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I mentioned this elsewhere, but I thought folks would want to know.
Simple green changed it's formula in 2013. It no longher has 2-Butoxethanol. As far as I know, 2-Butoxethanol was the active ingredient that made it work so well for stripping paint. It's also one of the main ingredients in the Super Clean and Purple Power that I and others use for stripping miniatures.

Has anyone tried the new formula and if so, how are the results. (check your bottle to see if it's the new formula)

My friend gave me a figure last night that he stripped with a bottle he recently bought and it didn't seem to have done as good a job. There was alot more primer on it that usual. Though this is just one case I should add that he and I both purchased metal Bob Olley Chaos dwarf figs from the same dealer at the convention. Both spray painted gold over a white undercoat. He used green, I used Super Clean. Mine is clean, his isn't.

I've always recommended SG to folks who want to strip miniatures without hazardous materials, but I'm not so sure I can recommend it any more.

Anybody else have recent disappointing experiences with Simple Green?

recently paints have started to stick on plastic alot more, that is spray paints, they are adding in chemicals that assist in bonding with the object being painted, so if it was recently sprayed that may be it...

Possible, but he and I both purchased dwarf figs from the same dealer at the convention. Both spray painted gold over a white undercoat.

He used green, I used Super Clean. Mine is clean, his isn't.

I should probably add this to the first post...

Hi! I'm the friend who stripped this dwarf. I just wanted to mention that I only soaked him for a day and a half. I bet if I had soaked him longer he would have been cleaner.

I forgot to check my bottle of Simple Green to see if it contains 2-Butoxethanol. I'll look at it tonight.

Older figures that were spray primed came off pure plastic in the end using this new SG formula, but for newer plastics it's a tough stain, probably because they have added more bonding chemicals to it. I'm going to go with chaplaincliff and say this it's probably the primer, not the stripper.

If it helps, both dwarfs were metal. I'm used to a certain amount of permanent staining of plastic by harsh spray primers/paints, but SG usually does even better on metal.

Lmao, never thought people would be so stubborn.

I haven't had the opportunity to check the new Simple Green yet, as I picked up a big bottle of Simple Green Industrial D3.

I will say this though. If the new simple green doesn't work all that well anymore, Superclean, Purple Power, LA's Totally Awesome, and Clorox Clean Works Multipurpose all work quite well.

 fenrir1997 wrote:
Lmao, never thought people would be so stubborn.

I haven't had the opportunity to check the new Simple Green yet, as I picked up a big bottle of Simple Green Industrial D3.

I will say this though. If the new simple green doesn't work all that well anymore, Superclean, Purple Power, LA's Totally Awesome, and Clorox Clean Works Multipurpose all work quite well.

Some people can't get those products in their areas. For me, Simple Green is the only stripper I have available.

Well, I checked, and what I purchased was the Simple Green Industrial concentrate. it has 2-Butoxethanol.

So, I must not have soaked the dwarf long enough, or i did a poor scrubbing job.

Cool, now I can just blame jlopatin!



Still don't trust the new SG formulation though.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Deunstephe wrote:
[q
Some people can't get those products in their areas. For me, Simple Green is the only stripper I have available.

Are you sure?
Not everyone has a big-box home store like Menards or Home Depot that carry all of these. However your flag says USA, so if nearby you have a(n)...
-Automotive supply store, you probably have Super Clean.
-Walmart, or Kmart you have Purple Power or Super Clean
-Dollar Tree, you have LA Totally Awesome

 Eilif wrote:
Possible, but he and I both purchased dwarf figs from the same dealer at the convention. Both spray painted gold over a white undercoat.

He used green, I used Super Clean. Mine is clean, his isn't.

I should probably add this to the first post...

I also wanted to point out that mine was 98% clean. it's not like it didn't work at all. I bet if I had left it in one more day, it would have all come off.

It was my first stripped mini!

 Eilif wrote:

Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Deunstephe wrote:
[q
Some people can't get those products in their areas. For me, Simple Green is the only stripper I have available.

Are you sure?
Not everyone has a big-box home store like Menards or Home Depot that carry all of these. However your flag says USA, so if nearby you have a(n)...
-Automotive supply store, you probably have Super Clean.
-Walmart, or Kmart you have Purple Power or Super Clean
-Dollar Tree, you have LA Totally Awesome

I don't have any of those nearby. The closest Walmart is far out on Long Island, and I'm in Brooklyn.

 Deunstephe wrote:

 Eilif wrote:

Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Deunstephe wrote:
[q
Some people can't get those products in their areas. For me, Simple Green is the only stripper I have available.

Are you sure?
Not everyone has a big-box home store like Menards or Home Depot that carry all of these. However your flag says USA, so if nearby you have a(n)...
-Automotive supply store, you probably have Super Clean.
-Walmart, or Kmart you have Purple Power or Super Clean
-Dollar Tree, you have LA Totally Awesome

I don't have any of those nearby. The closest Walmart is far out on Long Island, and I'm in Brooklyn.

You've Got a Pep Boys and an Auto Zone in Brooklyn. Either of those will have Super Clean.

