Help! -caustic soda overdose.

[Chris Holford]

I thought it would be a good idea to put a little caustic soda down the
plugholes in the shower try. Unfortunately I was over generous and the
caustic soda granules seem to have congealed in the trap and blocked it.
Would be a big job to get to the trap. I've tried a plunger, and tried
neutralising with spirits of salts (NaOH + HCl > H2O + NaCL, ie salt
and water). -still no joy. The drain hole has a white disk a little
below the opening which prevents direct poking.
Any ideas?
--
Chris Holford

[stuart noble]

Whether you've ended up with a plug of salt or soda, it dissolves
eventually. This can happen even in a bucket if you don't add the
crystals gradually.

[The Natural Philosopher]

hot water and leave it. It will eventually dissolve



--
To people who know nothing, anything is possible.
To people who know too much, it is a sad fact
that they know how little is really possible -
and how hard it is to achieve it.

[Chris Holford]

In article <jl9bn5$d8d$2...@news.albasani.net>, The Natural Philosopher
<t...@invalid.invalid> writes

>Chris Holford wrote:
>> I thought it would be a good idea to put a little caustic soda down the
>> plugholes in the shower try. Unfortunately I was over generous and the
>> caustic soda granules seem to have congealed in the trap and blocked it.
>> Would be a big job to get to the trap. I've tried a plunger, and tried
>> neutralising with spirits of salts (NaOH + HCl > H2O + NaCL, ie salt
>> and water). -still no joy. The drain hole has a white disk a little
>> below the opening which prevents direct poking.
>> Any ideas?
>
>hot water and leave it. It will eventually dissolve

Thanks for advice; am keeping my fingers crossed!
--
Chris Holford

[Martin Brown]

The other important advice is wear eye protection or a face shield when
you are near it. You really do not want to be on the receiving end of a
blow back of strong caustic solution. Time and plenty of hot water
should be enough to get rid of it eventually.

I am surprised that you are not already sat in casualty with serious
chemical burns if you poured HCl in after it. That reaction can get
seriously hot and generate steam. You were lucky this time.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

[H. Neary]

My thought exactly. If any solids are left after the "neutralisation"
they have probably become an integral part of the pipework.

Even water on dry granuals develops quite a bit of heat.

HN

[Mr Benn]

"Chris Holford" <c.ho...@brownswell.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:woYF4CB9...@brownswell2.demon.co.uk...

That's exactly what happened to me. Had to take apart the plumbing and out
popper a solid, rock-hard cylinder of re-crystallised sodium hydroxide. I
presume that as it was put down the sink hot and left, it crystallised when
it cooled, completely blocking the sink.

I also tried hydrochloric acid and it didn't work for some reason. It
should!

You could try and siphon out any liquid and then pour boiling water down the
plughole. That may put the caustic soda back into solution.

[JohnW]

Have you tried lifting up the centre of the grille. As showers often block with hair, a lot of them have a disc suspended below the drain grille to catch the hair. The drain grille just lifts out together with the disc so that the hair can be removed. If it is covered with NaOH I would be more than a bit careful.

John

[Fred]

On Sun, 1 Apr 2012 09:34:05 +0100, Chris Holford
<c.ho...@brownswell.demon.co.uk> wrote:

> I've tried a plunger, and tried
>neutralising with spirits of salts

Hi,

Where do you buy spirit of salts from? It made a brief appearance in
the tool station catalogue but I think for one edition only. I can't
find any for sale around here. It often gets recommended in this
group.

TIA

[Rod Speed]

Fred wrote

> Chris Holford <c.ho...@brownswell.demon.co.uk> wrote

>> I've tried a plunger, and tried neutralising with spirits of salts

> Where do you buy spirit of salts from? It made a brief appearance in
> the tool station catalogue but I think for one edition only. I can't find
> any for sale around here. It often gets recommended in this group.

Its used for cleaning brick work after laying, so a builder's supplier.

The proper name is hydrochloric acid.

[Chris Holford]

In article <kghmn7dkvvf0tnv1e...@4ax.com>, Fred <fred@no-
email.here.invalid> writes

A 'proper ironmongers' -we have several here in remotest North Norfolk;
I got mine from Blythe and Wright in Sheringham; an Aladdin's cave of
hardware.
Still waiting for the NaOH to dissolve! :(
--
Chris Holford

[stuart noble]

Can't help thinking there's something else down there

[the_constructor]

"stuart noble" <stuart...@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:xQSer.48330$Hp5....@fx12.am4...

