Cillit Bang - is it as good as it seems from the adverts?

[Mary Fisher]

That's the stuff. Manuka always sounded wrong!

What's Manuka?

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

For the last five or so years I've kept saying that I was becoming mellow in my dotage. Every single person I've said it to has used the same words:

"Good God, don't do that!"

Aw, baby, let Auntie Mary kiss it better :-)

Mary

[Mungo "two sheds" Toadfoot]

It's honey, Mary! You of all people... :)

Si

[Mary Fisher]

Yes, we discussed this over dinner tonight and Spouse said the same... :-(

But it IS New Zealand honey so I can be forgiven ... can't I?

If not for that, for the vagaries of age??

Please?

I challenge anyone here to claim that s/he's never forgotten something s/he shouldn't have :-)

The wo/man who never made a mistake never made anything ...

Mary

[:::Jerry::::]

No, it dries *your* hands, it's quite possible that Manista could cause problem for someone else, you need to use what you find efficient and healthy - no one can tell you what you should use, other than your identical twin that is.

[Stefek Zaba]

You too, huh? I discovered this about 30 years ago, in teenage years, probably going through the same simplistic thinking process as you - viz., "this bike grease all over my hands is all organic non-polar gunk, so let's have at it with a similar sort of solvent... what've we got here in the garage - oh, that paraffin looks good", followed by "OK, that's got much of the gunk off, let's wash the rest off under the tap. Hmm, doesn't dissolve all that well in this here polar solvent (water). Isn't detergent s'posed to have a non-polar end wot makes friends with non-polar solutes, and a polar end wot makes friends with water? Let's give it a try... oooh, it works, it works really well - and the resulting gunge looks remarkably like Swarfega! Coo! Chemistry in action!"

No doubt if one worked 8h/day with gunge, then barrier cream and less carcinogenic gunk than paraffin+Fairy would be indicated; but for the weekend warrior, it's still useful knowledge for when the Swarfega runs out.

Stefek

[Bob Eager]

I use some oil of Ulay (sorry, Olay, another name change) afterwards...

[Mary Fisher]

Oh, using Swarfega.

Spouse prefers Manista because it's kinder to his hands. Not that he has soft, white, deskbound hands ...

Mary

Mary

[Huge]

Oh. I'll stay angry, then. Can't do my blood pressure any good, though.

Fank Ooh, Auntie Mary.

[Mary Fisher]

No, it's not worth it. Anger is destructive. There's no point in losing your temper with inanimate objects.

There, I knew it would get better :-)

Mary

[Aaron]

That's very likely to be based on relative concentrations though, HCl is a strong acid compaired to phosphoric which is a weaker acid. However at an increased concentration H3PO4 will have and increased amount of H+ ions and therefore will be more reactive with limescale. You could use Ka values and such to work out how reactive things are but I can't be bothered to rememeber my A-Level chemistry at this hour :P.

[Frank Erskine]

So long as you HAVE blood pressure you stand a chance. It's when there's none you need to panic a bit.

I've mislaid the charger for my FT290RII portable. It'll turn up JUST after I source some sort of replacement.

Aah!

[Rob Morley]

The British Pharmacopoeia lists the different forms as liquid paraffin, soft paraffin and paraffin wax.

[Mary Fisher]

Apparently not. To say that hydrochloric acid is a 'strong' acid and phosphoric is 'weak' wthout stating relative concentrations is meaningless.

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

That's for non-chemists.

[Andy Dingley]

No, the notion of "strong" and "weak" as an acid is well established as a characteristic of the type of acid. Of course the overall "ability to cause corrosion" depends on the concentration too.

[Mary Fisher]

That, to most people, would be what they meant by strong. I'd rather be splashed by a very dilute hydrochloric acid than by a concentrated phosphoric one.

Either, in a sufficient dilution, can - and are - consumed.

>

[The Natural Philosopher]

Thats right. The one you drink is liquid paraffin isn't it?

Must be hugely carcinogenic if you arer supposed to drink it.

[Martin Evans]

I usually use Loctite Fast Orange but for a change I ordered some Swafega the other day from an industrial supplier. When it arrived I thought i'd been supplied the wrong stuff. It green and non grainy as it always was but is now labeled Tufanega.

[Owain]

Maybe the 'liquid paraffin' in the BP isn't quite the same as the Pink Paraffin ...

Although coming in smaller bottles and costing more might be the only difference.

Owain