Tesco Anti-Bacterial Floor Wipes
All-pervadingly lemony (even through the sealed packet) - Tesco Anti-Bacterial Floor Wipes Household Cleaning

Product Type: Tesco Household Cleaning

Newest Review: ... round the base of the baby's high chair. I got these wipes with the initial idea of using them for 'spot cleaning' in areas where eg.... more

All-pervadingly lemony (even through the sealed packet)
Tesco Anti-Bacterial Floor Wipes

worst_trip

Member Name: worst_trip

Product:

Tesco Anti-Bacterial Floor Wipes

Date: 29/01/11

Rating:

Advantages: Useful disposable cleaning product

Disadvantages: Only 18 in a packet puts me off using them really disposably

Tesco Antibacterial Floor Wipes cost £1 for a packet of 15, so they're about the eight pence mark each. They come in a flat plastic wallet just like a packet of baby wet-wipes - with a clear sticky-plastic re-sealing strip over the wipes' 'exit hole'. They're impregnated with some kind of lemon-scented cleaning / anti-bacterial fluid; even before I opened it for the first time I could smell the wipes quite strongly whenever I went past the shelf I'd stored them on - so fortunately it's quite a mild, pleasant lemony smell.

Our kitchen floor is receiving some heavy-duty dirtying at the moment, as we have two young children. I don't wash it all that often admittedly, and despite multiple sweepings clear each day I never feel it's quite 'properly clean' - especially in the region round the base of the baby's high chair. I got these wipes with the initial idea of using them for 'spot cleaning' in areas where eg. bits of breakfast toast had fallen jam-side down on the floor.
Out of the packet the antibacterial wipes are very reminiscent of those microwaveable, individually-wrapped, disposable hot towels they hand round at the end of the meal in Indian restaurants: they're like heavy-duty, woven wet-wipes. I soon found on the vinyl-covered kitchen floor that 'spot cleaning' wasn't sufficient: I felt I should give the whole area a bit of a wiping-over. I used the wipe like a cleaning cloth in my hand, but the blurb on the packet suggests that you could put it over the head of your floor squeegee instead. I folded it and wiped vigorously, and refolded when the floor-contact surface looked visibly dirty then wiped vigorously again. Folding repeatedly like this, it was good for about half the kitchen floor-space: putting this in context, we have an average-sized but not tiny kitchen, and so the area you could cover with one antibacterial wipe would be about the amount of kitchen you'd get in a tiny 'kitchenette' or 'galley kitchen' (as seen on one of those daytime property development / home makeover shows where people are trying to squeeze eg. four self-contained flats into what was previously a modest-sized, two-bed family home.)

I can't say I was overwhelmed by the antibacterial wipe's cleaning effects. 'Scrubbing away' with the wipe against my fingers I picked up quite a bit of surface dirt but dried-on spots and spills largely stayed in place. If you were putting this wipe over the head of a mop or brush the pressure against the floor you'd be able to transmit through it would be even less and I think it would pick up even less dirt.

The lemony scent, that could penetrate even the sealed packet of wipes and was mild and pleasant when the package was closed became quite overpowering once the wipe had been wiped all over the floor of my kitchen. I don't have any allergies I know of, myself, but my nose began tingling (leading to the occasional sneeze) soon after I'd used the wipe. So I'm a bit worried about what cleaning products they've put in it.
If you had a sparklingly already-clean floor, with their all-permeating lemony after-scent, these wipes would work best a psychological aid to convincing you that you were really keeping it 'antibacterial.' I think that's the market they're properly aimed at: since they don't do much to clean per se - just make you THINK you're cleaning the floor (when it's not really necessary) even more.

Summary: Useful one-use disposable cleaning product