April 28, 2012
Oxygen Bleach for Grout
If you have dirty floor tile grout, kitchen backsplash grout or wall tile grout that needs to be cleaned, oxygen bleach is what you want.
There are many reasons why oxygen bleach is the preferred cleaner. I'd like to think the reason is because it's not harsh like chlorine bleach, it has no odor, and it's non-toxic.
Take a look at this before and after photo. Has the grout in your floor tile gotten progressively darker over time like what you see here? If so, all you have to do is mix up some of the powdered oxygen bleach with hot water, stir it until it dissolves, pour the solution on the grout and allow it to sit there for up to 15 - 30 minutes.
After this wait or dwell time, you then scrub the grout with a stiff scrub brush. Be sure the bristles of the brush contact the grout. Some grout is recessed below the surface of the tile. If the brush bristles are short, they may not touch the grout. You need contact to get the grout clean.
Wall grout is the hardest grout to clean with oxygen bleach. When you mix the powder with water, the solution just looks like water. On vertical surfaces, you have to keep the tile grout wet with the solution.
This may require you to spritz the wall grout with the solution for up to 30 minutes. This is not always easy to do. It may take repeated cleanings to get great results. Realize that the longer you allow the oxygen bleach solution to soak into either wall or floor grout, the less work you have to do scrubbing.
Always apply the oxygen bleach solution to DRY GROUT. If the grout is wet, it's impossible for the solution to soak into the grout to deep clean it.
The Best Oxygen Bleach
Not all oxygen bleaches are made with the same ingredients. Some very popular brands of oxygen bleach that are advertised regularly on TV have ingredients that come from China, land of tainted dog food and lead paint in children's toys.
What's more, the Chinese active ingredient may not be as pure and as powerful as what you could get from a product that's truly Made in the USA.
Stain Solver is a brand of oxygen bleach that I've been making since the mid 1990's. The ingredients are all made in the USA. The active ingredient in Stain Solver is completely organic and certified as such. I put in the maximum amount of active ingredient in the product as allowed by law. That's why we have thousands and thousands of satisfied customers.
That's why you see such dramatic Before and After photos at the Stain Solver website. Don't expect that kind of performance from less expensive oxygen bleach products or ones that have their ingredients come in a container ship from China. Be sure to call or contact the people who sell each oxygen bleach and find out exactly where their raw material comes from. If they dodge the question, then you've got your answer.
This article was written by Tim Carter, the founder of StainSolver.com. He's been an advocate for safe cleaning since 1995. Once you try oxygen bleach, you'll never switch back to using any other cleaner. Why? Because it's green, it's a multi-purpose cleaner, and it's non-toxic.