes (even though I still avoided directly applying it on them) but the fact that it seems to leave a slick residue without careful rinsing kind of counteracts things. 

Value-wise, it’s reasonably priced if bought as part of a bundle but not the cheapest alone. For £12.99 you get the ergonomic aluminium bottle and half a litre of the cleaner. You could also buy it with a 5-litre refill bundle, which would set you back £35. The five-litre refill costs £32.99 on its own. 

Kingud is not the only brand offering bottles for life and refills; Liam has reviewed Muc-Off Bottle for Life Bundle – a similar concept which for £30 gives you two litres of cleaner. That is considerably cheaper than the half a litre you get with Kingud. Kingud also only offers refills in liquid form, whereas Muc-Off and Proper Cleaner offer powder sachets, making storing a lot easier. 

In conclusion, the Kingud Bottle for Life is an ergonomically and environmentally great product for cleaning your bike, but it doesn’t rinse off easily making it more labour-intensive to use – and it does have a strange smell. 

• www.kingud.co.uk

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