Is there any chance that they are the same product?

After shelling out my $12 at the dealership for a bottle of the KRSS magic leather elixer, I ran by my brother's house later in the day and noticed he had a bottle of Meguiars Leather Conditioner on his workbench...I popped the top of the very similar bottle and smelled...it smells/looks/feels EXACTLY the same. I think it's the same stuff. Not that it's an earthshaking deal, but faced with the choice of dropping $12 at the dealer versus getting the same thing at WalMart for around $4, well, I'd just get the Meguiars or better yet, use Lexol (Which I already do and have been very pleased as I always am with Lexol products )

The KRSS conditioner does seem to have more body than the Lexol, which may give the leather a slightly more softer finish, but for me Lexol is my first choice. (I've not yet tried the Connolly Hide Food or Leatherique, but I hear they're worthy contenders as well.)

All IMO (I apologize if this is a repost).

 

I think the KR conditioner is a much better choice for our special leather. Just read the other posts about leather and then decide which you had rather do, pay $12.00 for a bottle of KR conditioner or spring for a new set of leather seats.

 

I have a couple of contacts at Meguiar's. I'll fire an email or two...

 

From an economic standpoint, if the King Ranch Saddle Shop knows that Meguiars leather conditioner meets and/or exceeds all their requirements, and Meguiars is willing to offer their product and let the KRSS brand it as their own, and the two companies partner together to make a little money, where's the harm? (My X5 uses BMW High Performance Synthetic Oil, which is also known as Castrol Syntec. You can pay a lot more for it at the BMW dealer, or you can pick up the very same product at Walmart or Advance Auto and save yourself a few bucks at oil change time.)

By all means, I'm not inferring that KRSS is a lesser product - it is a great product, no doubt about it. I just wanted to note that it sure seems an awfully lot alike to a very similar high-quality product that comes in a similar bottle that can be acquired for less money. If it sounds like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it's probably a duck, right? RockPick - Thanks for checking with your Meguiars buddy and letting us know. I bet he loves his job, working for a real car guy like Barry Meguiar!

In a nutshell, if they aren't the same product, then I'll go on record as stating they sure do share a LOT of characteristics, including color, texture, smell, viscosity, etc. And the bottles look quite similar too, if you disregard that one is burgandy with a Meguiars label and the other is black with a KRSS label, they're pretty much the same container (or used to be...my brother's bottle of Meguiars might have been around a while).

Regardless, just wanted to pass on my experience...YMMV. Thanks for reading this far!

 

I'm sure we are all aware that in the modern world marketing is such that if one searches hard enough generic products can offer the same results as specific named products.
There are many, many examples, but in reality it is often simpler to take the easy route and go for the obvious option.
In my case I have been dealing with the saddle shop since the King Ranch was first adopted by Ford as a marketing tool.
It hasn't stopped me trying other products though.
As I'm sure many people are tired of hearing from me, I have been using leather care on quality vehicles for more than 40 years.
Some have offered results equally as good as the Saddle Shop product...and sometimes both more expensive and sometimes cheaper.
I will still go on supporting the saddle shop product but of course it's a case of "Suck it and see".

Each to his own !

 

I just went out and did the smell/feely test on the KR conditioner and the Mequair's. Both are relative new bottles and have only been opened for a couple of weeks. The first thing you notice is that the Mequair's has more of a chemical smell to it with a faint tinge of leather smell in it. The KR has a fresh leather smell that pops out at you. It reminds you of smelling a new baseball glove or a new saddle. The Mequair's reminds you of the baseball glove but after it has been used for a couple of seasons. On the feely test, IMHO the KR felt thicker and richer. It didn't seem as watered down as the Mequair's.

I use the Mequair's on my wife's Town & Country Van and it takes a couple of hours for the chemical smell to dissipate. The KR conditioner makes my truck smell of new leather for a week.

