Avoid mixing these together!

[scpressure]

Early one morning I was pumping shc into empty(so i thought) 5gal buckets. About 3 seconds into the second bucket I heard air being forced from the top of the bucket followed by a stream of foam spuing everywhere, ceiling, my arms and face.
This was cause by dried oxilic in the bottom of the bucket being rehydrated with shc, not a good combo.

[Apple Roof Cleaning]

Originally Posted by One Tough Pressure

Looking at the MSDS for Ultra Clorox, it lists Sodium Hydroxide as an ingredient. Where did this info come from, I would like a confirmation.


Toilet/Drain Cleaners & Lye (Lye: also known as Sodium Hydroxide or Potassium Hydroxide)
- can cause serious burns.
- wear gloves and avoid skin contact.
- never mix with bleach.
- protect eyes from possible splashes.

ALL sodium hypochlorite contains hydroxide
It is a byproduct of the manufacturing process.
BUT, in the case of Clorox outdoors, MORE of it is added for improved cleaning, and storage stability.

[Greg R]

Originally Posted by scpressure

Early one morning I was pumping shc into empty(so i thought) 5gal buckets. About 3 seconds into the second bucket I heard air being forced from the top of the bucket followed by a stream of foam spuing everywhere, ceiling, my arms and face.
This was cause by dried oxilic in the bottom of the bucket being rehydrated with shc, not a good combo.

Thats bad news there.... it creates chlorine gas which when mixed with H20 creates muriatic acid. This stuff can kill ya dead if you inhale too much so be carefull out there. The chlorine gas when inhaled mixes with H20 in your body. One of my guys did that same thing in our shop and just a few minutes we had to evacuate the shop for about 45 minutes. You couldn't stand to even walk in there!

[Beth n Rod]

I think the confusion here was assuming that the toilet and drain cleaners were containing lye, most actually are acids which when mixed with either bleach or ammonia products will produce a harmful gas. (see msds links below)

Bleach and sodium hydroxide mixtures are not a problem. I don't necessarily agree with chris's post about sodium hydroxide being a by-product of the manufacturing process but it is used to stabilize the pH of the bleach.
In the outdoor formula, there is no more Sodium hydroxide than the regular bleach but there are other surfactants added to enable the sodium hydroxide it does contain to be active otherwise it is classified as an 'inert ingredient'.

http://www.thecloroxcompany.com/prod...leach0505_.pdf
http://www.thecloroxcompany.com/prod...leaner6-07.pdf

Compare for yourselves.

http://www.hescoinc.com/Msds/ly74278.pdf
http://www.hescoinc.com/Msds/ly94201.pdf

Mixing bleach and sodium hydroxide together is a powerful oxidizing agent not to mention corrosive as well. The following link is for pdf based msds on drain cleaners for example.

http://www.scjohnson.com/msds_us_ca/drano.asp

Hope this helps to answer some questions.

Rod!~