Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Earthworm Cleaning Products Series Odor Eliminator and Upholstery Cleaner

Good morning folks and thanks for joining us for the final installment of the Earthworm cleaning products series. Clean Earth Brands sent me two full boxes of their fine products to review and Leaf Rate. I have used all of the products sent to me to date and today I would like to discuss both the Odor Eliminator and Carpet and Upholstery Cleaners.

Before I go on I would like to remind everyone that this is the final installment of a long running series on Earthworm products and that out of the gate there were some fabulous benefits as well as an overall impressive factor to the products that did seem to work but sadly as I have used more of these items I have become less enthusiastic and more concerned for their effectiveness and truthfulness in marketing.

I shook up and sprayed the Carpet and Upholstery Cleaner on a small spot on Matt’s chair (that you can see just in front of the bottle in the picture above) and the Odor eliminator across our kitchen where we had cooked with onions the night before & they were still lingering. As instructed I let the Upholstery Cleaner sit for about seven minutes. I grabbed the suggested rag and began blotting. Nothing happened so I figured perhaps I didn’t leave it on long enough and re-sprayed, this time leaving it on for twelve minutes. This is the result of two applications:


As you can see there was literally no change at all to the spot. I tried it on a black spot on my carpet with similar results. Sadly the Odor Eliminator also gets my thumbs down as my kitchen still smelled like onions.

As I mentioned yesterday -- What most concerns me, is that every single product I have tested so far is comprised of the exact same ingredients, which leads me to wonder if it is the same product repackaged with a new name and sold as something different -- how could a mildew remover take a spot of dirt off my upholstery or smells out of the air?

Sorry Earthworm, although I truly send ♥love♥ out for your effort to make the planet a better place through lack of chemical composition, I smell Greenwashing here and I can not grant more than a Two Leaf Rating for these products, collectively.




It saddens me to end this series on a downer note but I truly believe that the consumer should be aware of what it is they are buying when they spend money on an alleged Earth friendly item.

5 comments:

Almost Precious said...

The same ingredients even in the odor eliminator, hmmm, now that is strange. Well it sounded like a good idea to start with, too bad they couldn't follow through on their promise.

Guess the safest and most eco friendly scrubs, cleaners and polishers are those household staples such as baking soda, salt, vinegar and banana peels. =D

Unknown said...

Definitely! And don't forget lemon juice is a great stain fighter and oregano has some anti-bacterial properties as well.

Banana peels I've never heard of, tell me more...???

Anonymous said...

I am using the Earthworm upholstery cleaner on an antique couch that is extrememly soiled w/ cigarette smoke residue and you-name-it. and I'm getting much better results than I expected! I let the cleaner sit for maybe 15 mins., and I'm doing a lot of rubbing, but the fabric is surprisingly strong and is really cleaning up! I love OxyClean, but I tried that for this job and it didn't work nearly as well as the Earthworm product. I think we should all test this product some more before giving up on it. I like it a lot so far.

Unknown said...

I've also had really impressive results with the upholstery/carpet cleaner. I used it on the (very old) carpet in my apartment AFTER the carpet cleaner guys told me they could not get out some stains. Well I don't know what they used, but this Earthworm product got out about 50% of the stains. It doesn't work on all of them, but for others it completely removes them.

Sarah E said...

I've had pretty good luck with the Earthworm Carpet cleaner, actually, but only when I follow a specific routine. This has helped me get pet stains, laundry detergent, beer, tea (w/milk), and acrylic paint stains out of our carpet.

I spray it on lightly (just 1-2 sprays, enough to cover the full width of the stain). Then I let it sit for 10 minutes. Then I take a washcloth/terry rag, run it under very hot water, and wring it out until it's damp. I scrub the sprayed stain vigorously with the warm damp rag, and often wet it again and scrub it a second time. On very dark stains I've had to repeat this the next day (once it's dry). But after some trial-and-error I've figured out how to make it work.