Unless I had a chemist from KR and Mequair's tell me they were one and the same I wouldn't let anything else near the leather on my KR. But I do use recommend the Mequair's for other leather applications.

 

Maybe I got a bottle of the "eBay KRSS" offshore stuff instead of the real deal

Honestly, I wasn't trying to stir up a hornet's nest, just wanted to post my observations and see if anyone else had similar thoughts. I'm like Lenticular in that I like to try different things and see what works best. Example - I've seen in here to absolutely NOT use Lexol Conditioner on my seats. Well, of course I had to try it since I have had nothing but 100% good results with Lexol and guess what? It worked great. Internet forums are a good starting point but in the end, I like to do my own research and development.

I did try some more of the KRSS and worked a little of it in yesterday by hand. It does finish more nicely than I recall the Meguiars finishing. All in all it's a nice product...I won't let it gather any dust in the garage, but I'll probably not replace it when I use it all up.

 

Okay, well...I was wrong. Close, but wrong.

Meguiars does not manufacture our beloved KRSS leather conditioner. It is, however, made for the KRSS by a company called Brothers Research, also known for their Duragloss line of car care products. Check out the back of the bottle and you'll see the name. I didn't put two and two together until this afternoon when I was looking at the back of a bottle of Duragloss 101 I picked up some time ago. Sure enough...Brothers Research. Thought I'd pass it on. Here's a link to the Duragloss leather conditioner...

http://www.duragloss.com/product.asp?pid=283

 

Well I'm as blind are you were. I called myself reading the back label throughly the other day. I had to go and check mine again and sure enough there it was. One thing I did notice that Car Quest Parts store carries the Duragloss brand. Will be checking them out Monday to see if they stock the leather conditioner. If not, I'll have to order some because it's shore is cheaper on the Duragloss site. I also saw that Duragloss has a leather shampoo that contains the some of the same ingredients that the conditioner has.

Thanks Driver_8 for being persistant and locating the Duragloss website.

 

Good find guys... I never heard back on this issue after my email to the contact(s) that I have there... well, not on that question at least.

I was also trying to figure out who makes some of the Harley Davidson branded chemicals... I did figure that out.

 

Ok guys, went by Car Quest today and picked up some of the Duragloss Leather Shampoo and Leather conditioner. The Shampoo cost was $4.69 and the conditioner was $6.99 plus the sales tax. I came home and did a side by side evaluation of them both.

Here is the two products side by side:
[IMG][/IMG]
All 3 products together:
[IMG][/IMG]
On the left is the KR Leather Conditioner (kRLC) and on the right The Duragloss Leather Conditioner (DLC). The initial observation is the color difference between the two products.
[IMG][/IMG]

 

Here is the thickness test of the two products. This was about 10 seconds after I had titled the lid at an angle of about 45 deg:
[IMG][/IMG]
There also was a difference in the smell. The DLC didn't have the leather smell to it like the KRLC does, so there must be some kind of scent additive in the KRLC. The feel test revealed that indeed the DLC was more "creamier" than the kRLC was. The DLC is just a little thicker product.
I used the items shown in this next picture to put the DLC on and to buff it off after it had dried.
[IMG][/IMG]
And this was the final appearance of the leather after it had been conditioned.
[IMG][/IMG]
There are more images in my gallery that I took at various stages.

All in All, I was impressed with the DLC and will be using it in the future. The two major plus's for it is price and availability. IMHO, I think it is very similiar in composition to the KRLC and will keep the KR leather looking good.

 

Wow, Harley, what a great writeup! I would have guessed them to be identical. This has to be the definitive comparison test for KRLC and DLC Thanks for taking the time (and money) to investigate and present your findings.

 

Well done Harley130.

A most useful adition to the continuing leather debate and a well thought out post.

I am adding this as another link in the 'sticky' on leather care as it will prove a useful point of reference for newcomers to the leathercare debate.

 

Very nice post Harley! Repp'd!