Will toilet bowl cleaner damage a sink or bathtub?

[micky]

In a mood to make comparison, I bought a whole bunch of bottles of
toiilet bowl cleaner, tried them each once, and now that I want to use
one of them, they are all clogged by their own dried out stuff.

How do I free up that clog?

If I weigh down the bottle and soak the whole thing in the sink or
bathtub, will toilet bowl cleaner damage the sink or bathtub?

One of the bottles contains "acidic" toilet bowl clean.

[BenDarrenBach]

Soak it in a glass bowl and you won't have to ask asinine questions.

[micky]

That's 3 strikes. Kerplunk

[BenDarrenBach]

Just in time for Thanksgiving...a turkey!

[nestork]

Mickey:

Most COMMERCIAL toilet bowl cleaners are gelled phosphoric acid or
gelled hydrochloric acid. Generally, phosphoric acid is strong enough
to remove anything normally found in a toilet bowl, but hydrochloric
acid based cleaners are very much more agressive and will remove marks
on the porcelain left by using metal tools in the toilet bowl, like a
plumber's snake. If only one of your bottles says that it contains
acid, then most of what you have was purchased in a supermarket, not a
janitorial supply store.

Never use hydrochloric acid in a bath tub or sink because it will attack
chrome plating, including the chrome plating on the tub or sink drain.
It'll also attack any chrome plating on your faucets if you get
hydrochloric acid on those too.

Phosphoric acid is not only used as a toilet bowl cleaner, but as the
active ingredient in general purpose bathroom cleaners as well. That's
because it cuts through soap scum like a hot knife cuts through butter,
but it won't attack chrome plating even at high concentrations.

I've used both phosphoric acid and hydrochloric acid based toilet bowl
cleaners for the past 25 years for all kinds of different reasons, and
never had one "dry out" on me as you describe. You may be using a
bathroom cleaner like "Scrubbing Bubbles" which I don't think contains
any acid at all.

Your best bet is to simply remove the dried up clog with a knife or
something and throw the dried up stuff in your garbage. Plastics are
generally immune to acids and bases so dumping dried up acid in your
garbage won't burn a hole in the garbage bag.




--
nestork

[trader_4]

Inquiring minds want to know how that toilet bowl cleaner is going
to get to the bathtub if all he does is weight the container down
and put it in a bathtub with water. And even if a tiny bit does come
out, it's going to be diluted by 10+ gallons of water in the tub.
It's not going to harm anything.

I presume this is a spray container? If so, just remove the spray
part and soak that in a sink. If it's the whole inside of the container
that's dried up, then I don't understand the bathtub idea at all.

[nestork]

trader_4;3308167 Wrote:
>
> Inquiring minds want to know how that toilet bowl cleaner is going
> to get to the bathtub if all he does is weight the container down
> and put it in a bathtub with water. And even if a tiny bit does come
> out, it's going to be diluted by 10+ gallons of water in the tub.
> It's not going to harm anything.
>
> I presume this is a spray container? If so, just remove the spray
> part and soak that in a sink. If it's the whole inside of the
> container
> that's dried up, then I don't understand the bathtub idea at all.

Well, Trader, that's exactly it.

What do these containers look like? Are they spray bottles or something
else. And, how does one go about "weighing them down" so they don't
float in the water? I have no idea what Mickey would end up doing here,
so I thought it would be prudent to at least warn him/her that any
hydrochloric acid based toilet bowl cleaner could attack the chrome
plating on the bathtub drain, so that he/she'd be able to avoid doing
any harm.




--
nestork

[micky]

Thanks Nestork for all the background. The openings are clogged but
there is almost a full bottle of still-liquid inside each of them.

If acids and bases don't bother plastic, I may use a plastic bucket or
waste basket.

On Thu, 13 Nov 2014 17:00:20 +0100, nestork
<nestork...@diybanter.com> wrote:

>
>trader_4;3308167 Wrote:
>>
>> Inquiring minds want to know how that toilet bowl cleaner is going
>> to get to the bathtub if all he does is weight the container down

The dried up stuff extends to the very opening. And once the water
dissolves that stuff, it will start to dissolve stuff farther into the
cap. The caps are those designed to twist maybe a 1/4 of a turn.

>> and put it in a bathtub with water. And even if a tiny bit does come
>> out, it's going to be diluted by 10+ gallons of water in the tub.
>> It's not going to harm anything.

