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Oxygen bleaches and stain removers recast as commodity oxidisers you can weigh yourself.
Teardowns
41
Typical saving
71%
Steepest gap
Oven Cleaner
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. A dye-run sachet is usually sodium dithionite — a reducer, not Oxi, and never mixed with acid or bleach.
This hub currently covers 41 household cleaning teardowns. Typical saving versus a branded pack is about 71% per working litre. The steepest gap today is Mr Muscle Oven Cleaner at 97%. Snapshot retail prices start around £1.25 — live shop listings move.
Household guide
Household acids and alkalis decoded — limescale, rust and never-mix rules
Citric, sulfamic, lactic, acetic, formic, oxalic and phosphoric for descaling and rust; how they differ from brick acid and caustic drain gel — with DupeStack teardown links.
Household guide
Drain and oven cleaners: sulphuric acid vs caustic soda — never swap blindly
One Shot drain acid, Mr Muscle caustic gel and Oven Pride cold oven cleaner are different hazards. Match the bottle to the pipe or enamel job.
Household guide
Disinfectants decoded: bleach, Dettol and hand gel — hypochlorite vs PCMX vs IPA
Sodium hypochlorite, chloroxylenol and isopropanol do different jobs. Never mix Domestos, Dettol and Carex logic in one bucket.
Household guide
Carpets and laundry stains: percarbonate vs machine surfactant
Vanish Oxi is sodium percarbonate. Vax Ultra+ is dilute SLES. Pink paste is an abrasive, not an oxygen bleach. Match the stain chemistry before you buy another scented bottle.
Household guide
Washing machines and dishwashers: Calgon, salt, citric and colour-run
Calgon zeolite vs citrate tabs, dishwasher salt, citric heater descale and dithionite colour-run are four jobs — match the molecule, not the aisle.
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.
Household cleaning
Harpic
Nine grams of hydrochloric acid per 100 g of liquid — toilet limescale and uric scale, not patio brick acid. The same HCl family as Mortar Clen but far weaker and formulated for ceramic WC pans. Dilute 30–36% pool-grade HCl carefully to a similar working strength, or buy labelled toilet acid once and compare the SDS.
Household cleaning
One Shot
This is not caustic soda gel (Oven Pride is sodium hydroxide). One Shot is ~91% sulphuric acid — a completely different drain chemistry. Trade-strength, corrosive, and labelled ‘never add water’. Bulk 96% sulphuric is the same molecule in a drum; still not a casual consumer product.
Household cleaning
Fairy
Fairy is mostly water and SLES — the workhorse anionic surfactant in almost every UK washing-up bottle. A 25 kg drum of SLES 70% paste dilutes to hundreds of litres of 2% working liquor. You are paying for the green bottle and the scent, not a proprietary molecule.
Household cleaning
Mr Muscle
Caustic drain gel — not sulphuric acid (One Shot) and not 4% oven gel (Oven Pride). Mr Muscle Kitchen Drain is ~36% sodium hydroxide in a viscous gel. Caustic soda pearls dissolved thick with salt make the same chemistry; still corrosive, still ‘add to drain, flush later’.
Household cleaning
Dettol
Dettol’s smell is chloroxylenol (PCMX, CAS 88-04-0) at about 4.8%. A kilogram of technical PCMX crystals dissolved to the same strength is the same biocide without the trigger tax.
Household cleaning
Bar Keepers Friend
Bar Keepers Friend is oxalic acid plus a mild abrasive — the same rust-busting chemistry as HG patio rust remover, repackaged for the kitchen. Oxalic dihydrate crystals and bicarbonate paste do the job without the pink can.
Household cleaning
Milton
Milton is sodium hypochlorite at about 2% — half the strength of thick toilet bleach but the same oxidiser. Dilute 5% thin bleach to 2% and you have the same sterilising chemistry without the pink cap.
Household cleaning
Cif
Cif is citric acid plus a mild limestone abrasive in a cream base — the same soft scrub as mixing food-grade citric with chalk. The Pink Stuff is quartz abrasive instead; Cif is acid-forward for limescale film.
Household cleaning
Zoflora
Zoflora’s biocide is benzalkonium chloride at about 1.87% — the same quat family as Patio Magic, sold as a scented kitchen concentrate. A 1:40 dilute is about 470 ppm BAC. One millilitre of BAC 50 in a litre of water lands in that working band; the perfume and ethanol are the brand, not the kill.
Household cleaning
Dri-Pak
Dri-Pak’s bag is sodium carbonate decahydrate (CAS 6132-02-1) — washing soda. The molecule is the product. A 5 kg sack of the same crystals is the cupboard staple without the 1 kg grocery markup. This is not Vanish (that is percarbonate) and not borax substitute (sesquicarbonate).
Household cleaning
Dri-Pak
Borax substitute is sodium sesquicarbonate (CAS 533-96-0) — not borax, not soda crystals, not bicarbonate. Dri-Pak’s 500 g box is a grocery pour of the same salt sold in 5 kg sacks. The EU reclassified borates; this is the carbonate/bicarbonate double salt that replaced the cupboard staple.
Household cleaning
Dri-Pak
Dri-Pak’s 500 g box is sodium bicarbonate (CAS 144-55-8) — baking soda. The molecule is the product. A 5 kg sack of the same food-grade powder is the cupboard staple without the grocery-box markup. This is not soda crystals (carbonate) and not borax substitute (sesquicarbonate).
Household cleaning
Astonish
Astonish’s vinegar spray is acetic acid (CAS 64-19-7) at under 5% plus a drop of surfactant and perfume. Diluting 80% acetic acid 1:19 lands in the same band as the trigger bottle — without the citrus markup. This is not citric (Cillit Bang / Cif) and not soda crystals.
