Did you know that bottles of conventional cleaning products are mostly water? Why buy, carry home, and store a bunch of water? And plastic cleaning product containers are bad for the environment. With concentrated cleaning products you just buy one durable glass bottle and a concentrate containing the active ingredients. Fill with some tap water and you’re ready to clean. An added benefit is that you can keep dozens of refills in the same space as one extra bottle of standard cleaner. Plus, as a car-free person, I find it much easier to carry these products home.
Grove and Blueland are two of the most popular options for concentrated cleaning systems. I’ve tried both and this is my honest evaluation.
I’ll assign points for things I think are especially good about their products, and detract for especially bad things. In the end I’ll add up all the points and declare the winners.
What Grove and Blueland Have in Common
Blueland and Grove’s concentrated cleaning products have a lot in common. Each sells refillable containers like spray bottles. To refill, you just mix in the concentrate with water. Voila!
Unlike many traditional cleaning brands, both companies are transparent about their ingredients, with a full ingredient list offered for every product.
Both Blueland and Grove are Leaping Bunny Certified cruelty free and EPA safer choice. They are free of phosphates, which can pollute water, causing overgrowh of algae which leads to “dead zones.”
Neither brand contains antibacterial agents. You might be thinking is this a good thing? But actually the FDA says they are unnecessary and there is no evidence they are good for anything. Many antibacterial agents are known to be toxic, especially to children. And the FDA notes there is some research showing these antibacterials might contribute to antibiotic resistance. According to the FDA, studies show that surfactants, which both brands contain, do a fine job in killing bacteria. Personally if I need really powerful disinfecting, I use my Bissell Steam-shot Pro, which uses very hot steam to clean instead of chemicals.
I’ve used many of both Grove and Blueland’s cleaning products over the years and found them to be effective at cleaning up most messes. I will occasionally reach for my steam cleaner or Blue Dawn for the worst messes like built up hard water deposits or extremely greasy surfaces.
Note while Blueland only offers concentrates, Grove offers non-concentrated products and additionally sells products from different brands on their site.
Difference 1: Refill types
While both Grove and Blueland refills are concentrates, they come in very different forms. Grove offers liquid concentrates in tiny glass bottles. Blueland offers tablets that foam when you mix with water, and that’s quite fun to watch.
+ 1 Blueland: refills are more compact
As you can see in this picture, I can fit A LOT Of Blueland refills in a very tiny space. They are much more compact and lighter weight. The Grove Refills come in a paper package with three tiny glass bottles, with metal lids.
+ 1 Blueland: Compostable refill packaging
Blueland refills come in compostable packaging. The Grove packaging is recyclable, but compostable packaging is different because it is fully biodegradable and you don’t need to worry about whether or not your locality has a particular type of recycling. If you have your own compost heap, you can throw it in there.
Spray Bottles
For spray cleaners, a good spray bottle can make or break the experience.
Do Blueland’s Bottles Still Have Durability Issues?
If you bought Blueland spray bottles in the past and they broke, you should e-mail Blueland for a replacement. The new bottles are more durable.
I initially was going to take a point off of Blueland’s score because when I bought their spray bottles in 2019, all three broke within a year. One developed a hairline fracture I didn’t notice and then leaked in my bathroom cabinet. UGH. But I emailed Blueland last month to see if anything had changed and they told me the new bottles are made with a shatter-proof plastic called Tritan. They also offered to replace my bottles even though it’s been years. If I do try them, I’ll update this review.
+ 1 Grove Spray Bottle Design
But I think the Grove spray bottles are the perfect spray cleaning bottles, especially the newer ones. They are a sturdy glass with a silicone sleeve, which makes them less likely to slip out of your hands or off surfaces. The newer spray bottles also have an easy labeling system which is important because my boyfriend is colorblind and I can’t just tell him “the glass cleaner is in a blue bottle.” I also like that they are shorter than the Blueland ones, which makes them easier for me to store.
You can’t beat the durability of Grove’s spray bottles. The one on the left in the picture above (with my own horribly written label) was bought in 2019 according to my records. That means the Grove spray bottle has survived years of my clumsiness.
Note they offer two designs now, and I’ve only tried the Twist & Slide.
