Clorox Manufacturing Company of Puerto Rico is recalling about 6.3 million bottles of scented Mistolin and Lestoil multi-purpose cleaners after testing turned up the possibility of bacterial contamination. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the recall on September 3, 2026, and the company’s remedy is a full refund, not a replacement bottle or a store credit. For a recall built around two familiar cleaning-supply names found in millions of Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands households, the shape of that refund, the reason behind it, and how far it actually reaches are worth walking through beyond the headline number.
The Bacteria Behind the Recall: Pseudomonas aeruginosa
The CPSC’s recall notice identifies the hazard as possible contamination with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an organism the agency describes as common in soil and water. The bacteria can enter the body through inhalation, through the eyes, or through a break in the skin, and the notice singles out people with weakened immune systems or external medical devices, such as catheters or ports, as facing a risk of infection serious enough to need medical treatment. People with healthy immune systems are usually not affected, according to the notice. The CDC’s own overview of the germ backs that framing: most confirmed infections trace back to healthcare settings and people already vulnerable through medical devices or open wounds, rather than everyday household contact, since Pseudomonas aeruginosa is widespread in the environment but only dangerous to a fairly specific slice of the population. CPSC’s filing lists no injuries or incidents tied to the recalled cleaners as of the September 3 notice, meaning the recall is preventive rather than a response to reported illnesses.
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How the Refund Works: Purchase Price or Retail Value
Clorox’s stated remedy, listed on the recall notice simply as “Refund,” pays out two ways depending on whether a household kept its receipt. Consumers who register an affected bottle and still have the receipt get back the purchase price. Consumers without one still get paid, calculated off the manufacturer’s suggested retail price, which the notice puts between $1.40 and $8 depending on bottle size. Registering requires a photo of the 12-digit UPC code printed on the label and a photo of the date code printed on the side of the bottle; CPSC’s notice then instructs consumers to dispose of the product in its original container with household trash rather than pour it down a drain. Households with questions can reach Clorox Puerto Rico toll-free at 855-215-5439 between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. ET, by email, or through the company’s recall information site, which CPSC lists as an official contact channel alongside the phone line. Neither the recall notice nor the company’s contact page attaches a cutoff date to registration, so as of this writing the refund window remains open with no published deadline for filing a claim.
Six Million Bottles Traced to a 14-Month Production Run
The 6.3 million figure isn’t an estimate of everything Clorox Puerto Rico has ever sold under these two names. It covers a specific production window: bottles carrying a date code that starts with the prefix “PR01,” followed by a five-digit number between 25091 and 26168, which CPSC says corresponds to cleaners made between April 1, 2025, and June 17, 2026. Only scented versions are included, sold in bottle sizes of 28, 40, 64 and 128 fluid ounces. On the Mistolin side, that means nine scents, among them Frescura Tropical, Manzana y Canela and Pino y Especias; on the Lestoil side, four scents, including Energía del Yunque and Fuerza de Lavanda Tropical. Unscented bottles, and any bottle whose printed date code falls outside that window, fall outside the recall entirely, which is why CPSC’s instructions center on checking the printed code rather than trusting the product name or scent alone.
Sedgwick Is Managing the Refund Process for Clorox
The recall notice lists a dedicated email address, [email protected], alongside the toll-free phone line and website, which signals that Clorox is running the day-to-day refund process through Sedgwick, a third-party claims administrator that companies commonly hire to handle exactly this kind of consumer-facing recall paperwork rather than routing every registration through in-house customer service. That structure is common in CPSC recalls of this size: the manufacturer remains legally responsible for the remedy under the recall it filed, but an outside administrator processes the UPC and date-code submissions and issues the actual refunds to consumers who register.
Where the Recalled Cleaners Were Sold
CPSC’s notice lists Walmart, Sam’s Club, Costco, Supermercados Econo and Supermercados Selecto among the retailers that carried the recalled bottles, alongside other major stores across Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, at prices between $1.40 and $8. The agency processed the case as a Fast Track Recall, its option for a company-reported hazard resolved cooperatively with CPSC rather than through a formal Commission order, and assigned it recall number 26-741. That number, together with the September 3 filing date on the official notice, is what a household or a retailer can use to confirm any secondhand report of this recall actually matches the CPSC record rather than a copycat scam using the Clorox name.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor. Figures are linked to their primary sources; where a claim could not be verified from the public record, we say so.
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