Depends on what you are cleaning. Brakes, often compressed air does enough for me, though an anti-rust coating on rotors can be washed off with plain hot detergent solution.
In some grimy situations, a spray bottle of gasoline works and is cheaper, though takes a lot longer to dry but is effective at removing petroleum based brake grease, except I would rather not have the residue left behind on the pads themselves.
Sometimes the solution for those not in a hurry is to just use compressed air or a brush, rag, whatever to remove as much gunk as possible then use LESS brakeclean to lower the cost of use.
In some grimy situations, a spray bottle of gasoline works and is cheaper, though takes a lot longer to dry but is effective at removing petroleum based brake grease, except I would rather not have the residue left behind on the pads themselves.
Sometimes the solution for those not in a hurry is to just use compressed air or a brush, rag, whatever to remove as much gunk as possible then use LESS brakeclean to lower the cost of use.