Is it too much information for me to share with you, the internet at large, that we have been having some plumbing problems at our place? Until we convince our building/landlord that they should perhaps address this situation like YESTERDAY, we have become a household where cleaning the toilet has gone from a “once a week when we clean the bathroom” activity to a “every day, sometimes twice depending on how much coffee a certain someone has been drinking” kind of thing. It’s enough to drive one to booze, frankly.
But I am a giving person, and instead of drowning my sorrows in Makers Mark, I have figured out a way to turn my pain into your gain. Since all this scrubbing has us going through toilet bowl cleaner at a rate that dramatically exceeds our normal usage, I decided to take advantage of this opportunity to test several of the various “eco-friendly” toilet bowl cleaners on the market.
In the old days, we were all so naïve, weren’t we? We all cleaned our toilets with bleach- and chemical-based products that used animated anthropomorphic bubbles in their advertisements, and we never thought much of it.
We’ve all grown wiser, though, and have come to realize that “chock full of chemicals and fumes” is perhaps not how we’d like to describe a product that we use in small, non-ventilated spaces mere feet from our toothbrushes. Great brands like Method, Mrs. Meyer, and Seventh Generation have stepped in with great natural alternatives designed to keep some of those nasty chemicals out of our kitchens and bathrooms.
But: when it comes to cleaning a toilet, I really want the product to WORK. I want shiny, clean, disinfected toilet. I just can’t deal with a cleaning product that doesn’t make the toilet sparkle, no matter how earth-friendly.
Thus began the quest for the perfect eco-friendly toilet bowl cleaner. Our contestants today shall be graded on value, fragrance, bottle design, eco-friendliness, and performance, plus any other factors I feel you ought to know. Let’s begin, shall we?
Method’s Lil’ Bowl Blu
Value: $7.49 for 24 ounces, or 31.2 cents per ounce
Fragrance: Smells fine, a little herbal, but mostly not very strongly scented
Bottle design: has the skinny end for squirting up under the rim, but the large bulbous disc-shaped main bottle was a little hard for me to grip securely, and was awkward to maneuver in the 360 degree turn around the bowl.
Eco-friendliness: High. Method’s blog explains that they use xantham gum, a natural ingredient, to thicken this product, plus plant-derived lactic acid (way less sketchy than the battery acid used in other toilet bowl cleaners). Method also gets mad props for their super-honest and up front disclosure policy. You never have to wonder what’s in their products- they tell you.
Performance: meh. While I can vouch for the naturalness of xantham gum (I use it in baking for my sister who can’t eat gluten), it didn’t really do a good enough job of creating a thick goo that sticks to the walls of the toilet. Once I started scrubbing, it didn’t foam up at all, and it took a lot of elbow grease to get the job done. Not my fave.
Overall: while I love Method’s commitment to eco-friendliness, and I give them MAJOR props for being so up front about what they put in their products, this particular product just doesn’t do it for me. (BUT, if you are not using method’s stainless steel cleaner yet, get out and buy some. A.mazing.
Seventh Generation’s Emerald Cyprus and Fir
Value: $5.39 for 32 ounces, or 16.8 cents per ounce
Fragrance: The “fir” in the name was a huge reason why I bought this one, because I am irrationally enamored of anything that smells like pine trees. Sadly, the scent here was pretty mild, and mostly like citrus with a little herbal tone to it, not at all like the thicket of pine trees I’d been hoping for.
Bottle Design: The shape of the bottle is pretty standard, and the flip-top squirter is long and skinny and does a decent job of getting up under the toilet bowl rim.
Eco-friendliness: Also good. Like method, uses xantham gum and lactic acid, plus “plant-derived demineralizer and cleaning agents.” Non-toxic and biodegradable
Performance: Well, it’s a little hard to say. The liquid is clear, so it’s hard to tell how well it clings to the wall of the toilet bowl. But it foamed up nicely and got the toilet looking sparkling and smelling fresh with minimal effort on my part. I was pleased.
Overall: Nice big bottle + plant derived natural ingredients + excellent foaming action + pleasant, if mild, scent = happy user.
Clorox Green Works Natural Toilet Bowl Cleaner
Value: $5.49 for 24 ounces, or 22.8 cents per ounce
Fragrance: strongly citrus scent, no chemical undernotes (that was a happy surprise; Clorox regular toilet bowl cleaner used to require me to leave the house for an hour after I used it just to get some fresh air.) Some users at drugstore.com seem to HATE the very strong citrus-y smell, but I found it pleasant.
Bottle design: the best of the bunch. Clorox has clearly learned some lessons from its years of non-eco-friendly product experience: this bottle gets right up under the rim easily, squirts smoothly, turns well.
Eco-friendliness: a little tougher to tell. It, too, uses xantham gum and lactic acid, and also uses citric acid. The website has a lovely display showing some of the ingredients, but not all. A look at the label also lists a “cocunut-based cleaning agent”, and tells us that it contains no bleach or phosphorus. That’s good: those are both no-no ingredients that are common in non-eco-friendly toilet bowl cleaners.
Performance: very good. The gel squirts on thickly and sticks well to the sides of the bowl. It’s green (clever, Clorox peeps, dying this stuff green- but don’t think you’re fooling me, I know that that color comes from the “yellow and blue dye” that you list on your ingredient list, not from its inherently natural properties) but the color lets you see that yes, it’s sticking well. It foams up nicely with scrubbing, and got my toilet sparkling clean.
Overall: I was happily surprised at both the performance and the fact that this was an environmentally low-impact product from a brand that has historically not really been known for it’s earth-friendliness. Probably the best cleaner of the bunch.
So, which one will I buy again?
Well, there are actually two additional eco-friendly brands that I want to try – Mrs. Meyer and J.R. Watkins – but I’m hopeful that we will have this plumbing problem resolved before I have to buy two more bottles, so I didn’t want to wait to share my findings thus far. (Have you tried either of the ones I haven’t tried yet? Email me!) But of the three I’ve tried so far? For performance, Clorox Green Works was the clear winner. If you’re looking for the best combination of value and performance (like maybe if you aren’t facing plumbing problems) I’d go with the Seventh Generation.
SoMi's Nilsa
I got a freebie thing of the Method toilet bowl cleaner, so we’re still working our way through that. But, once done, I think we’ll definitely look into Seventh Generation or Clorox Green Works. Thanks for the recap (though sorry it’s under less than ideal circumstances that you get to write about it!).
October 28th, 2009 @ 8:18 am
Kate
Is it odd that I’m unusally excited about this review? I’ve been using Clorox Green Works and have also been very happy with it, so I’m glad to see it got a decent review. I’m also intrested in trying out Mrs. Meyer.
October 29th, 2009 @ 9:49 am
Amber
or just use vinegar, which is an awesome cleaner, super cheap, and is good for the environment.
November 17th, 2009 @ 5:47 pm