Shipping water across the country in plastic bottles never made much sense to us. So our spray refill tablets ship dry, and water is the one ingredient you add yourself, straight from your tap. Once a tablet dissolves, water becomes the main solvent: it dissolves the active ingredients and carries them across the surface so they can get to work. Because tap water varies from home to home, the most useful thing to know is how hard yours is.
Quick facts
- What it is: A solvent. Chemical formula H2O.
- Its job in our products: Dissolves and carries the active ingredients once you mix a refill tablet into it.
- Where it comes from: Your tap, when you refill a spray bottle.
- EPA Safer Choice: Green circle, as a solvent. Your tap water itself is covered by a separate law, explained below.
- EWG grade: A. See the EWG entry.
- CAS number: 7732-18-5
Hard water: the part that varies
Tap water varies by region, mainly in hardness: the amount of dissolved calcium and magnesium it carries. The U.S. Geological Survey rates water at 0 to 60 mg/L (as calcium carbonate) as soft, 61 to 120 as moderately hard, 121 to 180 as hard, and above 180 as very hard.
Those minerals cause two problems. They react with soap to form an insoluble residue (our saponified coconut oil page shows how), and they leave scale behind when water evaporates. That is one reason our laundry and dishwasher products contain sodium citrate, sodium gluconate or both. These are chelating agents: they bind calcium and magnesium so those minerals interfere less with cleaning. Our spray refill tablets do not list either one.
Your tap, your water
Public tap water is regulated under a different law from cleaning ingredients: the Safe Drinking Water Act, which regulates the nation's public drinking water supply. If your home is on a private well, that law does not cover your well water, and its quality is yours to look after.
What water does once a tablet dissolves
Most cleaning ingredients only work once they are dissolved. Water is a polar molecule, slightly negative at its oxygen end and slightly positive at its hydrogen ends, and it forms hydrogen bonds. That makes it very good at dissolving salts, acids and bases, and at holding on to the water-loving heads of surfactant molecules. The surfactant helps the solution spread instead of beading up, and the water carries the loosened soil away when you wipe.
What the ratings do and don't cover
EPA lists water with a green circle, and EWG grades it A. Those ratings describe water as an ingredient. They are not a statement about the tap water in your home. Here is how we vet ingredients.
Handling and safety
Water on its own needs no special handling. The cleaner you make with it contains other ingredients, so label your bottle, use it as directed, and keep all cleaning products out of reach of children and pets. If anyone swallows the mixed cleaner, call Poison Help at 1-800-222-1222, free and open 24 hours a day.
Which Green Llama products use it
We do not put water in the pouch. You add it when you mix any of our spray cleaner refill tablets:
- All-Purpose Cleaner Refill, Lemongrass (scented with essential oils)
- Fragrance-Free All-Purpose Refill (fragrance-free)
- Bathroom Cleaner Refills, Lavender (scented with essential oils)
- Glass & Mirror Cleaner Refills (scented with essential oils)
Full ingredient lists are on each product page. Or browse all our ingredients →
Sources
- America's Poison Centers. (n.d.). Get poison help. https://poisoncenters.org/get-poison-help
- Environmental Working Group. (n.d.). Water. EWG's Guide to Healthy Cleaning. https://www.ewg.org/cleaners/substances/151891/
- National Center for Biotechnology Information. (n.d.). Water (PubChem compound summary). PubChem. https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Water
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (n.d.). Private drinking water wells. https://www.epa.gov/privatewells
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (n.d.). Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). https://www.epa.gov/sdwa
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (n.d.). Safer Chemical Ingredients List. Safer Choice. https://www.epa.gov/saferchoice/safer-ingredients
- U.S. Geological Survey. (n.d.). Water basics glossary. https://water.usgs.gov/water-basics_glossary.html
