Here’s an update to my continuing saga about searching for a cleaner that will clean cast iron bath tubs and sinks without potentially damaging the porcelain surface. Today, I follow up with a report on how I discovered a discrepancy on the ROG1 label. In a nutshell: In contrast to what’s on their website, print on the ROG1 bottle says it contains “sulfonic acid”…. So I reached out to the company — and they said this labeling information was an error, that “The ROG 1 cream contains no acids”. Read on for their complete response, which includes saying they will correct the info on the bottle.
You will recall — in this story — I reported that I had discovered what seems to be a terrific product, ROG1, that is doing a good job of cleaning my circa 1963 vintage Kohler cast iron sink and the bottom of my newer Kohler cast iron tub. In a subsequent story here — I went back and forth with Kohler to verify their list of recommended cleaners — and also to understand better what makes for an acceptable cleaner — one key seems to be no acid, minimal abrasives.
I was using ROG1 again — actually testing it against Kohler’s Cast Iron Cleaner (full story to come) when I saw that the label on said it contained “Sulfonic Acid”. This, even though the owner of ROG products says on the company’s website, and has said on this blog in comments, that there is no acid in their products. Previously, I had been looking at this product’s ingredients directly on the website — the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) there. So, I sent an email to ask about this discrepancy. Here is the exchange, and the company’s response:
I wrote to Vince Vallone, owner of the company:
This is Pam from Retro Renovation.
I was just using ROG1 and noticed that an ingredient listed on the label is “Sulfonic Acid”. However, I don’t see this listed on the MSDS <– linked here. And you said this as a comment, “Yes Gina the ROG products are not caustic, no acids, many folks don’t realize the the grocery store and walmart caries many acid contained cleaners and will dull the bathtub over years, magic eraser has acid, 409 scrubbing bubbles and many more.”
Can you clarify?
Thank you, Pam
To cut to the chase, owner Vince Vallone said the label on ROG1 is wrong — and that they will correct the label. Here is is complete response (edited slightly because I had one quick followup question and incorporated the answer):
Hello Pam
Hope all is well and we appreciate your follow up.
The ROG 1 cream contains no acids.After your e-mail….
Well we researched this and found the mistake and figured out what went wrong with the labeling.
We many years ago manufactured a deck and hull cleaner similar to the ROG 1 but it was called BCD’s deck and hull cleaner product named ROG 9
The ROG 9 Deck and Hull cleaner for the yachting, and boating industry this product had the sulfonic acid in the proprietary mixture and our bottle printer who prints the data on the bottle left this acid statement on the ROG 1 label, by mistake we never caught it till you mentioned it. Thank you, your new name should be retro-thour-ough-. LOL.
The ROG 9 was an experimental cleaner we tried years ago the formulas was to clean exhaust fumes on the aft side of the boat from inboard engines exhaust marks from the diesel engines and worked great but it never took off as expected so we stopped production on this product. Both were created around the same time, as we also had Glass cleaner and deodorizers, we no longer make.
But leave it up to you with your great journalism to find this mistake. Again thank you, we have now taken steps to remove that error from all future ROG1 bottles.
Thank you for looking at our mistake and we have now taken steps to remove this on all the ROG 1 bottles.
So there’s the update. I have updated the other stories to share this clarification, as well. Readers: Here on the blog, as homeowners ourselves, we may try new cleaning products aimed at solving our own cleaning problems; if we think we’ve found something promising to consider, we may write about it. But, we are not professional chemists or engineers or home economists. So, please: Do your own research into these products and their suitability for your projects!