I’ve been around for about 3 years and there is something I’ve never understood. Why does everyone worry about “masking” the smell of bleach with lemons or cherries? Are you trying to not let your customer know you are using bleach? In my sales presentation, bleach is a main selling tool. I don’t think I have ever lost a job because of bleach. I explain how we use it, how we rinse the plants and what is does. By the time I finished I have housewives telling how much they like bleach and how they use it in their house.
A lot of my customers would hate smelling the SH, at least at full strength with no mask. Also i work on a lot of homes with 10k plus landscaping and they are very much aware that SH can kill their plants. I dont lie to them, i tell them straight up that we use SH which is the active ingredient in bleach, lets them know we done our home work over just saying bleach. If need be i will go into the whole SH is one of the safest chem as its just salt once it evaporates, and that they drink it, swim in it and use it to clean everything else. Even though bleach smell is clean the mask also helps me work in it better. And its the same as using something like pledge, people like the lemon smell, because it also smells of clean.
I never mention bleach because I never use bleach. Using “bleach” has a hackish, brute force connotation.
In my opinion the smell covering is just a bonus. The real purpose of of products like elemonator is to help uour mix stick to whatever your spraying it on and to boost the cleaning power of sh.
“The detergent we use has a chlorine base and a surfactant which is a sticky soap that helps it stick to the house to neutralize the algae and mildew. It’s gonna smell like a mix between pool water and lemon, but it’s completely biodegradable and safe for plants and grass if we prep right.”
I usually leave it at that. If they have other questions about it and rarely do they I’ll go into more detail about how the USDA recommends it for cleaning as well as many siding manufacturers so long as it’s diluted properly.
If you want to get technical bleach is one thing and sodium hypochlorite and pool shock are another. But I don’t think it’s saavy to not tell them what you’re using. In my opinion, and probably just my own, I think the more information they have, the better educated they feel about the process, and the less questions they have. Only one time was I ever asked “why is there a bleach smell?”
I wouldn’t feel good about someone throwing some mystery substance on my house. I just don’t feel like experts talking about super secret formulas. That’s infomercial stuff and I’m not trying to sell to people who buy from infomercials.
Again, just my own opinion, but honesty is the best policy.
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Elemonator just happens to smell like lemons. It also just happens to be the only surfactant that I really like. If it had no scent I’d still use it and still tell the customer where using a chlorine based detergent. And when they say, “oh, bleach.” I just tell them yes, but not exactly the same stuff you use for your laundry.
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Because there are lot more people who don’t like the smell of bleach than those who do. You may not lose any jobs from it but the addition of a more pleasing scent it certainly a bonus. I would think twice about using it if it was a separate product but since it’s already in the surfactant I use I’m not complaining.
