OxiClean vs Spag Bol (OxiClean Multi-Purpose Stain Remover)

Member Name: t4mof

Product:	OxiClean Multi-Purpose Stain Remover
Date:	20/01/05 (3235 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It saved me having to buy a new carpet

Disadvantages: None

I’m amazed I haven’t tried Oxi Clean before. I’m one of these people that seem to have fairly disastrous accidents causing stainage a-plenty on many items. I can’t remember how many clothes have been ruined by black tea or tomato ketchup but despite this one stain remover I have never tried is Oxi Clean.

However, I was forced to give it a go when one of my more spectacular accidents happened just three days after selling our house. I finished work at 8pm, arrived home and heated up the Bolognese sauce I’d made earlier. I was starving and eagerly made the spaghetti to go with it. Finally there it was, piled up on my plate. I went into the living room and turned on the telly to watch Property Ladder. I sat down and the spaghetti Bolognese came alive. It did a triple back somersault off my plate and the whole lot landed on the carpet. It may have received top marks from a panel of judges but I froze, absolutely mortified. Tomato puree, tomato juice and tomatoes were seeping into my light blue carpet.

I called Paul downstairs and we started to scrub. We got the 1001 carpet cleaner and soaked the carpet but all to no avail. The red stain was not shifting from the blue carpet. Of course, the whole situation was magnified by the fact that in just over two months time we would be moving house and leaving the carpet, complete with red stain, to our buyers – the thought of which I could not bear.

Then the awful advert fronted by the man with the funny accent sprung to mind – Oxi Clean. It can supposedly clean years of built in dirt off planks of wood. Surely it’s going to have a reasonable effect on tomatoes.

During my next shop later in the week I picked up the smaller tub of Oxi Clean. It comes in two sizes – 500g and 1kg. These were priced at £3.19 and around the £5 mark respectively from Asda.

So, here it was. My only hope of cleaning up the stain that had now completely dried and was looking worse than ever.

The tub is blue with a white screw top. The front of it clearly shows the product name in white. There is a small yellow label on the top left hand side telling you to “Add a scoop to every load of laundry” and to the top right it informs that it is chlorine free. Underneath “Oxi Clean” it has the words “The stain specialist – Multi-purpose stain remover” and there is more specific information telling us that it “removes stains from wine, juice, pet messes and much more.” Right along the bottom it says that you can use on “non-wool and non-wool blend carpets.” So far it was sounding ideal. It claimed to remove most common stains and could be used on carpets – just what I needed.

Once back at home I was keen to see this stuff work. Looking at that stain on a daily basis was starting to give me nightmares about replacing the carpet before we moved.

I turned straight to the directions for stain removal. Included inside the tub is a scoop for accurate measurements and 1 scoop = 2 tablespoons. For general stain removal I needed one eighth of a scoop with 500ml of hot water and this needed mixing until all the Oxi Clean crystals had dissolved.

The instructions direct from the tub are to “apply to surface and let stand for 5-30 minutes. Scrub with a sponge or blot with a towel (depending on surface). Rinse thoroughly and allow to dry.” So armed with the mixture, this is what I did. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The red tomato colouring that had been an extra feature of the blue carpet for the past 3 days was disappearing. Spurred on by the immediate results, I carried on scrubbing. After about 10 minutes the stain had almost completely gone. I left the area to dry out and unless you knew the stain was there, you were hard pushed to see it. What was left, however, was a white residue around the edge of the water patch. This was simply cleaned up by giving the carpet one further rinse. When the carpet had dried for a second time, there was nothing left to be seen. I was very impressed.

Since the excellent results on the carpet I have been adding one scoop to my laundry as suggested and it seems to be having a positive effect on that too. Black tea stains are disappearing over time and I’m able to wear some of those ruined clothes once more.

Other recommended uses for Oxi Clean are cleaning up your tiles and grout, soaking clothes before washing them, cleaning shower curtains, rubbish bins, aquariums and wood decking. Apparently it evens cleans tar!

As with all cleaning products it includes the essential warnings. You should test the material for colourfastness on a small area first. This is something I didn’t do – trust me the stain was so bad, I didn’t think anything could look worse so I risked it. It is not for use on wool, wool blends, silk, leather or anything not water-washable. You should keep away from the face – soap does just as good a job – and you should not mix with chlorine bleach. Once the solution has been used, you should throw it away and not keep it in a sealed container. There is a note at the bottom of the tub saying that “some stains may require stronger, longer or additional treatments.” So basically, if the stain isn’t removed first time, try again.

You should, of course, keep Oxi Clean out of the way of children and pets as it is harmful if swallowed and irritates the eyes, skin and respiratory system. There is also medical advice in case you do end up with it in the wrong place.

Quite simply, Oxi Clean seems to do exactly what they show you on the annoying advert. It really does clear up stains fast and I wouldn’t have any hesitation in recommending the product. I can certainly say that it works well on spaghetti Bolognese anyway!

Summary: