"Janitorial Strength" Ammonia?

[irfan]

I just bought a bottle of janitorial strength ammonia, which is a ten percent solution of ammonia, without any other substances. It's clear. How does this compare to household ammonia? How much should it be diluted by to clean a fountain pen that may be clogged with ink?

 

Thanks for any info that people can share.

[Tom Pike]

I don't know how the molar concentrations compare, but I was a janitor about 30 years ago, and I remember the industrial strength stuff. You can't even breathe anywhere near the top of the bottle open. The fumes will knock you flat. Seriously, a good lungful of fumes will probably send you straight to the hospital.

 

I wouldn't get it anywhere near my pens.

 

Just my 2p...

 

Cheers,

Tom

[irfan]

Tom, thanks for your comments.

 

I don't know how the molar concentrations compare, but I was a janitor about 30 years ago, and I remember the industrial strength stuff. You can't even breathe anywhere near the top of the bottle open. The fumes will knock you flat. Seriously, a good lungful of fumes will probably send you straight to the hospital.

 

I certainly wasn't going to use it without diluting it: It's a bit like acetic acid, I thought: pure acetic acid will take your skin off. Diluted with water, you can put it on your fish and chips with salt. It's called vinegar. I assume it's the same kind of thing, isn't it? So long as there are no additional chemicals or such, wouldn't it be a matter of getting the concentration right? But I'm not going to use it until I can find out how much it needs to be diluted by. Can anyone help?

 

[Tweel]

"Janitorial strength" (10%) is what I use, diluted normally (e.g. 1:10 ammonia:water). I do usually use distilled water -- the ammonia will turn hard water into a snow-globe of precipitates.

 

-- Brian

[captnemo]

Household ammonia is 2 percent if I am not mistaken and it's safe to get on your skin. Two percent ammonia is sold all over Europe in little applicators to put on mosquito bites to stop the itch. It works very well! Next time you have an itchy bite, stick your finger in household ammonia and rub it hard into the bite. Bingo. No more itch. I use it all the time with no ill effects. Disinfects too.

 

I believe the highest concentration you can buy is diazo machine (blueprint) developer, which I think is 32 percent.

 

 

I had a friend a while back who was in an "interesting" line of work that I won't detail, but one of his standard carry weapons was a small plastic squeeze bottle that would shoot a nice stream 15 feet, filled with diazo developer ammonia. His opinion was pepper spray? mace? tear gas? Forget it. He said his little bottle of ammonia will instantly disable any person or animal and it's perfectly legal. I've never tried it but I've worked with diazo developer and I expect it's true. Evil stuff.

[dcwaites]

I had a friend a while back who was in an "interesting" line of work that I won't detail, but one of his standard carry weapons was a small plastic squeeze bottle that would shoot a nice stream 15 feet, filled with diazo developer ammonia. His opinion was pepper spray? mace? tear gas? Forget it. He said his little bottle of ammonia will instantly disable any person or animal and it's perfectly legal. I've never tried it but I've worked with diazo developer and I expect it's true. Evil stuff.

We used to use household ammonia in trigger-squeeze bottle for household security in Port Moresby. It goes nicely through fly-wire and makes the potential miscreant think about other things than doing evil to you. Also doesn't do enough damage to make the police take interest in you.

 

I imagine the diazo developer would cause serious eye and lung injury if not blindness...

 

 

[captnemo]

I had a friend a while back who was in an "interesting" line of work that I won't detail, but one of his standard carry weapons was a small plastic squeeze bottle that would shoot a nice stream 15 feet, filled with diazo developer ammonia. His opinion was pepper spray? mace? tear gas? Forget it. He said his little bottle of ammonia will instantly disable any person or animal and it's perfectly legal. I've never tried it but I've worked with diazo developer and I expect it's true. Evil stuff.

We used to use household ammonia in trigger-squeeze bottle for household security in Port Moresby. It goes nicely through fly-wire and makes the potential miscreant think about other things than doing evil to you. Also doesn't do enough damage to make the police take interest in you.

 

I imagine the diazo developer would cause serious eye and lung injury if not blindness...

 

Yes, well the fellow I referred to was not what you'd call a "nice" person. Haha.

[irfan]

I was wondering what I was going to do with a whole liter of the stuff. Great to know it has so many useful applications. But back to pens for a moment: sounds like a 25:1 solution would work fine for cleaning purposes ...

[girlieg33k]

I had a friend a while back who was in an "interesting" line of work that I won't detail, but one of his standard carry weapons was a small plastic squeeze bottle that would shoot a nice stream 15 feet, filled with diazo developer ammonia. His opinion was pepper spray? mace? tear gas? Forget it. He said his little bottle of ammonia will instantly disable any person or animal and it's perfectly legal.

At the risk giving the impression that I'm planning something diabolical, I'm curious as to what kind of small plastic squeeze bottle your friend used to store the diazo developer ammonia. With the caution that this would knock people out instantly and after reading the others posts indicating that industrial strength could disintegrate the innards of pens (not instantly, but eventually), I'm curious how the ammonia could be stored without fear of it leaking out of any container like a squeeze bottle. By the way, if it wouldn't destroy a Snorkel, this could get interesting... (joking)

[Tweel]

By the way, if it wouldn't destroy a Snorkel, this could get interesting... (joking)

A-ha... but it would be a self-destructing one-shot device, like some kind of Saturday night special. One thing ammonia will destroy is rubber sacs -- it'll turn them to soft, pale goo (that's one way I've gotten vitrified rubber off of sections). I imagine the "backfire" would turn the spring into a coil of rust.

 

-- Brian

[radagast97]

Household ammonia is 2 percent if I am not mistaken and it's safe to get on your skin. Two percent ammonia is sold all over Europe in little applicators to put on mosquito bites to stop the itch. It works very well! Next time you have an itchy bite, stick your finger in household ammonia and rub it hard into the bite. Bingo. No more itch. I use it all the time with no ill effects. Disinfects too.

 

I believe the highest concentration you can buy is diazo machine (blueprint) developer, which I think is 32 percent.

 

 

Household ammonia (US) strength is 5 - 10%, janatorial strength typically 10%, ACS lab grade ammonia (ammonium hydroxide) is 29% or 15 Molar. At 15.6 deg C it's maximum solubility is about 35% (~18 M), but will drop with increasing temperature.