We can’t stress enough that Cost-Per-Gallon of detergent does not always translate directly into Cost-Per-Wash. Expensive soaps can often be diluted further to do the same work as less expensive soaps that cannot be diluted. Don’t let sticker shock scare you; do the math when looking at a new detergent and remember that you get what you pay for! It’s almost always less expensive in the long run to use better detergent than to pay laborers to work harder or take more time with a job.
For example, two soaps are being evaluated to wash widgets. Widget Wash A costs $6.00 and can be diluted 100:1 and still effectively clean widgets. Widget Wash B is $2.00 per gallon, but cannot be diluted further than 20:1 and still effectively wash widgets.
Widget Wash A at $6.00 per gallon, diluted to 100:1 for ready to use soap only costs $0.06 per useable gallon
Widget Wash B at $2.00 per gallon, diluted to 20:1 for ready to use soap costs $0.10 per useable gallon.
In this case, the more expensive detergent is the better value! In addition, Widget Wash A can be easily strengthened to a stronger solution than Widget Wash B could ever hope to be by simply increasing the concentration. That can come in handy when cleaning really dirty widgets!