Household cleaning
Vax
Carpet-washer ‘solution’ is dilute anionic surfactant with perfume. Sodium laureth sulphate (SLES) at a few percent in the tank does the same wet-extraction job without the rose-burst markup.
Household cleaning
Mr Muscle
Another caustic gel with marketing. The attack on polymerised fats is sodium hydroxide. Dissolve caustic soda pearls to about 4% w/v and you get the same chemistry without the trigger-bottle tax.
Household cleaning
Dr. Beckmann
The liquid Service-it bottle is 5–10% citric acid — a kettle descaler poured into an empty drum. Food-grade citric at about 75 g/L is the same heater-and-door-seal wash without the 250 ml appliance-aisle tax. This is not the powder Deep Clean (that is percarbonate — see Vanish).
Household cleaning
Windolene
Classic Windolene cream is isopropanol at about 5–15% in a pink emulsion — the smear-cutting solvent is IPA (CAS 67-63-0), not a secret glass polymer. Dilute 99% IPA 1:9 for a ~10% wipe. That is not Carex 70% hand gel, and it is not the modern trigger ‘Diamond Shine’ (glycol ether).
Household cleaning
Dettol
Dettol laundry cleanser is about 2.4% mixed quats (dialkyl dimethylammonium + benzalkonium) — the same cationic family as Zoflora, sold as a scented conditioner-drawer pour. Dilute BAC 50 to 2.4% and you have the biocide without the 1.5 L cotton-breeze tax. It is not PCMX Dettol spray and not bleach.
Household cleaning
HG
HG Super Powerful foam is phosphoric acid at about 30% w/w — a bathroom descale, not Jenolite rust gel and not citric kettle sachets. Dilute 81% food-grade phosphoric 1:1.7 to the same band. Keep it off marble and never mix it with bleach.
Household cleaning
Viakal
Current UK Viakal Classic spray is formic acid (CAS 64-18-6) at about 1–5% plus citric at 1–5% — not Fernox sulfamic crystals and not Cillit Bang’s citric/sulfamic kitchen trigger. Dilute 85% formic 1:27 to the same ~3% band. Older professional Viakal listed sulfamic or maleic — read the SDS on the bottle you hold.
Household cleaning
Cillit Bang
This is not Cillit Bang Limescale. The grease trigger’s classified anionic on the kitchen-degreaser SDS is linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS, CAS 85536-14-7) at under 3%. Fairy is SLES — a different sulphate. Dilute LAS 96% paste to about 3% and you have the same grease-cut without the orange-bottle tax.
Household cleaning
Calgon
Calgon 3-in-1 powder is mostly zeolite 4A (CAS 1318-02-1) — a detergent ion-exchange builder, not citric acid and not soda crystals. The box lists more than 30% zeolites plus a pinch of polycarboxylate and perfume. A 5 kg sack of detergent-grade 4A is the same softening mineral. This is not pond clinoptilolite and not a kettle descaler.
Household cleaning
Dr. Beckmann
The 75 g sachet is a reductive bleach: 15–30% sodium dithionite (CAS 7775-14-6), not Vanish percarbonate and not hypochlorite. About 20 g of 85% textile hydrosulphite in a 5 L soak matches the sachet’s active without the laundry-aisle tax. It liberates sulphur dioxide if it meets acid — never mix it with vinegar, descale or bleach.
Household cleaning
Febreze
The odour trap in Febreze fabric spray is hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (CAS 128446-35-5) at about 1% — a sugar ring that hosts smelly molecules. The television advert is the perfume. A 1% cyclodextrin wipe is the same host chemistry without the Unstopables tax. It is not a disinfectant and it is not bicarbonate in a trigger.
Household cleaning
Finish
Finish dishwasher salt is sodium chloride (CAS 7647-14-5) — coarse, high-purity salt for the machine’s ion-exchange softener. The molecule is the product. A 25 kg sack of PDV or water-softener salt is the same regenerant without the 2 kg grocery-box tax. This is not tablet detergent, not rinse aid, and not table salt (anti-caking agents can clog the softener).
Household cleaning
Cif
Cif Lemon Power lists d-limonene (CAS 5989-27-5) at 1–5% alongside a non-ionic surfactant. The limonene does the degreasing; the surfactant lifts it; the lemon is the marketing. A 5% d-limonene working spray from a 90% concentrate costs a fraction of the trigger bottle.
Household cleaning
Bio-Tex
Bio-Tex lists subtilisin (CAS 9014-01-1) as the active enzyme, carried on sulphate. Protease is the workhorse of every biological laundry tablet sold in Europe. Food-grade subtilisin powder from a fermentation supplier is the same enzyme at a fraction of the grocery shelf price.
Household cleaning
Viakal
Viakal's GB SDS lists glycolic acid (CAS 79-14-1) at 5–15% as the primary descaling active, not hydrochloric acid and not citric acid. Glycolic is a short-chain alpha-hydroxy acid that dissolves calcium carbonate gently enough for chrome and ceramic. Bulk 70% glycolic diluted to a 10% working spray is the same chemistry without the brand fragrance charge.
Household cleaning
Ecozone
Ecozone's SDS lists tetrasodium EDTA (CAS 64-02-8) as the primary chelating agent alongside citric acid. EDTA sequesters calcium and magnesium ions that form limescale, stripping them from the heating element without the heat that citric descaling requires. Bulk tetrasodium EDTA dihydrate is food-additive grade and costs a fraction of a foil pouch.
Household cleaning
Calgon
Current Calgon 4-in-1 tabs declare 15–30% polycarboxylates (sodium polyacrylate family, CAS 9003-04-7) plus perfume. Older Express tabs also listed sodium citrate. The everyday hardness job is a teaspoon of food-grade trisodium citrate — not a monthly citric drum descale (that is Service-it).