April 21, 2020

Can surfactants be safely added to Benz biocides?

Can surfactants be safely added to Benz biocides?


A number of customers have asked about adding surfactants to our softwash biocides. So we thought to share the info with everyone.

We've listed the important points for easy reading

  1. Do not mix our softwash biocides with any surfactants, which is both unnecessary and could be problematic.

  2. Our softwash products come complete in themselves, are ready to use, and require no additional chemicals to be added (technically called "adjuvents").

  3. Bio Cleanze is intrinsically a fully bio-degradable surfactant in its own right and so requires nothing to be added.

  4. Lightning Cleanze and Tornado Cleanze have been carefully formulated with high performance bio-degradable surfactants, which keep the mix stable and help delay the natural degrading of sodium hypochlorite (aka SH). Poor quality, or inappropriate, surfactants often increase the rate of degradation of sodium hypochlorite.

  5. Adding another surfactant to any of our softwash biocides will:

    a) Not increase their effectiveness – and will likely lower it.
    b) Diminish their shelf life.
    c) Invalidate all UK and Irish government legal product approvals.


Quick tip: There are over 2000 surfactants on the market and it is critical for the performance and stability of a softwash biocide that only the correct ones are used. To give you an example, it took us and two industrial chemists over a year and countless trials to find the surfactant that you enjoy today in Tornado Cleanze.

So, fortunately for Benz customers, we've made applying softwash biocides as easy as it can get.  There's no messy and time-consuming mixing of active chemicals, surfactants and scent.

Just mix our ready-to-use products with water to get the dilution ratio you want for your softwash contract and brush and/or spray away. Life is simple with Benz! ☺


We hope this info is helpful and sincerely wish you great success in your soft washing business,

Ben, Leo, Fiona, Stevie & Anthony

Click here to explore the full range of Benz softwash cleaning products

Benz Softwash Bio Cleanze DDAC biocide & Benz Softwash Lightning Cleanze SH sodium hypochlorite biocide