Which Selleys cleaning product do you need, and how is the range organised?

The Selleys cleaning and maintenance range covers everything from cleaning marks off your walls, to cleaning your BBQ, to getting rid of mould. Because it spans that much ground, the useful way to navigate it is not by brand but by what the surface is and how tough the soiling is — those two questions decide almost every choice in this category.

The second thing worth understanding before you buy is the difference between the format options. Many jobs here are offered as a spray, a concentrate and a wipe. Concentrates are for large areas and preparation work; ready-to-use sprays are for a specific mess; wipes are for maintenance, keeping a surface from reaching the state where the heavy-duty product is needed. Choosing the wrong format is the most common reason a cleaning product disappoints.

What this category covers

Cleaning around the home, with sub-categories for the bathroom, the kitchen, the BBQ, the oven, glass, mould removal, multi-purpose cleaners, outdoor cleaning, lubricants, cloths and an other section. Whether you need to scour or to wipe, Selleys notes that Wash Up Wiz and Super Cloth work well with all of its cleaning aids.

How to choose

For tough jobs: grease, grime and burnt-on dirt

All of the Selleys BBQ cleaners are designed for tough cleaning involving grease, grime and burnt-on dirt. A BBQ is exposed to a lot, and the aim is to get it sparkling and hygienically clean without too much effort. The range covers BBQ Tough Clean, BBQ Tough Grease & Grime Cleaner and BBQ Tough Wipes.

The oven is the same problem behind a door. Selleys Oven Plus Heavy Duty Gel is the heavy-duty option there, with Oven Wipes to maintain the result and Oven Clean as the other cleaner in the range.

Elsewhere in and around the home, Selleys Sugar Soap Wipes and Tough Wipes suit daily cleaning — marks off walls, or stubborn dirt off other surfaces.

For general and large-area cleaning

The Sugar Soap family is the workhorse here, and it is worth knowing which member does what. Selleys Original Sugar Soap is a professional strength, high performance formula that powers through tough grease and grime, and is also recommended for cleaning surfaces prior to painting and wallpapering — that preparation role is the reason it turns up on so many job lists. Original Sugar Soap Super Concentrate is the version to dilute for larger areas, and Instant Sugar Soap is ready to use, formulated to remove marks and stains from walls and floors without scratching.

For floors specifically, Selleys Sugar Soap with Disinfectant for Floors is a professional strength formula that powers through tough stains, dirt, grease and grime while leaving surfaces hygienically clean. Selleys Super Kleen is the heavy-duty cleaner for tough stains and grime, and Selleys describes it as suiting a variety of surfaces.

For disinfecting: the Complete Clean range

Complete Clean is the range built around killing germs as well as cleaning. Selleys states that Complete Clean Multipurpose Spray has been formulated to kill 99.9% of germs and cut through grease, grime and stains within kitchens, bathrooms and other household areas, and that Complete Clean Multi Surface Floor Cleaner kills 99.9% of germs and powers through tough dirt. Complete Clean Multipurpose Disinfectant Wipes are the ready-to-use format of the same idea.

In the bathroom, Complete Clean Bathroom & Shower Spray is a household grade disinfectant cleaner for showers, bathtubs and toilets, with Bathroom & Shower Wipes covering showers, glazed ceramic or porcelain tiles, bathtubs, sinks and taps, stainless steel fixtures and fittings, and toilets. Complete Clean Toilet Gel is formulated to kill 99.9% of germs and help remove tough stains, and Complete Clean Power Gel Drain Cleaner is formulated to power through blocked drains and reduce odour-causing bacteria. Complete Clean Glass & Mirror Spray removes dirt, fingerprints and water spots for a streak-free finish.

For specialised surfaces

Selleys Super Kleen suits a variety of surfaces, but every home has surfaces and products that need a special touch. Selleys speciality cleaning products cover those — delicate cooktops, kettles, coffee machines and leather. Hillmark Leather Kleen does more than gently remove dirt from leather: it also protects by moisturising the leather and adding UV resistance to prevent fading. The speciality products are covered on the kitchen and speciality cleaning page.

For tiles, grout and mould

Tiles in bathrooms, kitchens and high-traffic areas need a bit extra. Selleys Rapid Mould Killer kills mould in under a minute and also eliminates a large spectrum of germs; it comes in 500mL and 750mL, the larger size being for larger areas.

Deal with the mould before you deal with the grout. Once that is done, Selleys Grout Stain Whitener brightens tired-looking grout: it covers or whitens stains and can also help protect against mould re-growth.

