Good old Comet now comes in a liquid gel with bleach and cleanser. The 17-ounce size retails for $1.65.
Don Russell (married, five children at home, ages 14-4): "This new cleaner produced a ton of suds. When you dump it in the sink, it tends to want to run down the drain. This Comet did cut through soap scum and grease with ease. Comet brightened up our sinks, but it didn't appear to work any better on tough stains than other comparable cleaners. We give Comet a lukewarn endorsement."Edyth Jensen (married, three children and two grandchildren at home): "This is a pretty good cleaner. It is good for cleaning porcelain and other such items without the grit. The bleach smell is strong, but it is a clean smell. Comet seems to do a good job."
Nihla Lake (married, two children at home): "We had been preparing our porcelain kitchen sink for the big test and, believe me, it was ready! Almost to the point of being condemned by the Board of Health.
"The cleanser did a fairly decent job on most stains with the exception of black marks left by aluminum cooking utensils - these tend to be almost impossible to remove. The bleach content did a nice job of whitening the surface, nearly as good as the liquid bleach we had been using. We'll probably buy Comet gel again."
Linda C. Tingey (single mother, four teenage boys at home): "My biggest complaint about cleansers is the powdery dust that just chokes you to death. It's so nice to be able to clean your sink and have that problem eliminated. Plus, this doesn't scratch, does just as good a job as powders and smells a whole lot better.
"This really won't cut the tough, residue my sons bring home from the steel plant, but regular cleansers won't do that either. For regular household cleaning, this does the job. I'm going to switch over to liquid Comet."
Rich Firmage (married, three children, oldest 8 years old): "This stuff seemed to work OK. It wasn't anything special. It just worked like regular cleanser. The smell was nice, but it seemed to take a bit more rinsing to get it off."
Bill Allred (single): "This stuff seems to work quite well. I used it on a stainless steel sink that had some stains in it. (By the way, how do they get away with calling this stuff stainless steel if it stains?)
"Most of the grunge came off without much rubbing. This cleanser does seem to be without any abrasives, so it can be used on a variety of surfaces. I'm wondering if it would polish and whiten my badly stained teeth! Probably not a good idea . . . "
Conclusion: Half our testers thought this cleanser just OK, the other half liked it a lot.