Household cleaning chemicals?

[David]

Yesterday I went to my local janitorial suppliers to pick up some Prochem carpet cleaning chemicals. We got talking and he was telling me that I would be better off getting all the household chemicals from them as the ones from supermarkets are woefully watered down and work out to be very expensive, he gave an example; the degreaser they sell is around £10 for 5 litres but then dilutes down to make 13-14 750ml spray bottles. He also pointed out that if things were dirtier than usual you could just make the cleaning mixture a tad richer. This all seems very good to me and when we do run out of things like all purpose cleaner, bathroom cleaner, degreaser, bleach etc I think we will start replacing them with the trade alternatives. However I am slightly confused as they are so many different types of things, like bleach is available with 4.5% available chlorine and 4.7%. There are a variety of washroom chemicals too. Can you help me to decide on what chemicals I need? First off an APC to replace Flash and a bathroom cleaner to replace Mr Muscle which tbh is good but still works out expensive when you look at the products available. Also will these chemicals be more likely to destroy things as I seen a few with the Corrosive label on them.

And is it really a good idea and do you think they are any downsides apart from storing 5 litre bottles?

This is the supplier:

The prices on the website are not all correct and I can also get 15% discount on certain things.

[David in Normandy]

I've found it often the case that if you know the particular chemical you can buy it for 1/100 of the price for household branded equivalents. Take caustic soda for example NaOH. I once bought some spray to remove tar on the glass of a wood burning stove. Looking at the label it consisted on 3% caustic soda at huge markup. Similarly if you buy drain unblocker in liquid form it is often just caustic soda at a higher concentration. but still expensive. I bought a tub of 100% caustic soda crystals for something like £5 for a 5 litre tub. Much much cheaper than any other way of buying it. You just have to take a lot of care when using it because it gets very hot (or even boils) when mixed with water and can spit highly caustic bits at you if you mix it wrong. A good knowledge of chemistry comes in useful sometimes when buying common chemicals or their branded household equivalents.

[SS]

[David in Normandy]

A prime example of this is glyphosate. The price of the generic stuff has doubled over the last few years and is now around £29 per 2.5 litres. However it is still much much cheaper than buying it under the brand name Roundup. I saw some Roundup the other day at £20 for 5 litres PRE DILUTED READY TO USE. The markup is horrific something like a factor of a hundred times more expensive to buy the branded Roundup equivalent!

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember David in Normandy [e-mail] saying something like:

25kg of NaOH cost me approx €12.5 when I was making biodiesel.

Exactly so. I bought some glyphosphate in the local farmers' store a couple of years ago for approx €23 /5L and that will last me decades (assuming it doesn't go off), compared to Roundup at damn near twice the price. Of course the genuine Roundup claimed to be better - ha, tell that to the weeds that are all toasty.

[SS]

[The Medway Handyman]

[Simon C. .]

We use Sainsburys 'basics' bio washing liquid in hot water [ie the stuff for clothes] for lots of general stuff, but its especially good on floors [tile and laminate] and all round the bathroom - I use a car brush, gets in all the corners on sinks/loos etc. Then rinse off with brush and plenty of water. Things get a bit wet, but just clear the surfaces and do it prior to mopping floor. Put a capful of Savlon antiseptic liquid in the solution for hygene/freshness - tho probably not really needed. Super clean and only takes a quarter of the time compared to fiddly sprays and cloths. £1/litre and it will last for ages.

[F]

I've been trying to persuade Management of this for years: care to provide me with some 'useful' phrases?

[dennis]

Well bleach does kill germs, unlike some cleaners. Opps that isn't going to convince them is it?

[The Medway Handyman]

Bleach doesn't remove dirt, it bleaches the colour out so you can't see it.

Typical example is a WC bowl. Made of a very smooth, glazed ceramic material so that bacteria can't stick & multiply.

Limescale forms, giving the bacteria somewhere to hide & you get stains & smells. Bleach kills the bacteria & removes the colour so all looks clean. It can't remove the limescale, so next use starts the cycle over again.

If you use a decent mildly acidic toilet bowl cleaner it keps the limescale at bay, so bacteria has no place to multiply.

[Jeweller]

<snip>

What about bathroom mould?

[Dave]

What about it?

Dave

[Jeweller]

Doesn't it make lovely, pretty patterns?

[The Medway Handyman]

Ventilation.

[Jeweller]

Just sorted that out. Am off to clean the mould away (MiL's), is the vent (timer + sensor) likely to keep the mould from reforming?

[F]

Thanks for that: just what I wanted. Care to elaborate on 'a decent mildly acidic toilet bowl cleaner'? Don't be afraid to name names!

[The Medway Handyman]

Certainly should.

[The Medway Handyman]

There are many on the market - Toilet Duck etc. The makers are a little vauge sometimes & use weasel words/phrases. Look for something that actually say "limescale remover" or "removes limescale" rather than "helps to" or "reduces".

Supermarket own brands are often as good as brand leaders. Next time I pop into Morrissons or Tesco I'll have a look.

[geoff]

Hey, we're filling up with UKRMers here