Why use certified aircraft cleaners?
Aircrafts are very expensive tools. They are made out of special metals, light composites and plastics.
Corrosion of metal parts and degradation of plastics and composites is a main issue for aircrafts. Unlike cars aircrafts keep very well their value as long as they are airworthy.
Cleaning an aircraft should be done on a regular base. Doing this with the wrong products can be very harmful. The real danger is that the effect of these wrong products on the aircraft materials is not immeadiately visible. Most detergents used to clean cars and trucks are based on high-pH compositions of Potassium hydroxide. Together with surfactants this product dissolves easily grease and dirt. The disadvantage is that the high pH is also an ideal dissolver of aluminum ... and that has to be avoided.
Every aircraft is painted with a protected coating similar to car paints, so the detergent is not getting in contact with the aluminum. Although an aircraft is not a welded construction and has thousands of small fissures between rivets and sheets. Usually these surfaces are unprotected by painting. Even after rinsing the aircraft the detergents have penetrated and can not be rinsed away.
Slowly - but efficiently - they will do their work and help the corrosion and oxidizing process.
A 747 is something different than a Cessna 150 ... but still it's made in the same way : lots of aluminum, alloys and ... rivets. Airline companies would never think of using uncertified cleaning products because they know how extremely harmful these products can be.
Even for interior cleaning it is important to use the right products. Think how much you could harm your Garmin 430 by using a regular window cleaning product containing alcohol. Garmin specifically advises to avoid cleaning products containing alcohol, acids or ammonia. These chemicals damage the anti- reflective coating of the screen.
