Cleaning Product Testing



With so many different cleaning products on the market, it is hard to decide what to use. Are the natural cleaning products as effective as those with strong chemicals? What is the safest yet effective product to use for my family? To answer these questions, I decided to compare the effectiveness of different cleaning products on bacteria. (It is not possible to test for viruses at home.) Scroll through the list and click on the names of the products you are interested in.


 Product Rating
 Alpet D2
 Betadine
 Baking Soda 
 Better Life Multipurpose Cleaner
 Borax 
 Citrus II 
 Cleaning Vinegar 
  Clean Smart Multi-surface Cleaner
 Clorox Anywhere Spray
 Clorox Chlorine Bleach (10%)
 Clorox Clean-up with bleach
  Clorox Hydrogen Peroxide Spray
 Clorox Toilet Bowl Cleaner 
 Clorox Wipes 
 Colloidal Silver 
 Dawn Dish Soap 
 DoTerra On Guard Cleaner
 DoTerra On Guard oil-concentrated
 Essential Oxygen 3% hydrogen peroxide
 Fabuloso 
 Force of Nature
 Frank's hot sauce 
 GFS BioProtect Clean and Seal
 HIbiclens 
 H2O at Home 
 Honest Company Multipurpose Cleaner 
 3% Hydrogen Peroxide
 91% isopropanol 
 70% isopropanol 
 Lemongrass Spa 
 lemon juice
 Lysol concentrate horrible smelling brown liquid
 Lysol Disinfectant Spray
 Lysol Power and Free Cleaner 
 Melalca Sol-u-guard
 Method  
 Moonshine (64% ethanol)
 Norwex Dish Soap 
 OdoBan
 Oxiclean 
 Pine-sol 
PureGreen 24  
 Purell Surface
 Pyoure Hydrogen Peroxide cleaners 
 Salt water 
 Scott 24 hour Sanitizing Spray
 Scrubbing Bubbles
 Seventh Generation Multipurpose Cleaner 
 Shakelee Basic G
 Shakelee Basic H 
 Shakelee Basic H2 wipes 
 Star San 
 Thieves Household Cleaner
 Thieves oil (concentrated) 
 Thieves Spray 
  Vodka (20% ethanol) 
 White Vinegar 
 White Vinegar and Hydrogen Peroxide 
 Zylast Antiseptic Hand Sanitizer

=This product has been tested and is shown to kill a norovirus surrogate and does great in my experiments.
=This product has been tested and shown to kill a norovirus surrogate and does pretty well in my experiments.
=This product does well in my experiments but has not been tested and shown to kill norovirus.
=I detect a little germ-killing with this product. 
=My experiments don't show any significant germ killing with this product. 
No rating= I have not tested this product enough to decide.

I would feel confident using any product that I have listed as 3 stars or higher for general disinfecting around the house when no one has a stomach bug. If someone has a stomach bug, I'd use a solution of 10% chlorine bleach in water which is still the gold standard for germ killing or the Clorox Hydrogen Peroxide Spray or wipes. Any products that are 2 star or 1 star might be good for removing grease and grime, but don't count on them for germ-killing.