I really wanted to use the sink, and even in the tub, my first
inclination would be to fill it up only enough to cover the bottles on
their side. It doesn't seem like it, but I guess that would be more
than two 5-gallon buckets,

>>
>> I presume this is a spray container? If so, just remove the spray

I didn't know they made spray versions of toilet bowl cleaner. ;-)
It's liquid, meant to be turned upside down and squeezed to get the
liquid out.

Do you guys have wives to clean the toilets, so you don't know how the
caps work? Perhaps one of the wives could come over and show me how
to do this.

>> part and soak that in a sink.

I don't think the caps are removeable without ruining them or the
bottles. . For children's safety. You have to squeeze the outer layer
of the cap (something small kids can't do) to even twist it a quarter
turn open, and then you'd have only a small stream. But even the outer
layer of the nozzle won't come off without tools. It would be worse
yet to remove the whole cap and have the stuff just pour out. So I may
have jumped to a conclusion, but I think they made that impossible.

>> If it's the whole inside of the
>> container
>> that's dried up, then I don't understand the bathtub idea at all.
>
>Well, Trader, that's exactly it.
>
>What do these containers look like? Are they spray bottles or something
>else. And, how does one go about "weighing them down" so they don't
>float in the water?

I haven't figured that out yet. One step at a time. But since you
raise the question, maybe a rock. Darn, I thew away my softball-sized
rocks, and I haven't seen my two spare bricks in a long time. (Left by
the previous owner, who didn't leave anything else one would call junk.
And they didn't match the house, which is half brick.)

I can't think of anything, other than to go to a stream and bring back a
rock.

> I have no idea what Mickey would end up doing here,
>so I thought it would be prudent to at least warn him/her that any
>hydrochloric acid based toilet bowl cleaner could attack the chrome
>plating on the bathtub drain, so that he/she'd be able to avoid doing
>any harm.

I definitely appreciate the warning. It might have been vague memories
about this that made me ask in the first place.

[jaynechowf...@gmail.com]

bob_villa, if you'd had the logical sense or imagination to realize he probably didn't have a glass bowl large or tall enough (few people do!) to soak some of those big bottles of cleaners to keep the clogged opening completely submerged, which was his objective, then you wouldn't have replied with an asisine, short-sighted answer.

[Uncle Monster]

You're too late, 3 years ago, Bob was abducted by giant mutant gerbils from outer space. The Air Force couldn't catch the flying saucer and it's feared that Bob was eaten after being used as a sex slave by the giant mutant outer space gerbils. He is survived by a wife, 4 ex-wives, 46 children, a herd of zebra and 456 Earth gerbils. His gerbils really miss him. 8-(

[8~{} Uncle Earth Monster

[heather]

replying to nestork, heather wrote:
I have been googling info on toilet cleaners and tubs and cant find anything.
You seem to know some things on this and am hoping you can help. I have used
Lysol and Clorox toilet cleaner on a tub before and never had issues. I
purchased the works for the first time recently and without thinking tonight
put it on the tub, put my kids down and returned a hour later. My bathroom
smells awful I was worried something had caught fire but that was not the
case. I scrubbed it off the tub and the smell is not fading may be getting
stronger. Any ideas on if this is from that ? I read the cleaner can possibly
eat the tub. Obviously no one will be using that bathroom until I can figure
out the problem but thought maybe you had some input. Thanks.

--
for full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/maintenance/will-toilet-bowl-cleaner-damage-a-sink-or-bathtub-813788-.htm

[franco...@gmail.com]

the works is a hydroloric acid and much stronger than others who use phosphoric acid

source https://mightycleanhome.com

[Holly L Godfrey]

replying to nestork, Holly L Godfrey wrote:
Nestork, i.used lysol toilet bowl cleaner on my sinks and bath and although it
made them whiter than they've ever been, there is an awful metallic smell
coming out of the drains now and it is not going away. I used baking soda and
vinegar to try to neutralize it and that has worked well in the past for other
odors but not this metallic one. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

[TimR]

Wow, another lazarus post.

Yes, acid in the drains can react with organic slime in the pipes and produce a horrible smell. It happened to me once with the leftover acid after a tile job.

Just run lots of water through and it goes away.

[Oren]

On 10/3/2019 10:44 AM, Holly L Godfrey wrote:
> replying to nestork, Holly L Godfrey wrote:
> Nestork, i.used lysol toilet bowl cleaner on my sinks and bath and although it
> made them whiter than they've ever been, there is an awful metallic smell
> coming out of the drains now and it is not going away. I used baking soda and
> vinegar to try to neutralize it and that has worked well in the past for other
> odors but not this metallic one. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Yes. Stick your head down there and use it like a tampon.