Issue Date: 28 November 2018
Ref: DIV18/37
Ultra-Concentrates Offer Many Benefits
Cleaning teams continue to switch from bulk or ready-to-use products to ultra-concentrates to take advantage of enhanced sustainability, greater consistency and lower cost-in-use. Diversey offers ultra-concentrate products covering a wide range of applications so that cleaning teams can quickly, easily and economically prepare solutions for equipment such as spray and toilet bottles, sinks, buckets or cleaning machines.
One of the main reasons that ultra concentrates deliver reduced cost in use is that solutions are prepared at the optimum dilution for superior and consistent performance. This reduces the need for repeat cleaning which cuts wasted time, delivering an immediate productivity and efficiency gain. Considering the product contributes far less to the overall cost than the person doing the cleaning it makes sense to use products that maximum performance and productivity. Ultra concentrates also reduce the amount of product wastage because, unlike old-fashioned “pour-and-glug”, there is no guesswork involved in preparing solutions. Costs are reduced and predictable.
Ultra-concentrates also use less packaging than comparable bulk or ready-to-use products. This is because water is added at the point of use rather than the place of manufacture. A business using 100 cases of six 750ml single-use spray bottles could reduce plastic waste by up to 125.6kg (99.6% reduction) and up to 26.6kg less cardboard (98.9% reduction) by switching to Diversey's ultra concentrates and re-usable bottles. Changes like these also reduce supply chain burdens because fewer cases need to be bought, transported and stored to support any given operation. Transportation costs can be up to 20 times less and warehouse and on-site storage requirements up to 22 times lower.
To be truly efficient and economical ultra-concentrates should always be used with dosing or dilution equipment. Generally, the most accurate and therefore most economical systems utilise dilution control. These systems – typified by Diversey’s QuattroSelect platform – always mix product and water at the precise ratio to meet the manufacturer’s specification. Little or no decision-making or additional actions are required. All operatives need to do is press a button or squeeze a trigger and solution is dispensed directly into their bottle, bucket or cleaning machine. These closed systems also minimise the risk of people coming into contact with undiluted product, helping to enhance safety-in-use. Similar benefits are available on TASKI cleaning machines equipped with Diversey’s IntelliDose and IntelliFlow product and water management systems.
Ultra-concentrates are also available for food service applications with systems such as Diversey’s popular Divermite. Here products from the Suma range are supplied in pouches that are placed inside a wall-mounted dispenser. A simple press of a button releases sufficient ultra-concentrate – depending on product and dispenser configuration – for a spray bottle, cleaning bucket or hand dishwashing sink.
Many cleaning operations do not have the scale, frequency or intensity to justify the investment required for systems such as QuattroSelect. Instead, Diversey offers ultra-concentrates in two highly portable formats with similar levels of sustainability and low cost in use.
A popular choice among contract and in-house cleaning teams who need ultimate convenience and portability is SmartDose. Its unique dual-dosing capability allows cleaning operatives to dispense two different amounts simply by turning the container’s cap to one side or the other. A single container can dispense the right amount of product into any two different accessories - bottle, bucket, sink, cleaning machine - depending on configuration. Operatives only need to carry one container to support two cleaning tasks. Processes are made even simpler – and productivity enhanced - if the product has multipurpose or multi-surface performance. A 1.4 litre container of SmartDose multi-purpose surface cleaner, for example, can prepare 280 standard 500ml trigger bottles.
The big difference between dilution and dosing is accuracy. Dilution control systems always mix product and water accurately, consistently and automatically. There is simply no room for error. Dosing systems, however, while dispensing the same amount of product consistently cannot take into account the amount of water in the bottle, bucket or machine. This means that while product usage is effectively controlled there can be slight variations in the resulting solution. Nevertheless, in many applications – and particularly in small to medium sites where ultimate convenience and portability is required, and where water points are not always present, portable dosing systems can be more cost effective and easier to introduce than dilution control platforms.
Diversey products for building care, kitchen hygiene, food service, healthcare and many other applications are available in the QuattroSelect, SmartDose and Divermite formats, allowing cleaning teams and business owners to select the right ones for their particular operations and requirements.