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CHOICE testing reveals best and worst surface cleaners

Most floor cleaners still no better than water.

New CHOICE testing has revealed the best and worst surface cleaners on the market. 

CHOICE's experts tested multipurpose cleaners, glass cleaners, kitchen cleaners, and floor cleaners to work out which ones you should keep handy for tidying up your home. 

See the full surface cleaner reviews here.

"As always, there's a real mixed bag of products on the market. Sometimes we find that the most expensive products will work most effectively, but other times it's the cheapest cleaners that will do a really great job. Luckily, CHOICE has done the hard work so you know exactly which cleaning products you should grab from the supermarket," says CHOICE expert Ashley Iredale.

"Floor cleaners performed particularly poorly, which is a continuing trend. In 2020 we gave the entire category of floor cleaners a Shonky award as most of them failed to perform any better than water. Unfortunately, they don't seem to have improved much since then," says Iredale. 

"CHOICE isn't able to recommend a single one of the 14 floor cleaners that we tested. There were only a few floor cleaners that performed better than water, and one even performed worse," says Iredale. 

Read more about which cleaning products scored worse than water here.

The Coles Ultra Floor Cleaner Sweet Orchard performed worse than water in our testing, with a score of 40%. 

Multipurpose cleaners 

Best multipurpose cleaner 

Nifti All Purpose Cleaner came out on top in our testing, receiving a score of 90%. 

Worst multipurpose cleaner 

Steer clear of the Strike Multi Purpose Cleaner Antibacterial Pomegranate & Vanilla, which received a measly 41% in our testing - the same score as plain water. 

Kitchen cleaners 

Best kitchen cleaner 

Dettol Healthy Clean Kitchen scored the top spot in our kitchen cleaner testing with a score of 90%. 



Worst kitchen cleaner

If you need a new kitchen cleaner, there are three that you should avoid. The following all scored 42%:

- Method Anti-Bac Antibacterial Kitchen Cleaner Sunny Citrus

- OzKleen Kitchen Power Degreaser

- McLintocks Vanilla Fresh Fridge & Kitchen Wipe Mild Vanilla Scent

Glass cleaners 

"When it comes to cleaning your windows and mirrors, it's important to use a specific glass cleaner. If you use a more general purpose cleaner for this job, you'll end up with smeared and streaky surfaces," says Iredale. 

Best glass cleaner 

Windex Original received first place in our testing, with a score of 81%. 

Worst glass cleaner

The Ajax Spray n' Wipe Glass came in last in our glass cleaner testing, receiving a score of only 34%. This means that it performed even more poorly than water, which scored 37% when it came to cleaning glass. 

Read about the cleaning products that scored worse than water here: https://www.choice.com.au/home-and-living/laundry-and-cleaning/surface-cleaners/articles/cleaning-products-that-are-worse-than-water

See the full surface cleaner reviews here: https://www.choice.com.au/home-and-living/laundry-and-cleaning/surface-cleaners

Media contact: Katelyn Cameron, 0430 172 669, media@choice.com.au