The Power of Oxygen! (OxiClean Multi-Purpose Stain Remover)

Member Name: alocin

Product:	OxiClean Multi-Purpose Stain Remover
Date:	10/05/03 (679 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very good stain remover, Enthusiastic advert

Disadvantages: Only for organic stains

Anyone who has sky or digital tv must have at some point come across the wonders of shopping channels. Come on, you can admit it - we've all done it, turned to the continuous adverts that are the shopping channels for some mind-numbing viewing. It's so relaxing! Anyway I first came across OxiClean on these shopping channels. They can make me want anything, these marketing people, but OxiClean stood out for it's "I must try that!" desirability.

The feature - read "advert" - was presented by the typical pair with one dumb blonde character to ask the stupid questions and one very enthusiastic expert. I swear this guy must have been hyped up on high doses of caffeine or something, he was talking at a million miles a minute and was overly interested in this cleaning product. At least that's what I thought until I saw the demonstrations.

On the tv they had big glass tanks filled with water to show you what was happening. They got some white clothes and poured coffee, juice and iodine all over them. They then put the clothes in the tank and squirted in more iodine so the water was dark brown. That's not gonna come clean I hear you say! But it did! They added a small scoop of OxiClean and swirled it around. As they did this the water bubbled with oxygen being released and the colour disolved away. The clothes became sparkly white again. Wow. I am sceptical of product claims and tv trickery but I had to try some.

This product was being sold as "nature's miracle" - a bit far in my opinion - but it is powered by oxygen and activated by water. It says it is non-toxic so it doesn't give off harmful fumes or damage the thing you are cleaning. Obviously you are not supposed to eat it but it is fairly harmless as chemicals go. My mum ordered some from her catologue (thanks mum) where it was around £6 for a tub I think. It is also sold in a 1kg pack with "Orange Glo" cleaner, as it belon
gs to that company, for around £20. Now I had some the fun could begin - the testing!

The tub comes with directions on the back for it's different applications. It can only be used on organic stains such as coffee, blood, grass, mildew and the euphamisticaly named "pet stains". It can be added to laundry - a scoop per load - along with your normal cleaner to get your "whites whiter" and to act as a "laundry booster". We use it more on stains where you mix it with water in the applicator bottle and use as desired. You do not have to add much so it lasts for ages and ages.

After a few trials we discovered that it works much better with hottish water, it seems to bubble more furiously and dissolve stains better. You might want to just make up what you need and use it while it is hot rather than leave it for use later. We have used it on coffee and wine spills on carpets, tea stained cups and teapots as well as mysterious stains on the kitchen carpet that no-one can identify. It brought the cups up shiny and new and the coffee spills are no more. As for the kitchen carpet, it made us realise we would have to clean the entire thing now as we have a few clean spots where the stains once were!

OxiClean is a bit more expensive than some other cleaners, and it's use is limited to organic stains. Despite this it will last you forever and it is very good at the stains it specialises in. As the enthusiastic advert guy says "OxiClean - powered by the air that we breathe and activated by the water you and I drink!". He said that a lot, very loudly right down the camera. Its very good but he didn't need to be that enthusiastic. Calm down man!

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