Same meat, different bleach?
August 20, 2011 2:58 AM Subscribe
Is the active ingredient in these household cleaners the same thing? "Exit Mould" and "White & Shine"?
Both have caused bleaching and attendant 'eat-through' via accidental splashing on my bathroom towellery. Both are made in Australia by 'Reckitt Benckiser'.
"Exit Mould" contains (off the bottle label):
Sodium Hydroxide 2.4GL alkaline salts 1.2G/L Sodium Hypochlorite 42G/L
"White & Shine bleach gel" contains (off the bottle label):
Sodium aTE 21.8g/L
(Available chlorine 2.1W/V (0.5% W/V USE BY DATE)
Sodium Hydroxide 10.0g/L, Alkaline Salt 7.4G/L
Both have caused bleaching and attendant 'eat-through' via accidental splashing on my bathroom towellery. Both are made in Australia by 'Reckitt Benckiser'.
"Exit Mould" contains (off the bottle label):
Sodium Hydroxide 2.4GL alkaline salts 1.2G/L Sodium Hypochlorite 42G/L
"White & Shine bleach gel" contains (off the bottle label):
Sodium aTE 21.8g/L
(Available chlorine 2.1W/V (0.5% W/V USE BY DATE)
Sodium Hydroxide 10.0g/L, Alkaline Salt 7.4G/L
Chlorine bleach and caustic soda, it looks like to me. Very good for killing what they touch, including fabric and aluminium....
posted by Lebannen at 6:49 AM on August 20, 2011
posted by Lebannen at 6:49 AM on August 20, 2011
Best answer: Well, sodium hydroxide (NaOH), also known as lye or caustic soda, is a strong base that can do many things that make it a good cleaner (see the Wiki article). "Alkaline salts" doesn't refer to a specific compound; it covers a broad range of salts that are basic (= alkaline) in solution. These are weaker bases than NaOH that will do similar things but not as aggressively. Annoyingly vague to a chemist, but evidently OK for labeling consumer products under Australian law. Both products contain both of these.
Sodium hypochlorite is good ol' bleach. This isn't listed specifically in the "White & Shine" stuff.
I have no idea what "Sodium aTE" is. Google didn't find anything plausible and I can't even guess. Typo? The bleach gel most likely contains sodium hypochlorite since it's effective and cheap, so maybe this mystery item is the bleach. (The use-by date suggests it's some kind of chemically reactive compound like an oxidizing agent, which is exactly what Na hypochlorite is.)
tl;dr
According to the label, these 2 products share some ingredients in common but not the Na hypochlorite. The gel contains a higher concentration of everything. NaOH and bleach are caustic and will chew up a bunch of stuff, including things you don't want them to attack.
posted by Quietgal at 10:22 AM on August 20, 2011
Sodium hypochlorite is good ol' bleach. This isn't listed specifically in the "White & Shine" stuff.
I have no idea what "Sodium aTE" is. Google didn't find anything plausible and I can't even guess. Typo? The bleach gel most likely contains sodium hypochlorite since it's effective and cheap, so maybe this mystery item is the bleach. (The use-by date suggests it's some kind of chemically reactive compound like an oxidizing agent, which is exactly what Na hypochlorite is.)
tl;dr
According to the label, these 2 products share some ingredients in common but not the Na hypochlorite. The gel contains a higher concentration of everything. NaOH and bleach are caustic and will chew up a bunch of stuff, including things you don't want them to attack.
posted by Quietgal at 10:22 AM on August 20, 2011
Response by poster: Hey Quietgal.
maybe a typo, but not mine. I transcribed from the label verbatim.
posted by evil_esto at 11:25 AM on August 20, 2011
maybe a typo, but not mine. I transcribed from the label verbatim.
posted by evil_esto at 11:25 AM on August 20, 2011
Looking at the concentrations I'm guessing that Sodium aTE is a partially scientific abbreviation (like using NaAc for sodium acetate) and it's some largish molecule that gives it a gel like consistency. Like sodium polyphosphate or some such.
I'm guessing the bleach is hidden in the intersection of "Available Chlorine" and "Alkaline Salt".
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 3:29 PM on August 20, 2011
I'm guessing the bleach is hidden in the intersection of "Available Chlorine" and "Alkaline Salt".
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 3:29 PM on August 20, 2011
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posted by scruss at 5:09 AM on August 20, 2011