These sit on the same shelf and are not interchangeable. Buying the wrong one is the reason people conclude concrete products do not work, and a typical driveway genuinely needs both.
Tell which problem you have
A concrete cleaner problem looks like an overall gray dulling, a green film in shade, or dark patches that are slippery when wet. The soiling sits in the surface texture, and some of it is alive.
A degreaser problem looks like a discrete dark patch, usually where a car parks or a mower is stored, often with a slightly glossy edge. It has soaked into the slab rather than sitting on it.
The quick test: wet the area. A grime or algae stain goes darker uniformly. An oil stain beads water or repels it, because oil and water do what they always do.
Side by side
| | Concrete cleaner | Degreaser / stain remover |
|---|
| Targets | Grime, algae, mildew, general dulling | Motor oil, grease, transmission fluid |
| Works by | Lifting and killing surface soiling | Drawing absorbed oil back out of the slab |
| Coverage | The whole slab | Spot treatment only |
| Dwell time | Five to ten minutes | Hours, sometimes overnight |
| Does pressure help? | Yes - it is the rinse that finishes the job | No. Pressure does nothing to absorbed oil |
| Realistic result | Slab looks years younger | Stain much reduced; old stains rarely vanish |
Why pressure never removes oil
Concrete is porous. Oil wicks into the pore structure over weeks, which is why a stain spreads slowly and why its edges go soft. There is nothing on the surface for a jet to dislodge.
A stain remover works chemically instead: it penetrates, emulsifies or encapsulates the oil, and draws it back toward the surface where it can be rinsed or swept away. That takes time, which is why these products say to apply and leave rather than apply and rinse. The honest limit is that very old, deep stains come out partially rather than completely, and anyone promising otherwise is overselling.
The order to use them in
- Degreaser on the oil spots first, left to work for as long as the label says. Doing this first means the general clean afterwards rinses away whatever the degreaser lifted.
- Then the whole-slab clean: pre-wet, apply a concrete cleaner, dwell five to ten minutes without letting it dry.
- Then the mechanical work — a surface cleaner for the field and a wand or turbo nozzle for the edges.
- Rinse in one direction, pushing dirty water off the slab.
Full sequence: how to pressure wash a driveway.
A note on acid cleaners
Acid products are sold for concrete and they are a third category again. They etch the surface, which permanently changes how it looks and makes it absorb dirt faster afterwards. They have a place in preparing bare concrete for a coating and almost none in cleaning a driveway you want to look good.
If a product’s instructions involve neutralizing afterwards, it is an etching product rather than a cleaner. Treat it accordingly.
What to buy
Both, if you have oil spots. They are not alternatives and neither does the other’s job.
Just the cleaner, if the problem is gray and green. That is the more common case, and the picks are in best concrete cleaners.
