Is bleach all the same?

Grouchy · 24 July 2013 at 9:44AM

I usually don't buy many supermarket brands unless the quality/taste/quantity etc. is as good or better than branded products. Just find the 'saving' can be a false economy for me.. anyway, each to their own.

Anyway, I have for a a fair while bought supermarket type brand bleach but I have the impression that it doesn't work as good as it used to. Bought a similar sort of famous brand and got much better results.

I thought bleach was bleach and you couldn't go far wrong on buying the cheapest but I'm not sure now. Or is it just a coincidence ?? Or am I going a bit barking?

Any opinions?

Cheers

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maman · 24 July 2013 at 10:15AM

Grouchy wrote: »

I usually don't buy many supermarket brands unless the quality/taste/quantity etc. is as good or better than branded products. Just find the 'saving' can be a false economy for me.. anyway, each to their own.

Anyway, I have for a a fair while bought supermarket type brand bleach but I have the impression that it doesn't work as good as it used to. Bought a similar sort of famous brand and got much better results.

I thought bleach was bleach and you couldn't go far wrong on buying the cheapest but I'm not sure now. Or is it just a coincidence ?? Or am I going a bit barking?

Any opinions?

Cheers

Obviously, you can get thick and thin versions in both branded and own brand bleach.

I'm perfectly happy with own brand. I do sometimes get drawn to Domestos and Parazone but when I compare the prices I put it back. To be honest, I don't use bleach a great deal, only buy it to satisfy DH's OCD tendencies!:rotfl:

Lovelyjoolz · 24 July 2013 at 10:26AM

I've tried own brand and found you need a LOT more to do the same job as the branded bleach. For instance, getting the tea stains of the sink - tiny squirt of domestos vs half a bottle for own brand? Seems like false economy to me.

I don't pay full price for domestos though - 89p in Home Bargains or B&M

peachyprice · 24 July 2013 at 10:48AM

Same. I used to use own brand thick bleach until I bought Domestos once when it was on offer, I'll never buy own brand again.

It's definitley a false ecomony, even buying Domestos at full price. Sainsbury's OB is 87p and lasts 3 weeks, Domestos is £1.12 (when not on offer) and lasts 6 weeks. A no brainer.

Pooky · 24 July 2013 at 3:47PM

A bottle of bleach lasts me a year at least, I use it so rarely. I only use a splash in a white wash now and then or in with a dish cloth wash.

Is there an "ingredients" list on the bottle? I can understand a value bleach maybe a little more diluted but I'd have thought the own brand and branded versions were the same.

pigpen · 24 July 2013 at 5:16PM

The Tesco own one.. not the value one is ok but I am definitely more impressed with the domestos quality and performance..

Tesco one I soak cloths/loo in and use domestos when that won't cut it and domestos for everything else.. I put a liberal squirt around the sink.. leave a few minutes.. fill with hot water clean the entire kitchen and use the water to mop the floor and the sink is sparkling when emptied.. I'd need half a bottle of the Tesco stuff to do what a capful of domestos can achieve.

Grouchy · 24 July 2013 at 6:00PM

Ah, glad to know the views of others. I do still have a few grey cells in tact!

I have done a bit of a recce on 'ingredients' of various sorts and find either it is quite confusing or the information is just not available except for the top brands (I even have looked at a Morri$$ons and an As£a bottle I have in the cupboard and niether of them seem to provide proper quantities of the active ingredients - not really helpful). While doing my research I found, not surprisingly, that thin bleaches seem to have about a 1/4 of the active ingredient that Dome$tos has.

I'm going back to a famous brand as I've worked it out that with the quanity of the SM brand bleach I have been using is crazy and a false economy.

I do think the own brands have generally gone downhill over recent years, probably as they have captured the market intitially with decent products, then gradually lessened the quality - that's my guess anyway.

SM brand tin toms are generally good though, but honestly can only think of a handful of own brands that I buy now, mostly tinned veg I think ... pity.

p.s. is there a thread somewhere that compares and recommends SM vs famous brands of things?

Cheers again

iammumtoone · 24 July 2013 at 6:11PM

I think it depends on what you use it for. I only use it to poor down loo and occasionally to whiten clothes. For this purpose I find the super cheap value stuff works fine. I do find that it is often out of stock and when I order it online I never receive an alternative (its the shop that don't charge extra for the alternatives). Makes me laugh that every time I am suppose to believe the shop must be completely out of all brands of bleach!!

I do like the idea of how pigpen uses it in sink, think I might buy a better one and give that a try, thanks.

RayWill_2 · 30 July 2013 at 10:41PM

There is a way of telling accurately what the concentration of chlorine is in any bleach. Perhaps someone taking 'A'-level chemistry will do it for us!
The technique is very simple: samples of bleach, suitably diluted, are each added to excess potassium iodide solution. Iodine is liberated, and these samples are then titrated against a solution of sodium thiosulphate (photographers` "hypo"), using starch as indicator. Easy peasy!
Incidentally, Lidl`s W5 Thick Bleach does say on the bottle that it contains 4.8% of sodium hypochlorite by weight. All other bleach bottles I have seen are 'silent' on the subject.

No.1cashcow · 31 July 2013 at 8:46AM

As someone who does titrations for a living, I buy thin bleach for dishcloths/drains but use thick bleach for toilets or surfaces you want the solution to cling to for a length of time. You don't need much of the active ingredient sodium hypochlorite to get the desired result.I suspect that the thick bleach contains something like glycerol to make it cling to the toilet bowl giving it more time to act before sliding off.

maxamilllion · 31 July 2013 at 9:09AM

I work for a company who make bleach (and others) for industrial sector. No bleach bought off the shelf will be active chlorine >5% as it become hazardous for transport and under a whole new set of requirements.
General industry standard is aaprox 4.5% available chlorine.

Unfortunatley its not a requirement for retail seller to state the active chlorine content on the bottle but some will state it like Parazone, Cillt & Tescos own on the product blurb on the supermarkets website

Tescos Everyday value is 1.5% available chlorine I would expect the smartprice equivilent to be the same. There will be a noticable difference in peformance.

Tescos ownstandard thick bleach is 4.5% so again would think that masda etc would match that. Domestos is 4.5%

HTH

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Is bleach all the same?

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