Cleaning Products Page 6

 How well do Pyoure, Hibiclens, Betadine, Lemongrass Spa, BioProtect Clean and Seal, Norwex dish soap, Dawn dish soap, salt water, Frank's hot sauce, and Oxiclean kill germs?

Answer: Pyoure, Hibiclens, and BioProtect Clean and Seal are great!

12/20/2016

After many requests from viewers, I tested Pyroure, Hibiclens, Betadine, Lemongrass Spa, Norwex dish soap, blue Dawn dish soap, and BioProtect Clean and Seal.  I received the Lemongrass Spa aromatherapy spray and hand soap from a website viewer. I purchased the Norwex dish soap from the Norwex website. I bought the Hibiclens and Betadine at Walmart.  The owner of the Pyroure company sent me their product to test. 

Procedure

To test these products, I did the same countertop experiments that I usually do. I sectioned off squares on my countertop using masking tape. I made "germ water" using dirt from the backyard and water. I filtered it through a paper towel to remove chunks. Then I scraped colonies of bacteria from a previous days agar plate and mixed that in. The previous days plate was a "dirty sink" plate. So, there was lots of dirt and lots of bacteria in these experiments. I put 1mL of germ water onto each square. If you would like to read the full procedure, please read this page. 

Understanding Agar Plates

In case you are new at looking at agar plates, let me explain. Agar is a Jello-like substance that bacteria and fungus like to grow on. The whitish/yellowish dots you see are colonies (or piles) of millions of bacteria. Some types of bacteria are not able to grow on these agar plates. Viruses can not grow on these agar plates. So, just because a plate looks clean, doesn't mean that no microorganisms whatsoever were present. We assume that a clean plate means that most bacteria were killed. However, there is the tiny possibility that the cleaning product just stopped the bacteria from growing as opposed to actually killing it. Also, I can't make any determination as to the time it took the product to kill the bacteria since the product was still with the bacteria on the agar plate. (Both the bacteria and the cleaner would be picked up in the sterile swab.) So, I don't know if it took 1 minute to kill the bacteria or hours. These experiments are still very useful when used to compare cleaning products and cleaning methods. 

Results

In these experiments, I'm comparing everything to 3% hydrogen peroxide which always works really well. Most cleaning products do not do well in these experiments because they can't handle so much dirt and germs. It is surprising how many products are supposed to be used on already clean surfaces. Some products that don't do well in these experiments, might still do a good enough job on your only slightly germy countertop. 

Betadine and Hibiclens

Hibiclens is a surgical hand scrub containing Chlorhexidine gluconate.  Betadine contains povidone-iodine and is for wound care. 

In both of these experiments, the Hibiclens did a fantastic job. Hibiclens is obviously a powerful germ-killer. I'm not impressed with Betadine. 3% hydrogen peroxide is always awesome.

BioProtect Clean and Seal

BioProtect Clean and Seal is a benzalkonium chloride based cleaning product specifically designed to kill germs and help prevent mold and mildew growth. It is supposed to leave a coating that stays on for a while. I have not tested its longevity, but it is certainly a strong bacteria-killer in these experiments. 

Lemongrass Spa

The Lemongrass spa aromatherapy spray did not do well but the Lemongrass spa hand soap did quite well. 

Blue Dawn Dish Soap, Norwex Dish Soap, and Lemongrass Spa hand soap

I also tested blue dawn dish soap, Norwex dish soap, and some Lemongrass Spa hand soap that a viewer sent me. I used .5mL of the undiluted soaps in each experiment. The Blue dawn and the Norwex probably had some germ killing ability. The Lemongrass Spa hand soap seemed to do better. I think I'll put the rest of that hand soap in my guest bathroom now. 

Oxiclean

I also tested Oxiclean (1/2 tablespoon mixed in 1 cup of water). I did not notice any significant bacteria killing. This confirms my laundry experiment results in which I did not notice Oxiclean reducing the amount of bacteria in the laundry. 

Salt water

I also tested plain salt water. I mixed 1/2 tablespoon of table salt into 1/2 cup of water. Then I used .5mL of this mixture in the experiment. It sat for 5 minutes like everything else. I did not notice any significant germ killng. Maybe next time I'll use more salt and see what happens. 

Franks Hot Sauce

My little Michael was helping me think of experiments and begged to test Franks hot sauce. So, we did. I really thought it would do better killing bacteria. Well, I guess that is why my beloved buffalo chicken dip does go bad if it sits out too long. 

Pyoure

Pyoure is a non-toxic hydrogen peroxide based cleaner with essential oils and organic sufractants. Unlike plain hydrogen peroxide, the sufractants help it cut through grease and grime and the essential oils make it smell heavenly. It comes in several glorious scents. I was sent this product to test by the mom inventor of the product. It comes in a 7% hydrogen peroxide solution and you dilute it 1:4 with water to use. The final concentration of the diluted solution is 1.4% hydrogen peroxide. I tested 2 different bottles of Pyoure, the Bamboo Verbena and the White Tea. Both smelled fantastic.

The concentrated Pyoure did perfectly which is not surprising since it is 7% hydrogen peroxide. The diluted Pyoure (which is 1.4% hydrogen peroxide) left a few colonies but did much better than most products that I test. You can see that it did much better than the Purell Surface. These countertop experiments are so full of dirt and germs that very few products look good in these experiments. I also tested Pyoure on the normal dirty kitchen sink without artificial contamination so keep reading. 

Sink Experiments

Many cleaning products are not strong enough to do well in my countertop experiments with dirt and lots of germs. So, I also like to test everything in a real life situation, the kitchen sink. Any cleaner that we expect to kill germs, should be able to kill germs in my kitchen sink experiments. To do these experiments, I use my neighbors' kitchen sinks. They don't disinfect their sinks very often so they are usually germy enough for me to do a good experiment. I can only do one experiment per week per kitchen sink because there needs to be time for plenty of bacteria to grow again. So, these experiments take some time. I have not done all of the products yet. Check back for more results. 

First I rinse off the sinks so there is no food debris stuck on them. Then I swab both sides of the dirty sink and rub the swabs onto agar plates. Then I spray the product all over one side of the sink. I usually use at least 20 sprays to fully cover that side of the sink. The other side is the control and I spray that side with 3% hydrogen peroxide because that always seems to generate very clean results. So, all of these products are being compared the 3% hydrogen peroxide's ability to kill bacteria in the sink.

Pyoure in the sink

I tested the diluted Pyoure in sink experiments. I used 20 sprays of each. The 1:4 dilution of Pyoure left some colonies of bacteria but still had significant bacteria-killing power. I think the Pyoure is a fabulous product, but I would not dilute it so much when using it to disinfect places like sinks. I would use it more concentrated. 

Disclaimer: I can't be 100% certain that any product that I test is actually killing bacteria as opposed to somehow preventing the bacteria from growing on the agar plate by some other means. I also can't tell how long it takes a product to kill the germs since the product is picked up in the swab with the germs and stays on the agar plate during incubation.