When it comes to cleaning your shower, there are lots of products with big promises. Many claim to remove tough soap scum and fight mildew with little or no effort. But do they deliver?
Spray cleaners, powdered cleaners and aerosol foam all claim to get your shower sparkling clean. Consumer Reports tested 12 bathroom cleaners from familiar names like Comet and Scrubbing Bubbles, as well as several "green" cleaners.
Testers used tiles covered with soap scum.
"We took our soap-scum solution, and we sprayed our tiles daily for 14 days, letting it dry in between until we had a thick layer of soap-scum buildup," said Consumer Reports' Pat Slaven.
Testers also created their own rust to put on another set of tiles. And a third set of tiles was covered with mildew. Then they pitted each cleaner against the dirty tiles.
Neither Scrubbing Bubbles, or any of the other aerosol foam cleaners did a good job at removing the built-up grime. And there's another problem.
"The aerosols say you don't have to rinse. You can see there's still residue left on the tile," said Slaven.
What did get the job done - powered cleansers. Comet Scratch Free Disinfectant Cleanser with Bleach and Ajax with Bleach Scratch Free Cleanser earned top ratings and cost under a dollar and a half. As for the so-called green cleaners, most of them were only so-so. But one was a clear winner. It's Green Works Natural Bathroom Cleaner for $3.50. It rated higher than nearly all of the spray cleaners and costs less. The Greenworks Natural Bathroom Cleaner is good at removing soap scum. But Consumer Reports says for mildew stick with Comet or Ajax.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Chris Olsen
