Vanish (toilet cleaner)
Vanish may refer to either of two unrelated brands, one by S. C. Johnson and one by Reckitt Benckiser.
Vanish toilet bowl cleaners (S.C. Johnson)
In North America, Vanish is a brand of toilet bowl cleaner manufactured by S.C. Johnson. They obtained the brand through the purchase of The Drackett Company in 1992.
Drackett purchased the product from inventor Judson Dunaway of Dover, New Hampshire, who introduced Vanish in 1937 as a competitor to Sani-Flush, a toilet bowl cleaner made since 1911. The products were substantially the same. The active ingredient in crystal bowl cleaners is sodium bisulfate (also known as sodium hydrogen sulfate). Surfactants are added.[1] This forms sulphuric acid when mixed with water. The last Sani-Flush patent had expired in 1932.[2]
Most other household cleaners are basic (alkaline) in nature.
In 1947, Hygienic Products sued Judson Dunaway on grounds of trademark infringement and unfair competition. Sani-Flush used a yellow 22-ounce can showing a woman pouring bowl cleaner into a toilet. Initially, Vanish sold their product in a white 22-ounce showing the bowl cleaner coming from the bottom of the "I". After WWII, Vanish advertising started to show a woman pouring the product into a toilet bowl, and then a hand, obviously female, pouring powder into a toilet bowl. Dunaway won on appeal.[3]
With the withdrawal of sodium bisulfate toilet bowl crystals from the marketplace circa-2009, the Sani-Flush name and US trademark were abandoned; the Vanish brand remains in use, but only to identify other toilet cleaners (with differing formats and chemistry) from the same manufacturer. An in-tank toilet cleaner, intended to compete with 2000 Flushes and Clorox automatic, was introduced under the Vanish brand in 2000. Initial problems with in-tank cleansers damaging toilet flappers, allowing water to leak into the bowl, were addressed by adding new durability and marking requirements for flappers to the ASME A112.19.5 standard in 2005.[4]
A Vanish Thick Liquid Disinfectant Bowl Cleaner sold for industrial and institutional use only is 9.25% hydrochloric acid by weight.[5]
Vanish is now sold in the US under the Scrubbing Bubbles Vanish Continuous Clean Drop-Ins brand,[6] reducing the Vanish name to a sub-brand.
Vanish Stain Remover
In most countries outside North America (including Australia, India, South Africa, the United Kingdom and much of Europe),[7] Vanish is a brand of stain removing products produced by Reckitt Benckiser. In North America, these products are sold under the Resolve brand name.
The product line is not related to the North American toilet cleaner brand. Most Vanish products are designed for removing stains from clothing, with some for removing stains from carpets.
In Australia, Vanish has replaced 'Preen' in media advertising voiceovers as the name for the pre-treat clothing stain remover, although "Vanish Preen" and "Vanish Napisan" continue to appear as sub-brands. Vanish's marketing slogan, as of January 2011, is "Trust Pink, Forget Stains".[8]
References
- ^ Vanish Toilet Bowl Crystals-discontinued, Household Products Database, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda MD 20894 USA
- ^ Cleaning and disinfecting powder for the removal of stains, incrustations, &c, Patent US 1118209 A, Leo A Mattes, filed July 7, 1914
- ^ 178 F2D 461 Judson Dunaway Corporation v. Hygienic Products Co, United States Court of Appeals First Circuit. December 15, 1949.
- ^ Toilet flappers - The former weak link of water conservation, John Koeller PE, April 2008
- ^ MSDS for Vanish Thick Liquid Disinfectant Bowl Cleaner, Drackett Co, division of SC Johnson, 2002
- ^ http://www.scrubbingbubbles.com/Products/Pages/vanish.aspx
- ^ "Our Brands (T-Z)". Reckitt Benckiser. Retrieved 2014-07-27.
- ^ Vanish Stain Remover, Australia
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