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 available on the market. My main goal was to find out the effectivity of every product in dissolving varied varieties of clogging supplies, together with natural matter, grease, paper merchandise and pet hair (the identical pet hair we use for our robotic vacuum assessments, 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 adjustments. Moreover, I thought of 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 you might recall from highschool chemistry, acids are compounds that donate a hydrogen ion (H+) when combined with water and have a pH decrease than 7. Alternatively, bases are compounds that settle for these ions (or hydroxide, OH- ions) and have a pH greater than 7. Understanding this distinction is essential, resulting from 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, however, pertains to how a chemical substance reacts when it comes into contact with natural matter, particularly breaking down proteins and different natural molecules, which might 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 higher its potential for corrosivity and causticity.
Pattern pH studying from considered one of our take a look at topics. 11.38 pH corresponds to an alkaline resolution.
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 steadily introduce an acid to water, slowly rising the focus of the acid. By no means add water to an acid as this response is understood to generate a major quantity of warmth and launch hazardous fumes. See for your self within the GIF under (and do not do this at house).
Including water into this beaker of sulfuric acid creates an instantaneous exothermic response, boiling the water on contact and releasing hazardous smoke into the air. Don’t do this at house!
To make sure security through the experiments, I took obligatory precautions by sporting private protecting gear, together with security goggles, gloves, long-sleeved clothes and a masks. The dissolution take a look at was performed in a well-ventilated laboratory space to reduce publicity to any hazardous fumes that could be launched.
Dissolution take a look at
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 guaranteeing thorough mixing with out spills. Following the directions supplied with every product, I allowed the options to sit down for the advisable time, sometimes between 15 and half-hour.
An important step in my take a look at was the inclusion of water, a element typically ignored in related 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 ample 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 take a look at in progress
To proceed with the experiment, I employed a vacuum filtration course of utilizing a Buchner funnel linked to a 1,000 ml filtering flask geared up with a pump. The contents of every beaker have 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, guaranteeing that solely moist solids remained within the Buchner funnel.
Our Buchner funnel, made from chemically resistant borosilicate glass, featured a perforated plate with 2-millimeter openings, permitting solely the tiniest particles to go by. In my take a look at logic, “if a substance, stable or liquid, might go by the two mm openings within the filter, it was extremely unlikely to trigger pipe clogging.”
On the left, our vacuum filtration setup. Liquid and dissolved solids go by 2mm holes within the Buchner funnel plate on the appropriate — something that does not go by is taken into account potential clog materials.
Lastly, I separated the samples and subjected them to a fan-drying course of for a couple 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.