Caustic Soda Vs One Shot Sulphuric Acid

[Stuart Noble]

Oil derived I think. Same family as petroleum jelly, paraffin wax etc.

Only things containing fatty acids can be saponified i.e. not petroleum based substances.

[John Schmitt]

More importantly your skin proteins are being hydrolysed. Because caustics do not denature protein, they penetrate flesh more deeply than the strong mineral acids (I excluse HF because it is technically a weak acid). 0.88 ammonia is another surprisingly nasty customer. Alcoholic solutions of sodium and potassium hydroxides go for flesh in a *big* way. Above all avoid getting the stuff in your eyes, it will penetrate to the retina and permanently damage it.

John Schmitt

[Andy Dingley]

You can make fatty acids from petroleum products too. "Fat" is a valid chemical term, not necessarily implying animal origin.

The family business used to be haulage. We moved tons of "tall oil fatty acid" (looked like paraffin wax crumbs) from Stanlow when I was a kid. The name always made me laugh.

[Helen Deborah Vecht]

[e-mail]

Mine too. I've only had 20 years experience as a doctor in Accident & Emergenccy, so YMMV...

[Stuart Noble]

Can you? Not being sarcastic, but I'd like to know how.

Can be vegetable, but I don't see how it could be of mineral origin.

That's vegetable based though.

[Helen Deborah Vecht]

The Natural Philosopher typed

Not true. There's caustic in the eyes -very nasty- delayed skin burns, cement burns (alkali burns as well)...

[Helen Deborah Vecht]

The Natural Philosopher typed

Are you sure? There are almost no insoluble sodium salts of anything, are there?

Indeed.

[Helen Deborah Vecht]

Stuart Noble typed

Soaps are made from olive oil (sodium oleate), palm oil (sodium palmitate), sheep fat (sodium talloate/stearate) etc.

Lanolin is sheep wool fat IIRC.

[Helen Deborah Vecht]

Tim S typed

So did I

[David]

bought some 96% Sulphuric from the plumbing merchants last week, cleared the blockage a treat

[skeesk]

Will One shot dissolve a plastic rim toilet block holder? We think it’s that constantly blocking the toilet. We’ve had the drains cleared and a camera go down ( maybe not right up to the U bend) and it’s still blocked

[Chris Bacon]

No.

Sounds like a job for either:

a) Grappling for it with a plumbers' snake. b) Removing the WC bowl and retrieving it.

[newshound]

+1.

Although people sometimes think of pedestals as immovable objects, they may not be difficult to remove. I always screw mine down with stainless steel screws. The amount of effort depends on the age of the installation, hopefully the outlet is not cemented into a cast iron soil pipe. If it has an integral cistern, now is the time to fit a flexible hose with service valve into the water connection, if it does not already have one.

[Andrew]

And don't underestimate the weight of pans and cisterns. When I removed the latter (ceramic) it took me by surprise.

[newshound]

Fair point, especially for older non-close-coupled.