sulphuric acid - can one still buy it?

[meriad]

Our drain clearers here use a jet hooked up to a fire hydrant.

That certainly should give enough pressure to clear anything from here to Australia

The sale of concentrated sulphuric is I believe banned to the general public because it is very good for Molotov cocktails among other nasty uses.

Ped - I'm not surprised, in the wrong hands it can be beyond disastrous. But just goes to show how things have changed. I simply walked into a hardware shop - you know the kind that sells absolutely everything - asked them for a decent drain cleaner and they gave me two bottles of the stuff at £4.95 each! I suspect what I had wasn't concentrated but still powerful enough to do vast amounts of damage

[Workingman]

There is not much to choose between caustic soda and sulphuric acid as far as the environment is concerned - both are bad.

My reading of Ria's problem is that there has been a build-up of rubble, sand and silt down the years allowing for the collection of organic materials from normal use of the shower, sink and washing machines, as well as plant and leaf debris.

The sulphuric acid wash will have cleared the organic stuff, but the inorganic debris will need a pressure wash or rodding to get it to move completely.

[meriad]

and just seen you can still buy the stuff I used - from Amazon
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shot-Instant-Dr ... in+cleaner

My reading of Ria's problem is that there has been a build-up of rubble, sand and silt down the years allowing for the collection of organic materials from normal use of the shower, sink and washing machines, as well as plant and leaf debris.

Sort of exactly that. Just not sure where it would have all come from because I'm fairly very certain it wasn't like this last year and I've not done anything for 2 or 3 years now. I'll report back tomorrow once the plumber has been.

[Workingman]

We have to have drain covers here because of all the trees. In Autumn the winds tend to gravitate all of the leaves to where the drains are.

It is like they "KNOW" where to cause the most disruption.

[meriad]

This drain has a cover and I always clear leaves that get in because it's right under a mahoosive birch tree

[Suff]

Sort of exactly that. Just not sure where it would have all come from because I'm fairly very certain it wasn't like this last year and I've not done anything for 2 or 3 years now.

Could be as simple as earth blowing off the fields when it's dry and windy... It gets in everywhere.

[Kaz]

Hopefully they will clear this for you tomorrow Ria xx

[pederito1]

Amazon do not say what it is Ria but I very much doubt it is 98% sulphuric more likely hydrochloric, which is a very different liquid. I once mixed agua fuerte with bleach and had to make a very rapid exit from the kitchen as it produced something like chlorine gas. I have been through Malaga Airport several times with a litre of agua fuerte in luggage together with some 96% alcohol, I dont think the authorities would be concerned Ally.

[Ally]

Amazon do not say what it is Ria but I very much doubt it is 98% sulphuric more likely hydrochloric, which is a very different liquid. I once mixed agua fuerte with bleach and had to make a very rapid exit from the kitchen as it produced something like chlorine gas. I have been through Malaga Airport several times with a litre of agua fuerte in luggage together with some 96% alcohol, I dont think the authorities would be concerned Ally.

I think they would be these days Peds.

[pederito1]

There is a big chemical difference between hydrochloric and sulphuric, ie the former has only one hydrogen atom and no oxygen whereas the other has 2 hydrogen and 4 oxygen. To make a Molotov all you need is a bottle, pour some sulphuric in, top up with petrol and seal, then wrap it in brown paper soaked in sugar solution and dried. When you throw it at the tank the bottle breaks, the acid meets the sugar, it flashes and sets of the petrol. So now you will know what to do when the muslim army comes to take us over. Had a horrible school experience with sulphuric, holding a test tube with some in i heating with a bunsen when it boiled up and spilled down my arm. Instantly dissolved my jacket and shirt also most of the skin off the underside of my forearm. Very painful and took months to heal, I cant imagine why the master let me do it or maybe he did not know, I cant remember and was very young at the time. No doubt these days the school would have been up for massive compensation.