Ty-D-Bol
brand of toilet cleaner
Ty-D-Bol is an American brand of toilet cleaner that was introduced in 1958. The company is best known for its nautical spokesperson, the Ty-D-Bol Man, who piloted a boat inside a toilet tank in TV commercials from 1968 to 1984.
The brand has changed owners repeatedly. It is currently owned by Willert Home Products of Saint Louis, Missouri, which acquired the brand in 2010 and currently manufactures Ty-D-Bol in South St. Louis.
Description
Ty-D-Bol in its original format is a blue liquid cleanser/disinfectant released into a toilet tank from an automatic dispenser. Other variants, such as a solid tablet in a water-soluble wrapper, to be placed in the toilet's water tank, were introduced later.
History
Ty-D-Bol was originally developed in 1958 by inventor Harry O'Hare.
In 1960, O’Hare sold Ty-D-Bol Chemical to its other executives for less than $100,000; independently he pursued an assortment of inventions - various detergents, a swimming pool chlorinator, a water softener. Revlon briefly owned the company (as well as a shoe polish maker and a minority stake in Schick) as part of a diversification attempt which it quickly abandoned.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Ty-D-Bol” as brand of toilet cleaner. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as brand of toilet cleaner. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17056387. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1958, 1968, 1984 and 2010.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Ty-D-Bol”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Ty-D-Bol primary sources, Ty-D-Bol archive and Ty-D-Bol research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ty-D-Bol”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Ty-D-Bol” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.