Refilling a Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaner?

Holly
Silver Post Medal for All Time! 364 Posts

August 19, 20060 found this helpful

Go to the dollar store and buy their shower spray. Refill the unit's bottle. This takes some persistence. Try pushing down or pulling up on the cap while twisting to open it.

2 Tbsp. ammonia
1/2 cup rubbing alcohol
1/4 cup vinegar
1 tbs dish detergent
Min 2 cups water
water
Put ammonia, alcohol and vinegar in bottle and fill with water. This works especially good for counter-tops but may also be used to clean showers, toilets and sinks. Great for most cleaning needs

Kelly
Bronze Feedback Medal for All Time! 233 Feedbacks

August 20, 20060 found this helpful

Walmart has Arm & Hammer Shower Clean for about $2, give or take, and I love that but I really want to try the scrubbing bubbles with that as a refill. I love their toilet brush!!! THat's my splurge!

melinda

September 8, 20060 found this helpful

I did refill mine with another shower cleaner that was on sale and I had a coupon for!!!
It has worked out great!!!! I will continue to do this, think I will replace the container every few months.
And refill the new one when its done!!!

Holly
Silver Post Medal for All Time! 364 Posts

September 11, 20060 found this helpful

I have to add a postcript.
The Scrubbing Bubbles shower cleaner refill bottle works better than the other brands that I have used in the machine.
If someone could figure out the magic ingredient in the SB cleaning liquid, that would be a help.

Formula is combination of 2oz of bleach and distilled water per bottle. Can add any fragrance you want if any.

I imagine that all of you have otherwise had success using this automatic shower cleaner unit? I've read mixed reviews on it and would like to know before purchasing the unit. Thanks-Marie

"2 Tbsp. ammonia
1/2 cup rubbing alcohol
1/4 cup vinegar
1 tbs dish detergent
Min 2 cups water"

---------------------------

I should warn you, you should know what the active cleaning agent used in the Scrubbing Bubbles cleaning solution is before attempting a household solution. I think the ingredients are mostly water and a surfactant, however, some people believe the reason why the solution tends to fade fabrics is because it contains bleach. So, if you end up refilling your Scrubbing Bubbles bottle with an ammonia solution you could end up creating an excess of chlorine gas that, in high enough concentrations, will cause respiratory irritation and sometimes death.

So my advice would be to just stick with the Scrubbing Bubbles solution. If the spray happens to contain bleach and you put in a ammonia solution or vice versa, you could end up causing some serious damage to yourself or someone else.

Love you guys! Now a days, with gas as high as it is and food, any home made remedies for cleaning is fantastic. Keep it going.

Mittiens AT aol.com

Don't mix vinegar and ammonia... It's pointless - vinegar is an acid, ammonia is a base. All you're doing when mixing them is neutralizing both. For some great recipes see:

www.chemicalfreecleaningbook.com/chemical_free_recipes.shtml

How does he/she know it was just bleach and distilled water? Especially since liquid bleach floats to the top of water while sitting still, so how could it clean the shower with just distilled water?

Okay, this works great. When the bottle is in the dispenser the cap is down which now makes the bottom of the bottle the top. Don't worry about removing the bottle or playing around trying to remove the locked cap. Just leave the bottle in the dispenser. Get your drill out and drill a 3/4 inch hole in the top (which used to be the bottom). Get your kitchen funnel and refill the bottle with Tilex which you can purchase in bulk at any janitorial outlet.

It actually comes in a 4-gallon pail which costs about $19.00 and will last a couple of years. It's the same stuff as Scrubbing Bubbles anyway. Don't worry about putting a plug or anything into the hole you drilled unless you absolutely feel you must. Hardly any water will get in and it will certainly not be enough to dilute the cleaner. If the janitorial outlet doesn't have Tilex, they will carry something else equally as good. I just purchased a small funnel and I leave it in the dispenser bottle. I keep a large Rubbermaid bottle full of the Tilex under the sink and every week I just top up the dispenser. This now costs just pennies a week instead of the $6.00 - $7.00 it was costing me for the Scrubbing Bubbles in the disposable bottles.

I agree that Tilex works to kill the mildew quickly; frankly it's far stronger than the Scrubbing Bubbles, would not need it nearly as often, and the smell is a long stronger as well to me, burns my eyes so be aware.

Also be aware about drilling holes in the bottle... seems to me there is a physical property at work keeping the stuff in using pressure, and if you open a hole at the top you're changing the pressure.

If you're going to try this, maybe test-fill with water the first time and see if it's going to work for you before going ahead with costly/harsh chemicals.

I have also noted that once the bottle/cap has been secured on the Scrubbing Bubbles unit, its seal has been broken in a certain shape and it's a *little* leaky if it has to be removed and reapplied for any reason. *And* the bottles seem to be running out faster now than they did when I first got it.

It will only continue to be useful here if I can find a reasonably-priced way to refill it. I will try some of the other recipes and methods listed here. Thanks for the page!

D

February 1, 20090 found this helpful

I have been refilling the unit for a few months with a dilute bleach solution and it has worked great! Keeps mold and mildew out! Unfortunately recntly I filled the reservoir and the next day it was completely drained! In hopes that it was related to the bottle I switched it out with an spare empty one I had, but the same thing happened so I thin kits the unit. Anyone else have this issue or know of a fix?

I found that you don't need to poke a hole in the top (bottom) of the bottle, or even take the cap off.

Put your refill solution into a bowl and squeeze your empty bottle so it's compressed. (not too much- compress about 75%- don't flatten it or kink the bottle)

Keeping the bottle compressed, put the cap of the bottle into the bowl of refill solution, and then release your grip on the bottle. It will suck the solution back into itself! You may need to help it a bit by squeezing the bottle the "other way" but so far this has been working pretty good for me.

I just took apart my SB automatic shower sprayer.

Yes, my newly installed bottle ended up disappearing after 2 button pushes.

Disassembled with Torx #10 and Phillips head, went over the parts and exercised them.

You may have a vacuum valve that is a bit dirty which allows the fill bottle to vent and cause the liquid to slowly drain from the squirt head. The mechanism is quite ingenious, controlled by a printed circuit board and a primitive memory chip.

drt09, you may not have to dismantle, just try blowing air into the vent hole found at the bottom of the SB. With the battery compartment @ 6:00 and the rotating head @ 12:00, you will find the small vent hole @ 9:00.

I've made my own solution after twisting off the cap and refilling. So far so good.

According to SB customer service, the refills should last 21 days.

Good luck.