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Category hub
Oxygen bleaches and stain removers recast as commodity oxidisers you can weigh yourself.
Teardowns
11
Typical saving
74%
Steepest gap
Complete Oven Cleaning System
Limescale, mould and oxygen-bleach stains are commodity acids and oxidisers. The trigger bottle is water, dye and a nozzle.
Never mix acids with hypochlorite or ammonia. Work in ventilation, and keep food-prep surfaces rinsed before they go back into use.
A kilogram of citric acid or percarbonate outlasts a year’s worth of 750 ml sprays if you mix what you need for the job.
This hub currently covers 11 household cleaning teardowns. Typical saving versus a branded pack is about 74% per working litre. The steepest gap today is Oven Pride Complete Oven Cleaning System at 96%. Snapshot retail prices start around £1.80 — live shop listings move.
Household cleaning
Vanish
Sodium percarbonate is a solid hydrogen-peroxide adduct. The pink tub is perfume, dye and a scoop. Technical-grade percarbonate is the same oxidiser used in bulk laundries.
Household cleaning
Domestos
Sodium hypochlorite plus a thickener so it clings to ceramic. Thin household bleach is the same oxidiser without the brand, the dye and the TV campaign. Never mix it with acids or ammonia.
Household cleaning
Cillit Bang
Hard-water scale is calcium carbonate. Citric acid dissolves it. The trigger bottle is perfume and a nozzle; a bag of food-grade citric acid is the same attack on the kettle, the head and the pan.
Household cleaning
The Pink Stuff (StarDrops)
Simple fine chalk (calcium carbonate) suspended in vegetable soap and pink dye.
Household cleaning
Astonish
Highly diluted bleach sold with a plastic spray trigger. Diluting bulk hypochlorite costs pennies.
Household cleaning
Oven Pride
The bag is theatre. The gel is dilute sodium hydroxide. Caustic soda pearls at about 40 g/L make the same 4% attack on burnt fats. Corrosive — this is not a toy, and it is not a lemon-scented miracle.
Household cleaning
Boots / first-aid brands
3% is 10-volume peroxide. Hair-developer 12% (40-volume) diluted 1:3 is the same 3% oxidiser in litres, not 200 ml pharmacy bottles. Do not drink it. Do not use 12% on skin undiluted.
Household cleaning
Oust
This is not citric acid and it is not sulfamic. The sachet is 70–90% lactic acid — the same food-industry acid sold in 1 litre jerry cans. One 25 ml pour descale a kettle; three sachets is a tiny pour from that jerry.
Household cleaning
Fernox
Sulfamic acid is the plumber’s descaler: a solid, less fuming than hydrochloric, stronger on scale than citric. The 500 g Fernox tub is a labelled bag of the same 99% crystals sold in 1 kg jars for a kettle-and-combi DIY stack.
Household cleaning
Jeyes
UK Windolene is no longer ammonia. Kleen Off still is: a ~9–10% ammonium hydroxide solution in a 500 ml bottle. A 5 litre jerry of 10% household ammonia is the same molecule. Never mix it with bleach. The catch is the fumes, not a secret surfactant.
Household cleaning
Carex
WHO-style sanitiser is 70–80% alcohol plus a drop of glycerin. The branded gel is that mix with a pump. 99% isopropyl alcohol diluted 7:3 with water is the same working strength in litres, not 500 ml pumps. Flammable — not a drink, not a medicine.