Home · Cleaning · Best practice · Dilution: why more product cleans less
Cleaning best practice
The short answer
Over-concentrated cleaner leaves a sticky residue that attracts soil, so surfaces re-soil faster than if the product had been diluted correctly.
Detergents work by surfactant action, and that action peaks at the concentration on the label. Past it, the excess simply stays behind on the surface.
How it is done
- Measure, do not pour by eye; a dosing pump or a marked jug costs almost nothing.
- Dilute into water, not water into concentrate.
- Mix fresh: many diluted products lose effectiveness within a day.
- Label every decanted bottle with the product and the date.
Why it matters
Tacky floors, dull marble and glass that greys after a week are usually dilution errors rather than product failures. Fixing the ratio fixes the complaint.
questions
Asked about this
Slightly, up to a point, but the better answer is longer dwell time and a warmer solution. Beyond the label ratio you are mostly buying residue.
No. Products are formulated as complete systems, and combining them ranges from ineffective to genuinely dangerous.
references
Background reading
- Detergent — Wikipedia
- Surfactant — Wikipedia
External encyclopaedia entries for the underlying concepts. They explain the science; the practice above is how we apply it in UAE properties.