Koh Universal Cleaner And Koh Cleaning Products Review

Cleaning is an essential part of living. Whether you’re a big fan of cleaning or one who begrudgingly does it only when necessary, having the right cleaning products can make the job easier, quicker and, therefore, slightly more pleasant than using a cleaning product that doesn’t work well.

I’ve written a few articles about cleaning but, even though I sometimes like to make my own cleaning solution with vinegar and dish soap, I always have a supply of Koh Universal Cleaner in my house.

I’ve been using KOH for a long time now, in fact, you might even say I was an early adopter of the product, right back to the time when it used to be called Ecoworx. If you’ve not heard of KOH before (seriously? Where have you been?) I’ll tell you a bit more about it.

KOH is a cleaning system that you can use in every area of your house. The essential part of the Koh cleaning system is the KOH Universal Cleaner. This is a clever combination of Potassium Hydroxide (hence the name KOH if you can remember any chemistry from your high school days) and water.

The Universal Cleaner comes in a cask – just like a wine cask – and from that cask you can dispense the cleaning liquid into the spray bottle and/or the spray mop. Then it’s a simple spray and wipe action to clean just about anything in your home.

As I’ve said, I’ve been using KOH for years and the only negative I have to say about it is that it doesn’t smell. As someone who loves all things smelly (scented candles, air fresheners, diffusers etc. – I love them all!)

I find cleaners with no scent a little uninspiring. I like things to smell clean and fresh after I’ve gone to the effort of cleaning them, whereas, after cleaning with KOH Universal Cleaner, there is no smell at all.

KOH discovered this was a fairly common complaint from their users and so they introduced a small range of essential oils that can be added to the cleaner if you’re looking to produce that lovely fresh smell.

I’ve never tried the essential oils from KOH as I have a fairly extensive range of essential oils myself, but I do usually add some lavender or orange oil to my KOH – especially in the spray mop as I like to get a nice hit of fresh, essential oil smell as I clean my floors. If you’re someone who can’t stand smells, especially cleaning product smells, you’re going to love cleaning with KOH!

KOH For Oven Cleaning

I have full confidence in KOH’s cleaning ability and have been using it in my bathrooms for years but, where it really shines is in the department of oven cleaning. This is where the lack of a scent is really helpful as you don’t want your oven smelling like oven cleaner.

Cleaning your oven with KOH is easy, and you can actually immediately see the results of your efforts thanks to the incredible KOH diamond sponge. Here’s a picture of my dirty oven as well as my spray bottle of KOH and a diamond sponge:

And here’s a close up of that dirty oven door to really give you a good ‘before’ shot:

Now prepare to be amazed! 

A thorough spray with KOH, leave it for 2-3 minutes, and then a quick scrub with the diamond sponge, followed by a final wipe down with the regular green KOH cleaning cloth is all it takes to make your oven door look brand new again! Here’s a picture showing half of the oven door cleaned while the other half is still yet to be scrubbed:

And here’s the oven door when it has all been sprayed and scrubbed with the diamond sponge but is just needing the final wipe down with the green cleaning cloth:

And, the final result of my beautiful, clean oven:

It’s so quick and easy to do that I find I clean my oven a lot more regularly than I did previously, which in turn, no doubt, helps to make cleaning the oven with KOH even easier every time I do it.

No smell and no oven downtime – the whole process takes a matter of minutes and you can use your oven straight after cleaning, unlike some of the spray-on oven cleaners that need to sit on your oven surfaces for hours and leave your kitchen smelling like toxic fumes.

So, it’s safe to say that I highly recommend using KOH to clean your oven!

KOH Grout Cleaner Review

I tend to buy my KOH Universal Cleaner in bulk – a couple of casks at a time to save on shipping, so I only put an order in with KOH every 12-18 months or so. The last time I ordered, I decided to treat myself to a Grout Cleaning Brush. I have light coloured floor tiles and, especially in the high traffic areas like the kitchen, the grout gets really discoloured.

I’ve tried all sorts of ways to clean the grout, the most effective so far has been some White King bleach scrubbed along every grout line, but it was time consuming, messy and my kitchen smelled like a swimming pool. So, I thought it was time to give the KOH grout cleaning brush a try.

As you can see, it’s a fairly straightforward looking brush designed specifically for cleaning grout – and it works! Cleaning your grout with Koh is just as simple as cleaning your oven, but, instead of the diamond sponge, we use the grout brush.

