Has the customer finally spoken about chemical free cleaning and electrically active water?

On April 18, 2012, Activeion, the company that promised to turn the cleaning industry on its head by turning ordinary tap water into a powerful cleaner announced it was ceasing operations. Quoting a message on the Activeion website.

˜Regrettably, while many customers continue to be satisfied with Activeion solutions, the business has been unable to achieve commercial viability during this time, and has exhausted it’s funding.

Activeion was a separate company that licensed the ec-H2O system from Tennant Company’s Orbio Technologies for use in a hand held sprayer. This was the same technology used in Tennant scrubbers equipped with ec-H2O.

Was it thumbs down by the customer?

Perhaps, Activeion found out what many suspected all along, the promise was something many people wanted desperately to believe, but in practice it simply didn’t live up to the hype. Our opinion is that the customer has spoken and given the proverbial thumbs down to Activeion and the ec-H2O technology it claimed would allow chemical free cleaning.

As for Tennant, the company has had numerous dust ups with competitors including competitor financed independent lab testing that purportedly showed the ec-H2Oâ„¢ equipped scrubber cleaned no better than ordinary water. In Europe, Alfred Karcher GmbH & Company continues to press legal proceedings on the validity of the ec-H2O system. More recently, the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Better Business Bureau recommended that the company discontinue using certain claims promoting the superior performance of the company’s ec-H20 technology. Finally, Nilfisk-Advance financed and published the damning independent tests that showed that ec-H2O equipped scrubbers cleaned no better than plain water.

Has the customer spoken?

Tennant’s response to the critics has often fallen back to the customer has spoken defense, with the company pointing to many satisfied customers and double digit growth in sales of ec-H2Oâ„¢ equipped scrubbers. Now with the Activeion’s demise, which customer has spoken and what are they saying?

Would a customer notice a difference if ec-H2O equipment on a scrubber stopped working?

Tennant makes a fine scrubber. If a customer had a Tennant scrubber equipped with ec-H2O and the ec-H2O device stopped working, would the customer really notice a difference? Our opinion is NO; the customer would go on with their work using the scrubber as they always have. Further, it is our opinion that a cleaning chemical will find its way back into the ec-H2O equipped scrubbers as the customer may realize that better results can be achieved. Only time will tell.

Draw Your Own Conclusions: Can a sexy story make believers for the long haul?

Chemical Free Cleaning is a sexy story that customers want to believe and marketers have done everything they can to make them believe. In the end, the customer will decide whether this technology can stand the test of time or it is just another fad. RIP Activeion.

Here’s to a simple fact: CHEMISTRY WORKS!