How We Calculate

How the Cleaner Calcs tools work, where the guidance comes from and what the results can and cannot tell you.

Our approach

A calculator is only useful if you can see how it reached its answer. Each Cleaner Calcs page explains its method in plain language, names the formulas and published figures behind it and tells you which numbers are defaults you should replace. We use published formulas and public sources, we avoid hidden assumptions and we do not let advertising change a result.

Dilution and sanitizing

Dilution is ratio arithmetic: to make a solution of a given strength from a concentrate, mix a set number of parts concentrate with a set number of parts water. The calculators scale the ratio to the amount you want to make and show the concentrate and the water separately. Bleach sanitizing ratios follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance on cleaning and disinfecting with bleach. The difference between cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting follows the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: cleaning removes soil, sanitizing lowers germs and disinfecting kills them, and the claim a product can make depends on the product and the contact time on its label.

Brand ratios

Brand pages translate a manufacturer’s label directions into the amount you want to make. They use each maker’s own published dilution instructions, including EPA-registered label directions where a product is a disinfectant, and the label always takes priority over the page. Product formulas change from time to time, so check the bottle in your hand.

Mixing and surface safety

The can-you-mix pages explain which combinations release harmful gases or form dangerous compounds, for example bleach with ammonia or with vinegar. They draw on the CDC, Poison Control, America’s Poison Centers, the Washington State Department of Health and Transport Canada’s CANUTEC. Where no health agency page describes a particular pair of products, the page says so and explains the general chemistry. The surface pages say what a product is generally used on and what to test first, not whether your own surface will be fine.

Laundry

The DIY detergent and laundry stripping tools scale published recipes, such as the University of Florida IFAS Extension homemade laundry detergent recipe and instructions from Arm & Hammer and 20 Mule Team Borax, to your number of loads or your tub size. These recipes are widely published but are not tested standards, and the pages say where an amount is our own estimate. Detergent dosage follows the detergent maker’s and washer maker’s guidance for load size, soil level and water hardness.

Quizzes

The three quizzes ask a few questions and match you to a cleaner, a DIY recipe or a stain-removal method using fixed rules. They are a starting point and do not replace the product label.

Limits

A ratio on a page is not a lab result. Water hardness, product age, temperature and the surface all change how a cleaner behaves, and we do not test household products. Read the label, ventilate the room and, if you are unsure, do not mix products.