I was just pondering the environmental and financial costs of the various household cleaning products I buy in the supermarket without too much consideration. The single use trigger spray items are often a bit rubbish and can’t be environmentally sound and I’ll bet most of the retail price covers profit and marketing more than actual product

I thought it might be sensible to look at suppliers that supply hotels etc for decent quality sprayers and bulk (possibly concentrate) chemicals and I’ll bet someone here has already done the same

So what are your industrial cleaning chemical bargains?

For what it’s worth I live in a hard water area and have the normal kitchen, bathroom, shower room cleaning requirements

Steam Cleaner..?

Microfibre + water is good for lots of things.

Then white vinegar you can get from Willis about 90p.

I tend to use Method stuff too.

Not industrial but all cheap and effective.

You can buy ecover stuff in bulk.

Amway?

Method stuff looks interesting but still single use trigger sprays. I’m really looking for products I can buy either concentrated or 5+ litres at a time

Ecover multi purpose cleaner in 15 litre box

http://www.ethicalsuperstore.com/products/ecover/ecover-all-purpose-cleaner-bag-in-a-box-15l/

Cheers CTK that looks like a good deal

As said above, water and microfibre cloth manages most things.

Vinegar and bicarbonate of soda for everything else.

Ecover washing up liquid and laundry detergent.

Bars of soap not liquid stuff.

Can’t remember last time we bought any cleaning products!

Do you know someone with a Makro/Cash ans Carry pass – you should be able t pick up pretty much anything that you need there in 5 litre containers.

I tend to get:

glass cleaner
stainless steel cleaner
general ( mopping ) cleaner
bleach
washing detergent

all *much* cheaper than getting small bottles from a supermarket.

We use the Method cleaning products and find them much more effective so you use less too.

There are loads of janitorial supplies places out there who will do cash sales at a trade counter.

Cleaning products for I&I (Industrial & Institutional) use are far stronger than retail products as there is an expectation that the general public won’t wear PPE, gloves, goggles etc and as such the retail products, where possible, tend to be less hazardous (have more water in them).

We used to use commercial cleaning products at home because my Dad worked for a company, Diversey, that made them. Later on a lot of their products were replaced with reusable bottles/sprays and wall dispensers connected to mains water with super concentrate pouches – I was doing work experience when they were being launched and they’re still common 20 years on.

Do the proponents of bicarb and vinegar realise that the cleaning effect is entirely placebo based and they’d be better off just using vinegar (or water, which is pretty much what you’re left with once the fizzing stops)?

@ chiefgrooveguru

I too worked for Diversey, some 25 years ago and was part of the team developing the wall dispenser system. What a nightmare some of that was! – although a great bunch of people to work with. Intrigued who you are / who your Dad is now…..

But don’t necessarily assume that because they are ‘industrial’ products that they’re automatically better. That will be the case in some instances – for example kitchen cleaners, which in an industrial setting preparing maybe 120 covers will see far more oil and grease than if you’re preparing 4 covers and then cleaning up. OTOH, bathroom cleaners will actually often be less concentrated for the same reason – because every sink, bath, shower, toilet, mirror in a hotel is being properly cleaned every day, not once or twice a week as in a domestic setting.

Also it’s a very price competitive market, hence cost of product is key, and hence the push to have as little goodies in the product as possible.

Back to the mains water dilution systems – these used mains pressure to operate a venturi that dosed in the correct dose of concentrate. Obviously with variable mains pressure you had to be able to adjust the venturi valve to compensate. The number of times we’d be called back into big hotel chains because the product didn’t work only to find the head chef had turned the valve right down to save product and was trying to degrease an industrial oven with homeopathic levels of cleaning chemicals!!

Hydrogen Peroxide has a multitude of uses and can be bought in bulk relatively cheaply.

As a member of the public don’t get caught with Peroxide stronger than 12% .

It doesn’t really clean though and you need temperatures above 50 Deg C to really get it to work as a bleach.

You can always mix it with vinegar though to make Peracetic Acid which is an excellent bleach and disinfectant

As a member of the public don’t get caught with Peroxide stronger than 12%

I’m sure some nice men in dark suits with safety gloves and visors will quickly come round to impart friendly advice about using it in a safe manner.

@theotherjonv Just emailed you!

If you’re concerned about single use packaging there are a few companies out there doing concentrated or ‘just add water’ refills. Got a few of these products in the office. They seem decent, but not used enough to repurchase yet!

https://www.splosh.com/

Splosh stuff looks ideal for my purposes assuming it’s up to scratch. Ill give that a go.