Toilet Cleaner

Details

A thickened acidic cleaner tested to IS 7983, the BIS specification for liquid toilet cleaner. It clears limescale, the hard-water ring at the waterline and the yellowing under the rim, which between them are what actually makes a pan look dirty. The acid is named and quantified: lactic acid 6 percent and citric acid 3 percent, measured pH 2.1. Most Indian toilet cleaners use hydrochloric acid at around 8 to 10 percent instead, and the comparison is worth doing properly rather than by adjective. At 8 percent, hydrochloric acid can dissolve about 110 mg of calcium carbonate per millilitre of product. Our 9 percent of weak organic acids works out at about 57 mg, and being weak acids they get there more slowly as well. So ours is roughly half as aggressive and needs its ten minutes. In exchange: hydrochloric acid at household strength is corrosive to skin and eyes, it etches the ceramic glaze so the bowl becomes microscopically rougher and then stains faster every year, which is the neat trick of a product that manufactures its own repeat purchase, it pits chrome fittings, and it wipes out the bacterial culture in a septic tank, which is the exact thing that makes the tank work.

• Acid named and quantified: lactic acid 6 percent, citric acid 3 percent. No hydrochloric acid, no sulphuric acid
• Measured pH 2.1 at 27 C. Descaling capacity 57 mg of calcium carbonate per ml, measured by weighing a marble chip before and after 30 minutes
• Thickened with xanthan gum to 900 centipoise, so it clings under the rim for over four minutes instead of running straight to the trap
• Preserved with potassium sorbate 0.2 percent, which is the correct choice below pH 6 and is here because xanthan gum is a polysaccharide and an unpreserved thickened acid will grow acid-tolerant yeasts
• Surfactant 1.5 percent sodium C12-14 alkyl polyglucoside, to carry away the film once the acid has released it
• Fragrance is eucalyptus oil at 0.15 percent, with its declarable allergen limonene under 0.02 percent
• No chlorine bleach, no phosphate, no synthetic dye, no quats, no heavy perfume
• Keep it off marble, kota stone, limestone, terrazzo and mosaic with a marble chip, and off any unsealed natural stone. Those are calcium carbonate, which is precisely what this is designed to dissolve, and the etch is instant, permanent and cannot be polished out. Also keep it off metal drain covers and brass
• Never mix it with bleach. Acid plus sodium hypochlorite releases chlorine gas, and that is the commonest serious household poisoning in this whole category. Never mix it with anything else either
• Genuinely safe for a septic and a biodigester tank at the recommended 50 ml. A whole bottle poured in at once will drop the tank pH and set its culture back, so the dose is the dose
• No germ-kill claim. pH 2.1 is hostile to a great many organisms and hostile is not a claim: a claim needs a named organism, a stated contact time and a test such as EN 1276 at an accredited microbiology laboratory. We have not run one
• Wear gloves. Squirt 50 ml around the rim, wait 10 minutes, brush, flush. For a heavy waterline ring leave it 30 minutes. That is 10 cleans from the 500 ml at Rs 16.90, 20 from the litre at Rs 14.45, and 40 from the 2 litre refill at Rs 12.48