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Haven’t you heard? It’s the only cleaner you need
– Bar Keepers Friend review
Here’s 5 reasons you need Bar Keepers Friend:
- save money instead of buying unnecessary expensive cleaners
- create more space in your under-sink cupboard, no longer full of other cleaning bottles
- easily use the same cleaner for each room in your house
- remove stubborn stains such as burnt-on food, limescale and hard water marks
- do your housework with a cleaner that actually works and is effective on multiple surfaces
This Bar Keepers Friend review is for you!
Think about it …
Instead of spending a fortune on the latest advertised cleaners, just use one cleaner. Imagine the extra storage space you’d have in your under-sink cupboard, if it wasn’t filled with so many cleaning bottles.
Why not use the “original and best” Bar Keepers Friend?
It’s a cleaning product sold in all major stores, it’s good value and has great reviews.
Take a look at the huge difference in my before and after photos below – I’d never used Bar Keepers Friend before, but the results speak for themselves.
What is Bar Keepers Friend?
Bar Keepers Friend is manufactured in the UK by Kilrock; a distributor of household products that are useful and actually work:
“From our factory in Chesham, Buckinghamshire, we design, formulate, blend, fill, pack, sell and distribute a full range of specialist household problem-solving and cleaning products. We also manufacture, under licence, the oldest cleaning product in the USA…Bar Keepers Friend.” [source: Kilrock.co.uk/about.asp]
Bar Keepers Friend began in 1882 when an Indianapolis chemist noticed how clean and shiny his tarnished pot became after cooking rhubarb. He soon formulated a non-bleach, soft-abrasive powder cleaner using oxalic acid (the active ingredient found in rhubarb leaves) and sold it to taverns to keep their bar fixtures clean – hence the name “Bar Keepers Friend”.
The same formula has been used in households for over a hundred years, to clean and polish their surfaces. It’s withstood the test of time and been recommended and passed from generation to generation. It’s tagline: “Once tried, always used”.
Bar Keepers Friend is the one cleaning product you need – the 5* reviews speak for themselves.
What can you clean with Bar Keepers Friend?
Bar Keepers Friend cleans, restores and polishes many different surfaces indoors and outdoors, and removes stains and deposits.
Various surfaces:
- copper, chrome and porcelain
- granite and brass
- china and glassware
- cookers and cookware
- stainless steel
- plastic, formica and fibreglass
- tiles and grout
- ceramic and stainless steel sinks, baths and basins
Various stains and deposits:
- water stains from shower glass
- mineral deposits from the toilet
- limescale and hard water deposits from taps and kettles
- brake dust from wheels
- tarnish and rust from bikes, tools and golf clubs
- scuff marks from smooth athletic shoe surfaces
- environmental stains from vinyl
- rust from garden tools and gates
- burnt-on food and rust from grills
Click here for a full list of recommended uses, here for a helpful pdf with further information, and here for even more before and after photos.
And if you’re wondering why it’s important that Bar Keepers Friend is VOC free: Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are a large group of carbon-based chemicals that evaporate with strong vapors at room temperature which can harm the environment and human health.
Even better …
It’s biodegradable, VOC free and chlorine free.
Kilrock manufactures Bar Keepers Friend as a powder, cream and liquid to suit your needs:
- 250g powder – soft abrasive, non-scratch stain remover and multi-surface powder which cleans, restores and polishes
- 350ml cream – soft abrasive, non-scratch power cream surface cleaner for stubborn surface stains, such as coffee, tea, fruit juice, felt tip pen etc
- 500ml liquid – non-abrasive power spray surface cleaner for all grease and grime in the kitchen and bathroom, including limescale
What’s it like using Bar Keepers Friend?
I looked forward to putting Bar Keepers Friend to full use and testing it on several different surfaces around the house.
I found what needed to be cleaned, and then set to work:
- bathroom tiles – the power cream cleaner made light work of cleaning the tiles. I used a pea-sized squirt of cream which cleaned several tiles before needing to rinse the sponge
- bathroom window – I used the power cream on my painted, wooden window frames to remove the condensation dirt. It seems to have worked fine but, perhaps for good reason, Bar Keepers Friend isn’t listed as a wood surface cleaner – it’s probably best to use it with caution in case it damages your woodwork
- bathroom taps – I used the power spray all over the taps and shower hose and left it to stand for a few minutes. I then wiped the area with a damp sponge to remove the hard water deposits which revealed shiny, clean taps and shower hose:
- oven shelf rack – my oven shelf rack is about 20 years old and hasn’t been cleaned to sparkling for as long as I can remember, so I was interested to see whether Bar Keepers Friend would work.I placed the powder stain remover on the metal rungs with a sponge, left it a few minutes, and then wiped [read: scrubbed!] it away. This removed some of the burnt-on food, so I then made a paste mixing the powder stain remover with water and wiped it on the first few rungs.It took a lot of elbow grease but, after several minutes, I managed to remove quite a bit of the burnt-on food, although crevices were difficult to clean. There’s still more to remove, but these are the results so far:
- kettle – I sprayed the power spray along the kettle base rim and spout edges which had hard water deposits, and left it to stand for a few minutes before wiping the residue away. I repeated this process about three times to get the kettle completely clean, but it now looks lovely:
- brass letterbox – as with the oven shelf rack, our brass-type letterbox has withstood 20 years of use and is discoloured and scratched. I wiped the letterbox with a damp sponge and then sprinkled over the powder stain remover, leaving it to stand for a few minutes. After about 30 seconds of scrubbing with a damp sponge, I began to notice the dirt starting to lift and reveal the shiny brass:
I love how Bar Keepers Friend can be used to clean so many household items and I was especially surprised at how well it cleaned my cooker shelf rack and letterbox – I wasn’t sure if 20 years of ingrained food and dirt would prove too much of a test.
I can see why the Bar Keepers Friend’s tagline is “Once tried, always used”.
Where can you buy Bar Keepers Friend?
Bar Keepers Friend is excellent value for money at less than £3.
It’s sold in major stores such as Lakeland, John Lewis, B&Q and Amazon, or can be bought direct from Kilrock.
You’ll soon notice how well it cleans, and how sparkly all your pots, pans, tiles and taps can be.
Note: this review is a general resource, not intended to be professional advice.
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