Review summary: An excellent toilet bowl cleaner with few negatives – find out why this is one of the RARE green cleaning products I’d suggest buying over making a homemade version yourself.

Product: Seventh Generation Toilet Bowl Cleaner, Emerald Cypress & Fir Scent from Seventh Generation

Use: As you might have guessed this toilet bowl cleaner, is surprise, used for cleaning your toilet. Shocking I know. The perk is that this product manages to clean and deodorize without the harsh fumes, harmful chemicals, or dyes that are found in most other toilet cleaners.

Cost: The best deal I’ve seen online is to buy Seventh Generation Toilet Bowl Cleaner in bulk at Amazon which works out to about $4 per 32 oz. bottle. It’s usually a little more costly at my local grocery store although it does go on sale from time to time. Seventh Generation also offers coupons at their website.

Ingredients: Aqua (water), lactic acid (plant-derived demineralizer), polyglucose, coceth-7, coceth-4 and deceth-5 (plant-derived cleaning agents), xanthan gum (natural thickener), peg-15 cocomonium chloride (plant-containing cleaning agent)*, essential oils and botanical extracts** (citrus aurantifolia (lime), abies balsamea (balsam fir), calilistris columellaris (emerald cypress).

Eco-perks:

• Non-toxic & biodegradable
• Does not create harsh fumes
• Safe for septic & greywater systems
• Not tested on animals
• Kosher-certified
• Bottle is recyclable and they place a “Please recycle reminder” on the bottle.

What I think:

To be honest, I’ve bought very few Seventh Generation products with my own cold hard cash. I LOVE testing products out for reviews, because I know many people won’t take the time to make their own homemade cleaners, so I want to recommend good products for these folks.

However, I do like to make homemade cleaners so buying cleaning products isn’t something I do much. Most of the time the cleaning products I review are sent to me free of charge from the company. Usually even if I like them, my brain thinks hmmmm, I could make this myself, I won’t be buying it.

Now, the above said, of all the home cleaning products I’ve reviewed, this toilet bowl cleaner is one of the very few that I have actually bought once the test sample ran out – with my own money. This cleaner is just that good.

The test run:

I cleaned two toilets in my first test run; one with this Seventh Generation toilet cleaner and one with the homemade cleaner I usually use – baking soda and lemon juice. In both cases I let the cleaners sit for a few minutes before scrubbing.

After cleaning both toilets smelled fresh. However, the  Seventh Generation toilet was far shiner and cleaner looking plus I didn’t have to scrub as much. This cleaner works crazy fast. Additionally, the Seventh Generation cleaned toilet stayed clean longer, smelled better longer, and there was no baking soda spilled on the floor to clean up (which usually happens).

Why I’ll buy this again…

• As noted above it works awesome. I’m not usually overly impressed with store-bought green cleaners, but this one rocks.
• I LOVE the scent, which is clean and fresh, but not at all chemical or perfume-like. I haven’t tried too many green toilet bowl cleaners, but the few I have tried (besides this one) still smelled kind of chemical to me. This scent is very pine-minded and clean.
• The bottle is well made with a small squeeze spout that gets the cleaner under the toilet rim easily.
• Lastly a 32 oz. bottle lasts you a good long while.

Were there any negatives?

• As with any store bought green cleaner, the biggest downside is packaging. If you make your own cleaners at home you lose this negative. I think Seventh Generation should sell a bulk size or a concentrated mix-your-own size to cut down on packaging.
• More expensive than homemade green toilet bowl cleaner (i.e. lemons and baking soda).
• I’m worried the scent might be too much for people who are scent sensitive. I loved the smell and didn’t find it overwhelming, but it’s noticeable, so I’d be careful if you’re a scent-free lovin’ type.

Overall score:

Four and 1/2 out of five happy little trees!

The bottle is an issue for me. One, I wish they had a bulk size. Even though the bottle is recyclable, it’s still a drain on resources. That said, I’ve bought this with my own money, which almost never happens if there’s a homemade option and I’m sure I’ll buy it again. It’s one of those rare instances where I’m going to recommend a store-bought cleaning product as better than homemade.

Helpful links…

• Learn more at Seventh Generation: Emerald Cypress & Fir Toilet Bowl Cleaner
• Buy at Amazon: Seventh Generation Toilet Bowl Cleaner, Emerald Cypress & Fir Scent, 32-Ounces Bottle

See my green product rating system and green product rating criteria or read more green product reviews.