Have a look here:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p3984.m570.l1313&_nkw=spirits+of+salt&_sacat=See-All-Categories
Jim G

[Martin Brown]

On 03/04/2012 21:26, Chris Holford wrote:

> In article<kghmn7dkvvf0tnv1e...@4ax.com>, Fred<fred@no-
> email.here.invalid> writes
>> On Sun, 1 Apr 2012 09:34:05 +0100, Chris Holford
>> <c.ho...@brownswell.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>>> I've tried a plunger, and tried
>>> neutralising with spirits of salts
>>

> Still waiting for the NaOH to dissolve! :(

Does water drain away at all? If so your only remaining option is to
risk adding very hot water and hope that it will solvate the caustic.
Repeat hourly until the thing runs free again.

Wear eye protection and if possible a full face shield.

Otherwise you are down to a dismantling job. Next time make up the
solution carefully from the solid and pour it down the plug hole!
(again eye protection essential it gets pretty hot when dissolving)

I reckon most people are better off with one of the proprietory drain
cleaners since it avoids pitfalls like this one with overdose of the
solid causing a worse problem than the fault it was trying to fix.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

[stuart noble]

I've never known it take this long to dissolve, even when it has formed
a solid lump. I used to have a tank of the stuff so I know a little
about its behaviour.

[Rod Speed]

He did however attempt to neutralise it with HCl, so its
almost certainly the resulting NaCl thats not dissolving now
so your experience isnt that relevant to the rate it dissolves at.

[stuart noble]

But it has to have dissolved in order to be neutralised. Otherwise the
acid would at least partially wash over it

[Rod Speed]

stuart noble wrote

> Rod Speed wrote
>> stuart noble wrote

>>> Martin Brown wrote
>>>> Chris Holford wrote
>>>>> Fred<fred@no- email.here.invalid> wrote

>>>>>> Chris Holford <c.ho...@brownswell.demon.co.uk> wrote

>>>>>>> I've tried a plunger, and tried
>>>>>>> neutralising with spirits of salts

>>>>> Still waiting for the NaOH to dissolve! :(

>>>> Does water drain away at all? If so your only remaining option is to risk adding very hot water and hope that it
>>>> will solvate the
>>>> caustic. Repeat hourly until the thing runs free again.

>>>> Wear eye protection and if possible a full face shield.

>>>> Otherwise you are down to a dismantling job. Next time make up the solution carefully from the solid and pour it
>>>> down the plug hole!
>>>> (again eye protection essential it gets pretty hot when dissolving)

>>>> I reckon most people are better off with one of the proprietory
>>>> drain cleaners since it avoids pitfalls like this one with overdose of the solid causing a worse problem than the
>>>> fault it was trying to fix.

>>> I've never known it take this long to dissolve, even when it has formed a solid lump. I used to have a tank of the
>>> stuff so I know a little about its behaviour.

>> He did however attempt to neutralise it with HCl, so its
>> almost certainly the resulting NaCl thats not dissolving now
>> so your experience isnt that relevant to the rate it dissolves at.

> But it has to have dissolved in order to be neutralised.

Nope. Whats happened is that some of the chunk of NaOH
has got turned into NaCl around the outside of the chunk
and that is considerably less soluable than the NaOH.

> Otherwise the acid would at least partially wash over it

Yes, thats likely whats happened too.

[bob]

replying to Chris Holford, bob wrote:
boiling water removes caustic soda which gone hard, along with a plunger

--
for full context, visit http://www.homeownershub.com/uk-diy/help-caustic-soda-overdose-799383-.htm

[harry]

On Sunday, 1 April 2012 09:34:05 UTC+1, Chris Holford wrote:

B
An acid such as brick cleaner. Not too much.
Or vinegar.

[tabb...@gmail.com]

On Friday, 12 August 2016 02:14:04 UTC+1, bob wrote:
> replying to Chris Holford, bob wrote:
> boiling water removes caustic soda which gone hard, along with a plunger

I'd think after 4 years he'd have solved it by now.
Try this:
http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php/Home_owners_hub


NT

[Brian Gaff]

Its that ridiculous interface that the web site mentioned is using to read
the group as if it was a web forum, I doubt anyone is even aware that the
group is older than the web portal itself.
Its a great pity the powers that be cannot stop this sort of interface
being used to inject mail into the usenet system until it complies fully
with how things are displayed.
Brian

--
----- -
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...
bri...@blueyonder.co.uk
Blind user, so no pictures please!
"Chris Hogg" <m...@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:1gtqqbpl2ghkg1e6l...@4ax.com...

> People get fooled by April 1st jokes and the penny usually drops after
> an hour or so. You've taken four years to answer this one and still
> the penny hasn't dropped! LOL!
>
> --
>
> Chris

[Bob Eager]

Spirits of salt *is* brick acid. Or hydrochloric acid. Doo keep up.



