Cleaning solution: the ultimate test

[racing_green]

Any idea where I could buy concentrated ammonia in small containers in Europe? The smallest container I found is 500 ml

 

[PeterBJ]

In Denmark you can buy concentrated (25%) ammonia in many supermarkets, hardware stores and paint stores. It is sold in 500 ml bottles or larger containers. Prices are from DKK15 /500ml = around €2/500ml. I don't know about availability and price in other European countries.

 

[The Hat]

Any idea where I could buy concentrated ammonia in small containers in Europe? The smallest container I found is 500 ml

Here are two places you can get ammonia from and your local pharmacy will supply the propylene Glycol.

https://www.hardwareireland.ie/product/Household-Ammonia-500ml-283/

https://www.lenehans.ie/knockout-ammonia-cleaner-500ml.html

 

[racing_green]

Perfect, thank you! @PeterBJ, concentrated ammonia is ~25-35%? I'll buy the household version which is 5-10%, so I want to adjust the "recipe".

 

[Artur5]

No need to buy the high concentration bottles; 5-10% will do. The problem is that most products available in supermarkets are for domestic use and the real concentration is quite ambiguous. The bottle says for instance 'up to 5% of ammonia", although often is much lower than that ( maybe 2-3%) but we can't be sure. That doesn't matters if we use it for cleaning the windows but our purposes require higher accuracy. Too much ammonia isn't good for most metals. As a rule, I consider "up to 5%" as "exactly 5%", to be on the safe side.

 

[PeterBJ]

From Wikipedia:

Pharmacists have since moved to metric measurements, with a drop being rounded to exactly 0.05 mL (50 μL, that is, 20 drops per milliliter).

So the amount of concentrated ammonia (approx. 25%) in 100 ml of the cleaning solution is around 20 drops or 1 ml. This means the ammonia concentration in the cleaning fluid is 1%.

If your ammonia is only 10% then use 2.5 ml instead of 1 ml of the concentrated ammonia pr 100 ml of cleaning solution. Or more general: Take 1 ml x (25%/actual concentration in %)

 

[The Hat]

So the amount of concentrated ammonia (approx. 25%) in 100 ml of the cleaning solution is around 20 drops or 1 ml. This means the ammonia concentration in the cleaning fluid is 1%.

When using ammonia in your cleaning solution mix, less is better than more…

 

[racing_green]

I just found 100 ml bottle for ~1 euro (Polish site): https://allegro.pl/oferta/woda-amoniakalna-25-amoniak-r-r-25-100ml-8728178733

25% from a chemical company, so no guessing

 

[racing_green]

I enhanced the world famous pharmacist's solution with 1% ammonia. (4 cm3 of 25% ammonia solution + 96 cm3 of the rest) and for the first time in _weeks_ I made a progress. It's not a full success story yet, but cyan had 6 gaps and now I'm down to 4 after ~1h of solvent in the print head.

Edit: I'm doing another de-clogging session. Any idea what's considered safe time for 1% of ammonia in the print head (how long is a piece of string..)? I don't want to kill the metal parts...

 

[Artur5]

Hard to say. It depends on a lot of factors. Temperature, type of metal, additional liquid compounds in the mixture ...

The cation copper ( Cu+2) forms a very stable complex ion with ammonia, Therefore, ammonia first dissolves the outer residues of copper oxide (if any) and then starts corroding very slowly the metal. If the metal surface is very smooth it takes longer than if it’s rough. Brass or any other alloy may resist better than copper .. or not.
It’s probable too that most metallic parts of the printhead in contact with ink are insulated with a protective lacquer, so that would prevent much damage, but we don’t know for sure what’s going on at this level of miniaturization.

The only way to know is a practical (and destructive) test..