I Tested Viral TikTok Cleaning Products

A couple of quick notes!!

We do think that our results with the ULV light sprayer with only water could have been coincidental - as it ~was~ a pretty small sample size. Probably the answer there is that it definitely works... if you put disinfectant in it!

Most of these products (or at least some version of them) are also sold on Amazon and AliExpress - however, we wanted to purchase the products from the websites linked to from the tiktok accounts just to "take them at face value" and try out the products that they were selling specifically!

Also, I said "RIP Tyler" because he is a sixers fan and they lost this year - other than that, Tyler is fine!!

HELLO FRIENDS!! So... has anyone else stumbled upon this side of tiktok... you know the one... the semi-surreal, thousands-of-tiny-packages, smart-home-gadget, ASMR-cleaning-tok? And no I'm not just trying to optimize this description with keywords - that's actually how I would describe it. Well, I've been over there for a couple of *years*, in the land of blue light sprayers, weird bluetooth speakers thrown into buckets of water with live crabs, and shoe dryers everywhere. So I finally gave in and tracked down 4 different smart home gadgets from various somewhat-suspicious looking websites.

So we tested out the smart window roomba, the ULV blue light sprayer, the fruit and vegetable cleaner, and the collapsible mini washing machine - and tried to figure out, to the best of our ability, what the heck is going on here. What did you guys think of these viral TikTok cleaning products? And what should we investigate next??

MUSIC
Via AudioNetwork

Executive Producers: Safiya Nygaard & Tyler Williams
Production Manager / Producer: Melissa Douglas
Junior Associate Producer: Ishara Mathews
Content Promotions & Video Packaging Manager: Alaina Simmons
Editor: Andrew Lainhart
Editor: Mandy Padgett
Editor: Hailey Cox
Graphic Designer: Dayana Espinoza

CHAPTERS:
0:00 Intro
3:48 A Deep Dive into the ~Genre~
5:45 How do I buy any of these things?
7:45 Buying Our ULV Light Sprayer
9:13 Getting Our Produce Cleaning Device
10:23 Ordering Our Mini Washing Machine
11:58 Final Item To Get: Smart Window Cleaner
13:18 The Goods Have Arrived!
14:46 Trying Out Our Hobot Robot
18:24 Trying out our ULV sprayer
23:18 Testing the mysterious Fruit & Vegetable Cleaner
28:13 Last Item: The Collapsible Washing Machine
32:36 Some of our findings & ~receipts~

#cleaning #viral #vlog

[Chelzzzster]

When she pulled out the disinfecting gun, I was like "the only way she could test that is with some petri dishes" and then she PULLED OUT THE PETRI DISHES. I'm absolutely living for Science Saf!

[IcedVen]

The worst part about cleantok is when you're frantically typing the most descriptive yet unhinged search in an attempt to find the most useless item ever

[shock]

Safiya I just have to say I love the way you speak. I have an auditory processing disorder and you are the ONLY creator I can watch without subtitles and still understand. The way you emphasize every word is literally a saving grace for me. You are the absolute best ❤❤❤

[charlieinabeanie]

I’m so glad the captions on Safs videos are human-generated rather than auto, it makes the videos much more accessible!

[kathleencarroll]

"My mother in law is fast approaching, and I have no way to clean up these f*cking sunflower seeds" is honestly my favorite ending to any YouTube video ever. Such a well earned callback and got a HUGE laugh from me.

[jumpaxa]

As a Chinese person to give reference, these videos are made by Chinese factories and store fronts to sell to middle age women in China. They’re best found in Chinese Temu, pinduoduo. Taobao which is Chinese Amazon and Chinese TikTok shop. In the future Safiya you should just buy them off taobao and save a lot of money since they’re marking up the prices 5-10 times.

[AJ-lufx]

I love how crusty is still part of the YouTube channel through the intro. It makes me happy

[emilyb.]

I'm kind of shocked that they all actually somewhat worked lol. Little Hobert was so cute 🤗

[Melissa_Marvel]

Lifting Hobert up to the spot he missed is the same energy as lifting your cat up so they can get the bug they've been chasing.

[kirihitiana]

Hi Safiya, Microbiology labs teacher here, nice to see you delving deeper into scientific testing! Did not expect to find agar plates when clicking the video, haha.
Just a few tips here (if you ever want to test more), there's an easier method for surface testing; we would usually use Rodac or "contact plates" (where the growth medium can be put directly into contact of a surface). These will pick up a lot more. As for controls. The chlorox wipes were a good positive control (disinfectant effect to be expected), but a normal water spray treatment (no blue light) would have been a good negative control to add as well. Happy to help if you want to know more.

Now I'm off to find that window cleaner thing, cause I don't have a balcony and have neglected our 2nd floor windows for way too long!

[emi-san]

The mini washer would work great for those who use period underwear since it's so fast and could clean them quickly if you need to redo them without doing a whole load

[briansavage]

Hobert getting that corner gave me DVD screensaver vibes.

[waffleakulka]

The fact that Safiya did lab grade experiments to test the legitimacy of the products made me so happy for some reason! I think other youtubers wouldn't even bother. They'd just show the thing they bought like "here's our haul! We don't know if it's actually working, but the lights are glowing, bubbles are raising, buy at your own risk"

[katharine]

I'm a student in Asia, they sell those UV sprayers really commonly and they were used a bunch during the pandemic. Key note is that they were filled with disinfecting alcohol, so more like an antiseptic mister with a cool light instead of true UV disinfection with water mister.

[mallomiyao]

So invested in these funky cleaning products👀 Fun fact, all of these items come from Taobao! It’s a Chinese retailer that’s pretty comparable to ebay or Amazon, but for the Chinese market. You can buy from there direct from outside of China but it’s rather tricky if you can’t read Chinese, so most people aiming to do that will go through a 3rd party shopping service like Superbuy who will get the items for you and ship internationally. Most all Aliexpress and otherwise drop shipped items originally come from there!

[coneyislandqueen]

i love how they brought Tyler’s mom in on the translating process

[kathmorgan]

To be fair to Hobot, a bunch of paint isn't normal day-to day level of soiling for most windows. He did a good job!

[ashleyaubergine]

Watching Hobot continually miss the upper left corner was like watching that old Windows screenshot when you wait for the logo to hit the monitor corner.

[glacousxx]

The way they're treating hobert like their little robot baby is so cute.
Honestly ive been watching safiya for soo long 😂 and shes always been entertaining.

[coiishii]

as a singapore fan that has been watching your content for YEARS, i'm happy 😂