Scrubbing Bubbles Toilet Cleaning Gel – A Review

While making my way through Wal-Mart the other day, I was accosted by a grandmother in a hairnet who handed me a nice four color pamphlet on Scrubbing Bubble Toilet Gel. As she pointed out the applicator and the convenience of just sticking a disc on the side of your toilet and flushing, I had an important question for her. Why the hairnet? It isn’t like people are worried about you getting a hair on their box of toilet cleaner. But instead of embarrassing Nana, I decided to pick up a box.

“How much is it?”

“$3.50, but each disc will last you a week.”

$3.50 for a six weeks worth of cleaning? Somehow that didn’t sound like a bargain. But I thought I’d make Granny’s day and pick up a box of the Scrubbing Bubbles Toilet Cleaning Gel. Good thing I had a coupon, because my elderly friend’s pamphlet was four pages of disturbing closeups of the product without a single discount offer in sight.

THE PRODUCT

Upon opening the box you are greeted with a two piece syringe that you must assemble. One part is a “gel holder” that holds the cleaning solution. The other is a blue dispenser sleeve that fits over the gel holder. When assembled, they look like something you’d use to artificially inseminate the Ty-D-Bol man’s significant other.

The instructions for Scrubbing Bubbles Toilet Cleaning Gel are simple. Starting with a clean toilet bowl, you place the applicator close to the rim of the bowl. You position the clear end of the applicator near the inside of the toilet bowl and you press toward the bowl as you hold down a button that will allow the dispenser to slide into the next slot. This ensures that the proper amount of gel is applied. You then pull the dispenser back, leaving what looks like a green toxic cake flower on your bowl. The applicator works pretty well.

DOES IT WORK?

Upon using the Scrubbing Bubbles Toilet Cleaning Gel, the first thing you notice is the overwhelming odor of perfumed chemicals, which is more offputting than pleasant. . It’s pretty clear that the disc will put out some serious stink counteraction during its short life on your bowl. But when you flush, you realize a problem with the overall design of the disc. The disc only keeps the water in the bowl clean, not the sides. While this may work in the older toilets that hold about 80 gallons a flush, today’s low-flow/high remnant toilets aren’t going to see much benefit from these discs beyond that smell. Scrubbing Bubbles Toilet Cleaning Gel does appear to put some soap bubbles in the toilet, they are so low in the bowl, that any cleaning they might be doing seems minimal. Additionally, if you do need to do some brush work between disc changes, you’re either going to have to work around the disc, or waste it by scrubbing through it. Still, a creative mom with boys might see some benefit by using these little suckers as targets for their lads with errant aim.

CONCLUSION

At $3.50 or more for six weeks worth of minimal cleaning, the Scrubbing Bubbles Toilet Cleaning Gel seems of no more benefit than the air freshener sticks that you fasten to the side of your bowl. While the product is certainly better than nothing, and better for your toilet than those cleaners you drop in your tank, the overall cleaning action and benefit of the Scrubbing Bubbles Toilet Cleaning Gel is minimal.