Posted on 06/26/2011 12:13:10 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants
Do be careful with TSP because it is a powerful caustic. Bleach has a pH of 13, and a 1% solution of TSP has a pH of 12.
Many products that formerly contained TSP are now manufactured with TSP Substitutes, which consist mainly of sodium carbonate along with various admixtures of nonionic surfactants and a limited percentage of sodium phosphates.
TSP is generally not good for cleaning bathrooms, because it can corrode metal and can damage grout.
Caustic soda = sodium hydroxide = drain cleaner
Caustic soda, chemical name: Sodium hydroxide - NaOH
Commonly used in cleaning products to boost alkalinity. However, it lacks the complexing characteristics of the phosphates.
Alkaline materials can also dissolve the protective oxide coating that forms on aluminum. Once that happens the aluminum will dissolve in the alkaline material - often quite violently. In the old days, there was aluminum in Drano to make it foam up. As long as it was dry there was no big problem, but once it got wet - bubble, bubble, bubble, bubble, fizz, fizz, fizz.
Thanks for the info. Are you using this in your dishwasher?
The citric acid would be a good additive for a cleaner since it can complex many of the minerals in hard water, making them soluble.
Strangely enough, I just researched this a little and found that it is an ingredient in trader joe’s O cereal! LOL!
The alkaline phosphates would be poisonous if you ate them. But you don’t typically eat dish soap. If you soaked your hands in it, you would tend to get dry skin - not a good idea. So rinse your hands thoroughly or wear gloves.
No, but when you add them to dish soap would they wash out? are they the same phospates that used to be in dish soap. Octogon used to work so well.
I dont understand the major companies. When I called to find out why they discontinued the Octogon, they never said that the government outlawed phosphates. They just danced around it. I found out later.
This happens over and over, why are these guys so complicit?
No! Neither my wife nor I ingest phosphate cleaners and we hand wash all the dishes. Perhaps, when we remodel the kitchen, we will get a dishwashing machine.
Years ago, I worked as a chemist in an electroplating shop. We had to use all sorts of processes to make certain that the substrate was absolutely clean prior to electroplating. Otherwise, the plating could have bubbles or flake off the substrate.
Phosphates in small quantities are not harmful - in fact they are an important nutrient. I just got done drinking some phosphoric acid - it is one of the ingredients in Coca Cola. In the old days, sodas (from a soda counter) used to be called phosphates, because they were made with dilute phosphoric acid.
Phosphate along with borax, sodium hydroxide, sodium carbonate (washing soda) and sodium silicate are all very basic (opposite of acidic) materials used as detergent builders. These very basic materials dramatically lower the surface tension of the wash water thus making the water wetter at any given temperature. It is through these builder it is possible to use cold water for washing.
borax (Disodium Octaborate Tetrahydrate) is great for ants. its the active ingredient in Terro. Takes about a week to kill, but the ants take it back to the nest & it kills them all. works great for Argentine ants.
Homemade Ant Bait
16 tablespoons = 1 cup
2 cups = 1 pint
2 pints = 1 quart
3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon
1 US fluid ounce = 2 US tablespoons
To kill colony:
optimum sugar to water concentration: 25%.
optimum borax concentration: 0.5 to 2%.
(NOTE: 4% borax repels or kills worker ants before they share it with the colony).
http://www.borite.com/new_construction.asp
http://www.bpbcorp.com/boratesht.html
http://www.manchestercitysch.org/centraloffice/MSDS/20%20Mule%20Team%20Borax%20Natural%20Laundry%20Booster%20-%20Dial%20Corp..pdf
I bought a $10 box of trisodium phosphate from Lowes and tried it on dishes that had dried on egg yolk and gravy. These were dishes I would have had to spend time prewashing. I loaded them in the dish washer put in a teaspoon of TSP and my dishes came out sparkling clean. It was the best $10s I have spent in the matter of time saved, water use and energy used on extra hot water used for prewashing dishes.
Try cinnamon. I had ants coming in my A/C vent, and the cinnamon got rid of them. :)
Check out post #52, there is a link to a seller of STPP, Sodium Tripolyphosphate. Shipping costs some but it is the stuff they actually put in the detergent and may not hurt the fabric so much. I must say that I have been using TSP for awhile and I have to wear black pants and the TSP has made all my darks look better and has NOT affected the fabrics.
I would not eat spoonfuls of the stuff but it is approved as a food additive in Europe.
Some number of people had the misfortune to pick up one of these pressurised cans. When they went to open it, they experienced a pneumatic blowback and were sprayed, typically on the hands, arms and face, with Drano.
The lawsuits were hugely expensive...and from that date, Drano is formulated differently and is sold in cans with a plastic cap which will pop open automatically if the internal gas pressure becomes too high. '
In Virginia, commercial dishwashing and some laundry for hospitals & the like are exempt from the ban, as are some food processing and dairy outfits, as long as the Phosphate content is below about 8.7 % I think it is. There are some exemptions for stuff used to clean counter tops and other food-related cleaning.
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