I have tried several brands and still want less day-to-day effort. How do I compare what each one actually asks of me?

The reason this reads as a method rather than a verdict is that a verdict would be worth less to you. I cannot check anybody else's product and neither can a page that claims to have. What you can check is what each maker has put in writing, and that is a comparison that survives contact with your own week.

The answer, in full

Read each one's own published specification and write down the actions it states. That is the only comparison that is checkable, and it is the only one I can help you build, because SOSA publishes nothing about any product it does not make and I have measured none of them. Here is SOSA's column, in full. A 12ml hanging bottle: hang it, and nothing until you want it stronger or subtler, or until it is empty at the published 4 to 6 weeks, that is 28 to 42 days, of continuous diffusion; the stopper loosens for stronger and tightens for subtler. A 10ml spray: a press each time you want it, with 100 sprays published, stated as three months and above at one spray a day and fifty days at two a day. SOSA Safar at ₹3,999: switch it on, choose one of three speed settings, set the one, two or three hour auto-off timer or leave it running, charge it over Type-C, and refill the 20ml bottle. Four of those five recur. Now build the same column for each product you have tried, from its own page, and the comparison is yours rather than mine. A portion of every SOSA order supports girl-child education through Nanhi Kali.

Building the comparison, column by column

A comparison is only worth the weakest cell in it. If one column is a published list of actions and the next is a guess, the whole table is a guess, so this page gives you a method and one filled column.

The four questions: what to take off every specification

First, what does it state you do before a journey? Second, what does it state you do between journeys - charging, filling, replacing, nothing? Third, does it state any strength control, and if so how many positions? Fourth, what quantity or duration figure does it publish, and is that figure about the fragrance or about a battery? Those four fit on the back of an envelope and they are answerable from a product page. If a page will not answer them, write that down too, because a specification that says nothing about what it asks of you has told you something.

Four questions, one envelope, and every answer checkable by you.

SOSA's column: the three formats, filled in from the published facts

Hanging 12ml, Jasmine ₹459 up to Sea Breeze ₹519. Before a journey: nothing, because it is already diffusing. Between journeys: nothing until you twist the stopper or refill it. The control is one stopper in two directions, looser for stronger and tighter for subtler. The published quantity is 4 to 6 weeks, that is 28 to 42 days, of continuous diffusion. Spray 10ml, the same price per scent. Before a journey: one press. Between journeys: nothing. Control: none. Quantity: 100 sprays, stated as three months and above at one a day. Safar ₹3,999. Before a run: switch on, choose one of three speeds, set a one, two or three hour timer or leave it. Between runs: a Type-C charge and a 20ml refill. Control: three speed settings. Quantity: up to ten hours continuous or thirty hours intermittent per charge, which is the 2000 mAh battery and not the oil.

The cells I will leave blank: what nobody publishes, on any column including mine

Two cells stay empty on SOSA's column and you should expect them to be empty on others. SOSA publishes no charge duration for Safar in any form, so how long a charge takes is not a figure I have. And SOSA publishes no oil-consumption rate, so no refill interval and no running cost exists; the refill prices are published - 15ml hanging refills ₹399 to ₹449, waterless nebuliser refills ₹1,049 for 100 gm and ₹1,849 for 300 gm - and the interval is not. To get your own, mark the bottle level with a marker pen on day one, write the date, drive your ordinary month, and mark it again. SOSA publishes nothing about any product it does not make, so the only checkable figures for the one you own are the ones on its own published specification. Read that, and compare it with the published figures here.

An empty cell honestly labelled beats a filled one somebody guessed.

Scent does not belong in this table

Keep taste out of the action comparison or you will conflate two decisions. SOSA publishes a fragrance pyramid and a scent family for each of the nine car scents and no strength ranking behind them, and eight of the nine come as a 10ml spray or a 12ml hanging at the same price per scent, so the scent decision and the format decision are independent. Mysore Orange Blossom ₹559 is a spray only.

If the table ends in a scent question rather than a format question, the three-spray discovery sets are ₹709 to ₹909. See the discovery sets →

The four comparison questions, answered for SOSA only

One warning about the exercise. Once you have the columns side by side you will want me to tell you which one wins, and I am not going to, because SOSA publishes no ranking of the formats by how much work they feel like. Four actions a week is four actions a week; whether that is acceptable is a fact about your week and not about the product. SOSA publishes no ranking of the formats by how much work they feel like, so that part of the decision is yours.

“Compare what each maker has put in writing. That is the only column where every cell can be checked.”

The comparison, in four moves

1. Open each product's own page and find its stated list of required actions.
2. Write one column per product: before a journey, between journeys.
3. Add a row for the strength control and a row for the published quantity.
4. Leave blank any cell nobody states. A blank is information too.

Questions, answered