Lush for your loo! (Harpic Power Plus Tablets)

Member Name: jo1976

Product:	Harpic Power Plus Tablets
Date:	29/01/09 (309 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Just drop the tablets into the toilet bowl, cleans below the waterline, no nasty chemical smell

Disadvantages: Didn't completely remove 100% of stains

Harpic Power Plus Tablets are handy little tablets designed to clean your toilet and remove any stains from below the waterline without the need for scrubbung. They are from the same range as the Harpic Power Plus toilet cleaning liquid and both products feature the same striking black packaging (which, incidentally, is completely different from that shown on the Dooyoo description so may well have been recently revamped.)

I picked up a packet of these cleaning tablets from Wilkinson's last week as I have some unreachable and unshiftable stains right at the very bottom of my upstairs toilet. (I know you didn't really want to have such intimate knowledge of the state of my loo - sorry!) The stains were right down the sides of the toilet bowl and right at the very back, towards the u-bend - just at the point where no amount of scrubbing with my loo brush and copious amount of toilet cleaning chemicals had managed to shift. (I'm starting to feel a bit embarrassed here and feel the need to point out that I do actually clean my toilets regularly - much as I hate doing so - and that these are very small stains and only really noticeable if you look for them! My toilet bowl isn't quite as gross as I've probably managed to make it sound!)

With a visit from the mother-in-law looming, I have been doing my best to tackle the worst of the housework and went on the hunt for the strongest loo cleaner that I could find. I was torn between these tablets and the liquid version offered by Harpic Power Plus. What finally swung it in favour of the tablets was the promise on the packaging that these 'remove the toughest stains and eliminate 100% of limescale' and that these work 'deep down in the bowl and in the u-bend.' Admittedly, the fact that these could just be dropped in the toilet to work their magic overnight and, allegedly, no scrubbing would be needed was also a factor in my choice.

The instructions recommend adding one tablet to your toilet bowl once a week and leaving for 6 hours before flushing. There was also an intensive option of adding two tablets overnight to remove heavy limescale build-up. This was the route that I chose. I donned some gloves (as these contain strong chemicals.) Each tablet comes individually wrapped like a giant sweetie - so an obvious reason to keep these out of the kids' way! I unwrapped the first tablet with eager anticipation and gently dropped it into my loo. It immediately started to fizz rapidly on contact with the water and produced a lovely vibrant blue colour in the water. In fact, it reminded me of watching a Lush bath ballistic being dropped in the water and starting to work its magic! This was not something that I was tempted to jump into and start wallowing in though! Unlike most toilet cleaners (particularly the stronger varieties) this didn't emit any nasty chemical smells. In fact, there was no detectable fragrance at all. I dropped two tablets in the toilet and left them overnight and even in the morning there wasn't any chemical odour in the bathroom, which was a bonus.

The real question is whether this actually worked and removed those nasty stains. Well, yes and no. The tablets had certainly made a difference and had achieved more than any amount of scrubbing previously had. The stain at the back has completely gone and the base of the toilet bowl is absolutely sparkling. The only disappointment for me is that it didn't completely remove the stains at the side of the toilet. (Again, I must emphasise these are small stains but they are ingrained in the very edge of the toilet bowl and my loo brush doesn't seem to quite hit the spot.) They have certainly improved but the stains haven't been totally removed.

Despite that, I do think that these tablets are a pretty effective way of cleaning your toilet bowl and I would actually buy and use these again. I might even use them in conjunction with the Power Plus liquid because I'm hoping that the liquid might work in the bottom edges better than the tablets. The packaging does suggest that both products can be used together.

These tablets cost me £2.15 for a box containing 8 tablets from Wilkinson. If you use them just as a weekly cleaning aid, this would last for 8 weeks and seems quite reasonable value for me. Certainly, if you haven't got the shame of ingrained toilet stains I think you would find these to be suitably effective. The promise of a deep clean of your loo without needing to get up close and personal with a toilet brush is enough reason to give these a shot!

Summary: Give your loo the lush treatment!