Outdoors

Outdoor cleaning holds the Outdoor Window & Glass Cleaner 2L and the Outdoor Multi-Surface Cleaner 2L. Selleys Water Shield is a water repellent that protects outdoor surfaces from water damage.

Cloths and lubricants

Selleys Super Cloth handles everything from countertops to tiled surfaces, and Selleys Wash Up Wiz is the scourer for when wiping is not enough. The lubricants section holds RP7 and Ezy Glide — maintenance rather than cleaning, but part of keeping a house working.

The safety divide in this category — format is the hazard, not the brand

The page above makes the point that format — concentrate, spray or wipe — is the most common reason a cleaning product disappoints. Format turns out to decide something more serious as well. Across four different parts of this range, the heavy-duty format is corrosive and the wipe version of the same job is not classified at all. The name on the bottle is a poor guide; the format is a good one.

Group	Products	Classification
Corrosive — Danger	Oven Clean, Oven Plus Heavy Duty Gel, BBQ Tough Clean, Power Gel Drain Cleaner	H314 causes severe skin burns and eye damage. Oven Clean is Skin Corrosion 1A and Poison Schedule S6; Oven Plus is 1B, S5 and Dangerous Goods Class 8; the drain cleaner adds H290 may be corrosive to metals
Eye damage — Danger	Original Sugar Soap Concentrate, Sugar Soap Original, Complete Clean Multi-Purpose Spray, Multi Surface Floor Cleaner, Complete Clean Toilet Gel	H318 causes serious eye damage (Category 1)
Flammable aerosol — Danger	RP7, Ezy Glide, Water Shield	H222 extremely flammable aerosol, H229 pressurised container. Ezy Glide adds H336; Water Shield adds H373 organ damage from repeated exposure
Warning	Instant Sugar Soap, Super Kleen, Sugar Soap Wipes, BBQ Grease & Grime Cleaner, Bathroom & Shower Spray, Glass & Mirror Spray, Grout Stain Whitener, Outdoor Window & Glass Cleaner	H319 serious eye irritation, some adding H315 or H317
Not classified as hazardous	Oven Wipes, Bathroom & Shower Wipes, Multipurpose Disinfectant Wipes	No signal word, no hazard statements

The pattern repeats four times, and it is the most useful thing on this page. Oven Clean and Oven Plus both carry H314 — severe skin burns — while Oven Wipes carry nothing. In the bathroom, the drain gel and toilet gel are corrosive or eye-damaging while the Bathroom & Shower Wipes are unclassified. In the multi-purpose range, the spray and floor cleaner carry H318 while the Disinfectant Wipes carry nothing. In the sugar soap family, the two you dilute are Danger while the ready-to-use ones are Warning. In each pair, the wipe or ready-to-use format is not a weaker version of the same chemical — it is a different formulation entirely, and the difference is larger than the product descriptions suggest.

The practical consequence is about timing, not about picking a favourite. A caustic cleaner is the right tool for carbonised residue and the wrong tool for a weekly wipe-round. Every time a routine maintenance wipe keeps a surface from reaching the state that needs the corrosive product, you have avoided the more hazardous job as well as the harder one. That is the argument for the wipes, and it is a safety argument rather than a convenience one.

Sugar soap's hazard belongs to the pour, not the wipe. Original Sugar Soap and the Concentrate are both Danger with H318 — serious eye damage — and both sit at about pH 11. Instant Sugar Soap is pH 10.6 and only Warning. The pH barely differs; what differs is the concentration in the bottle. The risky step is tipping half a cup of concentrate into a bucket at waist height, not wiping the diluted solution onto a wall. Wear eye protection while you dilute, which is the step almost everyone skips because the dangerous-looking part comes later.

Comparing the cleaners on the number that decides what they will do

Cleaning products are chosen on claims — tough, heavy duty, professional strength — but the figure that actually predicts behaviour is pH, and eleven products in this range publish one. Read together they span more than ten pH units, which on a logarithmic scale is a factor of ten billion in hydrogen ion concentration.

