Cleaning agents

What you clean with, what each one actually does, and which surfaces it damages. Strength and safety are the same property seen from opposite sides.

• Acetic acid (vinegar)

  The acid in vinegar. Genuinely effective on limescale and mineral films, and routinely recommended for surfaces it should never touch.

• Ammonia

  An alkaline cleaner found in some glass and general-purpose products. Recorded here principally because of what it does when mixed with bleach.

• Citric acid

  A mild solid acid, widely used for descaling. Effective on limescale, and destructive to carbonate stone for exactly the same reason.

• Detergent

  A surfactant-based cleaner. The general-purpose answer for greasy and particulate soil, and the correct first choice far more often than any specialist product.

• Enzymatic cleaner

  Not a stronger detergent — a set of catalysts that each cut one kind of soil. Which is why whether it works on your stain has no general answer.

• Hydrogen peroxide

  An oxidising bleach that breaks down into water and oxygen. Genuinely milder than chlorine bleach, and not therefore safe to combine with anything.

• Isopropyl alcohol

  A solvent that dissolves oils and residues and evaporates without a trace. Useful on electronics and glass; flammable, and damaging to some plastics and finishes.

• Mild cream cleanser

  A liquid carrying a fine soft abrasive. The trade answer for water marks and light staining on stainless steel — and not the same thing as scouring powder.

• Neutral cleaner

  A near-neutral surfactant cleaner. The recommended answer for natural stone of every kind, and the least interesting product in the catalogue for good reasons.

• Quaternary ammonium compounds

  A class of cleaning-product active that a regulator lists among the ammonia compounds which release chlorine gas on contact with bleach. Recorded for that reaction and for nothing else.

• Sodium bicarbonate

  A mild alkali that is also a fine, soft abrasive. Its real usefulness is mechanical, and it is far weaker chemically than its reputation suggests.

• Sodium carbonate

  A considerably stronger alkali than bicarbonate. Effective on grease and as a laundry builder, and damaging to aluminium, wool and painted surfaces.

• Sodium hydroxide

  The strongest alkali in domestic use and the active ingredient in oven and drain cleaners. Genuinely effective, and the substance in this catalogue that most reliably injures people.

• Sodium hypochlorite (chlorine bleach)

  A powerful oxidising bleach and disinfectant. It is also the substance behind the most common serious household chemical accidents, and must never be mixed with anything.

• Sodium percarbonate (oxygen bleach)

  An oxidising bleach that releases hydrogen peroxide in water. Gentler than chlorine bleach on fabrics and dyes, and it does not produce chlorine gas.

• Water

  The solvent almost all cleaning happens in, and on its own the right answer more often than it is given credit for.

• Wood ash

  The residue from a wood fire: a fine abrasive that is also mildly alkaline. The active ingredient in a long-standing stove-glass technique.

• Wool detergent

  A mild, near-neutral detergent without enzymes or bleach. What the wool industry body recommends, and what it recommends against is the more useful half.