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review
Duck Smart Earth Mover Bike Cleaner.jpg£6.99
VERDICT:
Very good all-round cleaner with redesigned nozzle that means a foamier, more efficient wash
Weight:
1,000g
Contact:
At road.cc every product is thoroughly tested for as long as it takes to get a proper insight into how well it works. Our reviewers are experienced cyclists that we trust to be objective. While we strive to ensure that opinions expressed are backed up by facts, reviews are by their nature an informed opinion, not a definitive verdict. We don't intentionally try to break anything (except locks) but we do try to look for weak points in any design. The overall score is not just an average of the other scores: it reflects both a product's function and value – with value determined by how a product compares with items of similar spec, quality, and price.
What the road.cc scores meanGood scores are more common than bad, because fortunately good products are more common than bad.
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Duck Smart's Earth Mover works as well as ever it did. The redesigned nozzle means there's less waste.
Pro: Effective, pleasant to use and less wasteful than some
Con: That blackcurrant cordial look and smell means 'keep it away from children'.
Essex company Duck Smart has built up a big range of products for cleaning your bike and car (what kind of sicko cleans their car?). We last tested their flagship Earth Mover back in 2014 and gave it a thumbs-up. Not a great deal has changed since then, not even the price; which, given inflation, makes it even better value; at under £7 a litre it's pretty competitive.
Buy Duck Smart Earth Mover Bike Cleaner
The main difference since 2014 is in the nozzle design. This now has a pull-out/push in button on the front which changes the pattern from squirty to foamy. I thought this was a good move on Duck Smart's part. Thinner cleaning sprays can be quite wasteful, with as much ending up on the surrounding walls and pavements as on the bike. With the foaming option, it's easier to put it where you want it, which means you use less of it. I think I got an extra two bike washes out of this bottle compared to my regular choice.
Duck Smart recommend you only apply this to a bike which is already wet, and following their advice I found the cleaning performance very good. Spray on, leave a few minutes, wiggle a brush into the worst/most hidden corners and rinse off. For winter road grime and railway path grit it worked a treat.
Read more: How to clean and lube your bike to keep it running smoothly
Duck Smart make a point of their environmental credentials. They claim Earth Mover is 'totally biodegradable'. I don't know how these things are officially measured and there's little clue as to what's really in there; but using recycled plastic for the bottles is a great idea. The 5 litre pack, at £19.99 looks great value and means even less plastic to go in the recycling bin.
Only the blackcurranty smell and look made me nervous. Don't let the kids get hold of it!
Verdict
Very good all-round cleaner with redesigned nozzle that means a foamier, more efficient wash
road.cc test report
Make and model: Duck Smart Earth Mover Bike Cleaner
Size tested: n/a
Tell us what the product is for
As the Duck Smart website has it:
Earth Mover is a revelation in bike cleaning technology! With its unique blend of softeners, detergents and foaming agents, Earth Mover gives you the ultimate all over foam cleaning experience.
Our unique trigger spray gives you the choice of a foam or spray action.
Earth Mover cuts through dirt, grime and grease, giving your bike that brand new look every clean. Earth Mover's unique foaming technology offers a much longer cleaning contact time, and you can see the dirt, grease and grime breaking down before your eyes. Earth Mover is safe to use on paintwork, carbon fibre, disc brakes, aluminium, rubber and titanium, and is totally environmentally friendly.
The Famous foaming bike cleaner, made up of 10 raw materials in a unique blend of softeners and detergents.
Longer Contact time: a dense, soapier product which increases contact time to cut through and break down dirt and grime.
Aluminium brighteners: enhances colours, metals, wheels, levers, frames - a like "new feel" each time!
Duck friendly: Fully biodegradable, bottles made of recycled plastics.
All our products come with our legendary fragrance.
All of our products are brewed and bottled right here in the UK.
Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?
Contents top secret, probably. 1 litre pack.
