safe or unsafe

[humanclone]

Swim was wondering why there is a split decision on using sodium hydroxide,is it safe?.Does it depend on what brand you use,swim doesnt think it sounds too healthy putting drain cleaner into belly.Could someone advise swim on the most popular to use,as swim is about to try it.any help swim would appreciate.swim has seen many methods but which is best?.

[Broshious]

Originally Posted by humanclone

Swim was wondering why there is a split decision on using sodium hydroxide,is it safe?.Does it depend on what brand you use,swim doesnt think it sounds too healthy putting drain cleaner into belly.Could someone advise swim on the most popular to use,as swim is about to try it.any help swim would appreciate.swim has seen many methods but which is best?.

Good lord. You're not eating drain cleaner. A CHEMICAL REACTION TAKES PLACE. The worry is solely over either not using high enough grade NaOH or not reacting all of it and leaving some caustic NaOH behind. Using pH paper to get a pH close to 7 will help you avoid that mistake.

Reputation Comments on this post:

	Well done on debunking that whole "drain cleaner" rubbish.
	good explination

[MrG]

Drain cleaner, drain cleaner, drain cleaner. Christ on a bike will people please get over that media label! It is a base alkali. It can also be used to make certain food recipes too ok?!!! Yes it needs to be handled with care but once it has been through this process:

http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26198

Then the end result is that there is no more caustic NaOH left.

Reputation Comments on this post:

good, as usual

[bcubed]

Yeah, the chemical you start with has no relation to the final product.

Exs: 2H(an extremely flammable gas--think Hindenburg)+0(oxygen, a powerful oxidizer)=H2O (water); more to the point, NaOH(lye, the caustic base in question)+HCl(an equally nasty acid)=NaCl(table salt)+H2O(again).

Never made GBH, but NaOH is (I believe) still used to turn fat into soap. Just make sure the final pH is okay, and no worries. Dunno personally if commercial drain cleaner is 100% NaOH, though.

[humanclone]

Swim thanks swiy all for the info.Swim will check the labels to see which is the most pure Naoh.Are there other products that contain Naoh?.

[Psych0naut]

Only use drain cleaner when SWIY can be 100% shure that it's pure NaOH, otherwise it could contain heavy metals which are very poisonous. Otherwise use food grade NaOH, but don't use ordinary drain cleaner if SWIY isn't 100% shure it's pure NaOH.

[humanclone]

swim can only see caustic soda which is 98%,what is food grade Naoh?.Swim would be happy for any info that can be given.

[MrG]

FYI NaOH as caustic soda is a coarse granular powder, not a liquid. Do not use liquid as it will more than likely have other elements in it.

As for the grade, according to wikipedia the production process is pretty straightforward with only the older, less commonly used mercury cell technique producing possible undesirable contaminants. The most economical method is the membrane cell process and it produces the highest quality NaOH.

Just because it can be found at the hardware store doesn't mean it's got nails in it!

[humanclone]

Thanks MR G,
SWIY is very helpful,SWIM is grateful for the help.SWIM wishes he could speak to SWIY more in depth,but SWIM does'nt want to break any rules.As for the nails in it (LOL)

[MrG]

pm's are perfectly fine as long as they do not break any of the forum rules (no incriminating, no sources discussions).