What would happen if bleach went back to non-Cloromax?

[C3Cl3N3O3]

So at the local Harris Teeter the American Bleach Company bleach has been replaced with A-1 bleach. It has a "fabric protection" logo on the bottle, so I assume this is a no-go for pools.

I have access to 10% but I like to grab two or three gallons of regular bleach at the supermarket as I am there more frequently. This improves the convenience factor for me substantially by stretching my supplies. There is a cleaning bleach stocked but it is "low concentration".

So what would happen if this trend suddenly reversed and bleaches went back to the non-Cloromax formulations?

Would my socks disintegrate in the dryer in a poof of fabric dust?

Would my underwear go to pieces while being worn, leaving me to go "commando"?

Would these fears drive people across the world to boycott "New Bleach" (which is really "Old Bleach")?

Help me understand why making the product unusable for the people who buy a dozen gallons at a time is a sound business decision.

 

[Cwiggs]

That's a good question. Perhaps they did market research and just noticed that when you put fancy logos on the bleach people buy it more?

 

[JamesW]

There are idiots at most big companies that have no real value, so they just continually fabricate stupid nonsense in an effort to justify their existence.

They create modifications that they try to sell to the clueless executives who also want to try to justify their continued existence to the board of directors.

They just need to give marketing something to use to try to make their product appear to have something that competitors don’t have.

Too many consumers just buy the hype with zero proof that there is any benefit.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

FPT (Fabric Protection Technology) is just an oxidizer-stable surfactant that leaves a thin film layer behind on fabric to improve the dirt/stain resistance of surfaces as well as resistance of microorganisms to form colonies. This is acceptable from a cleaning and laundering standpoint but not a pool disinfectant standpoint. Clorox’s laundry business is orders of magnitude larger than their pool business. That and laundry bleach is not intended for pool use. So Clorox could really care less what the pool owner thinks ….

 

[AK-]

That's a good question. Perhaps they did market research and just noticed that when you put fancy logos on the bleach people buy it more?

Probably the other way around. It is more likely they have no idea why people by their products and unless someone in a relatively high position and in the right area on those companies comes across TFP they will be completely clueless about use of bleach in pools. I’m quite sure they believe Americans use a lot of bleach for laundry…

Have anyone ever contacted a company such as The Clorox Company to tell them how much bleach we use per year and none of it is manufactured by them?

 

[JamesW]

Even for their products that are made specifically for pools, Clorox seems to be either clueless or actively hostile to pool owners.

They add unnecessary things like copper to their trichlor or iron to their salt for some reason.

Try our 18-in-One Super-Duper multi-product. It whitens, it brightens, it stains your pool!

Don’t ask what the ingredients are because they are a proprietary, top secret blend of 18 special chemicals that will do things you can’t imagine.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Have anyone ever contacted a company such as The Clorox Company to tell them how much bleach we use per year and none of it is manufactured by them?

None of it is manufactured by Clorox …

The thing to understand about the Clorox Corporation is that they are simply a cleaning product holding company. Clorox manufactures NOTHING. They contract out their manufacturing to chemical suppliers and set standards for what will be in a product. Then the manufacturer slaps a Clorox label on it, sells it bulk into the supply chain for wholesale distribution and, eventually, retail customers. KIK Industries is their main bleach manufacturer and KIK makes the same bleach for Clorox, Great Value, Target, etc, etc. The ONLY difference is the label on the bottle. This is how a lot of consumer products are made including packaged food - if you think there is one bit of difference between Green Giant frozen peas and the generic store brand, you’ve been duped by the marketing department.

 

[C3Cl3N3O3]

Why not put the FPT in pods sold separately? Then you can use it on colors too.

Personally I'd estimate I use 50x more bleach for my pool than I do for laundry. I hope Clorox's bean counters know what they are doing.

 

[DanF]

Why not put the FPT in pods sold separately? Then you can use it on colors too.

Personally I'd estimate I use 50x more bleach for my pool than I do for laundry. I hope Clorox's bean counters know what they are doing.

Not a bad idea to sell the FPT separately but most folks gravitate to the convenience of an all-in-one.

YOU may use more bleach for your pool, but everyone does laundry and only a fraction of us have pools. If you further divide the pool owners into those that sanitize with liquid versus solid chlorine versus SWCGs, I'm guessing it's too small a market for Chlorox et al to worry about. Add to that any pool owner north of the Sunbelt will only be sanitizing 4 months of the year.. I could be wrong however.

 

[C3Cl3N3O3]

Not a bad idea to sell the FPT separately but most folks gravitate to the convenience of an all-in-one.

YOU may use more bleach for your pool, but everyone does laundry and only a fraction of us have pools. If you further divide the pool owners into those that sanitize with liquid versus solid chlorine versus SWCGs, I'm guessing it's too small a market for Chlorox et al to worry about. Add to that any pool owner north of the Sunbelt will only be sanitizing 4 months of the year.. I could be wrong however.

I don't disagree. But the trouble with using FPT as a differentiator is that it didn't last. All the laundry bleaches have it now. So now your customers either don't care much about it OR are completely turned off by it. That's not the sort of reaction you want to a product change. But I'm an engineer, not a marketer.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

FPT is added to all bleach products because Clorox licensed it to the major bleach manufacturers (KIK industry, etc) and now all bleach products have it. Therefore Clorox gets a slice of the revenue for every gallon of bleach sold with FPT no matter which branded supplier it goes to … genius! KIK and others actually have to go out of their way now to make bleach WITHOUT FPT in it. You can occasionally find a random brand of bleach without FPT in it but it is usually sold to the healthcare facility market (like nursing homes and skilled care facilities).

 

[C3Cl3N3O3]

FPT is added to all bleach products because Clorox licensed it to the major bleach manufacturers (KIK industry, etc) and now all bleach products have it. Therefore Clorox gets a slice of the revenue for every gallon of bleach sold with FPT no matter which branded supplier it goes to … genius! KIK and others actually have to go out of their way now to make bleach WITHOUT FPT in it. You can occasionally find a random brand of bleach without FPT in it but it is usually sold to the healthcare facility market (like nursing homes and skilled care facilities).

Interesting you mention healthcare. I presume they don't want mystery fabric protection residues remaining after they sanitize surfaces like stainless steel?