--
My posts are my copyright and if @diy_forums or Home Owners' Hub
wish to copy them they can pay me £1 a message.
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
*lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor

[Weatherlawyer]

So the considerably more soluble sodium hydroxide failed the acid test and is now encased in sodium chloride which is even less soluble?

[Vir Campestris]

On 12/08/2016 08:56, Brian Gaff wrote:
> Its that ridiculous interface that the web site mentioned is using to read
> the group as if it was a web forum, I doubt anyone is even aware that the
> group is older than the web portal itself.

They ought to be. The date is clearly displayed at the top of the post
they are replying to on their web site.

I can only put it down to a problem between keyboard and chair.

Andy

[Tim+]

I think you'll find the homeownershub randomly promotes a thread to be a
"top question" or "unanswered question" with no reference to the date and
makes it accessible on the home page of that particular forum. This is why
folk respond to these ancient threads.

To make matters worse, HOH also sorts all threads (and responses) by date
of the first post, not date of the most recent response. Consequently
responders almost certainly don't see their own answers or any follow ups
as these don't appear in as recent messages.

Tim

--
Trolls and troll feeders go in my killfile

[Chris Holford]

In article <9198959e-3183-4a41...@googlegroups.com>,
tabb...@gmail.com writes

Yes, I have solved it!
-it wasn't blocked in the first place, doh!
I'd just moved in and wasn't aware that shower tray had a 'Phlexiflow'
pumped waste. The problem was with the flow switches and/or the control
unit for the waste pump.
--
Chris Holford

[James Wilkinson]

There are no powers that be. Usenet is comprised of many news servers run by different companies, getting them all to comply to anything would be absurdly impossible.

On Fri, 12 Aug 2016 08:56:04 +0100, Brian Gaff <bri...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:

> Its that ridiculous interface that the web site mentioned is using to read
> the group as if it was a web forum, I doubt anyone is even aware that the
> group is older than the web portal itself.
> Its a great pity the powers that be cannot stop this sort of interface
> being used to inject mail into the usenet system until it complies fully
> with how things are displayed.
> Brian
>


--

Yesterday scientists in the USA revealed that beer contains small traces of female hormones.
To prove their theory they fed 100 men 12 pints of beer and observed that 100% of them started talking nonsense and couldn't drive.

[gjl]

replying to stuart noble, gjl wrote:
I had this problem while trying to clean an antique glass rolling pin for a
friend
The easiest way is to remove as much water as possible and poor a good
quantity of vegetable oil over it they will combine and make a very caustic
soap which will then be easy to dig out or wash out with water this took a day
and half to do in my case

--
for full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/uk-diy/help-caustic-soda-overdose-799383-.htm

[tabb...@gmail.com]

On Thursday, 2 March 2017 03:14:04 UTC, gjl wrote:
> replying to stuart noble, gjl wrote:
> I had this problem while trying to clean an antique glass rolling pin for a
> friend
> The easiest way is to remove as much water as possible and poor a good
> quantity of vegetable oil over it they will combine and make a very caustic
> soap which will then be easy to dig out or wash out with water this took a day
> and half to do in my case

The discussion thread is from 6 months ago. Get yourself a sane newsgroup portal or client. This is news:uk.d-i-y.
http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php/Newsgroup_access_tips


NT

[Robert G Smith]

replying to Chris Holford, Robert G Smith wrote:
I know this is a few years old but just for the hell of it...I did the same
and found the only way to clear this stuff is by pouring boiling water on it
but be aware it fizzes like a good'un. Having taken the u-bend off it took
about 3 kettles. Never again!

[mwfurg...@gmail.com]

On Sunday, 1 April 2012 09:34:05 UTC+1, Chris Holford wrote:
> I thought it would be a good idea to put a little caustic soda down the
> plugholes in the shower try. Unfortunately I was over generous and the
> caustic soda granules seem to have congealed in the trap and blocked it.
> Would be a big job to get to the trap. I've tried a plunger, and tried
> neutralising with spirits of salts (NaOH + HCl > H2O + NaCL, ie salt
> and water). -still no joy. The drain hole has a white disk a little
> below the opening which prevents direct poking.
> Any ideas?
> --
> Chris Holford

I know this post is super old but just had this problem and thought it might help someone. first poured caustic soda, it solidified, before i realised i poured mr muscle drain gel and of course nothing happened. Then I read about the dance of mixing drain cleaning products, but figured since mr muscle is literally sodium hydroxide it couldn't turn too sour. Removed all excess gel and water I could. Started pouring kettle boiled water slowly, and draining and pouring and draining - after 12 kettles and 1 hour later everything unblocked!!!! I'm so happy, I was loosing hope!

