I first started development on Ed's Red when I worked at Ruger and we needed to have a safe cleaner for quantity production use which would enable complete immersion of 30 racked barreled actions at a time, and neutralize bluing salts. We used the ER recipe without the acetone or lanolin, just the ATF + K1 and mineral spirits, equal parts. Worked great. Mixed it in 55 gallon drums. Cheaper than the industrial alternatives and works better.
In miliary and law enforcement training situations it works really well, especially on difficult to clean things like the SIG pistols, Glocks, Remington 870 and Mossberg 500 shotguns, MP5, M4 carbine, M60 and M240 machineguns, etc.
I keep a .50 cal. ammo can of ER without the acetoneor lanolin in it on my bench and use it routinely for soaking field stripped handguns, rifle bolts, trigger groups, etc. I made a wire dipping basket of metal window screen, which is great for washing small parts.