Getting started

From formula to product

On this page9

One: decide wet or dry Two: calculate the free alkali Three: build the ingredient list for disclosure Four: build the website before the label Five: choose the container Six: choose the closure against the alkali answer Seven: keep the four numbers with the batch The website is the part that rots References

Wet or dry is the first decision, because it moves the closure threshold by a factor of five.

One: decide wet or dry

A liquid and a powder are different products, different containers and different regulatory positions. Trying to decide this after the formula is settled means re-deciding the formula.

Two: calculate the free alkali

Free or chemically unneutralized sodium or potassium hydroxide, by weight. Ten percent is the threshold in a dry form, two percent in anything else. "Free or chemically unneutralized" is doing work in that sentence: it is not the total alkali, it is what remains unreacted.

Three: build the ingredient list for disclosure

Every intentionally added ingredient, meaning every chemical added for a functional or technical effect. That is a complete list rather than the interesting parts, and it includes the ones that are there to make the product pour, keep or smell right.

Four: build the website before the label

Because the label may point at the website, and a label carrying an address that does not yet resolve is worse than no label. Build the ingredient page, then print the address.

Five: choose the container

By format, then capacity, then neck. The bulk half has 41 containers to choose from and the small half has hundreds, so the amount of freedom available at this step depends entirely on step one.

Six: choose the closure against the alkali answer

If the product needs a child resistant closure, that has to exist on the neck finish of the container you picked. Picking the jug first and discovering the requirement second is the expensive order.

Seven: keep the four numbers with the batch

Format, free alkali by weight, the complete intentionally added ingredient list, and the label version with the website address it points at. A reformulation can move all four, and the website has to move with them.

The website is the part that rots

A label is printed and fixed. An ingredient page is a living document that has to still be accurate a year after the batch shipped, and the commonest failure in this category is a site describing last year’s formula.

References

16 CFR 1700.14(a), special packaging requirements. "Household substances in dry forms such as granules, powder, and flakes, containing 10 percent or more by weight of free or chemically unneutralized sodium and/or potassium hydroxide, and all other household substances containing 2 percent or more by weight of free or chemically unneutralized sodium and/or potassium hydroxide" require child resistant packaging. law.cornell.edu

California Health and Safety Code 108952, the definitions in the Cleaning Product Right to Know Act of 2017. A "designated product" is "a finished product that is an air care product, automotive product, general cleaning product, or a polish or floor maintenance product used primarily for janitorial, domestic, or institutional cleaning purposes". An "intentionally added ingredient" is "a chemical that a manufacturer has intentionally added to a designated product and that has a functional or technical effect in the designated product". codes.findlaw.com

California Health and Safety Code 108954.5, the website disclosure: the manufacturer of a designated product sold in the state posts on its website, in an electronically readable format, information related to the product including a list of each intentionally added ingredient it contains. leginfo.legislature.ca.gov

The Davis Pack Supply catalog, measured 17 October 2026. The laundry shelf is 1,096 rows: 659 containers and 437 closures, derived from four packaging archetypes across six leaves, capacities from 5 to 7,571 mL with a median of 177, and 41 containers at 950 mL or more.

Written from California Health and Safety Code 108952, 108954 and 108954.5 and from 16 CFR 1700.14, and from the catalog as it stood on 17 October 2026. Disclosure law in this category is state law and it moves; the dates and the website content requirements here come from secondary sources and are flagged where that is so. Confirm against the current text before a label is printed.