# Electrolyzed Water Cheap Cleaner



## Drachir (Mar 16, 2009)

This must be sending shudders through the purveyors of expensive cleaning products.  It turns out that electrolyzing a solution of salt water makes a cheap and very effective cleaning product.  Take that Proctor and Gamble.  

Electrolyzed Water: Miracle Cleaning Fluid Made From Water & Salt - PSFK.com


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## chrispenycate (Mar 16, 2009)

Well, if I were a purveyor of cleaning fluids, I wouldn't be too worried, for a while, at least.

Products are sold by their aroma (and the length of time they go on smelling like that, their skin friendliness and, more recently, their negligible effect on the environment (never mind how many of the things they say are half-truths or downright lies). Watch any block of television commercials.

They might vaunt their product's spot removal characteristics, or its lack of tendency to fade colours.

Caustic soda (lye, sodium hydroxide) and chlorine bleach? They're still on sale, but if you want your local sewage farm to function effectively, you don't want too much of either in your waste water. (Both is fine, they'll neutralise each other out) And the bleach will take out any colour that isn't plastic-bonded fast, while what the lye does to skin is on record, and not pleasant.

It's a bit difficult getting the springfresh odour of an alpine waterfall, too. Your (admittedly bacteria free) clothes would smell like a municipal swimming baths; less than romantic, and not what the public tends to go for.

And the health and safety gurus would be going hysterical over either of the products getting into a child's eyes, and the safe disposal of the hydrogen waste product, and the chlorine gas generated when the bleach comes into contact with certain common lavatory cleaners, and everything else H & S people enjoy getting worked up about. Never mind that our great grandparents used exactly these products (probably generated in quite a similar way) and lots of them survived it.


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## Nik (Mar 16, 2009)

*ROFL: Sodium Hypochlorite !!*

Yeah, yeah, electrolyse brine whilst stirring, and you have instant chlorine bleach...

But, the stuff is remarkably aggressive, has a short shelf-life, stinks of chlorine, eats fabric & dyes, attacks alumin(i)um etc etc. IIRC, it reacts with common organics to produce carcinogens. Dribbles leave nasty white alkaline carbonate residues and the bulk liquid is a transportation / Fire&Rescue nightmare due out-gassing, water-way toxicity etc etc...

At least it isn't flammable !!!

Oh, yes, and Hypochlorite is about as 'In-Organic' as you can get, even if you do use 'organically' sourced salt, power, water...

One wonderful advantage is Hypochlorite breaks down to, yes, salt and water. No harmful organics to worry about...


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## Ursa major (Mar 16, 2009)

Selling lyes and stuff that makes things whiter than white? 

Sounds like a job made for the advertising industry. (Allegedly.) 


I'm sticking with the pine- and lemon-fresh stuff, thanks all the same.


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## kyektulu (Mar 16, 2009)

Yeah... I like my cleaning fluids nice and aromatic... preferably Lemon scented. 
Nice little invention but I sincerely doubt it will be life changing, or even be popular.
Plus I doubt one of those concoction thingys would fit in many peoples kitchen, whereas a little bottle of Jiff suits just fine. lol


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## Drachir (Mar 17, 2009)

It may not be nicely scented, but it could save millions of dollars a year in taxpayers' money if used institutionally.


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## Nik (Mar 17, 2009)

Sorry, Drachir, the stuff has a shelf-life as short as fresh milk...

My small corner of BigPharma used a lot of this stuff: We had to test each tanker-load as it came in then use it within ~4 days. IIRC, it could last as little as 2 days in warm weather. During High Summer, we'd reject tankers which had gassed-off en-route...

The big danger in work-place is you cannot easily determine if the stuff is still 'active': You may be spreading bugs rather than bleaching them...

Oh, yes, and getting a face full of warm chlorine fumes is non-trivial...


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## Drachir (Mar 18, 2009)

Nik said:


> Sorry, Drachir, the stuff has a shelf-life as short as fresh milk...
> 
> My small corner of BigPharma used a lot of this stuff: We had to test each tanker-load as it came in then use it within ~4 days. IIRC, it could last as little as 2 days in warm weather. During High Summer, we'd reject tankers which had gassed-off en-route...
> 
> ...




Hmm, so I'm guessing that the institutions that do use it make it up every day.  I understood that it was widely used in Japan and Russia so that is probably how it is used there.


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