I tried simple green and didn't have very good results super clean works much better for me

I've had terrible results over the last few months with Simple Green. I tried stippng some Tau over the weekend and the paint (the PAINT not the primer) wasn't even touched after 3 days of soaking. Paint was Delta Ceramacoat. GW black primer. I'm used to the paint just falling off after a couple of hours even if the primer isn't touched. Off to get some Totally Awesome or Super Clean I guess.

This is very unfortunate. Simple Green was the only stripper that I've really been able to find in my area.

 Zuul wrote:
This is very unfortunate. Simple Green was the only stripper that I've really been able to find in my area.

I knew there were others!

Is it the massive tubs or the spray bottles? I have a bottle and it's worked fine. Is it also possibly regional?

Mine came in gallon jugs. I'll have to carefully ration it until I find something else.

 Zuul wrote:
This is very unfortunate. Simple Green was the only stripper that I've really been able to find in my area.

If you have a
Kmart
Walmart
Autozone
Pep Boys
Dollar Tree
Menards
Lowes
Home Depot
Fleet Farm
etc, etc,
You have access to something other than simple green.

As for what kind, you can use Purple Power or Super clean in the Spray bottle or the jug. The jug is just more concentrated and a better deal.
I think you can use any container of LA totally awesome as long as it's the yellow colored degreaser.

helotaxi wrote:
I've had terrible results over the last few months with Simple Green. I tried stippng some Tau over the weekend and the paint (the PAINT not the primer) wasn't even touched after 3 days of soaking. Paint was Delta Ceramacoat. GW black primer. I'm used to the paint just falling off after a couple of hours even if the primer isn't touched. Off to get some Totally Awesome or Super Clean I guess.

Really? I don't doubt you but I find that hard to believe as that paint should almost be able to be removed by anything - what happened when you scrubbed it?

I have had nothing but good experiences with Simple Green (its actually now my all in one cleaning fluid at home ), if the formula has changed that would suck for me as its the only one of these strong cleaners availible in AUS.

I can use dettol but it smells something awful and becomes a thick cream as soon as water remotely touches it!

 Dmyze wrote:

helotaxi wrote:
I've had terrible results over the last few months with Simple Green. I tried stippng some Tau over the weekend and the paint (the PAINT not the primer) wasn't even touched after 3 days of soaking. Paint was Delta Ceramacoat. GW black primer. I'm used to the paint just falling off after a couple of hours even if the primer isn't touched. Off to get some Totally Awesome or Super Clean I guess.

Really? I don't doubt you but I find that hard to believe as that paint should almost be able to be removed by anything - what happened when you scrubbed it?!

When scrubbed the paint on the shoulder plate (GW or VGC over white GW primer) came off in a spotty fashion but only with a lot of effort. Scrubbing with a toothbrush didn't do anything on any part of the model. The shoulder pad paint only came off when I scraped it with a fingernail. The Ceramcoat wasn't touched, at all, anywhere.

I was disappointed to say the least. I had the same results a couple of weeks ago with a Finecast fig primed with GW black and painted with GW paint. After soaking in uncut Simple Green concentrate for more than a week, the paint on the raised areas could barely be removed with vigorous scrubbing and by that time the resin itself was like rubber and the model itself was being abraded rather than just the paint coming off.

I put the Tau in some Purple Power last night. We'll see what happens.

I have used the new SG and it does not strip at all. All it basically does is soak into the model. I know it is not new paints that are causing the problem, since it was the very first models I painted 15+ years ago.

I bought 3 2-liter jugs of concentrated SG last night, filled my strip tank and dumped a bunch of my poorly painted, old school Eldar in, and after just a night's soak, the FD Exarch I just pulled out to give a test scrub to came nearly perfectly clean. Still seems to work, so far.

It's probably regional, since these reports are a bit widespread.

The only reason people still use Simple Green is because they don't know about LA's totally awesome. Click on the link in my signature and you will see a tutorial about how well it strips miniatures. Best of all, it works fairly fast and does not damage the miniatures. Your welcome.

Not everyone can find LA's KingCracker. I saw your stripping post ages ago and tried finding LA's and I could not, so I use SG.

 Deunstephe wrote:
Not everyone can find LA's KingCracker. I saw your stripping post ages ago and tried finding LA's and I could not, so I use SG.

Ditto ^ I think I once saw 'Purple Power' at a USA food/goods importer but apart from that its SG or dettol for me in AUS.

Helotaxi - I'd be interested to know how the purple power goes; if its good I will hunt down that importer.

Purple Power is as effective as Super Clean in my experience.

The other option for folks who have different products in their area is just to note what the industrial or automotive degreasers are and then search for their "MSDS" (Material Safety Data Sheet) online. The MSDS will tell you what the active ingredients are. If you see 2-butoxethanol then you know it will work similarly to Super Clean or Old-style Simple Green

If it doesn't have 2-butoxethanol, it might still work well, but you'll never know until you try. Whatever Concentrated "Degreaser" is sold in Automotive stores is a good bet. If it's harsh enough to clean off car parts then there's a good chance it will work taking paint of miniatures.