Begin by generously spraying the grout with KOH and then leaving it for a minute or two. Here’s me spraying my floor tile grout with KOH (see how discoloured my grout gets?). 

Then you want to get in there with the grout brush and give it a good hard scrub – this takes a bit of elbow grease.

I tried to take a picture that would show the difference – it doesn’t show up as clearly in the photo as it did in real life, but you can get the idea from this picture where I have cleaned the horizontal grout line but not the vertical grout line yet:

When you’ve finished scrubbing grout lines, give the whole floor a once over with the KOH spray mop – this mop is a lifesaver! It gets used almost daily in my house – we have very light coloured floor tiles that show up any drips and spills but it takes no time at all to grab the KOH spray mop, give it a couple of squirts and mop all over the kitchen floor.

It dries really quickly too so you can almost walk on it straight away without leaving any footprints. The pads that come with the mop then just get thrown in the washing machine ready to wash and use again, it’s a very neat, simple process.

I have had my spray mop for many years now and, while I love it and use it almost daily, it is not perfect! The handle got a bit wobbly to the point where it was going to break.

You can see in my picture here that I have solved this problem by wrapping some tape (I think this was electrical tape that I happened to have in the drawer, but any kind of duct tape would do the job) around the part that was beginning to crack.

Since applying the tape the mop feels a lot sturdier again. I probably could have reached out to the company and asked for a replacement but, it was a couple of years old before this happened. Also, I think my height could be a problem for the mop.

I’m around 6 foot tall (in shoes) and this mop is not designed for tall people. I think my mopping action may have caused the eventual crack in my mop handle. I don’t know if any of you have ever tried the Enjo floor cleaner? I still have one that I use as my broom.

If you’ve ever been to an Enjo demonstration party, you’ve probably learnt that the height of your mop handle should reach up to your nose! Enjo’s floor cleaner is adjustable for your height so my broom/sweeper is set at a much longer handle than the KOH spray mop offers. The KOH mop is not adjustable in height but, if you’re short to average in height, it will probably suit you fine.

Regardless, I’m a fan of the KOH spray mop as it makes it quick and easy to mop over my floors. The grout cleaning brush works really well too, but it’s still a mind numbingly boring task to scrub up and down every grout line and, unfortunately before too long the grout gets dirty all over again!

This has frustrated me so much that I’m exploring other flooring types for our new house that we’re about to start building as I don’t want to have to spend time scrubbing grout! Nevertheless, using KOH to clean your grout can take your floor from looking like this:

To this:

So it’s fair to say that the process works – I just don’t like doing it!

Cleaning With KOH

A spray bottle of KOH sits by the sink in my kitchen and, every evening after cleaning up after the evening meal, my benchtops and stove get a very light spray of KOH and a wipe down with a dry Koh cloth. It keeps my kitchen clean, grease free and in tip top shape.

I also keep a spray bottle of KOH in my laundry which gets pulled out for cleaning bathrooms and even for spot cleaning the carpet! This stuff is magical!

I’ll admit I don’t always clean my bathrooms with KOH – sometimes I like to try other bathroom cleaners such as my homemade vinegar and washing up liquid, and sometimes I just like to use commercial products from the supermarket – usually that’s when I feel I need a scented freshness boost! 

But, ultimately, I always come back to KOH – it’s the staple cleaner in my house. It gets used almost every day on my kitchen floors, every day on my kitchen benches, and is the only way I ever clean my oven now.

If you’ve never tried it before, I’d recommend beginning with the Home Cleaning Starter Kit. For around $100 you’ll get everything you need to start your KOH cleaning journey. You get the Universal Cleaner, a spray mop with 5 pads, a spray bottle, 4 microfibre cleaning cloths and 4 diamond sponges – all things that I use all the time.

The grout cleaning brush is sold separately so, if you’re just looking for a way to clean your grout, you might just want to buy the Universal Cleaner and the grout cleaner brush. 

You know I love to promote Australian businesses and, when they’re eco friendly as well, it’s hard not to love them. But, I’m only ever going to tell you that a product works if it’s true and there’s no doubt that KOH cleaning products are the real deal – did you see how clean my oven is?

If you’re looking for a new, eco-friendly way to clean and want to support an Australian business at the same time, then it’s time to start cleaning with Koh – your house will thank you!