Bleach is the easiest cleaning product to make and the easiest to make badly. There is no real formulation, it is dilution, stabilisation and packaging, but each of those three has a trap in it.
Start with real strength material
Sodium hypochlorite is sold at 12 to 14 per cent available chlorine, and it loses strength from the day it is made. Heat accelerates it dramatically. Material that has sat in a hot store for two months may be well below its label, so buy from somewhere with turnover and check the strength rather than trusting the drum.
Dilution
For household bleach at roughly 3.5 per cent, one part of 14 per cent hypochlorite to three parts water gets you close. For a 3 per cent product, one part to four. Always add hypochlorite to water, never water to hypochlorite, and never in a metal container.
Why your bleach goes weak
Three reasons, in order of frequency: it was stored in the sun or under an iron roof; the pH drifted down, because hypochlorite is only stable when alkaline; or it was made with hard water, and the metal ions in it catalyse decomposition. A small amount of caustic soda fixes the second, soft water fixes the third, and a shaded store fixes the first.
The packaging trap
Bleach generates gas as it decomposes. In a sealed bottle with a plain cap, pressure builds and eventually the bottle bulges or the cap fires off when a customer opens it. Use vented caps, or at minimum leave proper headspace and warn on the label. Never pack bleach into recycled soda bottles.
Safety, without the lecture
Bleach with any acid produces chlorine gas. This is the most common serious chemical injury in Kenyan cleaning work, and it usually happens when someone pours bleach into a toilet that has just had an acidic cleaner in it. Print the warning on your label. It costs nothing and it protects your brand as well as your customer.
Costing
Hypochlorite is cheap and water is cheaper, so the material cost per litre is very low. The problem is that bleach is heavy, low value and expensive to move, so the margin lives or dies on how far it travels. It works best sold locally in volume, or as a companion product alongside higher-margin lines.
If you want to go further
Thickened bleach with a small amount of surfactant clings to toilet bowls and sells at a premium. Scented bleach needs a fragrance rated for hypochlorite, because most fragrance oils are destroyed by it, ask us which ones survive before you waste a batch.
Materials used in this guide
Do you provide Safety Data Sheets?
Yes, for every chemical line, in the standard sixteen-section format, and before you buy rather than after. Message the product name and we will send the PDF the same day.
Can I get a certificate of analysis?
Yes, on request, for the specific batch supplied. Institutional buyers and anyone submitting to KEBS usually needs one.
What must never be mixed?
Bleach with any acidic cleaner, which releases chlorine gas. That single mistake causes more injuries in Kenyan cleaning work than anything else. Keep hypochlorite away from hydrochloric acid, sulphamic descalers and acidic toilet cleaners.
How should caustic soda be handled?
Add the flakes slowly to cold water while stirring, never the other way round and never in a sealed or glass container. The solution heats sharply. Gloves and splash goggles, not spectacles.
How do I store chemicals safely?
Off the floor, out of the sun, ventilated and lockable. Acids apart from alkalis, and both apart from hypochlorite. Peroxide and hypochlorite lose strength in heat, so avoid a metal store under an iron roof.
Do I need a KEBS permit to sell what I make?
If you are selling a finished cleaning product commercially, yes, and the applicable standard depends on the product. Start the process early. We can tell you which standard usually applies, though we are not a certification body.
