Eco vs Stuff that works?

[chipo]

I recently bought some ecover products to replace some of my best household cleaners (not very eco friendly ones)

I Bought
Ecover limescale remover - so far so good
Ecover cream cleaner - yet to try
and
Ecover toilet cleaner - completely rubbish when compared to cillit bang.

What do I do? carry on using something that doesn't work very well for the sake of eco friendlyness or use some thing that works brilliantly that is crap for environment?

Please help, any useful alternatives most welcome.

Why not go the whole hog and start using vinegar, bicarb of soda, salt, borax, soda crystals etc. There are loads of books out there which tell you what to do with them and I've been surprised by how good the traditional approaches are. Imo Ecover products aren't very good.

I agree with Helly there, I pretty much only use vinegar, bicarb and tea tree oil and it all works fine, have no problems at all with limescale, soap scum etc. If you don't already have microfibre cloths then I would try those out too, they can remove all scum from your bath and shower with no products at all (be prepered to use a little elbow grease though)

The Ecover cream cleaner is pretty good and we like the washing up liquid too. I agree that the toilet cleaner is not so great. There's another range, "Method" which I'm yet to try but it might be worth seeing if anybody has used their products?

I agree with Helly, I use ecover washing powder but it's rubbish. white Vinger and lemon juice (not together) are good limescale removers. Haven't used borax but it's supposed to be good for stain removal in laundry. Bicarb of soda good instead of the cream cleaner.

Helly (or anyone that knows) I've just bought some soda crystals. Are they considered eco friendly? can't find any references to them? also not sure how to use them tbh. any advice? Sorry for the hijack Chipo

Have to agree about the ecover toilet cleaner. Their dishwasher tabs are great though and clean better than conventional stuff I think.

I've tried various products from these people and found them pretty good, the bathroom cleaner is excellent. They seem mostly based on citric acid, so you could try just using that.

I use Ecover washing up liquid and their laundry bleach for my white washes - other washes only use soap nuts.

For all other cleaning tasks in the house I use only soap, hot water, bicarb, vinegar, soda crystals and essential oils.

For example, for cleaning the toilet I use only vinegar. The cheapest stuff you can get - those huge containers of spiced vinegar are great, it doesn't matter that it's dark vinegar, it's only going down the toilet! We pour in a bit and leave it overnight or for an hour or more if it's in the daytime. Then just swish round with a brush, scrub a bit if there are stubborn limescale deposits, then flush. We try to do this a few times a week so there's no build-up of deposits.

For cleaning sinks etc, I usually just use bicarb. Again, if you have any stubborn stains or hard-water streaks, I mix the bicarb into a paste with some washing up liquid or even a bit of shampoo or shower gel. This gets rid of stains and tide-marks beautifully. Then just rinse really well.

exbatt - you've convinced me. Where do I get "huge containers of spiced vinegar" and where can I buy bicarb other than in the baking isle? There must be a cheaper way if you're using it for cleaning?

Can't see me giving up bleach altogether though. What do you use for mold/mildew?

We get our vinegar either from our local fruit & veg shop or our farm shop. Think it's a gallon container, for a couple of pounds. I think Wilkinsons does bigger boxes of bicarb, but I usually get mine online, though you have to buy fairly big quantities or add on other stuff like tea tree oil or lavender because of postage costs.

Thanks for all the good suggestions, going to look for bicarb online.

Hi everyone
Which sites do you find useful?

I have just bought two Ecoballs for £9.99 from my local Curry's. They are plastic balls that you put in your washing machine instead of washing powder, which are full of little bits of some kind of oxide which changes the PH of the water and makes saponification happen (?). Anyway, they are absolutely fantastic, get everything just as clean as washing powder, last 150 washes and so work out a lot cheaper too - as well as not being harmful to the environment.

www.ecoballsdirect.co.uk/

Only thing they don't get out is grease - which doesn't come out with washing powder either in my experience.

I always have to pre-treat grease stains on kids clothes (and mine, eat a lot of salad dripping in olive oil ) with conventional spray on stain remover. Is there anything more eco? The stain remover they enclosed with the ecoballs does not work on grease.