Saturday, March 21, 2009

mechanical > chemical

I love having guests, it forces you to get the place in order and presentable! it really is a good thing, or i'd revert to my slobish ways like a college student.

I was put on bathroom detail.. i'm sure it was so I would be forced to come up with a solution to the hardwater ring. they sell all kinds of junk for this in the store. wimpy little things, and harsh chemicals that NEVER EVER work. I believe the only intent is to poison the family cat, and to challenge you to surviving chlorine fumes while cleaning.

I devised my own solution - the electrical engineers toilet brush. ok.. it really is more a mechanical solution, but since i'm an electrical engineer i get to take a little credit. I gave my wife a hard time (a chemist) that today... mechanical is greater than chemical.

4 comments:

forkev said...

i had a now retire coworker tell me she ladels out the water, gets some regular amonia and soaks papertowels in it, then stacks them around the ring of goo. she says after several hours of soaking, no problem. perhaps chemical will make a comeback!

k2h said...

i like that. that sound cheap, i like cheap.

a follow up on my method. there was some slight scoring on the surface of the porcelain, so thats something to look out for if you care about that kind of thing. we'll give it a year and see how that effects its ability to resist crap (literally)

Unknown said...

someone might be replacing an important bathroom item.

Daniel said...

The early versions of "Easy off Bam" were based on reasonably strong sulfuric acid. That cut through hard water crap pretty quick. They later switched the EOB to bleach (not as effective). Bummer, you're wife could probably hook you up with some con sulfuric acid to clean it. (might melt the pipes and cause an epa disaster, but your toilet would be clean!).