I leaned on my background as a chemical engineer to supply insights on the effectiveness of those controversial chemical compounds. In my experiment, I examined eight of essentially the most generally obtainable chemical drain cleaners: six alkaline and two acidic. I carried out dissolution checks to guage how nicely every of them might dissolve drain blockages. I had one purpose: to find out which merchandise, if any, would work successfully towards the most typical clogging supplies.
For this rundown, I headed to CNET’s product testing lab in Louisville, Kentucky, to conduct a complete batch distillation experiment with eight of essentially the most generally used chemical drain cleaners in the marketplace. My major goal was to find out the effectivity of every product in dissolving varied kinds of clogging supplies, together with natural matter, grease, paper merchandise and pet hair (the identical pet hair we use for our robotic vacuum checks, as a matter of reality). All through the experiment, I additionally famous the pH ranges of the cleansing options when combined with water and monitored any temperature modifications. Moreover, I thought-about the chemical composition and flexibility of use of every product when evaluating them to at least one one other.
Acids vs. bases
Earlier than conducting experiments with these substances, I separated them into acids and bases. As chances are you’ll recall from highschool chemistry, acids are compounds that donate a hydrogen ion (H+) when combined with water and have a pH decrease than 7. Then again, bases are compounds that settle for these ions (or hydroxide, OH- ions) and have a pH larger than 7. Understanding this distinction is essential, on account of two vital elements related to these merchandise: corrosivity and causticity.
Corrosivity refers back to the potential of a chemical substance to trigger rust and deterioration of the supplies that make up your piping system. Causticity, then again, pertains to how a chemical substance reacts when it comes into contact with natural matter, particularly breaking down proteins and different natural molecules, which may result in tissue destruction or chemical burns.
To find out the acidity or basicity of every compound, we measure their pH. In easy phrases, the extra acidic or fundamental a compound is, the larger its potential for corrosivity and causticity.
Pattern pH studying from one among our check topics. 11.38 pH corresponds to an alkaline answer.
Acidic drain cleaners, significantly these with excessive acid concentrations like sulfuric acid drain cleaners, are extra hazardous in comparison with their fundamental or alkaline counterparts. In chemistry, the order of addition does matter. Usually, you’d step by step introduce an acid to water, slowly rising the focus of the acid. By no means add water to an acid as this response is thought to generate a big quantity of warmth and launch hazardous fumes. See for your self within the GIF beneath (and do not do this at residence).
Including water into this beaker of sulfuric acid creates a direct exothermic response, boiling the water on contact and releasing hazardous smoke into the air. Don’t do this at residence!
To make sure security through the experiments, I took vital precautions by sporting private protecting gear, together with security goggles, gloves, long-sleeved clothes and a masks. The dissolution check was performed in a well-ventilated laboratory space to reduce publicity to any hazardous fumes that could be launched.
Dissolution check
To start the experiment, I weighed particular quantities of the clogging supplies into separate 1,000 ml beakers:
- 4 grams of hair
- 20 grams of natural matter (10 grams every of apple peels and carrot peels)
- 40 grams of lard for grease
- 14 grams of paper merchandise (7 grams every of bathroom paper and paper towels)
Utilizing a graduated cylinder, I fastidiously measured and added 200 ml of every fundamental drain cleaner and 70 ml of every acidic drain cleaner to the respective beakers, stirring the mixtures with a glass rod and making certain thorough mixing with out spills. Following the directions supplied with every product, I allowed the options to sit down for the advisable time, usually between 15 and half-hour.
A vital step in my check was the inclusion of water, a element typically ignored in comparable experiments discovered on-line. Chemical drain cleaners are designed to work within the presence of water, which facilitates the transportation of the cleaner to the clogs and evenly distributes the answer over their surfaces, enabling the dissolution course of. After the designated time had elapsed, I added faucet water to every beaker containing the cleaner options and clogging supplies. For fundamental drain cleaners (pH > 7.0), I used 500 ml of scorching water at 46 levels C, whereas for acidic drain cleaners (pH < 7.0), I used 700 ml of chilly water at 19 levels C.
To permit adequate time for the chemical compounds to work, I left the samples to sit down in a single day and resumed the analysis the next morning. By this level, the samples had reworked into sludgy, slimy mixtures.
Hair dissolution check in progress
To proceed with the experiment, I employed a vacuum filtration course of utilizing a Buchner funnel linked to a 1,000ml filtering flask geared up with a pump. The contents of every beaker had been fastidiously poured into the funnel whereas the pump was activated. As soon as many of the chemical drain cleaner had been drawn out of the funnel, I carried out a water wash to take away any residual chemical compounds from the floor of the particles samples, making certain that solely moist solids remained within the Buchner funnel.
Our Buchner funnel, fabricated from chemically resistant borosilicate glass, featured a perforated plate with 2ml openings, permitting solely the tiniest particles to cross by way of. In my check logic, “if a substance, stable or liquid, might cross by way of the 2mm openings within the filter, it was extremely unlikely to trigger pipe clogging.”
On the left, our vacuum filtration setup. Liquid and dissolved solids cross by way of 2mm holes within the Buchner funnel plate on the suitable — something that does not cross by way of is taken into account potential clog materials.
Lastly, I separated the samples and subjected them to a fan-drying course of for a number of hours to evaporate any remaining water from the wash. I recorded the ultimate weight of every pattern and in contrast it to its preliminary weight. The ratio of the ultimate weight to the preliminary weight offered us with the dissolution effectivity of every drain cleaner product.
