Choosing the Right Cleaning Product Using the pH Scale
Running from 0-14, the pH scale helps you to determine whether a substance is acidic or alkaline. A substance with a pH of 7 is neutral; anything lower than 7 is increasingly acidic, with 0 being the most acidic, and anything higher than 7 is increasingly alkaline, with 14 being the most alkaline.
Cleaning is an attempt to neutralise the impact of acidic or alkaline ions in a stain or soiling. If you’re looking to clean a soil that’s acidic, you should use an alkaline cleaning product, and vice-versa.
Fats and oils (e.g. food, industrial and some bodily residues) are acidic, therefore alkaline cleaning products are required in order to break them down and make them easier to remove from a surface or fabric.
Cleaning products with an acidic pH are necessary for the treatment of stains like rust and mineral deposits, as these are alkaline. As with using alkaline cleaning products on acidic stains, acidic cleaning products break down the deposits so the offending stain can be more easily removed.
The pH of the ready-to-use products:
- Oxy D.S.T.: 6.25
- Film Away: 7.0
- Challenger: 7.0
- Green Kleen: 7.5
- Bio-Bac II: 7.5
- Preference: 8.5
- Azure: 9.0
- Compare: pH: 9.0
- Pine Cleaner: 9.0
- Excelsior: 9.5
- Nu-Life: 10.6
