Bown Gunk Revealed

[BoyntonStu]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZJrYwyhWVs

I hope that this helps everyone and especially Painless.

BoyntonStu

[Stevo]

Yeh, this was an interesting remark on that page:

"I have been using a good quality KOH with ZERO sludge problems. When i did the drain cleaner NAOH with 316L and distilled, I got the brown crud.

IMHO its the NAOH I plan on proving it too "

I think I will be trying KOH with my dry cell to see how the water discoloration continues. Right now it just turns light yellow with NaOH, but no sludge. I would like to keep the clearness throughout though.

BTW - To clear the water up, add vinegar and/or ascorbic acid and stir. It will clear up within minutes. Besides neutralizing the solution, it will break the CrVI into CrIII.

http://www.hhoforums.com/showthread.php?t=1377&page=2

[Painless]

Interesting video, thanks for posting Stu.

I suppose it is entirely possible that at some time or other the 304SS switch plates could have experienced a bad batch. I bought the plates over time, i.e. not all in one go.

I should also mention that I am finding the gentle tan discolouration common, Smack indicates that this is normal with the 304SS switch plate covers.

I'm going to take my cleaning dremel to the badly gunked plates and try Stu's suggestion of leaving them in water for a few days to see what happens.

Btw, I'm using KOH exclusively and have found the gentle discolouration of the water to be the norm.

[Smith03Jetta]

I am using 316L stainless plates and NaOH. Afterr 3 months of run time I have very clear water, very little brown sediment and fairly clean plates. Refer to my photo below.

What did I do differently?

I washed my hands with GoJo hand cleaner and then scrubbed each plate with GoJo hand cleaner and rinsed them in tap water. I then dried the plates and assembled them after washing my hands again with GoJo.

I had no oil on my skin when I assembled the plates. The plates also had no oils or other substances on their surfaces after the scrubbing with GoJo.

[Stevo]

I am using 316L stainless plates and NaOH. Afterr 3 months of run time I have very clear water, very little brown sediment and fairly clean plates. Refer to my photo below.

What did I do differently?

I washed my hands with GoJo hand cleaner and then scrubbed each plate with GoJo hand cleaner and rinsed them in tap water. I then dried the plates and assembled them after washing my hands again with GoJo.

I had no oil on my skin when I assembled the plates. The plates also had no oils or other substances on their surfaces after the scrubbing with GoJo.

GoJo huh? Good info. I didn't even think of using that. Has anyone tried Dawn dish soap? Seems like it might work well too.

[Smith03Jetta]

I used GoJo for three reasons:

It has pumice grit in it. It can put microscopic scuff marks on the steel to help with gas production.

It is extremely effective at removing all contaminates from the steel. I use GoJo to clean metals after I weld and grind them, prior to painting.

It removes skin oils from the surface of the skin.

Don't buy the GoJo with lotion or skin conditioner. That would be a mistake.

[mytoyotasucks]

for the fist while i was using NaIH and get a good deal if build up and the easiest way to get the crud off is to reverse the polarity, and little amp and current, and withing 20 minutes the most of the crud is off and minor cleaning and rinse, and good to go, and after doing this 2 times - no more crud build up.