Product	pH	Dwell / contact time	Dilution and yield
Oven Plus Heavy Duty Gel	13.5 ± 0.5	30 minutes	Neat — 400 g bottle
Power Gel Drain Cleaner	>13	15–30 minutes	Neat — 1 L, child-resistant cap
Glass & Mirror Spray	~11	See product page	Neat — 750 mL
Original Sugar Soap Concentrate	11	See product page	½ cup per 10 L bucket — 1 L makes up to 80 L
Sugar Soap Original	~11	See product page	½ cup per 5 L — 750 mL makes up to 30 L
Instant Sugar Soap	Approx. 10.6	30 seconds; 1 minute on tougher jobs	None — ready to use, 750 mL
Multi Surface Floor Cleaner	8.5 – 9.5	10 minutes to disinfect	125 mL per 5 L to clean; per 2.5 L to disinfect
Outdoor Multi-Surface Cleaner	~7	Maximum 5 minutes — do not allow to dry	2 L covers up to 175 m²
Complete Clean Toilet Gel	<3.5	10 minutes undiluted	Neat — 700 mL
Bathroom & Shower Spray	<3	10 minutes to disinfect	Neat — 750 mL
Complete Clean Multi-Purpose Spray	2 – 3	10 minutes to disinfect	Neat — 750 mL

One brand name spans both ends of the scale, and the two ends must never meet. Complete Clean contains the Multi-Purpose Spray at pH 2–3 and the Power Gel Drain Cleaner at pH above 13 — a strong acid and a strong alkali under the same range name, often bought together for the same bathroom. Mixing them, or using one immediately after the other on a wet surface, neutralises both so neither works, and the reaction releases heat. Use one, rinse the surface thoroughly with water, then use the other. This is the single most important thing to take from the table.

Dwell time runs in two directions, and confusing them is why disinfectants often do not disinfect. For the Complete Clean sprays, the toilet gel and the floor cleaner, 10 minutes is a minimum — the contact time the product needs to make its germ-kill claim. For the Outdoor Multi-Surface Cleaner, 5 minutes is a maximum, and the instruction is not to let it dry on the surface. Spraying and wiping straight off, which is what most people do, cleans the surface but does not disinfect it. If the reason you bought a disinfectant is the germ claim, the ten minutes is the product; the wiping is incidental.

Concentrates are dramatically cheaper per bucket and dramatically more hazardous per bottle, and both facts come from the same place. A litre of Original Sugar Soap Concentrate makes up to 80 litres of working solution; 750 mL of Sugar Soap Original makes up to 30; Instant Sugar Soap makes 750 mL, because it is already made. That is roughly eighty times the working volume per litre at the concentrate end — and it is exactly why the concentrate is a Danger product and the ready-to-use one is not. If you are cleaning down a whole house before painting, the concentrate is the sensible buy and eye protection is part of the purchase. If it is a handful of marks on a wall, the ready-to-use bottle is both easier and milder.

Common questions about Selleys cleaning products

Which Sugar Soap should I buy?

Instant Sugar Soap if you want it ready to use on walls and floors; the Super Concentrate for larger areas and before painting; Original Sugar Soap for professional strength cleaning, including preparing surfaces prior to painting and wallpapering; Sugar Soap Wipes for everyday spot cleaning.

What is the difference between Sugar Soap and Complete Clean?

Sugar Soap is aimed at cutting through tough grease, grime and marks, including surface preparation before painting. Complete Clean is the disinfectant range — Selleys states several of its products are formulated to kill 99.9% of germs.

What should I use on a delicate surface such as a cooktop or leather?

Not the heavy-duty cleaners. Selleys directs delicate cooktops, kettles, coffee machines and leather to its speciality cleaning products — Hillmark Leather Kleen, for instance, cleans leather while moisturising it and adding UV resistance to prevent fading. See the kitchen and speciality cleaning page.

Which product removes mould?

Selleys Rapid Mould Killer, which kills mould in under a minute and also eliminates a large spectrum of germs. It is sold in 500mL and 750mL, the larger size for bigger areas.

Should I whiten grout before or after killing the mould?

After. Selleys frames it that way — once you have taken care of any unsightly mould, Grout Stain Whitener brightens tired-looking grout and can help protect against mould re-growth.

Do I need a special cloth?

Selleys says Wash Up Wiz and Super Cloth work well with all its cleaning aids. Super Cloth is the general-purpose wiping cloth; Wash Up Wiz is the scourer for heavier grime.

What is the difference between the BBQ cleaners and the oven cleaners?

Both target grease, grime and burnt-on dirt, but they are formulated and used differently — see the BBQ and oven cleaner pages for the application method and dwell time for each, which differ between products.

What should I use before painting a wall?

Original Sugar Soap is recommended for cleaning surfaces prior to painting and wallpapering, with the concentrates suited to larger areas such as walls and ceilings.

Is there something for outdoor windows?

Yes — Selleys Outdoor Window & Glass Cleaner 2L, in the outdoor cleaning section, which is separate from the indoor Complete Clean Glass & Mirror Spray.

What protects outdoor surfaces from water damage?

Selleys Water Shield, a long-lasting water repellent listed under the "other" cleaning and maintenance section.