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Dilution and concentrate arithmetic

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The arithmetic behind a concentrate, which is where the commercial argument lives.

Three calculations

Converting a ratio to a percentage, working out a dose for a container, and cost per use, which is the number a janitorial buyer actually compares.

Dilution ratio to percentage

A ratio of 1:32 means one part concentrate to 32 parts water, so 1 part in 33 total.

That is 1 divided by 33, or about 3.0 percent.

1:10 is 9.1 percent. 1:64 is 1.5 percent. 1:128 is 0.78 percent.

Be explicit about whether your ratio means parts-to-water or parts-to-total, because both conventions are in use and the difference matters at strong dilutions.

Working out the dose

For a 750 ml trigger bottle at 1:32: 750 divided by 33 = 23 ml of concentrate, topped up with water.

Now design the closure so that is easy: a cap that holds roughly that, or a dosing chamber.

A customer told to add 23 ml will add a splash, so the instruction that works is "one capful", and the cap is what makes it true.

Cost per use

The number to lead with, because it is where the concentrate wins.

A 500 ml concentrate at 1:32 makes 16.5 liters of ready-to-use product, which is 22 trigger bottles.

So a concentrate at five times the price of a ready-to-use bottle is still a quarter of the cost per bottle, and it ships at a twentieth of the weight.

Present it that way to a janitorial buyer, who thinks in cost per use, and to a consumer, who mostly does not but responds to the freight argument.

References

No published source. This page is written from practice rather than from published guidance. No extension service or agency publishes on this question for cleaning, so nothing here is cited, and it should be weighed as experience and not as a standard.
Written from the federal regulation and agency guidance named on each page, not from a laboratory or a legal practice. Whether a particular product and a particular label make a cleaner or a pesticide is a determination about your product, and this is not that determination.