[Brian Gaff]

The plastic pipe is now history, melted and aa the water is collecting above
the false ceiling downstairs perhaps?

Brian

--
----- -
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...
bri...@blueyonder.co.uk
Blind user, so no pictures please!

<mwfurg...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:762aca68-455c-466c...@googlegroups.com...

[The Natural Philosopher]

On 27/10/17 01:10, mwfurg...@gmail.com wrote:
> I was loosing hope!

Oh? where did it run to?


--
No Apple devices were knowingly used in the preparation of this post.

[Causticbandit]

replying to mwfurgalska18, Causticbandit wrote:
So I had the same issue. Basically the moisture in the pipe will react with
the NaOH rapidly generating heat and climping the excess NaOH together as it
consumes all the moisture. The water the sits on top, forming a super
satursared solution of NaOH and preventing further dilution. How to rapidly
solve it: 1. grab a metal straw and push it all the way into the surface of
the NaOH plug. 2. Using a small funnel, drop hot water through the metal
straw. The fresh water will then dissolve a small portion of the surface layer
of NaOH. You can tell it is working due to the straw heating up (I tried with
plastic straw first but they melted!). 3. Repeat over the same spot a few
times and you will breach a hole through in a few minutes. This will push
water down and continue to dissolve the rest of the solid NaOH. NB: If you use
more than one straw, it is faster.

[Andrew]

On 30/11/2018 19:14, Causticbandit wrote:
> replying to mwfurgalska18, Causticbandit wrote:
> So I had the same issue. Basically the moisture in the pipe will react with
> the NaOH rapidly generating heat and climping the excess NaOH together
> as it
> consumes all the moisture. The water the  sits on top, forming a super
> satursared solution of NaOH and preventing further dilution. How to rapidly
> solve it: 1. grab a metal straw and push it all the way into the surface of
> the NaOH plug. 2. Using a small funnel, drop hot water through the metal
> straw. The fresh water will then dissolve a small portion of the surface
> layer
> of NaOH. You can tell it is working due to the straw heating up (I tried
> with
> plastic straw first but they melted!). 3. Repeat over the same spot a few
> times and you will breach a hole through in a few minutes. This will push
> water down and continue to dissolve the rest of the solid NaOH. NB: If
> you use
> more than one straw, it is faster.

you're replying to something posted on April 1st, *2012*

[newshound]

Just to remove any doubt for other readers.

When I did A level chemistry in the 1960's we were taught how to use
solid caustic soda.

If you havn't been taught, don't touch it.

[Rod Speed]

"newshound" <news...@stevejqr.plus.com> wrote in message
news:pNOdnWeWb8W1C5zB...@brightview.co.uk...

Don’t need to be taught, just able to read and follow instructions.

[Peeler]

On Sat, 1 Dec 2018 11:33:20 +1100, cantankerous trolling geezer Rot Speed,
the auto-contradicting senile sociopath, blabbered, again:

>>>
>> Just to remove any doubt for other readers.
>>
>> When I did A level chemistry in the 1960's we were taught how to use solid
>> caustic soda.
>>
>> If you havn't been taught, don't touch it.
>
> Don’t need to be taught, just able to read and follow instructions.

Some here still need to be taught about what's wrong with you, senile
auto-contradictor!

--
Norman Wells addressing senile Rot:
"Ah, the voice of scum speaks."
MID: <g4t0jt...@mid.individual.net>

[Geoff L]

Remove as much water as you can pour in half a bottle of cooking oil it will turn into a very caustic soap soft enough to wash down the drain
will take 1 to 2 days to work I had the same problem trying to clean up a glass rolling pin

--
For full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/uk-diy/help-caustic-soda-overdose-799383-.htm

[newshound]

On 18/02/2021 05:31, Geoff L wrote:
> Remove as much water as you can pour in half a bottle of cooking oil it
> will turn into a very caustic soap soft enough to wash down the drain
> will take 1 to 2 days to work I had the same problem trying to clean up
> a glass rolling pin
>

A neat idea, but how quickly does it work on a solid caustic blockage?
Would half a bottle be enough?

[polygonum_on_google]

Time helps - maybe about nine years is long enough?

[Another John]

In article <jbqdnez-VugeQrP9...@brightview.co.uk>,

(somehow or other) I was just on the dreaded Homownershub site (I must
have clicked a link here) (quite weird - dreamlike - to see the
familiar names from here, on there)

Anyway he said he'd fixed it:

"Yes, I have solved it! -it wasn't blocked in the first place, doh! I'd
just moved in and wasn't aware that shower tray had a 'Phlexiflow'
pumped waste. The problem was with the flow switches and/or the control
unit for the waste pump. "

Like all the other posts, this is marked "posted 4 years ago".

hth
J.