Degreasers

If you need a grease remover, you have two options: degreaser or warm cleaning water.

Whenever you need to remove grease, oil, wax etc., you need a degreaser. This is because grease is hydrophobic, meaning water-repellent. Grease therefore can't simply be washed off with water. For the same reason, oils and water can't simply be mixed together in solutions.

Emulsions and emulsifiers

The problem of mixing water and oil is also familiar from cosmetics, for example, where certain fats – also called lipids – need to be mixed with water. The result of such a mixture is called an emulsion. To make an emulsion, you need an emulsifier. An emulsifier is simply a "connector" between water and oil or grease etc. In cosmetics, for example, a distinction is made between "water-in-oil emulsions" and "oil-in-water emulsions". The difference is the so-called richness: (a little) oil in water is a less rich emulsion than (a little) water in oil. You'll find this information on packaging – look out for it when comparing prices and looking for a rich product, for example. It is usually abbreviated as W/O = water in oil and O/W = oil in water.

But back to the cleaning problem and the degreaser. If you want to remove grease, you need a grease remover. Conventional cleaning products emulsify grease with the help of surfactants, ideally in warm water. Put simply, surfactants are molecules that bond with water at one end and with grease at the other. This creates an emulsion of the grease you want to remove and the cleaning water with the cleaning agent (surfactants). This emulsion is then rinsed off the surface together with the cleaning water.

Degreasers work differently

A (cold) degreaser, on the other hand, can dissolve grease immediately and when cold, and degrease the surface completely, leaving no residue.

In the household, one important job for a degreaser is the cooker hood. Grease that was emulsified in the hot steam settles on cooker hoods and remains as a very stubborn residue on the metal surface. With a good grease remover such as Ballistol degreaser, it's no problem to completely remove such layers of grease in a single step.

Degreasers are used not only in the household but also in technical areas, where they are often used to prepare surfaces for further processing. Examples include painting, bluing, rust protection, sealing etc. Degreaser is also used to remove preservation coatings of corrosion protection oil.

How to use degreasers correctly

A mistake is often made when using degreasers. This mainly happens when it's not a matter of simply cleaning a kitchen surface, for example, but of technically degreasing an already "clean" surface in preparation for further treatment such as painting, priming, bluing or another coating that requires a grease-free surface.

The most important things for perfect technical degreasing are a high-quality degreaser, a completely lint-free and clean cloth such as our high-quality microfibre cloth, wearing new disposable gloves, and, after wiping, a final step in which the workpiece is no longer wiped – simply let the degreaser run off and evaporate completely. This degreases the surface to a technically perfect standard. Here you will find detailed instructions on how to use degreaser correctly.

Ballistol cold degreaser

Ballistol cold cleaner cold degreaser removes oil, grease, soot, nicotine and residues of dried and gummed-up oils as well as deposits of diesel fuel and other organic contaminants from metal surfaces, plastics, glass and other surfaces. That's why Ballistol degreaser is often used as a universal cleaner.

The cold degreaser is suitable for preparing surfaces for painting, bluing and other surface treatments. It also removes adhesive residues and resins and loosens stickers.