Welcome to my in-depth review of Clorox Greenworks Glass and Surface Cleaner!

Aren’t you excited to learn more about this product?

I am excited to tell you about it, that’s for sure! (No, I’m not being sarcastic, I genuinely love researching, testing, and educating.)

Not only will I give my honest opinion after using this product on various surfaces around my house, but I will also deep-dive into these topics: 

Agenda

1. Does it work? Ok, I already mentioned I would give my opinion, but this is the reason you clicked on this article, right?
2. Ingredients deep-dive: Where are they sourced? Do they biodegrade? Impact on the environment?
3. Label Claims: What do they actually mean?
4. Manufacturer sustainability model: Are they putting their money where their mouth is?
5. Product Packaging: Is it eco-friendly? Recyclable?
6. Where to purchase: Brick and Mortar Stores and Online
7. Cost: What’s the average price?
8. Alternatives: Comparable products on the market

Now, maybe you don’t have time right now to read my extensive review.

Maybe you want the Cliff’s notes version.

Well, I got you covered.

Here is an infographic with abbreviated information for your viewing pleasure.

Please feel free to stop by again when you have time to read the full version.

Until then, this should give you the information you need to make an informed decision.

I will start with some generic pros and cons before I delve into specifics.

Cons:

• moderate ‘chemical’ smell
• hands felt dry and itchy when cleaning without gloves

I used this product to clean my bathroom, kitchen, windows, and as an added bonus the interior of my car.

Here are the results.

In the Bathroom:

I don’t really have any complaints about the cleaning capabilities of Clorox Greenworks glass and surface cleaner.

It cleaned the porcelain sink, tub, toilet, and stainless steel fixtures pretty well.

I found it to be a pretty average cleaning agent.

Sorry, I don’t have any before and after pics of the bathroom. I goofed and totally forgot to take them. Bad Kathy! I will try not to do that again.

In the Kitchen:

I used this product to clean my countertops, sink, and appliances.

It worked OK on my countertops. It was really nothing to write home about, I still had to use lots of elbow grease to remove any stuck on food, such as dried on oatmeal.

My sink and appliances are stainless steel, so I will lump them in together.

Again, performance was really nothing special or spectacular.

Sure, it cleaned the surfaces OK, and did not leave streaks but really didn’t impress me on the whole in the kitchen.

Here are some before and after pics so you can judge for yourself.

From these far away pictures, it’s hard to tell whether or not this product works.

So here are some close-up before and after shots to help clarify things a little.

The part of the sink where the tap attaches always seems to have some build-up of miscellaneous on it.

Here’s how Clorox Greenworks performed on that tricky area.

As you can see, the water spots are gone but the build-up is still there.

And trust me, I used a lot of elbow grease to try and get that stuff off. It just was not happening with this product.

Here is how Clorox Greenworks worked on my stainless steel kettle.

Again, it did a pretty good job of shining up the kettle but did not clean off any of the build-up.

On the Windows:

I was actually pleasantly surprised by how well this product cleaned the windows.

The front windows of my house were particularly dirty from kids and a dog, as well as a gross build-up of winter mildew along the edges.

As I mentioned before, this product sprayed well, was streak-free, left no residue, and my window sills are still shining.

A few things I did not like about this product was that it had a strong chemical smell. It was quite bad when I was washing the windows. It gave me a headache.

I only encountered this really strong smell when I was washing the windows. Cleaning the bathroom and kitchen were fine.

I think it might have had to do with the sun shining on the windows, causing them to heat up and increase the smell. However, I am not an expert it was just my experience with this product.

The first thing I cleaned with this product was the windows and it almost caused me to not test it on any more surfaces, but I gave it another chance obviously.

That being said, it did do a really good job cleaning the windows. Check out the before and after pics.

In the Van

The last area I cleaned was my van. I don’t have any pictures because I wasn’t going to include it in this analysis originally.

This product is not designed for automobile cleaning so I didn’t think it would be fair to judge it on its performance.

After using it, however, I felt like I should include it because it did a really good job.

I thought for sure it would be headache-inducing because of the windows test, but it wasn’t.

I used it on a hot sunny day inside a stuffy van (doors and windows open most of the time) and it was fine.

The van was dirty. I’m talking hadn’t been cleaned all winter, with kids and a dog dirty.

It cleaned the hard surfaces really well without having a sticky residue like some car interior cleaners have.

It cleaned the inside of the windows just like the house windows, streak-free with no residue.