- Twist & Slide: taller silicone sleeve, labels printed on glass
- Slide & Snap: shorter silicone sleeve, silicone labels
The only problem I have with the Twist & Slide is taking the silicone sleeve on and off is harder than it looks. You can’t really twist it, it’s more like remove the whole thing and rotate it. The glass under the silicone here was also cloudy and needed to be cleaned. This is a brand new bottle right out of the box.
But otherwise it’s a welcome improvement over the old labels I used (a poorly written sharpie).
Spray Cleaners
The original Blueland flagship product is their spray cleaners. They offer Multi-surface, Bathroom, and Glass cleaner. Grove offers similar products plus an after-shower spray. If you’re trying to understand why you’d need separate products, I found this blog post useful.
+ 1 Grove For Offering More Scents and Unscented
As I found both brands products effective, the main differentiator to me is the scents. Blueland’s spray cleaners each only come in one option each. Bathroom is Eucalyptus Mint, Multi-Surface in Fresh Lemon, and Glass + Mirror in Fragrance-free.
Grove offers all their main line in fragrance free as well as four other scents
- Lemon and Eucalyptus
- Lavender & Thyme
- Apple & Pear Blossom
- Orange and Rosemary
This is useful options to have whether you hate scents, like having a choice of scents, or are just picky about scents. I don’t care for floral scents, so I usually buy the Orange and Rosemary scented products.
Foaming Soap Dispensers
Foam soap dispensers use a special pump to dispense foaming hand soap. Unfortunately the pump is prone to problems. My Blueland pump stopped pumping after a year, and my Grove pump developed gross brown deposits after a year. I can’t give any of them any points here.
Foaming Soap
Weirdly while Grove sells the foaming soap dispenser they don’t sell their own brand of foaming soap. Blueland’s foaming soap is the product I order the most from them.
+ 1 For Blueland’s Foaming Soap, An Excellent Product
Unlike traditional liquid soap, I find Blueland’s foaming soap very gentle on my hands, which is important in Chicago’s dry winters. They come in many scents, though some are seasonal. Evergreen, only available in the winter, is my favorite and I always stock up on it.
Toilet Cleaner
Only Blueland sells a concentrated toilet cleaner.
+ 1 Blueland Toilet Cleaner, Another Excellent Product
And the toilet cleaner deserves a point because the toilet is the thing I clean most in my apartment and toilet cleaner bottles take up a lot of space. Blueland’s toilet cleaner is effective and takes up very little space.
Customer Service + Shopping
+ 1 Blueland: Offered to replace broken product
When I emailed Blueland about the broken spray bottles they went above and beyond. Blueland not only offered to replace my bottles (even though it has been years), but also offered useful information about how they’d improved their product so it’s less likely to break.
To contrast, when I emailed Grove about my broken foaming soap dispenser they only offered me some troubleshooting tips.
– 1 Grove: Autosubscriptions
You have to be careful with Grove because if you order an item, you’ll be auto-subscribed for future deliveries. It’s easy enough to delete and they do send out an email before they send out the subscriptions. But I think you shouldn’t be automatically enrolled in a subscription just because you buy something.
+1 Grove: Easy Availability At Target
Blueland’s products are only available online, but Grove’s concentrates are now available at most Target stores.
Products not reviewed:
I did not consider the following concentrated products because I haven’t tried them yet
- Grove floor cleaner (I love the Method floor cleaner too much to try other products)
- Grove laundry powder packs + sheets
- Grove room spray (I’m too attached to Enviroscent’s room spray)
- Blueland dish soap
- Blueland laundry detergent and booster
- Blueland dishwasher tablets
TLDR: The Final Score
Here’s the score:
- Blueland: 5 Points
- +1 Blueland: Refills are more compact
- + 1 Blueland: Compostable refill packaging
- +1 Blueland: Foaming soap
- + 1 Blueland: Compact toilet cleaner
- + 1 Blueland: Offered to replace broken product
- Grove: 2 Points
- +1 Grove spray bottle design
- +1 Grove: More scents
- -1 Grove: Auto-subscriptions
- +1 Grove: Easy availability at Target
Adding up the points, Blueland is the obvious winner. However, for specific products like the spray bottles, there are still many reasons to try Grove as well.
Here’s the full list of my recommended products:
One reply on “Grove vs. Blueland: Who Makes The Best Concentrated Cleaning Products?”
[…] important for the cold, dry winters we get here), easy to use, and kids love it. I also love concentrated cleaning products— instead of buying a whole new bottle, you buy small concentrated refills. Concentrated refills […]