This thread has been meandering along for awhile so I checked with a
friend who is a chemist and asked about this "NaOH" that was originally
proposed as an effective cleaning solvent in a parts tank. He says this
is a Sodium Hydroxide which is a strong base. The ph scale goes from, I
believe, 1 to about 15. NaOH is about 12-14 so don't get it on your
skin. Few things are completely impervious to it other than glass.
Stainless steel isn't bad but the alloys in mild steel will be etched at
the least. We've already heard how it works on aluminium. It simply
"goes away!!"
All this adds up to the fact that this stuff, while obviously effective,
is an awfully toxic soup to use casually.
Gary Goodlund garyg@crl.com
Sebastopol, CA
On Wed, 24 Jan 1996, Lowell Foo wrote:
> At 10:37 PM 1/24/96 -0500, you wrote:
> >Hi!
> >
> >>My guess is that some (most? all?) crystal drain cleaners are NaOH.
> >>Warning: NaOH may react with aluminum parts-- any chemists on the list?
> >
> >I'm not a chemist, but I have had bad reactions w/ aluminum (foil, in my
> >case) There was some other chemical involved, I don't remember what (it was
> >about 20 years ago), but the addition of the aluminum made it bubble & hiss &
> >get hot (I was using the foil as a lining at the time).
> >
> >Good Luck! Scott M Ryan
>
> That reminds me of when I heated copper sulfate in an aluminum container.
> Never do that!
>
>
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