It’s been a couple of weeks since that cleaning and it still looks clean, which is amazing in a well used van.

Overall Findings

In my opinion, this is an average cleaner. It cleans the surfaces it is meant to clean just fine. Nothing stood out to me as being exceptional. It did clean the van quite well, but I consider that an added bonus.

Ingredients Deep-Dive

A positive about this product is that it reveals all of the ingredients on the label.

Pro-tip: If the ingredients are not listed on the label, put the product down and look for something else.

A company should have nothing to hide, especially if they are marketing a green product.

Here are the ingredients in Clorox Greenworks glass & surface cleaner in order:

• Filtered water: impurities are removed from the water
• Alkyl polyglucoside: 
  • biodegradable
  • plant-derived from sugars (glucose) and fatty alcohols
  • functions to make product foamy
• Corn-based Ethanol:
  • ethanol produced from corn (d’uh!)
  • biodegradable
• Fragrance with Essential Oils: specific essential oils not listed
• Glycerin: 
  • non-toxic
  • plant or animal-derived
  • purpose is to add moisturizing properties to the product
• Soda Ash (aka sodium carbonate):
  • synthetically produced from salt and limestone
  • water softener-  prevents calcium and magnesium ions from bonding with detergent
  • purpose is to improve cleaning efficiency of the product

Clorox appears to be trying to be as transparent as possible. They advertise a website www.ingredientsinside.com on the product label which lists all of their products and explains the function of each ingredient they use.

I looked up this product on their website and it appears that Clorox may want to update their information because there were a few discrepancies with their ingredients list.

Label Claims

• Shockingly Powerful

• 95% Naturally-derived

• Leaves surfaces shiny & streak free

What do these claims really mean?

Are they true?

Let’s find out.

Shockingly Powerful

This statement is just a marketing claim. There is no evidence required to substantiate the claim. No third-party verification necessary. LINK TO LABELS POST

95% Naturally-derived

The term ‘naturally-derived‘ is not regulated. It means that an ingredient was once part of nature.

However, it does not stipulate how far back in the processing chain the item was a whole, natural item.

While the ingredients in this product are in fact 95% naturally-derived, take this claim with a grain of salt.

Leaves surfaces shiny & streak free

This is an obvious marketing claim alluding to the efficacy of the product.

The only way to know if this claim is true is to try it out.

Luckily, I have done just that.

These claims are true.

Chances are if you have gotten this far in the article, you would already know that. But you may be one of those people who start articles in the middle or you just can’t remember what I said in my review.

If either of these sounds like you, please feel free to scroll back up and refresh your memory.

It’s OK, I’ll wait.

Now that we are back on the same page, let’s continue.

Clorox Sustainability Model

What is Clorox doing to minimize their impact on the environment?

Honestly, it does not appear that Clorox is doing a lot to minimize their impact on the environment.

Their website states that:

Since 2008, we’ve made it a top priority to go beyond environmental compliance and begin a long-term journey to reduce the footprint of our operations, improve the sustainability of our products and enhance the transparency and sustainability progress in our upstream supply chain, which involves ingredients and other materials that go into products and packaging.

So, let’s break this statement down.

In 2008, Clorox began a long-term journey to:

• Reduce its footprints
• Improve sustainability of products
• Enhance the transparency and sustainability progress in the supply chain

As far as I can tell, there hasn’t been an update to this statement.

As well, it is not very specific. It’s a pretty generic vow to improve their environmental sustainability practices without giving much detail.

There are hopefully good intentions outlined in this statement, however, more detail given to a plan and timeline would be more reassuring than this generic statement.

Product Packaging

I like how this product is packaged.

There is no extra annoying plastic wrapped around the nozzle.

The bottle is a plastic 2 TRY TO USE SYMBOL HERE recyclable.LINK TO RECYCLING ARTICLE

The nozzle is designed to be able to spray every last drop of cleaner, so after you spray the last bit of cleaner you should be able to just pop the whole bottle into the recycling bin.

Overall, I don’t really have any complaints. I think it is a well-designed bottle without any extra frills.

Where to Purchase

In the United States of America:

Walmart

Staples

In Canada:

Walmart

If you have your heart set on purchasing this product, head to Walmart or Amazon.

Cost

One of the pros listed waaaaay back at the beginning of this article was that this product is cheap.

In the United States the price is about $5.00 for a 32oz. bottle.

In Canada the price is about $3.00 for a 946mL bottle.

Please leave me any comments, questions, or constructive criticism. I would love to hear from you.