Our products do what they promise. But of course, we ourselves do too. That’s why we always calculate our quotes for Spectro cleaning products in liters. After all, a liter is not always a kilo and vice versa. How exactly does that work? Account Manager Bram Maessen explains.
A kilo is a kilo. Whether it’s feathers or lead. But that comparison fails when you compare kilograms and liters. A misunderstanding that, unfortunately, is difficult to clear up.
Bram: “Customers often compare our products with their existing assortment. And then I get the question why we are more expensive. I then explain that we calculate our prices in liters and not in kilograms as many other producers do. That gives a distorted picture. Indeed, it is not entirely fair. Because those “kilo products” not only appear unjustifiably cheaper; in reality, there is even less in a package. An unethical trick to better market your products.”
Math
“Professional cleaners are often much heavier than water,” Bram explains. “This is because the specific gravity, or relative density of a liquid, is regularly higher. With water, it’s about 1.0. In that case, a kilo equals a liter. But with alkaline agents that contain a lot of lye, such as a foam cleaner or soap-like products, that density is 1.2 or sometimes even more. If you then fill a kilogram, the liter container is only slightly more than three-quarters full.”
“Professional cleaning products
are regularly much heavier than water”
Super sin (and unsustainable)
For small volumes, the difference between liters and kilograms is hardly noticeable, according to Bram. But with 1,000-liter IBC containers, it makes a big difference. These are only filled to about eighty percent with such a foam cleaner. A great shame and totally unsustainable, both in transport and storage.
Even with a lower specific gravity, a calculation in kilograms is inconvenient, by the way. “Suppose you order a thousand kilograms of disinfectant hand gel,” says Bram. “Then you get not one, but two IBC drums delivered. Of which the second is almost empty… Well: we don’t do that at Spectro. What do we do then? We first visualize the specific gravity of the product and always make our quotations based on liters. Very honest and transparent!”