Also available in 5 litres (£19.99) or 25 litres (£79.99)
Rate the product for performance:
10/10
It made easy work of the general road and off-road filth that the winter throws up. The foaming nozzle makes it easier to put it only where you want it.
Rate the product for value:
8/10
At £7 a litre, pretty good value compared to some, and it isn't quite as wasteful, given its foamier consistency. The 5 litre refill pack at £19.99 looks good value though perhaps a concentrate version would be less expensive to transport.
Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose
Up there with the best I've used and the redesigned nozzle makes it less wasteful.
Tell us what you particularly liked about the product
Good value, effective bike cleaning spray. The bottle is made from recycled plastic and refills are available.
Tell us what you particularly disliked about the product
Not much.
Did you enjoy using the product? Yes
Would you consider buying the product? Yes
Would you recommend the product to a friend? Yes
Use this box to explain your overall score
Last time we reviewed this product we gave it 4 starts for its effective cleaning performance. We'll push that up to 4.5 this time, for the redesigned nozzle and the price freeze.
About the tester
Age: 52
I usually ride: Cannondale CAAD10 My best bike is: Tomassini Prestige
I've been riding for: Over 20 years I ride: A few times a week I would class myself as: Experienced
I regularly do the following types of riding: touring, sportives, general fitness riding, mtb,
Latest Comments
- brooksby 2 min 42 sec ago
What fresh devilry is this??? - perhaps they had a design for some handlebars, and another design for some forks, and somewhere along the line the...
- brooksby 6 min 21 sec ago
And finally: I wonder how many of the "more than 3,000" signatures on that petition are actually locals, who live or work there (and are not just...
- Matthew Acton-Varian 16 min 1 sec ago
Lucky too - if they misjudge their cut and hit the battery... you'll be scraping their charred remains from the windows of next door.
- Doug_D 1 hour 42 min ago
Another book suggestion - I can highly recommend "Lost Summers and Half-Forgotten Afternoons: A Mint Sauce collection" - a beautifully presented...
- chrisonabike 2 hours 54 min ago
But... the last is only not the case with drivers on normal roads because driving on the cycle path / footway / rolling a vehicle up there is seen...
- mdavidford 3 hours 32 min ago
I think you're missing an opportunity to pack even more tech into it - add accelerometers that can detect whether they're pedalling or stepping....
- chrisonabike 3 hours 57 min ago
Thanks. I guess the question is "need". If the road is busy, it sounds like it is a desired route between places? In which case (given this an...
- mdavidford 4 hours 5 min ago
Don't know what you mean. I thought my suggestion was entirely practical.
- Rapha Nadal 4 hours 40 min ago
I'd buy a motorbike fo rthat kind of money!
Add new comment
5 comments
I use an eco cleaning spray from Tesco called Method. It's pink and smells of pink grapefruit and does the job perfectly. Agree with everyone else so far, cleaning my bike is one area where I'll never succumb to overpriced cycling industry silliness!
Yeah, the Method range is very good - not used it for bike cleaning purposes but they are eco and do smell great! Available from many other places, not just Tesco. Not cheap though, compared to to other cleaning products, but probably cheaper than bike specific cleaner.
I must admit I was always sure to buy cycling specific cleaner, because, y'know, it's bike specific innit! Now I just tend to use a squirt of eco-friendly washing up liquid like Method or Ecover into a spray bottle and top up with water, or into a bucket and use with a sponge.
Car shampoo works well for me, but I have noticed that bike washes such as Muc-Off do the same job with less scrubbing as they are alkaline and attack grease and dirt better than car wash. However, they don't clean any better than car wash (except when used neat on chains) so not worth the high cost IMHO. I don't mind doing a little bit more agitation with a brush when using car wash and the end result is just as good.
Not tried that but mucoff works well for me.
Does anyone really believe special unique magical formula bike washes do the trick any better than washing up liquid? If so, I'd really love to hear from them. I use softly softly Ecover to wash up and it does the job on my bike more than well enough.